Who Should Own Your Business Website? Roles, Access, and Accountability
Your marketing team needs to update the homepage for a new product launch. They send the copy to your web developer. The developer says IT must approve it first. IT reviews it and says the budget needs the operations manager’s sign-off. The operations manager says they weren’t consulted and need an ROI analysis.
Your CEO is copied on all these emails, but has no idea who actually has the authority to make this decision. Three weeks later, the product launch happens without the website update. Sales suffer. Everyone blames everyone else.
This scenario plays out every week in Nigerian businesses. The problem isn’t your web developer, content management system, or hosting provider. The root cause is confusion about who owns your website – specifically, who has authority to make decisions inside your organization.
This article will help you clarify business website ownership. We’ll focus on practical steps you can implement immediately, using simple structures that speed up decisions rather than slow them down. No academic jargon. Just straightforward guidance that actually works in Nigerian businesses.
The Internal Mess: When Nobody Owns Your Website
Website management has become a battleground where departments compete for control, budgets disappear into black holes, and critical decisions stall for weeks.
This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s costing your business real money and opportunities.
The Marketing vs IT Battle
Marketing teams view the website as their primary marketing channel. IT departments view it as a technology asset that must be secured and maintained. Both perspectives are valid, but when they clash without apparent authority, chaos follows.
Here’s how it typically unfolds. Marketing hires an external agency for a redesign without informing IT. The agency delivers a beautiful site with serious security vulnerabilities. IT discovers the issues during a routine scan and blocks the launch. Marketing is furious about the wasted budget. IT is defensive about protecting company data.
The website remains offline for weeks as leadership determines who should have been involved and when. The total cost includes the original agency fees, lost sales opportunities, and emergency consulting fees to fix the security issues.
This is resolved only when organizations explicitly define that marketing owns content and design decisions, while IT owns security and infrastructure. Marketing must consult IT before engaging vendors. IT must provide clear security requirements upfront rather than blocking projects after completion.
The Budget Black Hole
Website costs rarely appear as a single line item on budget spreadsheets. Instead, they scatter across departments. Marketing pays for content creation and design tools. IT handles hosting and security software. Operations manages vendor contracts and renewals. Finance processes payments without understanding how these pieces connect.
Companies often discover they’re spending significantly more than they thought. Marketing might have subscriptions to three different content management tools they aren’t fully using. IT might pay for premium hosting that’s overkill for their traffic levels. Operations might renew developer contracts without checking if those services are still needed.
Finance has no visibility into how these costs relate to business outcomes. Nobody can answer the simple question: “How much does our website actually cost us per year?”
The solution isn’t just better budgeting. It’s assigning one person to track and justify all website-related expenditures. This person doesn’t have to control all the money, but they need visibility across departments and authority to question unnecessary spending.
Too Many Cooks
When everyone can make changes but no one has final authority, websites become inconsistent and confusing. Marketing updates product descriptions. The CEO’s assistant changes contact information. Regional managers add local content. IT tweaks technical settings.
Without coordination, these changes conflict and undermine each other.
We’ve seen homepages feature four different promotional messages simultaneously. Marketing created one campaign. The CEO wanted to highlight a new partnership. The Lagos branch manager added a local event. IT implemented an automated system pushing different content based on user location.
Visitors saw a confusing mess that damaged brand credibility. The fix required not just technical changes but a clear process defining who could approve what content, when, and how conflicts would be resolved.
The “Someone Else’s Problem” Syndrome
Perhaps the most dangerous scenario occurs when no one takes ownership because everyone assumes someone else is responsible.
The website goes down on a Saturday morning. Marketing assumes IT will handle it. IT assumes marketing is monitoring uptime. By Monday, the site has been offline for 48 hours. Customers are complaining on social media.
Or SSL certificates expire because IT thought marketing was tracking renewal dates, while marketing thought IT handled all technical certificates. Google flags the site as “not secure.” Traffic drops dramatically. Businesses lose high-value clients who question their attention to detail.
The cost to recover trust far exceeds the certificate renewal fee.
Why This Gets Worse Over Time
As businesses grow, these problems intensify rather than resolve.
Staff turnover creates knowledge gaps when people leave without documenting processes. Departments become more siloed as organizations scale. New stakeholders emerge. Regional managers, product teams, and compliance officers all want input on website decisions.
Organizations that started with a single person managing their website often find themselves with dozens of people with admin access as they grow. Changes are made without coordination. Security protocols are ignored. Sites break when multiple people edit the same pages simultaneously.
Fixing this requires not just technical solutions but a complete overhaul of decision-making processes.
The Real Costs
The financial impact extends far beyond obvious expenses. Understanding the true cost of website investment requires looking beyond hosting fees.
Delayed revenue represents the biggest hidden cost. For an e-commerce business processing ₦2 million daily, a two-week delay could put ₦28 million in potential revenue at risk, depending on campaign volume and timing.
Wasted resources drain budgets. In one client situation, a Lagos fintech discovered they were paying for three different analytics platforms because marketing, IT, and operations each signed up independently without coordinating.
Brand damage from inconsistent messaging erodes customer trust. In another case, a professional services firm lost a ₦15 million contract after the prospect found outdated service descriptions and a broken contact form on their website.
Team frustration wastes energy on navigating internal politics instead of focusing on valuable work.
Organizations with poor website governance typically spend more while achieving significantly worse results. The difference? Clear ownership and accountability.
Ownership vs Management vs Operations: Three Different Things
Understanding these distinctions is crucial for effective website governance. Many organizations fail because they conflate these roles or assign them inconsistently.
Strategic Ownership (Business Asset)
Someone at the top needs to own the website as a business asset. In Nigerian businesses, this is usually the CEO, COO, or Managing Director. For big companies, it might be an executive committee.
This person doesn’t make daily decisions about button colors. They set the direction, approve significant investments, and hold people accountable for results. When this role is unclear, websites drift from business strategy and become expensive digital brochures that no one maintains.
What does this look like? They approve annual budgets and major projects. They set performance goals tied to business results. They step in when departments can’t agree. They ensure compliance with regulations like the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023. Quarterly reports and strategy adjustments flow through them.
The strategic owner needs to resist getting pulled into details. When CEOs get involved in choosing button colors, everything grinds to a halt.
Management Authority (Day-to-Day Leadership)
This person takes the CEO’s vision and makes it happen. They coordinate between departments, make daily decisions, and keep things running. When this role doesn’t exist or lacks authority, websites become paralyzed by conflicting instructions from multiple stakeholders.
In most Nigerian SMEs, this is the Marketing Director or Head of Digital. In tech-heavy companies, it might be the CTO or IT Manager.
They work with IT on technical stuff, with finance on budget, and manage external agencies. Choosing the right IT vendors and service providers starts with clear internal authority. When IT and marketing clash, the manager makes the final call based on business priorities.
This role needs strong people skills and enough technical knowledge to ask the right questions without getting lost in implementation details.
Operational Execution (Hands-On Work)
This is where the actual work happens. Creating content. Maintaining the site. Monitoring performance. Coordinating with vendors. Without clear guidelines, executors either wait endlessly for approvals or make unauthorized changes that break things.
In practice, this involves multiple people. Content creators from marketing. Web developers from IT. Analytics specialists. External agencies. Each person needs to know what they’re responsible for and whom to contact when issues arise.
Why Confusing These Creates Problems
When you mix up these roles, things fall apart. Clear role assignment follows proven frameworks such as RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed), which prevent organizational confusion.
Dysfunctional example: A company had their CEO making direct content requests to their web developer. The marketing director was creating different priorities. IT was blocking changes for security reasons, and marketing didn’t know about it. The agency received contradictory instructions daily and threatened to quit.
Website updates took three times longer than they should.
Clear example: Another company got it right. The CEO set the goal. Head of Growth broke it down into specific requirements. The development team executed with weekly check-ins. IT gave security guidelines upfront. The agency knew exactly who approved what.
Changes that used to take weeks now took days.
Building Your Business Website Ownership Framework
Here’s a practical framework that works for businesses of all sizes in Nigeria. This complements your broader IT policy structure by focusing specifically on website governance.
Step 1: Assign Clear Roles
Note: When we say “Manager” in this framework, we mean the single person accountable for day-to-day website decisions, regardless of their actual job title.
For small businesses (5-20 employees), the CEO retains strategic ownership while delegating day-to-day management. Select one person to serve as the Manager (typically the Marketing Director or Operations Manager). They approve routine updates and coordinate with vendors. The CEO approves major strategic changes.
For medium-sized businesses (20-100 employees), split management between a Marketing Director (content and user experience) and an IT Manager (technical infrastructure and security). For decisions crossing both domains, they present options to the CEO.
For larger organizations (100+ employees), strategic ownership moves to an executive committee. A Digital Director coordinates across departments.
Step 2: Define Decision Rights and Communication
Document who approves what. Keep it simple.
Decision rights: The Manager approves routine content updates and operational costs. The Manager approves design changes and standard projects. The strategic owner (CEO/MD) approves major redesigns and strategic initiatives. IT Security Lead approves security-impacting technical changes. Define clear thresholds for what requires escalation versus what the Manager can approve independently.
Communication rules: Only the Manager gives instructions to vendors. Everyone else routes requests through them. Hold weekly sync meetings between Marketing and IT. Use a shared tracker for all requests. Document decisions formally, not through casual conversations or instant messages.
Step 3: Create Accountability
Define measurable outcomes for each role. The Manager tracks website uptime, content freshness, and project delivery. IT tracks security compliance and infrastructure health. Marketing tracks content quality, user experience metrics, and lead generation.
Connect metrics to business outcomes. Track “qualified leads from website”, not “total page views.” Track “demo requests”, not “social media shares.” Use meaningful website metrics that align with business goals.
Integrate website performance into job descriptions and performance reviews. When bonuses depend on results, people pay attention.
Internal Access Management: Who Gets What Level
Poor access control creates security risks and chaos. Here’s how to balance security with getting work done.
Administrator access: Full control over everything. Limit this to two people in small businesses (IT Lead plus backup). In larger organizations, keep administrators to 3-4 maximum with specific responsibilities.
Manager level: Daily operational control without security risk. Can publish content, manage lower-level users, and handle routine tasks. Cannot change core system settings.
Editor level: Content creation and refinement. Can create, edit, and publish content, but cannot change site settings or manage users.
Contributor level: Creates content but cannot publish directly. Work goes through the approval workflow. Ideal for junior staff or external contributors.
Viewer level: Visibility without operational control. Can see performance data and content, but cannot make changes.
Run quarterly access audits. Revoke access immediately when staff leave. Require individual logins and two-factor authentication for admin and manager levels. Business justification drives access decisions, not relationships or seniority. Learn more about WordPress security best practices.
Internal Documentation: Making Knowledge Institutional
When someone quits, they take everything with them. Passwords. Vendor contacts. Decision rationales. The new person spends weeks reverse-engineering processes. Proper documentation is essential for business continuity.
Start with three essential documents: a decision log (date, decision, approver, rationale, outcome). Vendor registry (contacts, contracts, credentials, renewal dates). Process documentation (content approval workflow, issue reporting).
Don’t document everything at once. Start with your biggest pain points. Use tools your team already uses. Review quarterly. Start small and keep it current.
Audit Your Website Governance
This 10-question health check provides a realistic assessment of your current state.
The 10-Question Internal Governance Health Check
- If the website needs an urgent update, does everyone know exactly who to contact? Test this by asking five different team members. If you get more than two different answers, you have a problem.
- Can you name the single person who has final approval authority for website decisions? This should be one name, not “the management team” or “depending on the situation.”
- Do you have a written process for approving and publishing content? Not just in someone’s head. Actual documentation your team can reference.
- If two departments disagree about a website change, is there a clear escalation path? Without this, conflicts become political battles that stall progress.
- Does someone track total website costs across all departments and vendors? If finance, marketing, and IT each track different portions, you’re flying blind.
- Are website access levels based on business need rather than seniority or personal relationships? Honesty matters here. We’ve all seen executives demand admin access “just in case.”
- When staff leave, is there a defined process for transferring website knowledge and access? If this happens ad-hoc, you’re one resignation away from chaos.
- Do vendors know exactly who can give them instructions and approve their work? Ask your web developer or agency this question directly. Their answer will be revealing.
- Is there regular (at least quarterly) reporting on website performance to leadership? Not just traffic numbers. Business impact metrics tied to strategic goals.
- Could a new marketing manager or IT lead get up to speed in a week using your documentation? If onboarding takes months, your knowledge is trapped in people’s heads rather than in systems.
Scoring
- 8-10 yes: Strong internal governance. Focus on optimization and scaling.
- 5-7 yes: Workable but with significant gaps. Prioritize fixing the “no” answers.
- 0-4 yes: Serious problems creating real business risk. Address immediately.
What Low Scores Actually Mean
A score below 5 indicates real business risk.
Decision delays cost opportunities. A competitor launches a promotion on Monday. By the time you get your counteroffer approved and live, it will be Friday, and the moment will have passed.
Budget waste happens when departments work in silos. Three analytics subscriptions. Two hosting accounts. Five project management tools.
Vendor confusion leads to poor results. Your web developer doesn’t know whether to follow the Marketing Director’s instructions or the CEO’s.
The cost of inaction often exceeds the investment required to fix governance issues. A ₦5 million annual website budget with poor governance might deliver only a fraction of its potential.
Fixing Common Internal Governance Problems
Let’s address the most frequent governance failures in Nigerian businesses with practical solutions you can implement immediately.
Multiple People Think They’re In Charge: The CEO must call a focused meeting, explicitly assign roles, document them, and communicate the structure to all vendors. Public backing is essential. Timeline: 2-4 weeks to establish, 3-6 months to embed.
Nobody Feels Accountable: Update job descriptions with specific website responsibilities. Integrate performance metrics into reviews and bonuses. Implement monthly reporting. Create visible dashboards. Establish clear service level agreements for internal teams and external vendors. Timeline: 1 month to establish, 6 months for cultural shift.
IT and Marketing at War: Acknowledge that both have legitimate concerns. Create joint review processes. IT defines security requirements upfront, not after. Hold regular sync meetings. Timeline: 1 month to establish process, 6 months to build trust.
Too Much CEO Involvement: The CEO acknowledges the problem. Define clear decision thresholds that indicate what requires CEO approval. The manager provides regular updates for visibility without control. Requires CEO discipline. Timeline: Immediate implementation, requires ongoing discipline.
Access Sprawl: IT conducts an access audit. Manager reviews and revokes unnecessary access. Implement proper workflows. Schedule quarterly reviews. Timeline: 1 week to audit and clean up, ongoing quarterly reviews.
Conclusion
Internal chaos around website ownership isn’t inevitable. It’s a solvable problem that starts with clear role definitions and simple decision frameworks.
You don’t need perfect processes to start. Begin with explicit role assignment. Who owns this strategically? Who manages it daily? Who executes the work?
From there, build simple decision frameworks with clear thresholds. Document only what creates clarity. Implement practical access controls. Create feedback loops to improve continuously.
The return on this investment compounds over time. Faster decisions mean capturing opportunities. Clear accountability reduces wasted budget and team frustration.
Take the 10-question health check this week. Identify your biggest gap and address it immediately.
Need help sorting out your website governance? At PlanetWeb, we run governance workshops that produce a one-page decision framework and an access cleanup plan specific to your business. We also provide managed IT services and IT consulting to support your ongoing needs.
Get in touch to discuss your specific situation.
