All Access Required: What Logins We Need To Kick Off Your Marketing Campaigns

When we are onboarding a new client for any of our services, be it SEO, PPC, Social Media, a Website Project, or for our full-service Digital Access service, one of the trickiest and lengthiest parts of the process is for us to get all of the access that we need. If you’re reading this blog it is likely you are going through this process with us now, so, firstly, welcome to Embryo!

This blog has been written to explain exactly why we need all of the information that we are requesting, as well as some helpful advice about how to get the login details we’ve requested and who might have the details we need. The sooner we get the access we need, the quicker we can start to show you some fantastic results!

Let’s get straight to it…

Google Analytics 

We can check if there is a Google Analytics code already installed on your website very easily by looking at your website code. If there isn’t a Google Analytics code, no problem. We can just set you up with a new one. 

If it’s already installed, the data that Google Analytics has been collecting over time is invaluable to us. It can tell us what traffic you are already getting to your website, what channels are driving that traffic, it can give us an idea of seasonality for your business, and, most importantly for you, it can let us demonstrate how our work has increased the amount of traffic to your website since we’ve taken over your campaign. 

There are different levels of permissfusions on a Google Analytics account, and we need the highest administrator access to set up your goal tracking properly. So, we might have to reach out to the person or company who set up your analytics for you in order to get ourselves added to your account. 

If there is no way for us to work with yourself or another company to get this access, there is a final step we can take which is to prove to Google that you are the owner of your website, and therefore your data, and we can get the ownership of your analytics account transferred back to you.

We wouldn’t want to start working on your account without this access, particularly in the cases of paid advertising such as PPC or Social Media Ads, because we need Google Analytics goals set up to make sure that the traffic we are driving to your website is converting into leads/purchases, and is therefore actually giving you ROI. 

Details required: 

We will need you or your old marketing agency to add our [email protected] address as a user with all permissions. Alternatively, you can share your:

• Google account email
• Google account password

…and we will do this for you!

Where to start? 

Ask the people who built your website, or any previous marketing agencies you’ve worked with to see if they are the admin of your analytics. You could also search your emails to see if you’ve received any emails from Google regarding your analytics access, meaning your email is associated with the account. To access Google Analytics you have to use a Google Account, which might help you narrow down your search!

WordPress or Website CMS Access

It is very likely that we will need access to your website. Even for our social media service, we add code to your site such as a Facebook Pixel which allows us to track visitors to your site so that we can retarget those visitors with ads. 

If you are working with our SEO and/or content teams, they need access to your website to add all of the brilliant content they are writing onto the site. Our web team might need to do some CRO (conversion rate optimisation) tweaks on your site, to help your visitors take meaningful action on your website. 

Again, CMS (Content Management Systems) tend to have user permissions set. The company who built your website might have only given you ‘editor’ or ‘subscriber’ access, so your logins might not actually be suitable for what we need. We need the highest permissions to the site which is usually “administrator”, in order to make any significant changes to the website. 

Details required:

• The URL which opens up your CMS login (if your site is built in WordPress, it is likely to be yourdomain.co.uk/wp-admin)
• Username
• Password

Where to start? 

The company or person who built your website should be able to help you with this information. You can give us their contact details and we can manage this communication on your behalf. 

FTP Server Details 

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and, without getting too technical, we need this access to make changes to your website that your CMS doesn’t allow. Some changes to websites aren’t able to be made via the CMS, and so we need your FTP details to allow us to access your website files directly on the server. 

We log in to FTP via a program called Filezilla.

Details required: 

• FTP Host (sometimes this is in the form of an IP address (000.000.000.000) or it might be ftp.yourdomain.co.uk) 
• Username 
• Password 
• Port 

Where to start? 

The people who host your website or the company/ person who built your website are the best people to ask about gaining this access. We can get in touch with them for you, just share their details with our wonderful Operations Manager, Cicely.

Cpanel / Plesk / Server Access

It is very useful, especially when we are going to be making any changes to your website or moving your website to a new server, to get the login details to the server itself. Usually, this is done via a “web hosting control panel”. The two main control panels are Cpanel or Plesk.  

Details required: 

• URL for the login page 
• Username 
• Password 

Where to start?

The company who hosts your website (e.g. GoDaddy or Fasthosts) should be able to help and give you these details, or alternatively the company or developer who built your website. 

Domain Registrar Details 

Your website domain (e.g. embryodigital.co.uk) is usually registered separately to where your website is hosted. Typically, this may have been purchased via a company such as 123 reg or GoDaddy. If we are going to be moving your website onto a new server, or making any changes to your DNS records, we will need the log in details for where your domain is registered. 

Where to start? 

If you have no idea where your domain is, or who bought it, go to https://www.whois.com/whois and enter your domain. You may be able to get some details here. In the screenshot below you can see that this tells us that our development domain is hosted on 123 reg.

The next step is to ask the company who built your website for you. You could also look at any payments that go out of your account yearly, for amounts such as £7.99 or £11.99 as this could be your domain renewal fee. 

Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) 

If you have Google Search Console already set up, we just need you to add our [email protected] account to yours so that we can access your GSC data. If you don’t have it set up, we can get this set up for you.

Where to start? 

Any marketing agency you’ve worked within the past are likely to have set this up for you, so they would be your starting point to get this access.    

Google My Business 

Your Google My Business page is a free company page that you can set up separately to your website to give your business a place on Google Maps, the right-hand side of the search results, to start collecting Google reviews and to promote your business and services.  

Details required: 

Whoever is the owner of the Google My Business account can invite users to become Owners or Managers.

We just need you to add our [email protected] email address as an Owner of your account. Alternatively, send us your…

• Google Account Username
• Google Account Password

… and we can do this for you.

Where to start?

Firstly, check that you have a GMB account set up by Googling your brand. If a result pops up on the top right of the results page, you’ve got a GMB page. See the screenshot above!

Your Google My Business account would be set up using a Google account (either a gmail account or a business email account which is managed by Google with G-suite), which could help you identify your login details. Speak to your old agency or anyone who has helped with your marketing next.

If you are struggling to get hold of any of this information, we are here to help. Just give one of our team a call on 0161 327 2635 and we will be happy to assist!