The short answer
Six things. Control of the domain, access to the advertising and analytics accounts, a settled position on what the practice claims about itself, permission to use any client material, one named approver, and the authentication records for email sent in the firm's name. Three of the six run on a clock a UK firm does not hold, so those are the three to start on day one.
Key takeaways
- The first month is a supply problem rather than a creative one. What holds it up is rarely the agency's plan.
- Part of what the firm owes runs on a clock neither party holds.
- On a .uk domain the registrant is whoever the register names. Nominet's terms treat a communication to or from the registrar as one to or from the registrant.
- Google's own documentation puts a Business Profile verification review at up to five business days, and a posted code at up to fourteen days.
- Name the date of the first live change and date every handover from the signature. A wish list issued in week one is not a schedule.
Picture a 24-person UK accountancy practice that signs in the first week of October and expects a new site before the end of November. Week one goes on introductions. In week two the agency asks who controls the domain, and the answer takes four days to find: a former practice manager registered it through a reseller nobody has logged into since 2019. Week three goes on proving to that reseller who the firm is now. The Business Profile enters a verification queue in week four. In week five the client work the practice wanted to lead with is still waiting on a client who has not replied.
Nothing in that month was anybody's fault, and nothing in it was in the agency's plan either. The published advice does not help, because nearly all of it is written from the other side of the table.
The first month is a supply problem
Nothing an agency plans for week one can begin until the firm hands over the things only the firm can hand over. Search for an onboarding checklist and the results belong to agencies and the software they buy. They describe an audit, a kick off call, a dashboard and a reporting cadence, every one of which is a task on the supplier's list.
The firm's half of the month is the half nobody itemises, and it is the half carrying the lead times. It is also the half with the approvals in it, which is why who at the firm holds the relationship is worth settling before the engagement letter rather than during week three.
The six items, and who holds the clock on each
Three of the six items a firm owes in the first month sit outside both parties' control, and those three decide the date.
| What the firm owes | Who it has to go through | The wait nobody can shorten | What it blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control of the domain | The registrar, acting on the registrant's instruction | Days, longer where the named registrant has left | A new site, and every record below |
| A verified Business Profile | A review of up to five business days, or a posted code of up to fourteen | The map listing, often the quickest enquiry source | |
| Permission to use client work | The client | However long that client takes to answer | Any page that offers proof rather than assertion |
| Email authentication records | Whoever can edit the DNS zone | An afternoon, once that person is found | Anything the agency sends in the firm's name |
| Advertising and analytics access | The firm's own account holder and finance approval | One meeting | Paid testing, and all reporting |
| A settled position on what the practice claims | The partners | One conversation, if somebody convenes it | Every word of copy |
The domain and the DNS are the expensive ones
On a .uk domain the registrant is whoever the register says it is, and Nominet's terms treat a communication to or from the registrar as one to or from the registrant. Nominet's terms and conditions of domain name registration define the registrant as the person recorded in the registry, and set out that the registrar acts on the registrant's behalf, so a registrant with a question about the name is sent to its registrar first.
Two consequences a practice can act on now. Where the name was registered by somebody who has since left, the problem is not a missing domain, it is a register naming the wrong party, which is a correction rather than a recovery. And the same terms ask a registrant to correct and update its contact details within seven days of a change, which a firm that has moved office or changed its finance contact has very likely not done.
The terms are also blunt about the category: a domain is not an item of property, so the register rather than the invoice decides who can move it. Nominet runs .uk for the United Kingdom, so a practice trading on a .com sits with a different registry under different terms.
If the agency will send anything in the firm's name, the records that let it arrive live in the same zone. Google's email sender guidelines ask a bulk sender to authenticate with SPF and DKIM, and to publish a DMARC record as well. Google defines a bulk sender as a domain sending close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts in 24 hours, which a firm of 10 to 50 people will not reach. The threshold is not the point. Those records are published in DNS, so the question of who can edit the zone arrives either way.
Count the month forward from the signature
The listing is the first thing to start and almost never the first thing anybody asks for, because the wait on it belongs to Google. Its page on verifying a business puts a review at up to five business days and a posted code at up to fourteen.
- The day the engagement letter is signed. Read the register entry for the domain and submit the Business Profile. Neither needs a strategy first.
- Week one. Name the person who can edit the DNS zone and have them log in while somebody watches. Access believed to exist is not access.
- Week two. Ask the clients whose work the practice wants to show, in writing, before any page is designed around them. A refusal now is a change of plan. In week six it is a rebuild.
- Week three. Settle what the practice claims about itself, in one conversation that ends in a decision.
- Week four. Close the approvals. A factual claim queried on the launch date moves the launch date.
Before the engagement letter
Not sure your firm could supply its half of the first month?
Free to your firm. The agency pays us, and only if the relationship works, which is why we ask what you can hand over in week one.
Get a recommendationWhen a firm is not ready to start a first month
Where step one cannot be done in the week the engagement letter is signed, the honest move is to start the engagement later rather than to start it late.
Two situations are worth waiting out. A UK practice inside its busiest filing weeks cannot answer a supplier within a day, and pretending otherwise sets a date everybody knows is wrong. A firm that cannot say today who can edit its DNS is a month away from any live change whatever the proposal promises, and what it needs first is a week of internal work rather than a supplier.
Where the first live change is a new website, the content is the firm's to supply and is the item most often underestimated. What a law firm pays for a new website separates the part of a build set by rule from the part set by taste. Once the register entry and the named approver are settled, the way we assess an agency begins with what a firm can hand over in week one rather than with a brief.
Frequently asked questions
What partners ask in the week after signing.
How long does it take to get control of a domain somebody else registered?
That is set by the registrar rather than by the firm, which is why it goes first. Nominet's terms send a registrant to its own registrar for any request about the name, so the work is proving who the registrant now is.
Should the agency be named as the registrant?
No. Nominet's terms describe a registrant who licenses use of a domain to somebody else and stays the registrant of record, responsible for keeping the registration data accurate. Keep the practice in that seat.
We only email our own client list. Do the authentication records still matter?
The threshold will not catch a UK practice of this size, because Google sets it at close to 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail accounts. The access question underneath it still arrives, because those records are published in DNS and somebody has to be able to edit the zone.
Can the paid work start while the slower items are still moving?
Usually. Advertising and analytics access is an internal approval rather than an outside queue, so testing can run in the first fortnight while the register entry and the listing are still moving.
Who at the practice should be collecting all of this?
One named person, and it need not be the partner who holds the relationship. Collecting access delegates well, but approving a claim about the firm does not, so the collector and the approver can differ as long as both are named.
Sources and useful reading
- Nominet, Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration, for the registrant being the party recorded in the registry, the registrar acting on its behalf, the seven day duty to update registration data, and a domain not being property.
- Google Workspace Admin Help, Email sender guidelines, for authentication with SPF and DKIM and a published DMARC record.
- Google Workspace Admin Help, Email sender guidelines FAQ, for the bulk sender threshold of close to 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail accounts.
- Google Business Profile Help, Verify your business on Google, for a verification review of up to five business days and a posted code arriving within fourteen days.
This article is commercial decision support and is not legal advice. Nominet's terms govern .uk domains and another registry's terms will differ. The Google material is that company's published statement about its own services and can change. The 24-person practice in the opening and every week number in the back count are illustrative. The four sources were located on 1 October 2026, and nothing here describes any named agency.