You can sign the papers on a practice sale and still leave the buyer locked out of the website. The domain, the Google listing, the phone number patients already call, and the email address on the appointment cards each live in their own account. None of them move because a purchase agreement exists, unless someone actually transfers them.
This is a practical handoff guide for practice owners. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not promise rankings, a compliance result, or a valuation.
The short answer: nothing transfers on its own
The website does not come along for the ride. A buyer can own the practice and still be unable to edit a page, renew the domain, or reply to a Google review.
Each digital asset has an account holder. That person might be you, an office manager, a spouse, or a web person you have not called in two years. Until that login is in the buyer's hands, or in an account the practice controls, the asset has not moved.
Start the list before you list the practice. The same accounts are much harder to chase after someone has retired, changed their email, or simply stopped answering.
The five digital assets a buyer expects
Buyers of a healthcare practice are not only buying equipment and a patient list. They are also buying the way new patients find you. These five are the ones that most often get missed.
The domain name
The domain is the address, like the name patients type or the link on your Google listing. It is registered with a registrar, which is a different company from the one that hosts the site and a different login from the website editor.
If the domain expires, or if only your old web person can renew it, the site and the email that uses that domain can stop. ICANN Lookup is the public place to see which registrar holds the name.
Hosting and website files
Hosting is where the site files live. The editor login is how a person changes hours, provider names, and insurance notes. A buyer who cannot get into hosting cannot move the site, and a buyer who cannot get into the editor cannot fix a wrong phone number on Monday morning.
If you are already thinking about a new site rather than handing over the old one, read how replacing your practice website works, and what website maintenance services are supposed to cover after launch. Whoever looks after the site next should also be able to keep it usable. Practice website accessibility is the plain-language version of that standard.
The Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your name, hours, phone number, photos, and reviews on Google. Patients often see that listing before they ever open your website.
The listing has its own owners and managers. Your website login does not control it. Egmer's Google Business Profile service is about that listing, separate from the website build.
The phone number and email
The number on the door and the email patients write to are often the most familiar things you own, and the easiest to forget. The phone number sits with a phone carrier. The email sits with whoever hosts the mail, which might be the same company as the website or a completely different one.
If those accounts are under a personal name, or under a vendor who is leaving, the buyer cannot answer the practice from day one.
Social, ads, and review accounts
Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, and review tools each have their own logins. A personal profile that "also runs the page" is a fragile setup. When that person leaves, the page can go with them, or nobody can remember the password.
Write down the account, the company it lives with, and the person who can add a new owner. Do this while everyone involved still answers the phone.
Who actually owns yours? A 10-minute check
You can learn a lot in one sitting. You do not have to change anything yet.
- Open ICANN Lookup and search your domain. Note the registrar.
- Try to log in at that registrar. If you cannot, the domain is not in your hands yet.
- Try the hosting login and the website editor, separately.
- Open the Google Business Profile and look at People and access. See who is the primary owner.
- Check who pays for the phone number and who administers email.
- List every social page and ad account, and who can add a person to it.
If a step fails, that item goes on the handoff list. A privacy service on the domain record is normal. It does not tell you who can renew the name. The registrar login does.
Web design for healthcare practices is worth reading if the check shows the site itself is stuck in a template you do not control. Marketing for healthcare practices covers the ongoing work around the site, including the listing and the content, so the buyer is not inheriting a login and nothing else.
How each one moves to the buyer
Moving an account is a task with a company, not a line that happens when you sign. Do the moves in this order: know who has the login, add the buyer, confirm they can get in, then remove people who should not stay.
Domain transfer and the authorization code
Ask the registrar two questions. Can the domain stay at that registrar and move into the buyer's account? If it needs to move to a different registrar, what authorization code do they issue, and what will they need from you?
People also call that code an auth code or an EPP code. The registrar is the one who gives it. Your web designer can only hand it over if they can log in.
Do not let the domain expire in the middle of a sale. Renewal and transfer are both registrar tasks, and a lapsed name is a bad week for everyone.
Google primary ownership
Google's help page on transferring primary ownership of a Business Profile says to transfer primary ownership to the new owner so the business info, including reviews, is maintained.
In short, the current primary owner adds the buyer as an owner, then makes the buyer the primary owner. Google also says a new owner or manager waits 7 days before they can manage all features. During those 7 days they may be blocked from removing other people or from transferring primary ownership again. Plan for that week. Do not delete the listing and start a new one if you want the reviews to stay.
Social and ad accounts
Add the buyer as an admin inside the business account, and have them confirm they can post or see the ads before you remove yourself. A personal login that was never converted to a business account may need the platform's own transfer steps. Use the help page for that platform, and write down what you did.
Review sites other than Google follow the same idea. The account owner has to invite the buyer. The reviews do not move because the practice changed hands on paper.
What to write into the purchase agreement
This section is a list of topics to raise with your attorney. It is not a clause, a template, or legal advice.
Ask them to cover, in writing:
- The domain name, and who renews it through closing
- Hosting access and a copy of the website files and content
- The Google Business Profile, including primary ownership
- The practice phone number and email
- Social pages, ad accounts, and other review accounts
- What happens if a vendor will not release a login
Your attorney decides what the agreement should say. A marketing partner can help you inventory the accounts. A marketing partner cannot tell you that the contract is sufficient.
Keep rankings and reviews through the handoff
Three habits protect the public record you already have.
Keep the same domain when the practice name is staying. Patients, referral partners, and old links already use it.
Redirect old page addresses if anything moves. A patient who clicks a saved link, and a search engine that already knows a page, both need a path to the new address. Replacing your practice website describes that kind of move. Redirects are a path. They are not a promise that rankings will hold.
Keep the site accessible. A buyer who inherits a site patients cannot use inherits a front door that turns people away. Run a free accessibility scanner as a first look. The scanner is a limited automated scan. A high score does not mean a site is fully accessible or compliant. An automated scan or a widget is a good starting point. Fixing the issues at the foundation, in the code, is the gold standard.
Reviews stay with the Google Business Profile when primary ownership is transferred, which is what Google's help page describes. They do not stay if the profile is abandoned and a new one is created.
If the marketing itself is still you, the listing and the website are only half the handoff. The next piece is owner-dependent practice marketing, and the longer view is a marketing succession plan.
When you want that account list turned into a written plan, see Egmer's Sell-Ready Marketing Snapshot.
No legal, tax, or financial advice. No promised rankings, AI recommendations, compliance, or valuation outcomes.