How Many Websites Does Your Organization Actually Run?
The question nobody wants in the meeting
A vice president asks how many websites the organization runs. The web director gives a number, then adds “that we know of.” Everyone in the room understands what that qualifier means.
It is not a failure of the team. It is how large organizations grow. But the gap between the known number and the real one is where security, accessibility, and brand problems live.
Where the missing sites come from
- Departments that moved fast. A request sat in a backlog, so someone built it themselves.
- Grants and projects. A site was required, funded, and then the funding ended.
- Vendors. An event platform or agency spun up a property on a subdomain.
- People leaving. The owner moved on and the site kept running.
- Old platforms. A migration moved the main site and left the rest behind.
Why the number matters now
Three pressures make the count urgent:
Accessibility
Public entities face ADA Title II web compliance dates of April 26, 2027 or April 26, 2028, depending on population and entity type, under the DOJ interim final rule extending the Title II compliance dates (91 FR 20902). You cannot plan remediation for sites you have not counted.
Security
Unpatched sites on your domain are an attack surface whether or not anyone remembers them.
Answer engines
AI search can read any public page on your domain. An abandoned site with old information can be the one it quotes.
How to get an honest count
Manual methods work for small estates: DNS records, certificate logs, hosting invoices, analytics properties, and asking around. They break down at scale, and the list is stale the week after you finish.
A discovery tool keeps the count current. Accorbis is a standalone web governance platform. It gives one dashboard across the WordPress, Drupal, and custom sites an organization already runs. It is not a CMS and not a hosting company. It discovers sites on your domains and puts each one in the dashboard with owner, platform, and status, without installing anything on the sites.
What to do with the number
A count is the start. For each site, record an owner and make one decision: retire, merge, fix, or keep. Then watch the list over time so new sites show up when they launch, not when they break.
A hypothetical: three answers to one question
Imagine a vice president asks three people how many sites the organization runs. The web team counts the sites it built. IT counts the hosting accounts it pays for. Communications counts the sites in its brand guidelines. All three numbers are different, and none includes the vendor-hosted event site or the microsite a department paid for on a credit card.
None of them is wrong about what they counted. The organization just never had one list.
What a useful inventory records
A count alone is not enough. For each site, record:
- URL and domain.
- Platform and version.
- Owner: a named person or office.
- Purpose and audience.
- Last meaningful update.
- Hosting location.
- End date, if the site was built for a project or event.
- Decision: keep, fix, merge, or retire.
Manual count or discovery tool: decision criteria
- Size: a handful of sites can live in a maintained spreadsheet; dozens or more usually cannot.
- Spread: if many units can launch sites on their own, the list goes stale quickly.
- Pressure: a compliance date or security review raises the cost of a missed site.
- Capacity: if nobody can own a manual list, it will not stay current.
Common mistakes when counting
- Counting only what you host. Vendor-hosted sites on your domains still count.
- Counting once. A list from last year is already wrong.
- Counting without owners. A number with no names attached does not lead to action.
- Ignoring legacy domains. Old vanity and program domains often hide the oldest sites.
What to do with the first full list
Share it with the owners you found and ask them to confirm their entries. Take the unowned sites to leadership with a recommendation for each. Then set a monthly check so new sites are added as they appear.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a site?
Anything on your domains with its own install or hosting: subdomains, microsites, department sites, and vendor-hosted properties.
Do we need access to every site to inventory it?
Discovery can find public sites without admin access. Assigning owners and fixing issues needs people.
Will this find sites on domains we do not own?
Discovery starts from the domains you own. Ask in a working session how sites on other domains are handled.
How often should the count be refreshed?
Continuously, if you can. Quarterly at minimum.
Who should own the inventory?
One central owner, usually the web or digital team, with site owners responsible for keeping their own entries accurate.
What do we do with sites that have no owner?
Assign one or mark the site for retirement. A site with no owner is the one most likely to fall behind.
Should student or affiliate sites be in the count?
If they are on your domains, list them, and record who is responsible. Whether they are covered by a given law is a question for counsel.
Does discovery need anything installed on our sites?
No. Discovery and monitoring work without installing an agent on the sites.
Get your number
Schedule a 30-minute working session and see what discovery finds on your domains.
