Can a publisher/marketing/agent control your web presence?

Would they have any control over your car as well?

Your property (as long as host allows you control it), your control.

You are not employed by the agent to write books. You employ the agent to sell your book. You are the employer in this case. You are on top in that relationship.

That said, you probably don't have the expertise, so going against your agent who has would be foolish. Like, if you employed an astrophysicist to look over a bit of science writing without having any physics education, it would be foolish of you to disregard what the astrophysicist said.

So, it depends on what your agent/publisher is telling you about the site. They don't have control over anything, because you are the employer in the case of the agent. But maybe it would be foolish not to listen to what they say.

All they can do is give advice, unless you sign an extraordinarily weird contract.

Unless you sign some sort of a contract (and I'm not sure that even would be possible, but there used to be "morals clauses" in the early 1900s), I don't see how it's any of their business if you own the domain or account, and pay for ISP service.

Only "requirement" in my contract is that I have an active website. They have provided artwork for the header and other promos but just suggested, not mandatory.

Medievalist said:

Unless you sign some sort of a contract (and I'm not sure that even would be possible, but there used to be "morals clauses" in the early 1900s), I don't see how it's any of their business if you own the domain or account, and pay for ISP service.

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In children's books we do often have morals clauses - they came back in response to one particularly sad story from ten years back. These are there largely to insure against that situation ever happening again (the existing stock became essentially unsaleable overnight.)

I've never heard of an author being censured or penalised in any way because of common-or-garden bad behaviour online, and I can think of a few doozies (the popular thriller author who bullies, sock-puppets and indulges in racist rants would be the worst, although in my own backyard I have an author who went and trolled MumsNet (I have never seen a forum thread go so wrong for an author so quickly.)

They absolutely can.

Agents and editors will often come across an author's web presence and ask them to modify or change it. You don't have to do it, but it depends on how much you want to get along with them.

I have been asked to remove interviews I've done, change the title of one of my self-published books (Satan Loves You), and to modify the bio on my website (to exclude a mention that I once wrote for Playboy) by an editor. And I've had an agent ask me to modify my website because they were uncomfortable with the subject matter.

In some cases I complied, in some I didn't.

Agents and publishers can't compel you to do these things. They have no legal right. But generally most people who work in the world assume that the person who pays the piper, calls the tune.