I guess you are already aware that internet is full of Scammers, but Website Marketplace is the pinnacle of online scams. It might not be worse than getting your Credit Card stolen, but you might be just investing in something worthless.
1. Traffic
Traffic is the determinant of the site’s revenue. It is the primary factor you need to consider before buying a website. It’s easy to quote some random traffic count, make there is a solid proof for traffic. Screenshots wouldn’t be your best bet for proof, numbers can be easily manipulated. Verified Google Analytics data is the most preferred for Traffic proof.
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2. Organic Traffic
Well don’t be amazed with the fancy traffic figures the seller provide. Paid traffic is dirt cheap. It is one of the commonly employed methods to manipulate and inflate the traffic data. If the site claims Organic Traffic, make sure you perform a complete analysis of the referring Urls and Organic Keywords.
Semrush is one of the best keyword analysis tools. Although it cannot detect every Search Engine Page Result ranking, It gives a rough overview of the site’s organic traffic.
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3. Revenue
If you are buying an established online business, make sure you consider the revenue data of atleast a time frame of 6 months.
Note that all that you need is a good skill in Photoshop, to fake a screenshot of your earnings. Perform a deep Analysis on Google Analytics data of the website you’re buying and do a rough calculation of revenue based on CTR, CPC and Conversion Rate.
One thing most of the buyers regret is not considering how lucrative the site is, 100 Organic Visitors optimized for affiliate marketing are worth thousand visitors targeted for CPC Revenue
4. Safe Transaction
Escrow ensures the safest transaction, the funds are held until you receive the product (Domain, Files, Database and related services) to avoid rip-offs restraining to deliver the website after the payment
If you are dealing with High-End sites, Make sure both parties sign an agreement or contract with comprehensive details of the deal.
5. Seller Reputation
Make sure to do a background check of the seller. I personally prefer buying from established flippers if the budget ranges four to five figure. If the deal is going through a Website Marketplace, Check the history of seller’s previous transactions and feedback.
6. Check for Penalty
If you consider Adsense to be the primary revenue source, make sure the site is Adsense safe with the Sandbox tool. I’ve evidenced a recent trend of Panda affected blogs and website being put on sale.
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Many Webmasters are desperate in getting their hands clean off their website penalized by the Panda or Penguin updates. Most of them do not mention the site is affected and lost most of it’s rankings and subsequently the traffic and lure potential buyers with the older stats.
7. Alexa and PageRank
Yes, I am aware that Alexa and PageRank are two overrated terms in online marketing. But they give a quick overview of traffic and a backlink background. If the site claims half a million monthly visitors, i expect it to rank atleast below 20k in Alexa.
Beware, the converse is not true in case of Alexa. You cannot consider Alexa Rank to estimate the traffic, it can be easily manipulated.
8. Social Media Signs
Most of the Established Websites are likely to have a Facebook or Twitter fan page. Social Media signs includes number of followers, likes and the most important sign Reader Engagement.
Surprisingly like Traffic, Likes, Followers and subscriptions can be bought. Take Fan base activity (Retweets, Post likes and shares) into consideration.
If you have any tips on things to Considering Before Buying a Website, please share them in the comments.
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About Amit Shaw
Hey Gautam,
All are valid points. If I’ve to purchase a blog from someone I’d consider only one thing, whether it’s generating consistent revenue or not!
I’ll ask the blog’s owner to show at least 6 months revenue, if it’s consistent, there’s no problem for me to buy even it has traffic fluctuations..
And I don’t think that 7th point is so important (it’s just my opinion bro, I’ve seen so many blogs making a good revenue even without having those two things). Anyways you’ve shared excellent tips 🙂
Hi Rahul,
I agree with you i’ve already commented below in response to Ehsan regarding Alexa, and Since SERPS aren’t much influenced by PageRank nor the sales i agree with you, but it really comes in handy to check if the Authority and the ‘Established’ site claims are true
Hey Gautham,
This is nice post, but I disagree with one of your point here. I don’t think that Alexa rank is important to consider before buying any website online because I have seen many websites which earns more than $10000 a month and there alexa rank is more than 100,000.
If you want an example than I’m ready to show you!
Thanks for your response, I agree with you and am aware of that, I’ve included that point because there is a recent trend of people trying to sell turnkey sites which are resold over and over and content which has been used on atleast thousand sites, they have actually no value but claim whopping amounts like 10k-50$
That’s why i mentioned not to consider Alexa Rank to estimate traffic or revenue, it is really useful in giving a overview, the turnkey sites i’ve mentioned above virtually not even indexed on Alexa
I am looking to buy a website and one thing which comes in my mind is to check first that is it generating consistent revenue? And, your post will surely help me to analyze each and every aspect before buying the website. Thank you Gautham.
Well. Nice Read. Seller Reputation is a big thing whenever you buy a blog or if you think show. you can overcome the penalty that’s not a big issue here.
I think that’s the first post tip that I read about website purchasing. I never thought about buying a website but I once thought about selling the blogs that I no longer wanted, but because they didn’t really have good page ranking I didn’t even bother trying. I thing page ranking is really important to both buy and sell a site.
Thanks for those great tips.
If you’re going to buy a website then you need to do your research. Find out as much information as you can about the seller before you hand over any money. If something doesn’t seem right or if something seems to good to be true then you need to walk away from the deal.
nice tips. Your affiliate marketing point is valid becuase i don’t have any good experience with adsense or any other CPC network.
Hi Gautham,
Nice tips bro….but the one i liked most is – Check The Penalty – that is one which is hard to detect but very important.
Great research work you have done for this article.
Indeed a great article, a Thoroughly explained one. These points should definitely be considered before buying a blog/website or else consequences could be very hard to digest and you’ll lose your precious money.
I will prefer to buy a webhosting from a reputable website because after some time when our blog’s traffic increases cheap hosts can cause a lots of problems for us.
hello Gautham
very nice and gud points mentioned gautam full agree wid u organic traffic and earnings these are the two important important things that have to consider while buying a website
Great post Gautham!
Definitely important to check out the different aspects of a site before buying one. Traffic is by far the most important factor to consider and you’re right to mention that stats can be easily manipulated. That’s why it’s SO important to double check the information that the seller is claiming. If they are uncooperative, then that should put you off from buying from them. Only buy a site that you’re completely confident that you know what you are getting!
Organic traffic is much important which checking traffic of site. There are many sites like SU which can drive tons of traffic every night.
Buying a website is not an easy task, first of all we need to check whether the seller is trusted or not by his old history, then check all the characteristics mentioned here to avoid technical and legal bounds.
Once we buy worthless website in a hurry, we loss a huge money from pocket, so patience is a important thing and we need to follow these guidelines.
I prefer setting up a new website rather than buying an established website as it helps us to learn step by step about the good and bad things of blogging. Anyways, you have pointed clearly about buying sites safely Gautham. 🙂
Interesting post Gautham,
The mentioned tips are must followed by the buyer as day by day most frauds are being done. we must use a safe transaction methods get correct payment.
Hey Gautham, point 6 is really an eye opener.
Must site owners rushed to sell their sites after the recent Google updates got them really bad.