Buying a website

Buying a website with established revenue and/ or traffic can be a great business opportunity, as long as you make sure you follow some guidelines that will help you make the right acquisition.

Before you make an offer

Before you buy a website, as with any significant investment, it makes sense to do your research and ask a lot of questions about the site. Below follows a list of things that are useful to look into.

1. Look at its unique visitors. A site’s true traffic and revenue potential can be dramatically inflated by hosted material like images, scripts or tools used by other sites.
2. There are lots of things to consider around content. If it is unique content, is it written by the owner, or another source? If it is taken from another source, is it paid for? Does it need to be continually updated, or is it evergreen?
3. Is hosting included in the price, and if so, for how long? If it is not, will the site need a Windows server or a Linux server? If the site has high sever requirements, you may need to lease a dedicated server to host it.
4. Look at inbound links. If the owner is currently doing any link exchanges among other sites or domains that he owns, will they remain after the sale?
5. You would need to know if there would be revenue continuity if you bought the site. Is it possible for you to see accounts at the ad networks the site is using?

If it is an e-commerce site, do you need to open an account with the wholesaler or can you store the inventory yourself? If you will need to ship products yourself, will your shipping cost be the same or higher than the current costs, because of your location? If the site takes credit card orders, will you need to open a merchant account?

6. The longer, and more complete the website’s traffic and revenue history is, the safer your investment will be. You’ll need to look at the site’s history at Archive.org and in the Google cache.
7. Another thing to consider are licences. Is the website’s software bespoke, and if so, can you have copyright transferred to you? If it is licences, does it involve renewal fees, and if so how much are they? Are there other sites based around the same scripts or software?
8. Competition- is the owner able to re-use the same software and/ or content to create a competing site after the sale is completed?
9. If the site comes with email lists, how are they gathered? Are they double opt-in? You will want to look at how frequently they are mailed to, and what the email distribution costs are. Is it possible for you to see samples of the emails that are sent out? It is also worth finding out if the domain name is on any spam blacklists.
10. You should verify whether RSS feed traffic is included in the site’s unique visitor and page view count. Automatic RSS updates may inaccurately inflate traffic statistics.
11. Test the website’s page strength. The Page Strength tool takes into account many different factors to create a score, including the age of the domain name, pages indexed, inbound links, DMOZ listings and more.

The Transaction

It is a good idea to consider using Escrow.com for transferring the funds. Something to remember if you intend to use PayPal is that you cannot dispute the sale unless physical goods were transferred. To prevent this becoming a problem, you should consider having the seller mail you a CDROM with the site’s contents, and sending it via a company like DHL or UPS. Alternatively, you can use your credit card or bank account to fund your PayPal account for that transaction, so that you avoid using money already in the account. This may give you recourse with your bank or credit company, in the case of a dispute.

Another option to explore is paying in two instalments - one before the website is actually transferred, and one after.

Mailing a cheque, money order or draft to the seller via a tracked service will allow you to check the validity of the contact information and address that you have. It’s also a good idea to get the other party’s phone number, and speak to them before the transaction, even if it’s an inconvenience to arrange to speak to somebody in a different time zone. Do your research, and check that the contact Whois information on the site matches with the person you’re talking to.

You can also search for other sales or auctions conducted by them, and Google their username to see if they are a member of any other forums.

As with any purchase, you need to get signed agreements outlining the precise terms of the sale- what it is you’re buying, what is included, and the seller’s confirmation that the information they have provided you with is true. It’s best to have this sent via tracked mail, preferably to a non-PO BOX address, although it would also be acceptable to have it sent via fax.

Finally, you could also ask the seller to place your own analytics code (from a service such as StatCounter.com or OneStat.com) on their website, for a few days before the transfer of ownership.

It is wise to remember that the ads in Bizsale.co.uk are like that ads in any magazine or newspaper - when you’re parting with your money, it’s up to you to do your homework to make sure the transaction happens safely and cautiously. Bizsale.co.uk is not a mediator, arbitrator or enforcement authority, and cannot be involved in disputes between parties.