As they wrap up their research, many prospective buyers of websites often wonder if they have missed anything. As a result, many customers, especially first-time customers, become paralyzed by fear and put off completing the website purchase. Great investing possibilities can be lost due to indecision. When to do your homework, and when to sign the dotted line.
While every online store is unique, they share some standard features that customers must check out. The elements below are not everything that should be verified on a website; sometimes, there may be more. However, a purchaser must make at least the below checks.
I have compiled a checklist of 13 items that both first-time and seasoned buyers of websites should double-check before making a final decision. The offered research tools point the consumer in the right direction for further investigation and confirmation.
1. Whois
Verify that the domain name’s ownership details are easily accessible. First, make sure the vendor owns the website and domain name he’s trying to sell you.
Although it may seem obvious, a buyer’s due diligence should start here. Don’t take the seller’s word that he or she owns the domain. Make sure. If the Whois information is confidential, you might request that the seller email you from the field.
To conduct such an analysis, visit DomainTools.com.
You can find out when the domain name was registered or if the website’s owner acquired it using Whois. This should corroborate the seller’s statements about the longevity of his involvement with the website. Archive.org, which we’ll review later, can also confirm the site’s past.
Second, the website Archive.org
It is crucial to know the website’s history and how it has changed over time. Type the URL into Archive.org’s search bar to view the site’s archived content.
Archive.org is a web crawler and archive that saves snapshots of the web. Learn the date the website went live, which may differ from when the domain was registered. Additionally, you may view how the website has evolved through time.
You may learn a lot about the development and evolution of the site from this. Any assertions by the website seller about the website’s history must be consistent with the facts you find here.
3 Movement
Requesting read-only access to the website’s traffic account is the best way to see how many people are visiting the site. The vendor will register you as a user in their traffic tracking system, probably Google Analytics. You will have read-only access to data and cannot make any changes to the system as the Administrator.
To ensure the traffic claims given by the seller are accurate, you can log on, navigate the site, and dive into the data.
Money and Finances
The website’s finances should be checked, much like the site’s traffic. How you verify a website’s legitimacy will depend on how the site generates and receives revenue and whether or not the vendor is willing to provide you with direct access to his financial data.
You may be able to negotiate with the vendor for limited user access to the data if the website monetizes itself using Google AdSense or Analytics. You can check your account to make sure. A similar login system can be employed if the website accepts payments through PayPal. Buyer can check their financial information with similar user access features across most online payment platforms.
Bank statements, tax returns, and audited financials may also be required to confirm transactions and balances. Sometimes a vendor will be able to provide you with bank records directly.
Some vendors prefer to meet with potential buyers in person when selling a business. In contrast, others prefer video conferencing tools like Skype or GoToMeeting to share their screen as they access their account information and display it on the buyer’s end. The buyer can see and verify the data without the seller giving them direct access to his financial accounts.
Fifth, SpyOnWeb.com
You should also learn about the seller’s other internet assets. The buyer of a website should investigate whether or not the seller also owns any competing sites.
The research tool at SpyOnWeb.com compiles information on other websites owned by the same entity. A user needs only type in the address (URL) of the desired website to begin investigating it.
It’s common for vendors also to be the owners of other websites. The buyer should investigate whether or not the websites share expenses like web hosting. Whether or not a single financial account, like an AdSense account, serves the needs of several websites.
This will help the prospective buyer see the website’s financials in isolation from these other sources of income and expenses.
6. Inbound links
Buyer confidence can be gleaned from the number of inbound links to a website. Website traffic and search engine rankings positively correlate with the number of incoming links.
Unfortunately, not all backlink-checking programs are created equal, and the findings they provide can vary widely. For a complete picture of the links connecting to a website, it’s best to employ various methods.
A purchaser can confirm backlinks with the help of tools like Google Webmaster Tools, Alexa, Open Site Explorer (Moz), and Majestic SEO. The outputs from various sources will vary greatly. Buyers can see which sites are linked to the ones being sold by exploring their “backlinks.” Inbound links from reputable sources are invaluable.
7. UDRP
A buyer of a website and its domain name should avoid any legal trouble by conducting thorough research into the status of the domain before making the purchase.
To avoid taking on any registered firm’s liabilities, buyers prefer to purchase only the website’s assets rather than the business itself. A buyer of website assets also doesn’t want to inherit any legal issues related to the domain name.
A buyer can learn whether or not there are any legal challenges with the domain name by conducting a quick UDRP search.
Trademarks and Patents, No. 8
Patents and trademarks the seller owns may be included in an online transaction. The buyer should check the registration status of trademarks or patents in the website package.
The location of the buyer’s due diligence depends on the site of the patent or trademark registration. The three largest public databases are the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, and the European Union’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market. There are similar intellectual property databases in other nations.
A buyer should check patent and trademark databases to ensure the website vendor is the official registrant.
Nine. Copyscape
Due to the rampant content theft on the Internet, it is essential to conduct a Copyscape investigation before purchasing article-driven websites.
This will determine whether the website’s material is original or stolen from another source.
Evaluation of Domain Names
It is crucial to determine the value of the domain name alone if the website being sold was established on a high-quality domain. It could be time to get a domain name valuation.
A Sedo or Moniker professional, the in-depth assessment report is available to both the buyer and the seller. A rapid automatic valuation utilizing tools like Estibot and DomainIndex.com is also an option. Although automated assessments are typically not as precise as human-made ones, they might occasionally indicate a fair pricing range for the domain name.
For the most accurate valuation results, knowing how much the domain was sold for previously is helpful. NameBio, Estibot, Sedo, or DNJournal might be able to provide this information, as they keep price data for a while.
Google’s Financial Sanctions, Number Eleven
Checking that Google has not punished or deindexed the site is a brilliant idea because of the massive importance of Google’s search engine traffic to most websites.
This can be confirmed with free web-based research tools like Pixel Groove’s Sandbox and Penalty Checker.
Subscribers and Authenticated Users
Email subscribers and members are a common feature of online communities. Examining these email marketing accounts is crucial for checking the seller’s claimed subscriber quantity.
MailChimp and Constant Contact are just two email marketing providers allowing an Administrator to add users with restricted access. To confirm the information, a buyer might be counted as a user. Or, the vendor can use a video call to prove and display these figures to the purchaser.
13. Visit Online Discussion Groups
Most websites’ proprietors and visitors also participate in niche-specific online communities. Seeing what regular people think about the website and its offerings can be done by checking out discussion boards.
A quick Google search should turn up results if the website has ever been discussed on a forum. The buyer can see when the forum comments were submitted, which is a nice feature of meetings. A buyer can see the positive and negative trends in opinions about the website over time.
Here are 13 things that each prospective website buyer should check, along with the resources they’ll need to do so. Add some common sense to them, and any buyer can and will conduct thorough due diligence on any website in minutes.
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