Buying a published and fully functioning Website is similar to taking over the business of someone else. Well, there can be several reasons to do so. One of the most common reasons to buy a Website is negligible efforts in promoting it, as it already has goodwill and significant customer base.
Another reason can be appealing backlink profile indicating that it is reliable and popular in its niche. All these readymade factors ensure more customers as well as revenue with least investment of time and cost.
However, prior to taking the plunge and purchasing a Website, investigating about it is indispensable. This is because no Website in this world is available without both pros and cons.
Taking over someone else’ online business that is getting good profits may be a wise investment initially. However, at the same time, you are also taking up that business’ risks and current issues. Thus, it is essential to know about the Website in detail and find out its existing performance online.
Keeping this in mind, there are a few important things to factor in so that you have the required information to take the right purchasing decision. Just as you consider the most influential factors while buying a home, the same approach is applicable for buying a Website. This helps you from facing any loss or disappointment later.
Niche
Most of us would start by looking at some important things or parameters before buying a Website, such as domain authority, keyword ranking, and social network status. However, checking for these parameters is of no use if the niche is not of your interest or does not match with your skill set. This is regardless of the popularity or performance of the site.
It is important for you to consider how smoothly the niche is truly growing or whether it is growing or not. This is possible only if you are convinced to trust that site. Watch out for any external factor, which can influence the destiny or performance of the niche. Next, you should find out how motivating the niche and its keywords are.
Obviously, this is an analytical research to be done while assessing the site, an initial process that involves asking several questions.
Traffic
This is the next important factor to check out! You are required to explore about site traffic in detail, as you will be handling it once you buy the Website. To get started, you can consider implementing Web analytics and quick answers to the following important questions:
- From how many sources the site traffic originates? Is it single or multiple? (Multiple is better.)
- How cost-effective are these sources? (Should be cost-effective)
- Do users find the site engaging? (Should be engaging)
- Which gadgets do they use to access the site? (Can be more than one)
- Is the overall bounce rate high? (Should not be)
- What is the slope of traffic trend in a chart? (should be upward)
- Is there a good ranking for any keywords? (Should be)
- How is the backlink profile? (Should be powerful)
- What are the referring domains? (Should be popular and authoritative)
It is worth to comprehend that a Website’s limitations are not an issue if you are skilled in user experience and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are many guides, tutorials, and free SEO tools available online to help you in improving the overall user experience.
Fines/Punishments/Penalties
It is unwise to invest in a Website just because its analysis showed that it has good traffic. This is because you would think twice before investing if you come to know that there are penalties too to bear.
Google algorithmic updates have already penalized and blacklisted several sites. Thus, if the chosen site has not been revamped, you may not consider investing in it. A Website with a penalty is likely to fail to abide by the standards for gaining traffic and conversions.
However, if you know how to follow the best SEO white hat practices, you may opt to make suitable changes. If yes, then you can go ahead and grab this opportunity. Nevertheless, it is ideal to continue with caution. This is because it can be challenging to revamp a site to its original fame when there are several problems in it.