15 Must Have Tools When Buying A Website
If you are in the market to purchase a website it is extremely critical that you do your homework before purchasing otherwise you could be in for a rude awakening once the transfer of ownership is completed. It is my experience that sellers tend to overvalue the sites that they offer for sale, while buyers tend to leap before they look.
I have been doing a lot of research on the subject lately and I thought I would share some of the information that I have found with you. Read the article below and you will find a number of tools that should help you Inspect What You Expect when buying a website.
Market Research
Market research is a fundamental area of research that you should be doing on your competitors. Also, if you are buying a website then you should use the following market research tools to learn the hidden secrets of the websites:
SpyFu- Spyfu is a web scraping tool that will show you what a site spends on Pay Per Click adverts. A site can generate 1000 dollars a month in revenue but if it spends 900 dollars in PPC to do it then the REAL revenue figure is 100 dollars per month.
URLtrends- gather SEO data, Pagerank, links, rank trends and more.
Backlink Checker - See who is linking to a specific website. Incoming links increase pagerank..at least allegedly.
Yahoo Site Explorer - Check to see what Yahoo shows for inbound links and indexed pages.
Market Leap - Test the rankings of web pages. Great for testing competitor’s sites.
WebTools - Check to make sure you aren’t buying a banned domain. Critical if you ever expect to be indexed in Google or drive search engine traffic to your site.
Trademark Issues
If you’re buying a fan site, celebrity site or any site with a potential trademark or copyright issue then you could be in for a rude surprise if you are served with a cease and desist from a law firm representing the trademark owner. The best time to find out what trademark issues you might face is BEFORE you pay for your site.
Trademark Electronic Search System - Use the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to perform basic, boolean and advanced searches for trademarks.
Patent Electronic Business Center - Search the patent office’s records for full-text and full-page image returns on your competitors’ issued and published patent applications.
Research done here now will make sure you have no nasty surprises down the road. If in doubt consult a lawyer.
Hosting
Would you like to know how to see which host a specific website is using?
Who is Hosting This - This will show you is hosting the site currently.
Website Pulse - Website pulse will show you the speed of a web host. It shows response time, sizes and more.
Traffic
Would you like to know how much traffic a specific website is getting? Sellers will tend to flaunt their traffic count in the For Sale listings and it can sound impressive but you need to look more closely. Inspect the incoming URLs and see where the traffic is coming from. If it is paid traffic coming from “buy traffic for cheap.com” then tread carefully.
Google Analytics - Google Analytics is one of the best tools around and a little known fact is that if the seller is using Analytics on the site you are considering, they can allow you access to their Analytics page. No secrets there.
Compete - Compete give a great overview of a site’s traffic. It shows visitor info, growth, traffic counts, and you can put multiple sites in a portfolio as well.
Alexa - Alexa is the most commonly touted service there is, however it is definitely not the best choice in my opinion. There is concern out there that Alexa is heavily biased towards certain kinds of sites. Tread softly if this is the only valuation of traffic that you are offered.
SEO analyzer - This tool will analyzes the weaknesses on a website allowing you to fix them and enjoy a resulting traffic increase…..at least that’s the plan. You could use this to gauge how quickly and significantly you might improve traffic post purchase.
Statsaholic - This will show stats about a sites rankings, page views etc. I have very little experience with this but it is a popular tool.
Website Valuation Tools
You’ve probably seen those little widgets on blogs and websites that give a value of that site, did you notice how grossly inflated the price was? I am not aware of any service out there where you can plug a URL into it and it give you any idea at all what the site is worth.
The only way to accurately assess a sites value is using good old common sense and many of the tools that I have listed above. It has been my experience that most of the sites using these “widgets” are often worth only a few percentage points of what the value they claim. Use your head.
I hesitate to even say this but a very rough calculation that is often used is 12 times current revenue. This figure could go up or down depending on the circumstances but it is fairly widely accepted and gives you a starting point. You can factor the multiplier up or down depending on the circumstances.
Conclusion
In the end the real value of the site is no different than anything else….it is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. It’s no different than your house, your car, your timeshare etc…if a buyer isn’t willing to pay the amount that you ask then the site isn’t worth that much. Period.
If you have a website you are interested in selling or you have a comment on the website flipping craze then I would like to hear from you.
Is Your Website An Asset Or a Liability?
Remember back in the good ol' days when having a website was
something every company needed and wanted? Websites were the
wave of the future, and the dream of transitioning to conducting
business online filled our heads with visions of a revolution in
the way commerce was conducted. With a website, a company could
reach clients and interact with potential customers on a global
scale. A website was indicative of a company's technological
prowess, symbolic of the desire to innovate and evolve with
developments in the industry.
Today, this mindset has changed drastically. We all know that we
need a website, but many of us think that simply having one is
enough. In fact, there is research indicating that many firms
with an online presence haven't touched their websites in years.
They haven't spent any time improving functionality and
appearance, and they have yet to consider the basics of website
usability and the inherent potential of search engine
optimization. Of course, we all recognize by now that having a
website is an essential business asset, if it's done correctly.
It's easy to see that if your site is an outdated eyesore, it
becomes a liability that hurts you more than it helps you.
Conversely, a well-designed site can make all the difference.
It's the first place users go to research your products and
services, serves as a lead generator, a CRM tool, and even to
make purchases.
We've all heard the adage about first impressions, and it's no
secret that they're the most important factor in the way people
remember their first encounter with you or with your website. On
one hand, a well-designed, user-friendly website will showcase
your business and your brand, impressing clients. On the other
hand, an outdated and otherwise bad website can hurt you far
more than it can help you. Potential customers will eliminate
you as a possible vendor after interacting with your brand and
substandard website for only a few minutes.
I'll utilize a real estate analogy here to expand upon this
thought. You'll impress guests when they arrive at your home if
it's clean, well-kept, landscaped, painted, and overall
welcoming. But, if you arrive at a home that's dilapidated and
falling apart with chipped paint and an overgrown lawn, you'll
think a lot of less of whoever lives there. Are they lazy slobs?
Maybe. Or maybe they just haven't had time to take care of the
property. Either way, your first impression is less than
positive. We all try not to "judge a book by its cover," but in
an online atmosphere, a company's website is their cover, the
digital face they present to the world, so in that case you
can't not judge the book by its cover. After all, that's all you
have to go by.
So this must leave you wondering: Is my website an asset or a
liability? By answering the following questions, you can find
out if it's time for an overhaul or just some simple changes. Or
maybe your site doesn't need any work at all. Ready to find out?
Home Page
* Can visiting users tell immediately who you are and what you
offer?
* Is your site organized in a clear fashion that promotes
navigation?
* Is your home page an information destination or just a messy
landing page?
* Does your home page give a good first impression that entices
users to click through your links?
Performance Issues
* Do your images, videos, and pages load quickly?
* Does your site utilize clean, un-bloated code?
* Does your site have a "search" function? If so, is it fast
and useful?
* Have you performed quality assurance testing to ensure your
site looks the same across different browsers?
Content Is King
* Is your content written clearly and persuasively? Does it
speak to your target market?
* Have you included useful and relevant resources like case
studies, white papers, articles, or links?
* Does your content effectively describe your products,
services, and benefits?
* Is your content keyword focused to cater to users and search
engines alike?
Links & Navigation
* First and foremost: Do all your links work?
* Are your links clearly marked?
* Do your links utilize descriptive and enticing anchor text?
* Is your navigation menu or framework consistent throughout
your site?
* Does your navigation menu provide access to your entire
site?
Critical Pages
* Is there a top-level page that describes your products and
services?
* Do you have an "About Us" page to describe your company?
* Is the "Contact Us" page clear, informative, and thorough?
* Do you have a page where users can ask questions or answer
their own?
* Do you have a Testimonials section?
* Do you have a blog that you update frequently?
* Do you have social bookmarking buttons to take advantage of
Web 2.0 technologies?
Usability
* Is your site organized so that information is easy to find?
* Do you have a site map that wireframes this organizational
structure and links to all your pages?
* Is your site "user-friendly?"
* Is your type scannable, easy to read, and written for the
web?
* Do you utilize bullets, headlines, and other stylistic
elements to organize and present content?
* Do you have calls to action that prompt users to take
desired actions?
* Are you using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control the
layout of the site?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
* Is your site search engine friendly?
* Have you optimized your site for specific and relevant
keywords?
* Have you acquired a network of high-quality, relevant
links?
* Have you utilized online PR or social media marketing for
its SEO benefits?
* Does your navigation menu provide access to your entire
site?
Now that you've answered all of these questions, you need to
decide what to do next. Start with some competitve analysis to
see what your competitors are doing and what you need to do to
catch up. Then, survey users to see what they think and act upon
that feedback; don't wait, evaluate and reciprocate.
So make as many changes as you can to improve your website,
turning it back into a business asset instead of a liability,
and watch as your web presence creates leads and ultimately
sales that impact your bottom line.
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Nick Yorchak is an SEO expert and Search Engine Marketing
Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Internet
marketing (http://www.fusionbox.com/service/5/), web design,
and web development company. He can be reached at his Fusionbox
email (nyorchak@fusionbox.com) or at (303)952-7490.
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