Shopping For Websites: What Makes Them Valuable
When evaluating whether you want to flip a particular website, you want to look for certain qualities that will make it a potential hit. Many times, you’ll come across sites with one or more of these factors going for it, with its owners simply unable to capitalize on them.
1. Backlinks
Despite all the pages upon pages of SEO advice written across many books and blogs, nothing still helps a site up the search rankings better than solid backlinks. When evaluating a site for a possible flip, check its backlink profile.
If it has many links from social media, adding an authority link from two or three popular and respected sources in its industry will probably be enough to turn it into a goldmine. The more natural and authoritative links that it already has, the more valuable it should be to you as a potential site for flipping.
2. Pagerank
While many now discount the importance of pagerank, there are few metrics as easy to see that will give you good indication of where a site is at in Google’s graces. People still pay good money for pagerank too.
3. Community/Users/Subscribers
An existing audience makes a property extremely valuable for any site flipper. Whether it is a blog with RSS subscribers, a forum with members or an ebook sales website with a mailing list, having built-in users you can leverage right from the get-go makes a site brimming full of potential.
4. Professional Work
Check the layout, the design, the backend, the scripts and other tangible components that comprise the actual website. Are they professional-grade or low quality patchwork? Do the articles and databases look like they can be worth a decent amount? Is it running some custom scripts or CMS that can be worth a good amount on its own?
5. Domain Name
How valuable will the site’s domain name be on today’s market? Is it brandable and memorable? You might recognize a site’s name to be related to a popular brand, for instance, on a totally different niche. If you can buy the site, you can easily overhaul it to serve that market and sell it for much more based on the name’s value alone.
If you are interested or want to learn more about website flipping check out Site Flip Academy