Buying a website is a very serious decision. It’s an investment. When you make an investment, you need to see all of the pros and cons. With websites, a pro would be a good Domain Authority; a con would be a site that is banned by AdSense.

Here are 5 things to look at before you purchase a site.

Parameters To Look At Before Buying A Website:

1. Domain Authority

Domain Authority matters a lot, especially if you want to get a sponsored review or some kind of high paying advertisement.

Moreover, finding a high DA site tells you that the site is well-optimized.

A site with a high Domain Authority is probably a high-quality site.

2. Keyword Ranking

A website can rank for the wrong keyword and drive a lot of traffic, but these wrong-ranking keywords will never help you make money online. If your website is ranking for a correct and targeted keyword, you can convert visitors into sales.

Make sure you check out the Google Analytics data to analyze the landing pages and most popular pages. 5 Analytics Concepts You Need To Understand For Your Business.

Also, use SEMrush to check out the keyword profile attached to the domain.

3. Website Design

When most people think about starting a website, they’re concerned with the look of the site.

When you buy a site, you should be concerned about this as well.

The design not only brands the site, it also provides the foundation for the overall UX.

If the blog/website which you are buying is not well-designed, get ready for another $xxx investment in making the design professional.

4. Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus

If I combine all of the social media traffic for ShoutMeLoud, it would contribute to about 10% of our total traffic.

When a site has good content, people won’t hesitate to share that content.

If a website is not popular on Twitter and Facebook, chances are high that it’s missing that community touch because the content is not good. You need to make sure the content is high-quality, relatable, and share-able.

5. Demographics

When you create a website/blog, you typically have a target audience in mind.

Example: If you are planning to make an e-commerce gadget blog, your target is probably tech-savvy young people. You also want to make sure those people can buy things without parental guidance (i.e. 18+).

You need to study the demographics of the website you’re buying and make sure there is a clear, well-defined target.

Bonus: Google Panda and Penguin Penalty

One important thing which you should check before buying a website is for a Panda or Penguin penalty. The Google Panda and Penguin updates penalized many sites for using black-hat SEO and other “unnatural” SEO methods.

While it’s not impossible to rescue a site that has been the victim of sketchy SEO, you may not want to spend the time, effort, and money to do so. Basic SEO Tips

You can use tools like SEMrush or PenguinTool to find if a website has been penalized.

These are very simple points, but a lot of people don’t consider them when purchasing an existing website.

«Harsh Agrawal (19 Oct, 2018). 5 Things To Consider Before Buying Any Website [Article Blog]. Obtained from https://www.shoutmeloud.com/5-things-to-consider-before-buying-any-website.html»