Tips for buying sites/domains

I’ve been buying sites/domains of late, and already wasted money doing this, so I thought I’d pass on a few tips with regards to buying a website or domain name.

The reason for buying sites and domains should be obvious: asset development.

There are so many reasons why asset development can be useful:

- capturing mindshare
- lead generation
- link development
- revenue diversification
- market expansion

and so on.

Ultimately, the larger your asset base online, the more of a web presence you have to leverage.

This is going to be incredibly useful if you are trying to get a strong foothold in any particular vertical, especially if you are looking at long term asset development.

For example, I am looking to develop a long-term presence in a variety of niche verticals, but I need to invest in this process now to create a long-term platform because the windows of opportunity on the internet are closing.

That means buying up assets either as stand alone’s or else to merge with existing projects.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re buying an established site or an expiring domain, the most valuable asset is one with a positive history.

That means they’ve got a good history of publishing content online, have developed some natural links, and had no problems being indexed.

To do this I use a few simple free online tools:

1. Google Cache - existing sites must have a Google Cache, which you can check via IE with a Toolbar install, or else via a search for the domain name in Google. A site with no cache isn’t likely getting indexed, which suggests either:

i. The site has been banned by Google
ii. The site hasn’t enough links for decent indexing

2. Yahoo! link check - a linkdomain:URL -site:URL will give you an indicator of link quality to a site. And if you are a link builder or otherwise experienced SEO, immediately flag whether the link profile is natural or linkfarmed.

A good natural link profile should have some decent strong links in there, while the linkfarmed links are likely impermanent and easily removed (such as from link buying by the original owner, or general farming to push a spam site) which makes the site less valuable and more likely to require additional investment.

3. Wayback Machine records - if the site has been publishing content, archive.org can tell you for how long. If it’s an expired domain you’re buying, you can see what sort of content has been published previously.

This is really important because the WHOIS record will only tell you when a domain was registered - it tells you nothing about when a site actually started publishing content and started getting indexed.

Additionally, it also tells you if the domain has been parked or unused for a period of time - which if is the case, again means less value and more investment required to rebuild a presence.

CAVEAT: Do be aware that some sites actively block the archive.org bot - Webmasterworld used to, and anyone who copied their robots.txt to their own sites (as I did in the early days) will find a site with an only limited record - in which case, try to cross reference their histing by doing a Google Search on the domain, and see how far back you can go (not ideal, but worth considering).

More tips and summary

Using the above should immediately give you an idea as to whether the website or domain name may be worth investing in - not least because a website with a long publishing and indexing record, with decent content and a natural link profile, is going to be particularly valuable.

Of course, with expired domain names, also factor in the fact that the domain could be reset for Google ranking purposes - but also remember that existing links can be a source of traffic to rebuild the site - even brand - and its general presence, giving you something of a leg-up on the investment process.

Do also be aware that DMOZ is likely to delist domains which have expired, or sites which are publicly listed for saleas DMOZ listed.

Also bear in mind that people most likely to sell a website usually see minimal value in that site (ie, requires too much investment to make work) so be aware of the investment issues here.

The more valuable sites will probably require a direct approach.

For example, if you are working in a particular vertical, you probably already know who your “direct competitors” are. Yet they can’t be competitors if you buy them out, and even get them working as part of your team. That’s when such sites can truly become an asset.

Of course, there are further potential pitfalls you can encounter, but hopefully once you’ve got a grasp of at least some of the basics, you’re already avoiding a lot of the pain - and financial losses - associated with buying up internet assets.