Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Community
    3. Industry News
    4. How do you value a site that generates no income before it's sold?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    How do you value a site that generates no income before it's sold?

    Industry News
    5
    12
    3657
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • XSMedia
      XSMedia last edited by

      Hi,

      I'm currently creating a number of sites which target the wedding market. Each site is localized and specific to a niche within the wedding market.

      The intention is to create the site, rank it in the top position of Google and then sell it to a local business within that niche and area.

      The problem that i am having is that I don't know how to place a value on each site. I have factors taken from Google (using Market Samurai) so I know the broad and phrase match traffic details as well as the Google PPC average prices.

      My initial thought was to use the Google PPC price and multiply that by the number of organic visitors the site would receive if it was ranked #1 on Google. I appreciate that the PPC figures may be higher than what an advertiser would actually pay per click so I conservatively halved the Google PPC figure given in Market Samurai.

      Is this a good way of valuing the site or do I need to look at the value per customer to the business that I am trying to sell the site to and work from a conversion factor based on the number of visitors that the site would receive.

      If the site received 500 visitors per month and 5% of those became customers multiplied by the average profit per customer - that would give a monthly value of the website.

      I am very unsure as to what the best approach is here and look forward to hearing any advice and ideas from fellow members.

      Thanks,

      Michael

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • XSMedia
        XSMedia @EGOL last edited by

        The traffic to the site will generate leads for the company who owns the site. If they already have a website that converts then they will know what content to put on this site to create that conversion rate.

        The buyer is buying the site knowing the potential that the site will have when it comes to generating business for them.

        I've looked at is as the first page results of Google are a line of shops. The shop at #1 is seen as the shop which gets the most visitors to it. Now imagine that shop is currently being refitted - people can still see the shop and what it sells but are unable to actually enter the shop to buy anything.

        Now, the person who owns the shop further down the street (i.e is ranked #10 or #12 or #15 etc) - he really wants to own that shop which is being refitted and he knows how much that shop is worth to his business if he owned it after the refit is completed.

        Although the site I have created is a basic canvas, all it needs is branding by the new owner and it will then perform as well as their current site when it comes to conversion rates.

        Does that make sense with explaining the view point I am taking on this project ?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • EGOL
          EGOL @EGOL last edited by

          "how to value organic traffic"

          That's a different question than "how much can I get for a website?".

          But getting to your real question of "how to value organic traffic".... that depends upon what you can do with the traffic (display adsense, sell merchandise, generate leads).

          Although you can put a generalized number on that the bottom line for the buyer of your website depends upon how effective your website is at converting customers for a specific service provider.  The generic website that you have for sale has zero value for the service provider.

          You are selling a sign post without a sign, not a money-making machine.

          I think that you have a lot more money making potential selling SEO services than selling pre-ranked websites.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • XSMedia
            XSMedia @EGOL last edited by

            And again, the finer points of how to sell the site are something that i have covered from all angles. The part of making the sale and closing the sale isn't an issue.

            I appreciate the feedback from everyone here but doubt I'm going to find someone who can actually answer the question of "how to value organic traffic". The matter of the niche or if the potential client already has a site or an SEO company is by the by and not part of the issue. I can deal with all of those parts.

            Market Samurai makes a calculation for organic traffic value by taking the average PPC cost and multiplying it by the amount of traffic the site will receive if it was ranked number one on Google.

            My question really should have just simply been asked as "How accurate is that figure" ? , <- that's all I needed answering.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • EGOL
              EGOL @firstconversion last edited by

              You get what you can convince someone its worth.

              I agree.

              I believe that most people who own wedding shops will be much more inclined to invest in having SEO done on their existing website or on a domain that matches the name of their business than they are to buy a website from a Joe Schmoe who is trying to sell them YourPodunkWedding.com.

              If they already have a website they probably have a relationship with a local person or company who built the site for them.  They will call that person who they know and trust and say... some Joe Schmoe is trying to sell me YourPodunkWedding.com... and he will say.. "They are probably going to sell you the site and then pull the links as soon as they have your money."

              XSMedia EGOL 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • firstconversion
                firstconversion last edited by

                " All I wanted to know is how a site would be valued when it comes to selling it."

                There is no way to tell. You get what you can convince someone its worth. You can like that or not but it won't change it.

                EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • knichol
                  knichol last edited by

                  I feel like your question answers itself, a site that generates no income before it is sold doesn't really have any value to be completely honest. If the site is ranking, and generating leads, then it has an intrinsic value of potential income. I feel it is a gamble and as Ben said "[it] is worth what they buyer will pay for it."

                  I suppose, if you have qualified leads being generated, you could place a market value on each lead with a realistic conversion rate factored in to get a base sale value. Once you have a base, you could project what it is worth to a company that can build a reputation and stronger business with it.

                  Using the above example of 500 visitors, 5% to leads, and a 1.5% conversion rate (lets be realistic now) works out to 1 client. So for this venture to be profitiable, you would probably need to generate at least 1000 * 5000 visitors a month, and hope for 5-10 clients. Now if a business buys this and makes it successful, the conversion rate should increase due to reputation. You could build a projected sale price of the 1-2 year projection.

                  That all being said, you really will need to have a decent amount of traffic coming to the site in order for it to be salable, or follow the old adage 'a sucker is born every minute' and swindle someone into buying based on promised traffic and revenue that is in fact not there (not recommend: very unprofessional and possibly reputation damaging.)

                  -- edit --

                  • clearly my math was wrong, it should be 5000 visitors for 5-10 clients, not 1000.
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • EGOL
                    EGOL last edited by

                    Why would they want to buy a website from you?  They probably already have a site, have spent a lot of money on it and want to continue using it.  Your site would not feature their store or their products or their staff or their salesmanship.  The site would need to be built over again.  A waste of your time or their money.

                    I think that you will get a better return selling SEO services to the biz owner who is currently in position #7 who would like to be in position #1.

                    If the site received 500 visitors per month and 5% of those became customers multiplied by the average profit per customer - that would give a monthly value of the website.

                    I think that your 5% is really high.  In a small town there might only be a few places to buy these products and the shoppers already know about them.  Where there is a larger market the buying decision is going to be based more on the products for sale and less on the rankings of a website.

                    Also, I think that your valuation is high.... why should they pay you the entire profit on the monthly sales?  They are in business to make money for themselves - not to give all of their profits to you.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • XSMedia
                      XSMedia @firstconversion last edited by

                      Oh I did my research on this and looked at the service providers who already have website ranked in the top 30 as well as all those who are currently using Google AdWords.  The service providers already understand the value of an online presence, I'm just trying to work out what that value is.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • firstconversion
                        firstconversion last edited by

                        there is no calculation that will tell you this. Anything that professes to be an indystry standard or generic answer will be out as your buyers will not be conforming to any standard

                        Wedding businesses that dont know about the internet are sure as hell not going to know how to value a website, its worth whatever you can get for it as a salesman

                        Btw, Id suggest finding a market first and then building sites for it

                        XSMedia 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
                        • XSMedia
                          XSMedia @totalseo-155734 last edited by

                          Thanks Ben, thanks for your answer.  I have thought about different payment options from a "one off - hand it all over" option to a "monthly payment" where they 'rent' the site. Or even break the cost down in to a deposit payment followed by monthly payments until the full amount is paid. Once it's paid I would then sign over the domain ownership.

                          The main sticking point is calculating a price for the site in the first place.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • totalseo-155734
                            totalseo-155734 last edited by

                            Everything is worth what the buyer will pay for it.  Since organic search traffic ebbs and flows, a simple traffic times conversion equals monthly price may to be reflective of what someone will pay for it.   You might want to think about offering a lump sum payment where the customer takes control of the domain and a monthly fee where you retain control, but re brand the site for the client.

                            Good luck

                            XSMedia 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1 / 1
                            • First post
                              Last post

                            Got a burning SEO question?

                            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                            Start my free trial


                            Browse Questions

                            Explore more categories

                            • Moz Tools

                              Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                            • SEO Tactics

                              Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                            • Community

                              Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                            • Digital Marketing

                              Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                            • Research & Trends

                              Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                            • Support

                              Connect on product support and feature requests.

                            • See all categories

                            Related Questions

                            • Kamranktk

                              Should I buy an expired domain that has already been redirected to some other website? Can I use it or redirect it to my own site if I purchase it?

                              I was going to purchase an expired domain but then I came to know that it has been redirected to some other website. I have two questions: Can I build a website around this domain if I purchase it? and will the Domain Authority remains the same ? Can I redirect it to my own site? and will all the Link Juice flow to my site?

                              Industry News | | Kamranktk
                              0
                            • Mack_

                              Yelp (recrawl Google/Bing)

                              If Google and Bing show an older version of a site's Yelp rating in the search results, what options are there to help ensure Google and Bing recrawl the Yelp page? Additionally, it appears third-party sites such as MapQuest show Yelp ratings and appear in Google search results; is it possible to request MapQuest to recrawl Yelp and then ask Google to recrawl MapQuest? Any advice would be much appreciated!

                              Industry News | | Mack_
                              1
                            • Roman-Delcarmen

                              Does anyone have experience with Simplilearn?

                              I want to hear the opinion of other Marketers My main goal is found a place where I can get an integral knowledge, not just SEO or PPC or whatever. Simplilearn offers a Master Program called "Digital Marketing Specialist"
                              Which cover this areas Advanced Web Analytics
                              - Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
                              - Advanced Pay Per Click (PPC)
                              - Advanced Social Media But also they have available other related topics such as Email Marketing Conversion Rate Optimization I know there are some ones that are mandatory and FREE
                              and for me this are not a big deal, because all the documentation
                              is available for everyone Google Analytics > Data Analytics
                              Facebook Blue Print > Data Analytics
                              Google Adwords > PPC
                              Bing > PPC I will make the certifciation
                              But Im looking for something with better level
                              Such as "Integreted Marketing Campaign"

                              Industry News | | Roman-Delcarmen
                              1
                            • Chstphrjohn

                              Backlink Query. Unranked pages of High Ranking sites.

                              Hi, So I was just wondering if someone with more knowledge than myself can answer this question for me. I have a site - currently sat on page 2 of google. On-site optimisation is done, however I am struggling to get backlinks that are from highranking pages. I am new to SEO so need a hand. My understanding of backlinks is that the higher the PR of the site that links to your 'money' site, the better that link is, and that these links are very hard to come by. (something that I am finding). Many times I have found sites that have a high rank and offer for a free listing, only for me to fill in details and get listed on a sub-page that has no ranking whatsoever. So my question is, are these kind of links worth the effort? Do they actually have any effect on rankings? And generally would anyone have any tips on the best sites to get links? Thanks

                              Industry News | | Chstphrjohn
                              0
                            • neenor

                              How does nudity on a site affect search results?

                              One of my clients sells lingerie and with it being lingerie there are a fair few photos of bottoms and some exposed breasts. Gosh. Anyway I know how this affects Adwords campaigns - Google classifies the site as 'adult' and your ads don't show anywhere. I also know how it affects image searches. However how does it affect text seaches?? Are rankings demoted because of nudity? I've worked with a clothing site with some nudity on it before and this didn't affect it, but would love to hear from anyone with specific experience of thisThanks

                              Industry News | | neenor
                              0
                            • EEE3

                              Product Schema - Not supported if you don't actually sell the product online...

                              Based on this answer from Google, http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146750 you can't use the product schema if a customer has to make the purchase offline or at another retailer. Does anyone know why they set it up this way? Has anyone ever tried to use product markup on a website when the product is purchased offline? Also, is there another solution or another markup that would apply? Thanks!

                              Industry News | | EEE3
                              0
                            • skehoe

                              How can you change 'Google related searches'?

                              I am having problems for a few clients where google is suggesting negative related searches. I have had success getting Google suggestion (auto-complete) to suggest the keywords we want to be associated with the brand but the 'Searches Related to....' at the bottom of the search page is a big problem. Many of the terms are negative of sometimes defamatory and have absolutely not relevance to the brand.  Even upon clicking on the related searches the pages Google displays are about other businesses. Can anyone suggest how to teach Google these term are irrelevant or any other suggestions as to how to remove them?

                              Industry News | | skehoe
                              0
                            • randfish

                              Did Google's Farmer Update Positively/Negatively Affect Your Search Traffic?

                              See the attached image, showing a comparison of SEOmoz.org's search traffic from Google over the past 6 days and the prior week. farmer-3x.gif

                              Industry News | | randfish
                              2

                            Get started with Moz Pro!

                            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                            Start my free trial
                            Products
                            • Moz Pro
                            • Moz Local
                            • Moz API
                            • Moz Data
                            • STAT
                            • Product Updates
                            Moz Solutions
                            • SMB Solutions
                            • Agency Solutions
                            • Enterprise Solutions
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • MozBar Extension
                            • MozCast
                            Resources
                            • Blog
                            • SEO Learning Center
                            • Help Hub
                            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                            • How-to Guides
                            • Moz Academy
                            • API Docs
                            About Moz
                            • About
                            • Team
                            • Careers
                            • Contact
                            Why Moz
                            • Case Studies
                            • Testimonials
                            Get Involved
                            • Become an Affiliate
                            • MozCon
                            • Webinars
                            • Practical Marketer Series
                            • MozPod
                            Connect with us

                            Contact the Help team

                            Join our newsletter
                            Moz logo
                            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                            • Accessibility
                            • Terms of Use
                            • Privacy

                            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.