Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
Hi Everyone,
I will start with, thank you all very much for your incredible wealth of knowledge and willingness to share it.
I have learned so much here as a lurker, I can't thank you enough.
I am new to professional SEO, and am trying to assess what a particular site is worth.
I have built a site revolving around <edit>furry widgets in widgetville</edit>
I can't believe it has done so well in the SERPS.
This is the first site I have SEO'd.
Here is a small example of its positioning.
#1 positions on Google.com
global search for:
<snip>*several related terms</snip>
I am freaking out, I feel like I am in the World Series and hit a home run!
Am I missing something? I feel this can't be true.
I have used no cheats or tricks, just what I have learned here.
<snip>
On last check the site has
103 known, top 10 positions in top SE's (Google.com, .ca
MSN, Yahoo.com , .ca Altavista ...........
And at least 38 in # 1 for very relevant KW.
I am negotiating with <snip>, who has a poorly SEO'd site and virtually no SE traffic.
The site from a web design standpoint is basic and somewhat crude, but I will rework as they request.
Could anybody give me a ballpark figure of what they think it would be worth in such circumstances, as it stands (without rework)?
BTW, there are currently 30 back links to the main page, some from DIRs including dmoz.com
(I have not worked much yet on Backlinks)
There are 6 pages in the web
index PR 3
3 other pages pr 2
2 pages pr 0
It has recently come out of the sandbox and, I am now getting more traffic.
From March 1 to an hour ago I have 130 unique visitors, with 232 page views, from 107 referrals.
Masterstats is forecasting 1150 uniques for this month up from 546 last month.
What would be considered good for monthly uniques?
Most referrals are from SE's
Any advise on pricing would be appreciated.
Thank you all again, I will monitor and try to reply quickly.
Yours truly,
Scott K
[edited by: stuntdubl at 10:17 pm (utc) on Mar. 4, 2005]
[edit reason] widgetized...no specifics please [/edit]
The value of your site does not depend just on the current SERPs. Just like any brick and mortr store, there are many factors to take into acount such as current sales, overhead, number of visitors, growth ponential....to name just a few.
What most people do is base the value on 3 months pre-tax profits. That is just one way to look at it.
Hope this helps
I realize that other factors affect price, but in this case, the other factors are nil, there is very little sales, becasue we only have 3 or 4 products and not really set up for sales, more marketing.
So I really am just selling them a site that is at the top of the list, and will work with them to make sure it does well after the change over.
So the value of those key positions is all I am really selling.
Do you think 3-5 k is in the ball park?
For the site, positions, and exclusive canadian rights to several new Unheard of products. (with virtually no sales)
With more products of an actual distributor, I think the site as huge potential for sales.
Opinions please.
Thanks
Scott
3 months? That's an awfully low valuation. To give you an example... I sold a web site recently that generated an average of $185,000 per-year for $500,000 - it really depends upon the industry, and just how strong 'your' product/site is, and what the potential buyer thinks the return will be.
[edited by: bobothecat at 10:33 pm (utc) on Mar. 4, 2005]
What do you think, would be a fair price for my site?
SK
It all boils down to what someone else is willing to pay. 3 months just isn't enough revenue (gross or net) to determine the value of any company ( my own personal opinion )
"Net" revenue is an obvious important factor, but so can "Gross" ( your expenses will usually be different than the buyer's ).
BTW: Current search engine ranking's should not be factored... this can change at any second - unless your buyer is willing to hedge their investment ... it shouldn't make much of a difference in regards to value. The next Google,MSN,Yahoo,etc... update could cause you to lose that high rank - so make sure you think outside the (search engine) box.
What do you think, would be a fair price for my site?
You will get the most out of your site if you were to monetize it, and have a verifiable track record for the same. Absent that, your potential buyers will be very uncomfortable making a bigger offer, and you will always wonder if you sold it for pennies on a dollar. Unless, of course, your site focuses on highly compettive terms.
When it comes to selling, nothing beats proven track-record.
So the value of those key positions is all I am really selling.
Key positions are only of value if they generate serious traffic. If your key positions are generic hard to penetrate terms (like automotive) they would be worth more than some real niche terms (uncle bob's purple widgets) that nobody searches.
If you're generating thousands of qualified shoppers a day, that has some real value.
Masterstats is forecasting 1150 uniques for this month up from 546 last month.
To get traffic of 1150 uniques/month using minimum AdWords pricing (starting at $0.05 CPC) to drive traffic would cost $57.50/month, or $690/yr. For that kind of traffic I think $3K-$5K is a bit much unless you have a solid web site behind it with solid sales to make up the difference in price.
It may loose some positions but won't likely go from # 1 to page 10
I have bought and sold many sites over the last few years. I have never paid for a site's SERPS and I consider it would be foolish to do so. SERPs positions can disappear overnight.
As bose said, monetise it. If your traffic is so good then prove it by monetising the site. If it turns out that all you can get the site to generate is $20 a month then I doubt anybody will give you $3-5K. Sorry to sound harsh but the hard work for this site is ahead, not behind!
I think the site has huge potential
I am paying nothing for adwords or any kind of promotion; the site is getting this traffic organically from SE's.
I agree that paying for potential is risky.
But if you are a wholesaler, looking for traffic and can buy a top listed site for a few grand, in my eyes it may be worth the risk.
1 good sale could easily cover the cost of the site purchase.
In the last week, I have had inquiries from 5 companies wanting to buy wholesale widgets.
1 wants 1000 yellow widgets, I would stand to make at least $1 per widget.
The other items if sold would put at least another $1500 in my pocket.
I know, they are just inquiries, but 2-4k worth of inquiries from different business's in a week, should convert to a good chunk of cash at the end of the year.
(If you are competitive in your field)
I am not arguing, you all make great points, I guess the value is in the eyes of the buyer, and what they can do with it.
But I think you have convinced me to monetize it.
In which case, why should I sell it?
I don't have the cash to set up a B&M wholesale business, dealing in everything I am getting inquiries for, I am thinking about trying to setup something with other distributors, where I get quotes from them and provide them to my customers.
Then make a commission on the sales.
Kind of like an affiliate, but more like a rep or a broker,
Giving my customers access to many brands of wholesale widgets and the best prices.
My only problem will be tracking any repeat sales from my referrals; I think I would just have to trust these big B&M wholesalers (not online types, but distributors with dozens of reps on the road visiting widget stores.)
Scott
Have not experianced it no.
How often do new alga's like Florida or Allegra come out?
(I know the alga's change fairly often, but majors like those mentioned above)
Does it affect sites that acheive thier position organicaly thru, thorough SEO as much?
What are the Overture bids on some of the keywords you are ranked so highly for?
Good Question!
Where do I go to find out?
I don't use overture KW bids.
I will try a search, I am sure I can find it.
BRB
-For example, my brother's house was valued by the bank at $270K. However, if he want to sell it now as is, he would not be able to get more then $200K.
-On the other side, I know someone who bought a domain for $250K. The existing site itself did not really justify that amount, but the buyer was dead set on that specific domain name.
Well that is interesting
Many of what I thought were important KW's don't seem to have bids.
Yet in some cases there is 6-8 million competing sites.
I just did a cursery check
I did find about 8 phrases I am #1 for, that range in price from .10 - 2.10
I am very surprised that no one bids on a wholesale Widget KW when this widget industry is huge and has millions of competition.
If someone has vision they may see value where other don't.
Or
THEY COULD JUST BE STUPID :-)
I know, they are just inquiries, but 2-4k worth of inquiries from different business's in a week
should convert to a good chunk of cash at the end of the year.
I guess thats what I will have to do.
I am working on plans to try to monetize it.
I appreciate all the input
Scott
That's not saying it's not something to be proud of. Just make sure you don't mix up pride value with monetary value.
Although, I can't believe how much traffic I am geeting for words that are not bid on.
I wonder if being specifically geared towards Canadian business has an affect.
Thanks for all the good advise
Scott
If your business only caters to one country, it could likely de-value your website business considerbly... that is unless you have a very large market-share for the industry your trying to sell.
If I'm looking only on profit, a website that have $1,000/year of secured profit with absolutly no risk worths 20k. ($1,000/5% = 20k) But "no risk" does not exist. A "perfect business plan" in 2004 could become a total looser in 2006.
Depending of the risk, you can base your price on 10%, or 20%, or more... Let say I base my price on 35%. Base only on profit, the website value would be $2,860 ($1,000/35%). Risk is as important as profit!
The actual buying price would depends on other value the buyer will get. As an example, if you buy a competitor who forced you since years to lower your prices (and your profits), maybe you'll be happy to pay a lot of money to buy them even if they don't do any profit.
