9 Important Tips for Selling Your Website

Whether you’ve built a great website and now want to move on to something else, or whether building and selling sites is your business, it is important to understand how to structure your site and your marketing to achieve the best possible sales price. These 9 tips are designed to help you do just that.

1. Know the value of your website: Buyers are savvy and they’ll know whether your website is priced right when they review the information you provide to them. Most won’t overpay. They will, however, happily underpay if you miscalculate your site’s value and offer it at a bargain. Overpriced sites won’t sell. Underpriced sites don’t reap the gain they could. Either way, you lose. Use a respected valuation tool to determine your sites worth, and price it slightly higher to show confidence the site’s numbers will grow.

2. Demonstrate your site’s value: Placing a value on a website is a fairly exact science in some ways. In less than one page show potential buyers the following factual information: Visitor and page view data; traffic origin including direct, natural and pay per click; clear expense and revenue information; search engine ranking reports; business and tax-related papers; a breakdown of time spent building and maintaining the site. These metrics and data are an essential component of marketing your site.

3. Shape the potential buyer’s perspective: Buyers are rational creatures, to be sure. But they do have an emotional component. Include in your written sales information a 500 to 1000 word statement that helps them catch the vision you have for the site. Even if they are hard-core bottom line people who don’t really care what the site is about as long as it is profitable, the vision statement might persuade them of the possibility that the site will blossom into an even larger money maker. Sell the site you have for sale!

4. Market your site at established website marketplaces: You will be charged a fee for this. Do it anyway because it will bring your site the kind of exposure it needs to draw the price it deserves. Listing your site at these locations will put it in front of the largest audience of qualified, active buyers.

5. Explain your reasons for selling: Since most websites don’t make money, potential buyers will want to know why you’re willing to unload one that is profitable. Be straightforward in your sales copy. It’s okay to say you are selling to make a profit on a site you worked hard to build, establish and rank. If your energy is needed in another area of interest, some other entrepreneurial pursuit, they will understand that, too.

6. Sign a non-compete clause: Having a signed NCC ready to hand the buyer will assure them that you will not use your obvious knowledge and expertise to build a site that will directly compete with the one you are selling. Agree to stay out of that niche for a minimum of 3 years, but 5 years or forever will be better!

7. Use a content management system: If potential buyers see a CMS in place that will make maintaining the site easier for them it might just be the final key in them agreeing to the deal. Any way that you can streamline your site operations will make it more attractive to shoppers.

8. Outfit your site with all the bells and whistles: Most buyers are going to want to see a variety of plug-ins that adds to the site’s value and performance. Social media sharing buttons will produce an up to date feel for your site. These things may or may not be affecting the site’s earnings, but they will deliver a positive impression.

9. Demonstrate good SEO: If a website shopper sees that you have maintained good SEO practices that possibly haven’t yet fully ripened they may believe your site offers greater value than what is reflected in your asking price. They will see a bargain and you may see a very healthy offer.