In brief: Verify traffic, revenue, content ownership, link risk, technical control and monetization before buying a website.
Traffic
- Get direct analytics access where possible.
- Review source mix and country mix.
- Compare long-term trends, not one strong month.
- Investigate sharp ranking or referral changes.
Revenue
- Match earnings to original partner or payment records.
- Check monetization concentration.
- Understand RPM, conversion or commission changes over time.
Content and links
- Confirm rights to published content and media.
- Review link acquisition history and obvious spam risk.
- Identify content that requires expensive ongoing updates.
Technical
- Confirm domain ownership.
- Review hosting, CMS, plugins, code and security.
- Understand backups and deployment process.
Transfer
List every account, credential, license and relationship needed for the site to operate after closing, then confirm whether each is actually transferable.