Website due diligence guide

Due diligence is what separates buyers who get burned from buyers who build real passive income. Before you transfer any money, independently verify every claim the seller has made about traffic, revenue, and ownership. This guide covers all seven areas you need to check. Ready to find a site to evaluate? Browse websites for sale.

1. 1

   Verify traffic independently

   Never rely solely on screenshots. Request read-only access to Google Analytics or Google Search Console so you can see historical traffic data yourself. Look for consistent trends over at least 12 months, not just recent spikes. Check the traffic source breakdown: organic search traffic is the most defensible. Social or viral traffic can disappear overnight. Verify that reported pageviews align with ad network earnings (a site claiming 100,000 monthly pageviews but earning $30 from ads likely has inflated traffic numbers or very low-quality visitors).

2. 2

   Verify revenue and financial data

   Request exports from every revenue source: Stripe or PayPal for SaaS and eCommerce, Google AdSense or Mediavine for display ads, affiliate dashboards (Amazon Associates, ShareASale, Impact, etc.) for affiliate sites, and Substack or ConvertKit for newsletters. Cross-reference revenue data against bank statements for the past 12 months. For SaaS businesses, also request a subscriber export showing active customer count, MRR, and churn data. Any discrepancy between claimed and verified revenue is a red flag.

3. 3

   Audit the backlink profile

   Run the domain through Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to review the backlink profile. Look for a natural link distribution: some high-authority editorial links, some niche directory links, and a long tail of low-authority links. Red flags include a sudden spike in links pointing to the site, a high percentage of exact-match anchor text, links from link farms or private blog networks (PBNs), and a large number of links from unrelated international domains. Also check Google Search Console (under Security and Manual Actions) for any existing penalties.

4. 4

   Assess content and SEO health

   Crawl the site using Screaming Frog or a similar tool to identify thin content pages, duplicate titles, missing meta descriptions, broken internal links, and redirect chains. For content sites, check whether the top-ranking pages are genuinely useful or rely on outdated tactics that may trigger future Google algorithm updates. Review the site's history in the Wayback Machine for content quality over time. A site that ranked well historically through thin content is a high-risk acquisition even if it looks healthy today.

5. 5

   Evaluate technical infrastructure

   For SaaS businesses and online tools, review the codebase before signing anything. Check for critical security vulnerabilities, outdated dependencies, or architecture that would be expensive to maintain. Ask the seller how much monthly development time the product requires and what happens if a key third-party API changes pricing or terms. For all sites, verify hosting costs, domain registration expiry date, and whether the domain is registered in the seller's name (not a registrar holding account). Confirm SSL certificate status and Core Web Vitals scores.

6. 6

   Analyse concentration and platform risk

   Identify every single dependency the business relies on. For content sites: what percentage of traffic comes from a single Google keyword cluster? For affiliate sites: what percentage of revenue comes from Amazon Associates (subject to unilateral rate cuts)? For SaaS: is the product built entirely on a third-party API that could break or reprice? For newsletters: is the list on a platform that owns the subscriber relationship? Concentration risk directly affects the valuation multiple a site should command. Businesses with significant platform risk should be priced accordingly.

7. 7

   Review legal documents and IP ownership

   Confirm that the seller legally owns all assets being sold: the domain, the website code, all content (or has the right to sell it), any trademarks, and any software licenses. If the site uses contractors, check whether the work-for-hire agreements properly assigned IP to the seller. Review any existing contracts with advertisers, affiliates, or service providers to understand which transfer with the sale and which terminate. For transactions over $10,000, have a lawyer draft or review the Asset Purchase Agreement before funds change hands.