Website due diligence is a small, unusually checkable version of a full diligence exercise, because almost everything that matters can be verified directly rather than taken from the seller. What is being bought is a traffic asset and a revenue mechanism attached to it, and the concentrated risk is nearly always the same: one traffic source, one algorithm, one account. This page sets out the four areas.
Traffic: where it comes from and how concentrated it is
Search, direct, social, referral and paid, and the share of the largest. A site where one search engine sends most visits is a site whose value depends on decisions made by somebody else, and the history matters as much as the level: a step change on a known algorithm update date is information the seller may not volunteer.
Revenue: the mechanism and the counterparty
Advertising, affiliate, subscription or product. Affiliate revenue depends on a programme that can change its terms, and a single programme providing most of the income is the same concentration problem in a different place. Check whether the account itself transfers.
Ownership and transfer, which is the whole risk of the mechanics
The domain, the hosting, the analytics, the email list, the accounts with any platform, and any third-party content licences. Transfer is a checklist rather than a negotiation, and the failures are administrative: an account that cannot be transferred has to be recreated, which resets whatever history it held.
Content: who wrote it and can it be verified
Authorship, licensing of any purchased content, and whether the claims made on the site can be supported. A site whose content was bought without assignment is the website version of the unassigned code problem, and it is discovered the same way.
Questions people ask about website due diligence checklist
What is the main risk in buying a website?
Concentration: one traffic source or one revenue programme providing most of the value, both of which are decided by somebody else.
What should be verified directly?
Nearly everything. Traffic, revenue and account ownership can all be checked rather than taken from the seller, which is unusual.
What goes wrong at transfer?
Accounts that cannot be moved and have to be recreated, which resets whatever history and standing they held.