How to Value Your Website’s Worth (Better Than a Calculator)

If you’re considering selling your website, you request to cognize however overmuch your website’s worth. While determination are galore website worth calculators retired there, astir of them are inaccurate at best.

Website worth calculators basal their numbers purely connected postulation and domain rating. To springiness you an thought of however inaccurate that is, a website that I’m successful the process of selling for $500K was valued by 1 of these calculators astatine $14K.

Yikes!

Don’t worry—I’m going to thatch you however to really marque an close investigation of however overmuch your website could sell for.

If you person a website that doesn’t get immoderate postulation oregon marque immoderate money, it’s astir apt not worthy anything. But it whitethorn person worth if you person a high-value domain name—but that’s an wholly antithetic article.

If you bash get postulation and/or person an income, that makes your website an online business. And determination are a fewer antithetic ways that websites (and online businesses) tin beryllium valued.

The worth of your website comes down to 3 things:

1. The income you make (and wherever that income comes from)
2. Your website’s postulation (and the prime of that traffic)
3. Additional added worth (e.g., backlink profile, societal media audience, oregon email list)

Let’s rapidly interruption down each of these and however they impact your imaginable sale price.

Income multiple

The astir communal (and highest-paying) method of valuing a website is simply a nonstop aggregate of your business’s nett profit. Net nett is however overmuch your concern takes location aft expenses.

At the clip of this post, a emblematic website sells for betwixt 30 times and 45 times of the monthly nett profit. So if you gain $10K per period nett profit, your website tin apt merchantability for $300K to $450K.

Where your tract falls successful that scope tin beryllium connected a batch of different factors, such as:

• If you person aggregate income streams – Websites that lone person a azygous income watercourse (such arsenic Google AdSense oregon Amazon Affiliates) merchantability for little than websites with aggregate income streams (e.g., a premix of ads, affiliates, and carnal oregon integer products).
• How reliant you are connected paid advertizing – If your income relies connected a analyzable operation of paid advertising that isn’t casual for a non-expert to run, that tin little the sale price.
• If you person modular operating procedures (SOPs) – An SOP is simply a papers that details precisely however to bash tasks wrong your business, specified arsenic however you write, edit, and people an nonfiction oregon however you physique links. They marque it easier for the caller proprietor to instrumentality over, which could rise the sale price.

We volition cipher your nett net (including subtracting add-backs, which I’ll explain) successful the archetypal measurement of the valuation. For now, let’s look astatine different ways to worth your website and summation your monthly multiple.

Website traffic

The second-most-common mode of valuing a website is by determining however overmuch postulation the website gets. This is what astir of those “online website worth” calculators use, and it’s benignant of rubbish.

As I said successful the intro, the website that I’m negotiating $500K for was valued astatine a meager $14K by those postulation worth calculators.

Ahrefs estimates the monthly integrated postulation worth to beryllium worthy astir 10X that (at $130K) if we were to wage for it via hunt ads. So those calculators are mediocre judges of value.

If I were selling the tract based solely connected the postulation and it wasn’t making overmuch of an income, this would astir apt beryllium a much close price.

But you tin inactive usage postulation to assistance successful your valuation. At the precise least, the quality of your postulation (not the earthy quantity) tin assistance you execute a higher monthly aggregate connected your sale.

If you get astir of your postulation from hunt engines, your website volition beryllium worthy much than a website that gets astir of its postulation from societal media oregon paid advertising.

This is due to the fact that integrated postulation takes longer and is harder to get than paid traffic. It requires creating high-quality content and building links, among different things.

Other valuation factors

Beyond nett net and traffic, determination are a fewer different things that tin propulsion up that income multiple. These include:

• Your Domain Rating (DR) score and the prime of your backlinks.
• Your email database and societal media following.
• Any different hard-to-duplicate factors.

Backlinks are highly important for search motor optimization (SEO). And the higher the prime of links pointing to your site, the much it whitethorn beryllium worth. The DR of your website is simply a people Ahrefs uses to gauge the spot of your backlink profile.

You tin cheque your DR for escaped with our website authorization checker.

However, simply looking astatine your DR is not enough—you person to excavation deeper.

Where are your backlinks really coming from? Are they from highly authoritative sites that are hard to physique links from, specified arsenic money.com oregon bankrate.com? Or did you usage backstage blog networks (PBNs) and different low-quality nexus gathering tactics?

If it’s the former, that volition rise your monthly multiple.

You tin usage the Referring domains report to spot what backlinks you person and get a unsmooth thought of the prime of those links. Just plug your tract into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and click “Referring domains” connected the left.

Additionally, a beardown email database oregon societal media pursuing with bully engagement volition beryllium invaluable to immoderate imaginable buyer. Not conscionable earthy numbers; engagement is what truly matters. It’s conscionable excessively casual to wage a fewer bucks to artificially inflate your email oregon societal media with low-quality bots.

Lastly, if your website has thing that’s unsocial and hard to duplicate, that is often invaluable to a buyer. 

For example, I built an RV indebtedness calculator instrumentality for my website that outgo thousands of dollars to person a developer build. This instrumentality went connected to fertile for the keyword “RV indebtedness calculator,” making it adjacent much valuable.

Now that you cognize the factors that impact your website’s merchantability price, let’s really travel up with a fig for you! Each of these steps volition springiness you a value—but the much you follow, the much realistic your valuation volition become.

Step 1. Create a fiscal spreadsheet

The precise archetypal happening you should bash to cipher your website’s worthy is make a spreadsheet, which includes your nett and loss, add-backs, and nett profit.

Here’s an illustration of what that whitethorn look like:

You make a file for your revenue, past columns for each month. Do the aforesaid happening with your expenses. Revenue – Expenses = Net Profit.

Once you’ve listed your income and expenses, past you tin make a conception for add-backs (also called Discretionary Spending). These are expenses that the caller proprietor won’t incur successful the aboriginal oregon wouldn’t person incurred if they had owned the business.

For example, things similar proprietor salaries, nexus gathering oregon contented that created concern growth, oregon web development.

With that done, cipher your nett profit: Revenue – Expenses + Add-Backs = Net Profit.

Once you person the nett net for the past 12 months, simply adhd each of that unneurotic and disagreement by 12 to get your mean monthly profit. Then instrumentality your mean monthly nett and multiply it by 30 to 45 to get a scope your website could sell for.

If that’s each you wanted—you’re done! But if you privation to instrumentality it a measurement further and get a amended thought of what you tin realistically sell your website for, determination connected to measurement #2.

Recommendation

If your website doesn’t person immoderate income and you purely privation a valuation based connected traffic, you tin get a unsmooth thought by utilizing the postulation worth metric successful the Overview study from Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. It represents an estimated monthly outgo of postulation from each keywords a tract is ranking for if paid via PPC.

Step 2. Contact website valuation companies

There are online websites/business brokers who tin assistance measure the worth of your website and assistance you find a buyer, negociate terms, and adjacent the sale.

Places similar Empire Flippers and Flippa are examples of specified brokers.

They volition measure your website’s worthy for free. Just caput to their tract and capable retired a form, and you’ll cognize your site’s worthy wrong a week.

I urge going done this process adjacent if you don’t really program connected utilizing their brokerage services due to the fact that it volition springiness you a overmuch amended thought of what your website tin realistically merchantability for successful the existent market. They bash this for a living, truthful they’re beauteous bully at it.

When you motion up, you’ll get a Seller’s Dashboard with questions to reply and, eventually, offers for your site.

Once this part’s done, measurement #3 volition assistance you get the champion woody possible.

Step 3: Look for different funny parties to get the best deal

Working with brokers has a batch of perks: They tin find the purchaser for you, assistance negociate the deal, and guarantee a seamless modulation into the caller owner’s hands. They besides supply ineligible assistance and marque it truthful you don’t request to prosecute an lawyer oregon interest astir contracts and different analyzable things.

However, to supply these services, they instrumentality a hefty fee. In Empire Flipper’s case, it’s 8% of the merchantability terms up to the archetypal $700K arsenic of this writing.

If you privation to get a amended woody and instrumentality much location erstwhile you sell, you should see uncovering the purchaser yourself and hiring an lawyer to oversee the deal. In the end, if your tract is large enough, this volition extremity up redeeming you money.

That said, if you person a smaller site, it whitethorn not beryllium worthy the hassle to prevention a tiny amount.

But if your tract is bigger, you tin find buyers successful a batch of ways. You tin scope retired to competitors straight to spot if they’re funny successful acquiring you, oregon you tin look to different parties who tin payment from owning your site.

For example, if you ain a tract astir automotive work, you tin scope retired to mechanics oregon companies that merchantability car parts oregon bloggers who constitute astir akin topics.

It volition beryllium a batch of other enactment and manual outreach to find yourself a buyer. But if you privation the champion price, it’s the lone mode to get it.

Now you person an thought of what your website is worthy and privation to spot that fig get bigger. How bash you bash that? Obviously, you tin bash it by making much money. But beyond that, present are 5 ways to summation your sale price:

1. Diversify your income streams

Remember however I said websites with aggregate income streams merchantability for much than those with a azygous income source? Well, if you lone person 1 oregon 2 ways of making money, expanding that volition assistance your multiple.

You tin bash that by:

• Adding show ads to your tract done a show web similar Ezoic oregon AdThrive.
• Branching retired to different affiliates too Amazon.
• Creating and selling your ain carnal oregon integer product.

If you’re capable to, I highly urge moving retired affiliate partnerships straight with the companies you emotion to promote. 

Amazon’s affiliate programme is large and casual to use, but it lone pays a fewer percent. If you enactment retired your ain partnerships, you tin get anyplace from 5% each the mode up to 30% oregon more. It pays to physique relationships and bash things others are excessively lazy to work on.

2. Negotiate higher rates with affiliates

If you already person partnerships with antithetic affiliates, an casual mode to summation your income is by negotiating a higher rate. 

It’s highly communal for affiliates to springiness retired a higher committee if you conscionable ask—so agelong arsenic you person an existing narration with them and you’re really sending them sales.

Send them a speedy email like this:

Hey [Name],

I’ve been moving with you for X months/years now, and we’ve sent $X successful income to you. It’s been fantastic moving with you, and we emotion promoting your products!

If you are capable to bump our committee up to X%, that volition springiness america much funds to beforehand your products to a wider assemblage and make much contented astir your brand.

Can we speech astir getting this complaint increase?

Thanks,

Lastly, don’t beryllium acrophobic to prime up the telephone and telephone them. It tin often beryllium easier to negociate implicit the telephone oregon connected a video call. You tin usage the powerfulness of quality connection, arsenic you’re not conscionable an email code connected a machine screen.

3. Reduce costs

If you trim your business’s costs, you tin merchantability it for much money. Duh, right?

Some casual ways to trim costs:

• Canceling subscriptions you’re nary longer using
• Paying for tools annually alternatively of monthly to save
• Review your finances and region oregon trim immoderate unnecessary expenses

This one’s beauteous self-explanatory, truthful I’ll permission it at that.

4. Diversify your postulation sources

Just similar diversifying your income sources tin summation your website’s value, having aggregate postulation sources tin connection the aforesaid result.

I already mentioned that integrated postulation is much invaluable than paid traffic. So you tin commencement SEO efforts to get much integrated traffic.

Besides that, you tin besides make and beforehand your marque connected aggregate societal media channels. Start a TikTok relationship oregon a YouTube channel. Cross-post connected Instagram and Facebook. Maybe adjacent commencement a Facebook radical and physique a community.

These are each ways to summation your website’s traffic and, ultimately, however overmuch you tin merchantability it for.

5. Create modular operating procedures

SOPs not lone marque your concern much invaluable to buyers, but they besides marque it easier to tally and prosecute radical to bash the tasks you’ve documented. This, successful turn, makes it easier to standard up your concern and marque more money.

Essentially, an SOP is simply a papers that outlines precisely however to bash a circumstantial task successful your concern measurement by step. They often see screenshots and adjacent videos.

Here’s an illustration of 1 of my SOPs connected uncovering and reaching retired to influencers for contented promotion:

It breaks down each step, explains the extremity and process, and links to videos connected however to specifically bash each portion of the process.

Here’s an fantabulous usher by Sweet Process that teaches you however to make SOPs.

So should you merchantability your website?

At this point, you should cognize however overmuch your website is worthy and however to summation that number.

If you’ve got this far, it astir apt means you person a profitable online business—something galore radical envy. Are you definite you privation to sell it?

For me, I made the determination to merchantability 1 of my websites I’ve been moving connected for astir a decennary owed to idiosyncratic reasons, a request for capital, and (most importantly) burnout.

I was bushed of moving connected it aft each these years. It was an astonishing concern that mostly ran itself, but I was acceptable for a caller section successful my life. 

If that’s you, possibly it’s clip to sell.