Although creating a website is not difficult when you follow the right steps, making the website successful may require a lot of effort and time, which is why some people consider resorting to purchasing an existing website instead of creating one from scratch.
But because buying a website is often expensive, it must be implemented correctly, and that is why in this article we will introduce you to the motives for buying a website, and the ways in which you can find a site that can be purchased, in addition to how to transfer ownership of the site from its old owner. Here you are with the guarantee of your rights.
What is meant by purchasing a website?
Buying a website means paying for an existing website with all or some of what is connected to it, including the domain name , website files, design, and content, in addition to benefiting from future visits in the same way that the current website owner benefits from it or in any other way. You want it.
The process of purchasing a website can include any type of website, as you can purchase an online store, a blog , a company website , etc., and the process of purchasing a website can be part of a larger process such as purchasing a company represented by a website, where ownership is transferred. The site will be transferred to the new company owner regardless of whether it is another company or a person.
The process of purchasing a website differs from the process of purchasing a domain name only , as the latter does not include purchasing hosting, content, or the ability to benefit from future visits (unless it is done through the domain). Rather, it represents the process of obtaining a reserved or unreserved domain for use on your site. Email that currently exists or that you are creating.
Motivations and benefits of purchasing a website
There are many reasons why you might want to buy an existing website instead of creating one from scratch , and more than one reason can come together. The most prominent of these reasons include the following:
1. Want to start making money quickly
A large number of websites are created with the aim of making profit from them by selling physical or digital goods, such as electronic stores, or by displaying advertisements on them or through affiliate marketing, such as personal blogs or information sites.
But building a website from scratch does not allow you to start making a profit in any of these ways quickly, as you must first obtain a good number of visitors by promoting the site, and this requires time, unlike when purchasing a website that makes a profit and has a good number of visitors and customers.
2. Benefit from visitors and customers
A website may have a customer and visitor base that has the same qualities that your business’s visitors and customers need to have. In this case, you can buy that website and benefit from its visitors and customers to make them customers of your business.
You can do this either by making changes that suit your business on the site after purchasing it and making the site a showcase for the business, or by promoting your business through the site, or in any other way that you deem appropriate and that enables you to benefit from visitors and customers.
3. Save time and effort
Since purchasing an existing website does not require a lot of time or effort compared to creating a website from scratch, one of the most important reasons why anyone would buy a website is to save time and effort.
If you buy a website instead of building one, you will be able to take advantage of the time and effort that would have been consumed in the building process in order to improve the website you purchased and keep it on the path to success.
4. Reduce risks and ensure success
The process of purchasing a website is not without risks, but the process of building a website has greater and greater risks. Sometimes, even with a good and comprehensive plan and its proper implementation, the website does not succeed after it is built, while in most cases it is easy to maintain the success of an existing website. And really successful.
The first period before taking the job or site and putting it at the beginning of the path to success is the most difficult and dangerous, because it is the most ambiguous, and it is not possible to determine before its end whether the work will be successful or not. Buying a website will avoid this stage, and thus many potential risks.
5. Acquisition of a competitor or expansion
You can purchase a website in order to expand quickly or to acquire a competitor and neutralize its impact on your business by closing it permanently or subsidizing its activities with your business.
An example of a recent purchase for this purpose in the Arab world is Hassoub’s acquisition of the store in order to expand its work. The company was not among the competition in terms of digital product markets, but it quickly became one of the strongest Arab companies in this field.
There may also be other reasons that push you to buy a website, such as obtaining rankings for certain keywords that are very important for your business, but if your motivation is different from what we mentioned, then you will of course know that you need to buy a website, so we will be satisfied with the reasons we mentioned and move on to explaining how Find a website to buy it.
Ways to find and buy a website
There are several ways through which you can find a website to buy it, but there are two main ways. The first is through specialized websites that play an intermediary role between the seller of the website and its buyer (website markets), and the second is through communicating directly with the owner of the website.
Buying a website from an online marketplace
Website marketplaces or websites specialized in selling websites work in a similar way to multi-seller online stores (eBay, for example), as they allow anyone who owns a website to display it there, and enables anyone who has a desire to buy a website to browse the offered websites and purchase them .
There are many website markets on the Internet where you can find a site to buy it, and although there are few Arab sites that offer the possibility of purchasing sites, this will not pose any problem, as you usually find in foreign markets displayed Arab sites and you can buy what you want from them. .
The most popular sites through which you can find and purchase a website include the following:
- Flippa : It is a popular online marketplace through which you can buy or sell various online businesses , including websites, domains, and smartphone applications. The site provides powerful tools and features to search for sites available for purchase, such as the ability to filter by location and price, and allows sites to be purchased immediately, or through tenders.
- Empire Flippers : It is one of the most famous and best markets for buying and selling websites , and it is distinguished from many competitors in that it fully verifies the sites before accepting their listing to appear to potential buyers , which means that all the sites and applications listed on it for sale are authentic with the guarantee of the work team at the site. The site lacks some filtering features, but it allows you to filter by specialty and price.
- HVIPS : This site is one of the few Arab sites that includes a section dedicated to buying and selling websites . Through it, you can browse a wide range of Arabic sites available for purchase, and you can use filtering tools that are useful to speed up access to a site that suits what you want.
There are also many other sites specialized in buying and selling websites, such as SideProjectors and Transferslot , but most of them are difficult to find Arabic sites, so if you are looking for an Arabic site, we advise you to use Flippa because it provides the ability to filter by site, or by one of the sites. Trusted Arabic.
Buying a website directly from its owner
In addition to the possibility of purchasing a website through specialized websites, there is another less professional method that can be adopted, but it is nevertheless effective in many cases, which is the possibility of purchasing a website directly from its owner by speaking with him and agreeing on the details of the purchase process.
There are many ways in which you can talk to website owners who want to sell their websites, including through online forums where you may notice someone’s desire to sell their website through their posts, or by obtaining contact details with the website owner through their website itself, or In other ways.
However, it should be noted that buying a website in this way is not easy due to the lack of an intermediary or guarantor party, and it is preferable to seek the help of an expert to buy a website in this way, in order to ensure that you do not fall victim to any fraud or deception.
Criteria for evaluating and selecting a website to purchase
You now know where and how you can find websites to buy them, but you cannot buy any website that its owner offers for sale, as you must make sure that the site is suitable for you, and be careful to study a group of important aspects related to it, which contribute to informing you of the extent of its compatibility. The location with what you want, and the extent to which the location matches the requested price.
The most important criteria and aspects that must be considered and evaluated in any website before purchasing it include, for example and are important but not limited to, the following:
- Domain value : You must take into account the authority of the domain of the site you want to buy, and determine the compatibility of the domain with the project in which you want to invest the site. You can find out the domain authority by using specialized tools such as the Website Authority Checker tool from ahrefs.
- Power of appearance in search results : Check the site’s page rankings in Google search results, and make sure that the keywords it ranks in match what you want to use the site for. This information can be provided by the site owner themselves, or you can get an overview by using the Ubersuggest Keywords by Traffic tool .
- Number of visitors : This criterion is one of the most important criteria that determine the price of the website, which is why you must be careful to know it and make sure that the number of visitors to the website is appropriate for you. You must also make sure that the visitor characteristics are appropriate for you. It is preferable to obtain visitor information from the site owner, but you can also use tools that help estimate and know it, such as Website Traffic Checker from ahrefs.
- Website design and planning : It is important to know how compatible the current website design is with what you want to benefit from it, and you must also know the extent of the website’s customizability, because most of the time you will need to make modifications and customizations to the website to make it more suitable for you.
- Content quality : It is necessary to evaluate the content included in the site, and it is also important to make sure that the content is compatible with what you want to use the site for. If you are purchasing a blog to integrate it with your commercial site, you will need to make sure that the blog topics are well related to what you want to use the site for. Products and services provided on the site.
- Method of building the site : The method of creating the site plays an important role in determining its suitability for you. If you are accustomed to using WordPress to manage the site, it will be inconvenient in most cases to purchase a website that was built and managed using another platform.
- Revenue : Knowing the revenue and profits of a website is important, especially if they want to buy it for profit. You can ask the site owner about the profits he makes from it and the methods he uses to make profits from the site. You can also estimate the site’s profits using specialized tools, but it is better to adopt the first method, because the tools usually give inaccurate numbers.
There may also be many other criteria that must be considered when choosing and purchasing a website, and if you do not know the most important thing that you must take into consideration in your case, it is more appropriate to hire an expert from or an independent person to examine the site and evaluate its suitability for you.
Steps to purchase a website and transfer ownership
After finding a website to buy through one of the specialized sites or in any other way, you will need to transfer ownership of the site from the old site owner to yourself. This process is not difficult, but it includes many steps that must be implemented correctly, which are:
1. Transferring domain ownership
There are two ways through which website domain ownership can be transferred. The first method is by receiving the account data at the domain company from the old owner of the site, then changing this data to become your own. This method is easy, but it is not always suitable, as it can be used if there is only one domain associated with the account.
If there is more than one domain linked to the old site owner’s account, or if he does not want to give up his account, you will then have to transfer the domain from his account to your account. The domain transfer process differs between different providers, and it is preferable for the owner of the old website to contact the company and ask them how to transfer the domain to you if he does not know how to do so.
The process of transferring a domain from one account to another account with the same provider is usually easy, as it only requires clicking on the domain transfer option in the domain management panel, then entering the email of the new owner, then confirming the completion of the ownership transfer process several times, but the transfer process from a registrar One domain to another may be a little more difficult, and may cost some money.
2. Transfer ownership of hosting or files and databases
The second step in the process of purchasing a website and transferring its ownership to you, its primary purpose is to obtain all the site data so that you can use it or modify it in the way you want, whether to integrate it into another site or otherwise.
Site data can be transferred from the old owner to the new owner by sending the hosting account data so that the new owner can access the hosting and change the account data accordingly (personal data, email, etc.), but this method works if the hosting only hosts the site you want to buy.
If the hosting includes more than one site, the site data must be transferred to the hosting of the new owner of the site. Hosting companies usually provide a free or paid website migration service to hosting, and you can rely on this service to transfer the website to your hosting after purchasing it.
For more information about how to transfer a website from one hosting service provider to another, and about the available methods that can be relied upon, you can review our comprehensive article in which we explain the various aspects of this topic ( Explaining moving a website from one hosting to another in the correct manner ).
3. Obtain login data to the control panel
Most websites use content management systems , and you must obtain login data to the control panel of the content management system for the site, in order to be able to manage it. You can access the content management system control panel using the hosting account, but it is easier to obtain login data from the old owner.
After obtaining the login data to the management system control panel, you must change the password, email, and rest of the administrator account data to what suits you, and then delete all other users who you do not want to be able to access your site’s control panel.
4. Providing access to third-party software
Many websites use external software to add new features and options to them, and when you purchase a website you must take ownership of the software and external accounts associated with the site. The process of transferring ownership of the program or external account may be easy and requires nothing more than obtaining login data and changing some options.
But the process of transferring ownership can sometimes be more complicated, as is the process of transferring the site’s Google Analytics . If the old owner does not want to give up his Google account because it is linked to other services, you will need to transfer the site to your Google Analytics account.
5. Obtain any files associated with the site
Any website owner has many files related to his site, and when you buy a website, you should request these files. The most important files you should request include:
- Website logo in open source format.
- Custom code that was used on the site.
- Backup copies of files before modifying them.
- The images used in the website design are in open source format.
The old owner must also send you all other files available to him related to your new website, whether you request them or not, as you may need any of the website files in the future.
How can you guarantee your rights when purchasing a website?
A website marketplace may facilitate the payment process and website delivery by guaranteeing the rights of both parties (buyer and seller), but if the marketplace does not provide this guarantee, or if you found the site outside a marketplace, a reliable site can be used that helps guarantee the rights, such as Escrow.com .
This site works based on a simple idea, which is that it keeps the price of the product (the site in this case) as a credit after you make the payment process, and after the seller delivers the product to the buyer and the buyer confirms that he received the product completely and satisfactorily, he transfers the amount paid before. Buyer to seller.
Thus, we finish introducing you to the benefits of purchasing a website, ways to find a website to purchase it, in addition to how to complete the purchase process and transfer ownership of the website. In conclusion, we would like to point out that the process of purchasing a website may have a severe impact on you financially, so if you are not sure… If you are able to do it yourself, hiring an expert to help you complete it may be a wise thing to do to avoid problems in the future.
