Hand-over period

There is an industry standard when it comes to the transfer of a website, and that standard is called the hand-over period. A hand-over period is a period of time where the seller of a website supports the buyer in transferring the website, getting it fully functional on their end, and continuing processes where the seller left off.

This period of time is typically set at 30 days, meaning that a buyer as a full month of support after the purchase of the website to make sure that everything keeps working smoothly and that nothing unexpected comes up. This is important, as problems may not arise until a week or three after the purchase of the website.

Now, while this is a standard practice, it’s not going to be given by all sellers. Because of this, you’ll explicitly want to ask about it to the seller. In fact, you’ll not only want to ask about it, but you’ll want to make it a deciding factor on if you’ll purchase the website or not.

Most sellers will offer a hand-over period, especially if you appear that you know what you’re doing and won’t require much assistance from them (which you won’t!).

If they give you some pushback about being busy or not wanting to get tied up, just reiterate that you’ll want their support for 30 days in case something technical happens during the migration period.

While 30 days is the standard hand-over period, it’s not uncommon for longer periods to exist, especially if the website in question has a lot of moving parts.

If you’re going to purchase a website that has a staff writer, sponsorship deals, and some technical aspects on the back-end, you may want to negotiate a 60 or even 90 day hand-over period. For inexpensive websites, dedication like this wouldn’t be worth it for the seller. However, for websites selling for $10,000+, this may be negotiable.

Even if you don’t end up using this support, it’s great to have waiting for you, so put in the effort to secure it for yourself.