What’s the website age/history?

One of the most common scams you’ll run into are websites that are either extremely new with barely any traffic or revenue history, or websites that have a very shady past that indicate poor website health.

First of all, a rule of thumb that I follow is I don’t purchase a website that’s less than a year old — preferably 2 years!

The reason for this is that newer sites are not established. They haven’t proven that they can make money consistently or weather the Google algorithm updates that come out every couple of months.

Stability is the key here, and it’s very hard to prove stability with a website that’s been up for 6 months.

This aspect is very easy to prove. All you need to do is get 1-2 years of revenue and traffic data, which should be readily available for most listings.

Second, we’ll want to check on a website’s history. Specifically the domain! Many domains are purchased fresh for a new website and have very straightforward history. My domain zach-inman.com was first purchased by me and it’s only been used for my personal website. Not all domains are like this, though.

Some websites use aged domains. In many cases, this is a great way to get out of the Google sandbox and get rankings faster since there are likely several links to that domain already. However, it can also be a hindrance to your website’s health.

If a domain was used for shady websites before the current website, it may be being actively punished by Google or it may be punished in the near future.

An easy way to check this is by using the Wayback machine — a tool that archives websites dating back many years. Simply put the domain of a website that you’re looking to purchase into the tool and look at the history of that domain.

If you see that the domain was used for a different website in the past, it’s not always bad, but it requires you to look at that older content.

The older content needs to be relevant to the current website’s niche, and it can’t have any content that’s unrelated, illegal, or in a foreign language.

If a domain is plantcare.com, it better have been used only for websites related to plants. If it was used for a Chinese gambling website, run away.

Is it possible to change a website’s domain? Yes, it is. However, with so many website opportunities online, you’ll want to turn the other way if a domain has a shady past.