The Newbie’s Guide to Doubling a Website’s Value

By | September 21, 2011

Making a website more valuable is not always as easy as it sounds.

Sure, here at WebsiteBroker.com we recognize that a lot of people are good at this specific skill. They identify undervalued domains and are able to turn them into profitable websites. For some people, it’s not just a part of their business – it’s a way of life.

But some people are new to the game, and they don’t know exactly what to focus on. They don’t have a guide to show them the way to doubling a website’s value.

That’s all going to change today as we present a short, sweet, but ultimately powerful way to get started in creating real website value. This one is for the newbies who have plenty of drive but only lacked the direction: it’s time to put your energy to good use.

First, you won’t be able to double a website’s value until you understand what creates value in the first place. In truth, a lot of variables factor into a site’s value, including:

  • Monthly traffic and its sources (organic SEO is one of the best sources, as are direct type-ins)
  • The site’s ranking on popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing
  • How much money the site generates through a number of potentialities, including advertising, direct purchases, donations, subscriptions, and other sources
  • How much money the site would be worth to other people – this is particularly important for website flippers

As you can see, evaluating a site’s value isn’t about one particular thing. One high keyword ranking in Google is not enough to tell you that a site is worth a specific dollar amount. Instead, you have to focus on the overall context of the site’s online presence in order to gauge where it’s at.

Why did we explore these variables? Because improving each of them will be what you want to focus on in the next step.

Second, focus on improving your site’s statistics directly. Write down five key statistics you want to improve, and feel free to “steal” a few from those mentioned above. For example, if you list the following:

  • Monthly SEO traffic
  • Advertising revenue
  • Ranking in a specific keyword
  • Size of the site’s newsletter audience
  • Links pointing to your site

… then you’ll have real, actionable goals that you can focus on in order to double the site’s value.

It’s important that you don’t feel like you have to fix every single thing about your site and double each variable in order to double it. Instead, focusing your energy on just a few but highly specific and highly valuable goals will often be enough. In fact, you may be surprised to see how one variable in particular seems to skyrocket your site to better success, perhaps even tripling or quadrupling the site’s value.

Should you set a deadline for yourself? It’s a good idea, but don’t be afraid to continue going past the deadline and expanding the site’s value even further. After all, that wealth is something you’ll always be able to capitalize on, whether you plan on selling the site or keeping it for yourself.