Website Due Diligence Checklist: What to Verify Before You Acquire a Site

A website listing is a summary written by the person who wants to sell it. The traffic chart, the monthly revenue, the "passive income" description — all of it may be accurate, and most of it can be checked. Due diligence is simply the work of turning each claim into something you've seen with your own eyes. This checklist covers what to verify before you commit, and what to confirm again once you have access.

1. Traffic: where it comes from, not just how much

Ask for read access to the site's analytics and to Google Search Console, or a live screen share where the seller navigates while you watch. Screenshots are easy to edit; live dashboards are not.

Trend over at least 12 months. A steady line is worth more than a recent spike. Look for sudden drops around known search algorithm updates.
Source mix. How much comes from organic search, social, referral, direct? A site living on one source — especially one social account or one referral partner — carries concentration risk.
Top pages. If most traffic lands on two or three pages, the site's value depends heavily on those pages keeping their rankings.
Geography. Revenue per visitor varies a lot by country; make sure the audience matches the monetization model.

2. Revenue: statements, not summaries

Revenue should be backed by the payout source itself — ad network dashboards, affiliate program reports, payment processor statements — ideally viewed live. Then check:

Consistency between traffic and earnings over the same months. Revenue that rises while traffic falls deserves a question.
Concentration. One affiliate program or one sponsor producing most of the income is a risk if that relationship ends.
Transferability. Ad accounts and affiliate memberships usually belong to the seller and don't transfer. You'll need your own approvals; confirm you'll qualify.
Expenses. Hosting, plugins, writers, tools, email services. Net profit is what the price should be based on, not gross revenue.

If the site earns from display ads, our guide to acquiring an AdSense website covers the specifics.

3. Content and search health

Ownership. Was the content written for the site, licensed, or copied? Run a sample of articles through a plagiarism check.
Quality and freshness. Thin or outdated content is a ranking risk you'll inherit.
Backlink profile. A handful of relevant links beats thousands of low-quality ones. Unnatural link patterns can mean a penalty is waiting.
Manual actions. Search Console shows whether the site has received a manual penalty — check it directly.

4. Technical setup and assets included

What's the platform (WordPress, Shopify, custom)? Who maintains it, and how much work is the code?
Hosting: will it move to your account, or will you migrate it?
Domain: included in the sale, and does it have any transfer locks?
What else comes with it — email list, social profiles, logos, supplier contacts, content calendar? Get the list in writing in the deal chat.

5. Legal and operational

Privacy policy and cookie notice suitable for the audience's region, no trademark issues in the name, no pending disputes with partners or networks, and a clear picture of how much time the seller spends running it each week.

Use the inspection window for the final check

Even after all of the above, some things can only be confirmed with full access. On Alpha Account Market, the payment is held in escrow, the seller transfers the site, and the 7-day inspection window starts at handover. Use it to log into every dashboard, confirm the numbers match what you saw, and check that every included asset actually arrived. If something doesn't match, you can open a dispute before any money is released.

For a broader view of evaluating income, read how to buy a website that makes money — or go straight to websites for sale.