There are many ways to grow a business, and the best strategies usually embrace a multifaceted approach. It’s unwise to overly depend on one area as your primary source of growth, as there’s no telling to what could disrupt this trend. However, it’s often a challenge for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to effectively diversify. Resources and labor are thin, and it’s a real challenge to expand into new areas without diverting too much away from other primary functions.

One area that has a lot of people excited is the use of blogs and websites as a way to generate income. If done correctly, they can run relatively passively and can bring in some pretty staggering returns. Because of this, many business owners are saying “hey, why don’t we do this?” It makes sense, but there are certainly some downsides. If you’re going to buy up existing websites and use them as a resource for growing your business, know that not all websites are created equal and there is a way to do this incorrectly.

Consider the following tips to help you make this strategy work for your company:

Find something related to what your business does

While it’s tempting to go after sites that have high revenues and margins, this isn’t always the best decision for your company. For example, say you’re running a company that sells outdoor gear, would it make sense to buy a site that is entirely dedicated to beauty and fashion? Of course not, and it doesn’t matter how much money that site is bringing in. Running this other site will still require time and effort, e.g. content creation, answering audience emails, design, etc., and if you have to redirect resources to do this, it better be in a way that supports the overall goals of the company.

So, in this example, a site worth going after might be one dedicated to travel. You can leverage the exposure to this new audience to direct people towards your business, and you can also get a nice SEO boost from a quality site within your niche (more on this later).

You should already be creating content for your site, so when you bring in an established website to help the business, make sure you don’t have to stray too far from what you’re already doing. If you do, one of two things will happen. You’ll either get so distracted running this new site that your business suffers, or you’ll end up neglecting this new site, turning it into a bad investment.

Look at the site’s SEO potential

Using the internet to grow your business invariably means harnessing the power of search engine optimization (SEO). You should already be doing this with your business (and if you’re not, you’re really missing out), so when you look to buy a website to help you grow, one thing to look at is the boost it will give you in search engines.

Some questions to ask yourself are:

• What is its backlink profile like? Finding sites with lots of links from relevant sources can help you leverage the new site’s SEO power into growth for your company.
• What connections does the site have with other influencers? Some sites regularly work with other influencers within the niche, so find out if you can leverage any of these relationships to help out your business. Maybe you can get one of them to link to you, or perhaps you can team up on a mutually-beneficial marketing campaign.
• For which keywords is the site already ranking? Finding a site that is already driving lots of traffic through SEO is like finding a goldmine. You can include a link to your site from these pages to help bring in new visitors, or you can make this SEO power work in your favor by tailoring the content to support your business goals.

A good SEO strategy is priceless when running any business, so if you set out to buy an existing website, make sure it can help you in this area.

Have a long-term plan and get some help

Anytime you make an investment in your business, you should have a clear idea as to what you plan to do with it. With buying an established website, things are no different.

Some things you should be asking are: What do you plan to do with the website? Will you eventually merge it with yours? Or are you going to let it run parallel to your business? If so, how will it continue to support the business and how will you manage it?

One option is to sell the website after you’ve had the chance to make it work for you, but this isn’t always the best way forward for every business. The most important thing is to make sure you know what you’re going to do with the website both now and in the future before you go spend valuable company resources.

A helpful thing to do is to enlist the services of a broker. They work with businesses, both online and offline, to determine what they are worth. Then, they work with buyers and sellers to facilitate a deal. By working with a broker, there is an extra level of security that you’re buying what you think you’re buying. Of course, you’ll have to do your due diligence, but this is a good way to make the whole process go a bit smoother.

Final thoughts

Buying established websites can be a fantastic way to introduce growth into a company. They can provide a stable source of income that can be scaled, and they can provide a big boost to other areas of the business. However, as with any investment, you need to choose wisely. Use these tips to make sure you’re making the best decision for the future of your company.

About the author: Jock Purtle is an entrepreneur who has been buying, building and selling websites his entire life. He used to do this exclusively, but as his business ventures became more complex, he decided to integrate it into his overall business strategy. He has been featured and quoted in publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Entrepreneur and Business Insider.

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