Buying an existing WordPress website

This is more of a business question than something WordPress specific. Typically you don’t “buy” websites so much as you buy the business that runs the website.

So the very first thing you’re going to want to do is talk to a business lawyer and/or possibly a business broker if you haven’t already. They’ll help you work through all the various kinds of due diligence you’ll need to go through before even buying a hot-dog cart. Any kind of business advisor will let you know what kind of business information you need to assess a fair market value before making your offer. That would definitely include analytics. Adsense might be less relevant unless you plan to simply rubber-stamp the previous owner’s marketing and sales strategies. (One question an advisor will ask: if their marketing and sales strategies are sound then why are the selling the site. And why do you think you’ll have more luck with the same strategy than they have.) But definitely you’ll want all the traffic and use information you can get.

But assuming you’ve already done that, and assuming you have a *written* contract and purchase agreement that details all non-WordPress/server/domain-name questions then…

1. You’ll definitely want an administrator account on the WordPress website.
2. You’ll want both login and account access to the hosting company the website is served from
3. You’ll want the domain name transferred to a domain registrar account you have sole control over.
4. When you transfer the domain make sure your name is associated with the owner and technical contacts for the registration and further make sure the seller’s information is *not* on the new registration
5. Account access to any 3rd-party plugins, services, or systems associated with the website (e.g. Analytics, email hosting, cloud storage, support or maintenance services, etc.) that can’t be simply relicensed (see #6)
6. You’ll want to re-license any plugins or cloud services in your name.
7. Contact information for the previous site developer if possible. Not because you’re going to implicitly trust them but because it may be necessary to ask “how does this work” or even “what were you thinking” questions. (While we’re at it you’re going to want to have your own WordPress dev/tech/consultant on tap first to inspect the site before you buy and to help you keep it going afterwards.)
8. While we’re at it you’ll want/need an agreement that the current owner will train you on both the technical and business aspects of the site.

Basically at every step you’ll either want to ensure that you have 100% ownership after the sale, and (as is typical for business purchase practices) a transition agreement with the previous owner for some specific amount of time, and agreements outlining procedures and consequences in case there’s “trouble” during the transition.

Again, business lawyer and/or broker first to help you assess the business, then a WordPress tech to do a thorough assessment of the actual website, and possibly also a marketing/SEO marketer to help you assess the site’s viability against its competition as well as it’s position with the audience it’s supposed to be aiming at.

THEN you can talk about a reasonable handover of the actual files and database.

[Edit] Absolutely make sure you have an agreement for any email contacts and, especially, any associated mailing lists — that may need to be a separate transaction or it may be included but it needs to be spelled out in your agreement. Same with access to their mailing list provider (e.g. MailChimp, AWeber, or CRM contacts.)

2 Comments

svtechworld says:
August 10, 2023 at 3:32 pm
You need Domain, hosting and WordPress files and database.
Either get access to hosting and domain provider along with WordPress.
Or get files and database and transfer domain to your provider and upload files and database to your hosting and connect domain.
RealBasics says:
August 10, 2023 at 3:48 pm
This is more of a business question than something WordPress specific. Typically you don’t “buy” websites so much as you buy the business that runs the website.
So the very first thing you’re going to want to do is talk to a business lawyer and/or possibly a business broker if you haven’t already. They’ll help you work through all the various kinds of due diligence you’ll need to go through before even buying a hot-dog cart. Any kind of business advisor will let you know what kind of business information you need to assess a fair market value before making your offer. That would definitely include analytics. Adsense might be less relevant unless you plan to simply rubber-stamp the previous owner’s marketing and sales strategies. (One question an advisor will ask: if their marketing and sales strategies are sound then why are the selling the site. And why do you think you’ll have more luck with the same strategy than they have.) But definitely you’ll want all the traffic and use information you can get.
But assuming you’ve already done that, and assuming you have a *written* contract and purchase agreement that details all non-WordPress/server/domain-name questions then…
1. You’ll definitely want an administrator account on the WordPress website.
2. You’ll want both login and account access to the hosting company the website is served from
3. You’ll want the domain name transferred to a domain registrar account you have sole control over.
4. When you transfer the domain make sure your name is associated with the owner and technical contacts for the registration and further make sure the seller’s information is *not* on the new registration
5. Account access to any 3rd-party plugins, services, or systems associated with the website (e.g. Analytics, email hosting, cloud storage, support or maintenance services, etc.) that can’t be simply relicensed (see #6)
6. You’ll want to re-license any plugins or cloud services in your name.
7. Contact information for the previous site developer if possible. Not because you’re going to implicitly trust them but because it may be necessary to ask “how does this work” or even “what were you thinking” questions. (While we’re at it you’re going to want to have your own WordPress dev/tech/consultant on tap first to inspect the site before you buy and to help you keep it going afterwards.)
8. While we’re at it you’ll want/need an agreement that the current owner will train you on both the technical and business aspects of the site.
Basically at every step you’ll either want to ensure that you have 100% ownership after the sale, and (as is typical for business purchase practices) a transition agreement with the previous owner for some specific amount of time, and agreements outlining procedures and consequences in case there’s “trouble” during the transition.
Again, business lawyer and/or broker first to help you assess the business, then a WordPress tech to do a thorough assessment of the actual website, and possibly also a marketing/SEO marketer to help you assess the site’s viability against its competition as well as it’s position with the audience it’s supposed to be aiming at.
THEN you can talk about a reasonable handover of the actual files and database.
[Edit] Absolutely make sure you have an agreement for any email contacts and, especially, any associated mailing lists — that may need to be a separate transaction or it may be included but it needs to be spelled out in your agreement. Same with access to their mailing list provider (e.g. MailChimp, AWeber, or CRM contacts.)

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