---
title: "How do you value a website before buying it?"
url: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-value-a-website/
updated: 2026-10-16
publisher: FirstPass Memo (hello@firstpassmemo.com)
---

Answers

# How do you value a website before buying it?

Short answer: Value a website on verified average monthly profit over the last 12 months, minus a fair cost for the owner's time, times a multiple. Flippa's H1 2026 report puts sold content sites at 2.32x annual profit on average and 4.68x in the top quarter. Then test the price against a fall in Google traffic before you offer.

Updated 16 October 2026 · Figures checked against their sources on 16 October 2026 · By Joan Murphy (https://firstpassmemo.com/about/joan-murphy/) (pen name) · How we check (https://firstpassmemo.com/methodology/) · Corrections (https://firstpassmemo.com/editorial-policy/)

## Check a listing now, free

FirstPass Memo offers a free red-flag checker for business-for-sale listings and a $79 first-pass memo on a specific listing you send, paid after delivery. Paste any listing below for payback, the asking multiple and its red flags. Nothing you paste leaves your browser. Open the full checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/) to unlock every flag with its seller question.

## What number do you multiply when valuing a website?

Use average monthly net profit over the last 12 months, verified in the ad, affiliate and payment dashboards, not revenue and not the best recent month. Then subtract what it would cost to pay someone for the hours the seller works. Small sites are usually priced on that figure times 12 times an annual multiple, or as a number of months of profit (the two are the same: 2.5 times annual profit is 30 months). If you are unsure which profit figure a listing quotes, see SDE or net profit (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/sde-vs-net-profit-for-valuing-an-online-business/).

## What multiples do websites actually sell for?

Flippa's H1 2026 Insights Report (data for January to June 2026) gives these average sold profit multiples, with the top quarter in brackets:

- Content sites: 2.32 times (4.68 times)

- Ecommerce: 1.55 times (2.75 times)

- SaaS: 2.47 times (4.06 times); apps 2.62 times (5.46 times)

- By deal size: $10K–$100K deals averaged 2.24 times, and $100K–$250K deals 1.85 times

Our own October 2026 sample of 36 listings priced $10k–150k asked a median of 2.23× annual profit, with the middle half between 1.85× and 2.59×. Asking is not selling, but the ranges line up: most small websites change hands at roughly 2 to 3 times a year of profit, and the top quarter is reserved for sites with long records and diversified income.

## Which adjustments move a website's value up or down?

- Owner time. A site the seller spends 10 hours a week on is not worth the same as one that runs on 1 hour. Cost the hours before applying a multiple.

- Search dependence. When most visits come from Google, a single update can cut income. Our checker flags organic search over half of traffic (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/organic-search-over-half-of-traffic/).

- Age and trend. Under 12 months of history, or profit falling over the last six months, both argue for the low end.

- Concentration. Income from one affiliate programme, one page or one advertiser is fragile.

- Transferability. AdSense accounts cannot be transferred (details (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/can-you-transfer-an-adsense-account-when-buying-a-website/)), and some affiliate accounts cannot either.

## What is a $70,000 content site worth after a traffic drop?

A composite content site earns $3,000 a month in revenue and $2,400 in profit, with 70% of revenue coming from Google search, and asks $70,000. As listed, that is 29.2 months of payback, inside the normal range. Run it through the traffic-drop test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/traffic-shock-test/) with an assumed 40% fall in search revenue and profit falls to $1,560 a month: payback stretches to 44.9 months, or 3.74× annual profit.

Composite example, run through the traffic-drop test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/traffic-shock-test/)

| Monthly revenue | $3,000 |
| --- | --- |
| Monthly profit | $2,400 |
| Share of revenue from organic search | 70% |
| Assumed fall in search revenue | 40% |
| Asking price | $70,000 |
| Payback as listed | 29.2 months |
| Revenue lost each month | $840 |
| Profit after the fall | $1,560 |
| Payback after the fall | 44.9 months |
| Annual multiple after the fall | 3.74× |
| Search fall that wipes out all profit | 114% |

A buyer who wants to be paid back within about 36 months even after such a fall would offer roughly $56,000 ($1,560 × 36), and explain the arithmetic. Whether the seller accepts depends on how durable the traffic looks once you have Search Console access.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a website valued on revenue or profit?

On profit. Small websites are priced as a multiple of annual net profit, or as months of profit. Revenue matters only through the margin it leaves after costs and the owner's time.

### What is a normal multiple for a small website in 2026?

Flippa's H1 2026 report puts sold content sites at 2.32 times annual profit on average and 2.24 times for all deals between $10K and $100K. The top quarter of content sites sold at 4.68 times.

### Should I use the last 3 months or 12 months of profit?

Use 12 months, and look at the last 3 separately as a trend check. A short averaging window after a good quarter is a common way to make a price look cheaper than it is.

## Sources

- Flippa, The New Era of Digital M&A: Flippa's H1 2026 Insights Report (updated 24 July 2026) (https://flippa.com/blog/digital-ma-insights-h1-2026/), read 7 October 2026

- Acquire.com, Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (11 February 2026, updated 1 September 2026) (https://blog.acquire.com/acquire-com-biannual-acquisition-multiples-report-jan-2026/), read 7 October 2026

- FirstPass Memo, online-business listing benchmarks, October 2026 (https://firstpassmemo.com/data/), our own data, CC BY 4.0

- FirstPass Memo, free buyer calculators (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/), our own calculators; the formulas are on each page

## Related

- What is a website making $1,000 a month worth? (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-much-is-a-website-making-1000-a-month-worth/)

- What multiple for a $50k content site? (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/what-multiple-should-i-pay-for-a-50k-content-site/)

- Traffic-drop test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/traffic-shock-test/)

- True payback calculator (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/payback-calculator/)

- SDE or net profit? (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/sde-vs-net-profit-for-valuing-an-online-business/)

- Content site due diligence checklist (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/due-diligence-checklist-for-buying-a-content-website/)

- Glossary of listing terms (https://firstpassmemo.com/glossary/)

- More questions buyers ask (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/)

Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.

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FirstPass Memo is informational screening, not investment, legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and not an audit. Seller figures are not independently verified. HTML version: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-value-a-website/