Is it worth it?
Buying a content site after the 2024–2026 Google updates
Short answer: a content site is worth buying when its search traffic held up through recent Google updates, revenue is not concentrated in a few pages, and the price leaves room for a drop. It is not worth it when it shows only recent averages, traffic is falling, or a 30% fall in search revenue would wipe out most of the profit.
How many Google updates have there been since 2024?
Google's Search Status Dashboard lists nine core updates and eight spam updates between March 2024 and September 2026: core updates in March, August, November and December 2024, March, June and December 2025, and March and May 2026, and spam updates in March, June and December 2024, August 2025, and March, June, August and September 2026.1 It also lists a Discover update in February 2026.
Each update is a point where a site's traffic can move sharply. A listing that shows 12 months of averages can hide a fall that started with the most recent one. Ask for 16 months of Search Console clicks and look at the weeks around each date.
What do small online-business listings ask in October 2026?
Too few content sites priced $10k–150k appeared in FirstPass Memo's October 2026 listing sample to publish a median (3, against a minimum of 8). Across all 36 listings in that sample, collected 6 September to 6 October 2026 from the WebsitesForSaleOnline public API, the median asking payback was 26.8 months of profit, or 2.23 times annual profit.
Payback and multiple for content sites, October 2026
Not enough listings to show a fair median. Only 3 listings of this type priced $10k–150k appeared in the data we can publish (we need at least 8). Use the overall figures on Is buying a website worth it? as a rough guide, and work out payback for the listing in front of you with the true payback calculator.
Source: our aggregates of listings featured in the WebsitesForSaleOnline public API daily collections, 6 September to 6 October 2026. Empire Flippers listings are excluded. Asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices; each listing is counted once, at its latest price. Full table, CSV and method: listing benchmarks.
How do you price in the risk of a traffic drop?
Work out how much revenue comes from organic search, then test a fall. If costs stay the same, every dollar of lost search revenue comes out of profit. The traffic-drop test shows payback after a drop and the size of drop that takes profit to zero.
Display-ad sites have a second risk: ad networks set traffic minimums, and RPM moves with season and advertiser demand. Ask how close traffic is to the network's minimum and how RPM has moved over 12 months.
Checker rules that matter most for content sites
- Revenue trend. Flags a stated decline in revenue.
- Search dependence. Flags organic search above 50% of traffic.
- Platform dependence. Flags reliance on ad networks such as Mediavine or AdSense, and on Amazon Associates.
- No traffic data. Flags a traffic-driven site that gives no traffic figures.
- Short averaging period. Flags earnings averaged over only a few months.
Each rule links to a page that explains it. Run them on any listing with the free red-flag checker.
A worked example
Composite example, not a real listing
Asking price: $42,000
Average monthly revenue: $1,700
Average monthly profit: $1,500 (last 12 months)
Revenue trend: -25% year over year
Business age: 5 years
Owner hours: 4 hours per week
What the red-flag checker returns: payback of 28.0 months on average monthly profit, and these top three flags (the benchmark comparison is left out here):
Revenue trend -25% Medium
Ask: What is causing the decline, what has been tried, and what do the last three months look like?
Depends on Mediavine/ad network Medium
Ask: If Mediavine/ad network changed its rules or closed the account tomorrow, what share of revenue would be at risk? Has it happened before?
Organic search is about 88% of traffic Medium
Ask: Can you share 16 months of Search Console clicks and impressions, and any drops around Google updates?
Also raised: No connected data source mentioned; Concentration not disclosed.
A 28-month payback looks ordinary, but revenue is down 25% on last year and 88% of traffic is from search. If the $1,500 is a 12-month average of a falling line, current profit is lower than the average and the real payback is longer. Ask for monthly figures and test a further drop.
Eight questions to send the seller
- How did traffic move through each Google core update in the last 18 months?
- What share of traffic and revenue comes from the top 10 pages?
- Which ad network do you use, how has RPM moved over 12 months, and how close is traffic to the network's minimum?
- How many articles are published each month, who writes them, and what does each cost?
- Has the site ever had a manual action or a large traffic drop? What happened?
- How much of the content is AI-generated, and has any of it lost traffic in recent search updates?
- Which months are seasonal, and what do the best and worst months look like?
- How much traffic comes from Pinterest, Facebook or Google Discover, and how stable has it been?
Get the content site (display ads) seller checklist
Join the FirstPass Memo waitlist and the next page gives you the content site (display ads) seller question checklist (web page and PDF) straight away, along with the other free files: seller question checklists for eleven business types, the 72-hour vetting plan and a deal-tracker spreadsheet. Nothing is emailed; you download them on the page.
We will write when paid memos open, and occasionally before. Unsubscribe any time by replying "stop" to hello@firstpassmemo.com. Looking at a live listing priced $10k–150k? Apply for a free beta memo instead; its confirmation page has the same downloads.
Frequently asked questions
How many Google updates have there been since 2024?
Google's Search Status Dashboard lists nine core updates and eight spam updates between March 2024 and September 2026, plus a Discover update in February 2026.
Is buying a content site still worth it in 2026?
It can be, if the site held its traffic through recent updates and the price leaves room for a drop. Test what a 30% fall in search revenue would do to payback before you make an offer.
What should I ask for to check a content site's traffic?
Sixteen months of Search Console clicks and impressions, analytics with traffic split by source, revenue by month from each ad network or affiliate program, and the share of traffic and revenue from the top 10 pages.
Check a listing now. Paste it into the red-flag checker, or test a drop with the traffic-drop test. For a full memo on a live listing priced $10k–150k, apply for the free beta.
FirstPass Memo is independent and is not affiliated with Google or any marketplace. Dates are as published on the dashboard on the date shown. The example is a composite. This page is not investment, legal or tax advice.
Sources
- Google Search Status Dashboard, Ranking incident history, read 7 October 2026. Back