7 Reasons Why Website Flippers Should Use Ranktracker

Intro

Website flipping can be a great way to use your content creation and SEO skills to grow a business and make money online. Rather than starting a site from scratch, you can use an existing site to get faster results.

There are plenty of opportunities available, and Ranktracker provides a variety of tools to assess opportunities and make improvements. This article covers all the important details so you can start using Ranktracker to flip websites for profit.

Overview of website flipping

Website flipping involves buying an existing site, improving it, increasing revenue, and selling the site for a profit. It’s a powerful approach with plenty of income potential due to the way websites and online businesses are valued.

Although there are many factors, website valuations are primarily based on the average monthly profit. For example, a typical valuation for a blog or content-based site might be around 36x the average monthly profit. If the site earns $3,000 per month in profit, it might be worth about $108,000.

That means for every $1,000 in additional monthly profit, you’ll increase the site’s value by about $36,000. If you buy a site that’s underperforming and can be improved quickly and easily, it’s possible to walk away with a nice profit.

You’ll probably need at least $10,000 - $20,000 to buy an established site that’s already making a decent income. Marketplaces like Motion Invest, Flippa, and Investors Club are ideal for buying sites in this price range.

However, if you don’t have the budget, it’s also possible to start a site from scratch with the intent of growing and selling it. Of course, starting from scratch takes longer.

Some flippers aim for a quick turnaround, but it’s usually necessary to hold the site for at least six months in order to make improvements and see the results. You need a track record of more than just a month or two to prove the site’s value. Personally, I aim to operate sites for a few years before selling so I have plenty of time to grow it and make money from it while I own it.

The best sites to buy are those that are doing pretty well but have some obvious room for improvement. For example, maybe the site gets traffic and makes some affiliate conversions, but it doesn’t include elements like product comparison tables or promotional boxes to get more exposure and clicks.

Or maybe the site is monetized with affiliate programs but there are no display ads on the site. Display ads usually don’t have much impact on affiliate earnings, so adding them may be a quick and easy way to increase revenue.

You should avoid sites that are already optimized extremely well and offer little room for improvement. You should also avoid sites that are on significant downward trends unless you’re up for a major project.

Please note: Buying existing websites and online businesses involves financial risk. Although improving the site and making more money is the goal, that doesn’t always happen. Be sure to only invest money you can afford to lose.

How Ranktracker helps website flippers

Ranktracker is an excellent resource for flippers because it offers several different tools to help with increasing a site’s traffic and revenue. If you buy a site that’s already getting some traffic and making money, you should be able to increase traffic and profit by optimizing the content and strategically creating more content.

If you buy an existing site that’s already getting search traffic and making money, you know Google is willing to rank the site’s content. Generally, growing a site that’s already profitable is easier and faster than starting from scratch.

Here are the specific ways you can use Ranktracker to improve the site. You can also use some of these tools to evaluate the potential of a site before you buy it.

1. Run the website audit

The Website Audit is an excellent starting point. It checks the overall health of the site and quickly identifies issues that should be fixed. You’ll need to give it some time to crawl your site, but after it does, you’ll have a report with actionable items you can do to improve the site’s health.

This includes finding things like duplicate content, pages with long title tags, thin content, and an assortment of errors.

I highly recommend running the website audit before buying a site, so you can get an overall picture of the site’s current condition.

2. Use Ranktracker’s SEO checklist

Ranktracker also provides a handy SEO checklist. Even if you’re experienced with SEO, the checklist is helpful to make sure you’re not missing or overlooking important details.

Some of the items in the checklist are site-wide and only need to be done once. Others apply to every page or post you publish. Simply check each item when you’re done to keep track of your progress.

You can use the SEO checklist to improve the site and its existing content, as well as planning and preparing new content.

3. Track keyword rankings

Although you can see overall traffic trends by looking at Google Analytics or Search Console, it’s hard to know exactly what’s happening without tracking your rankings for specific keywords.

For example, tracking keyword rankings allows you to see where your site went up or down after a Google algorithm update. You can also track your regular progress each day, week, or month to see how you’re progressing.

After you buy an existing site, go to Search Console and export the list of top keywords that send traffic to the site. Simply paste those keywords into Ranktracker and set up the monitoring according to your needs. Now you can check on your rankings easily at any time and see if they’re going up or down.

You can also add new keywords as you publish new content. Whenever you publish a post that targets a specific keyword, and that keyword to Ranktracker.

4. Find pages with high potential for traffic increases

Identifying the pages with high potential is one of the most important tasks. You should dedicate most of your time to pages that provide plenty of upside to get the most out of your time.

You can get some valuable information from the Rank Tracker to see which pages offer the biggest potential traffic gains.

Sort the list by volume so the phrases with the most monthly search queries are at the top. Look at where your page is already ranking for that keyword and see which ones offer the best potential.

For example, the first two keywords in the screenshot below are excellent options because they have high search volume and the site is currently ranking 6th and 4th for these keywords (these are similar keywords and the same page is ranking for both).

Google already likes this page and thinks it’s relevant for these keywords. Improving it and getting it to rank in the top 3 should result in significant traffic gains, and it’s probably not that difficult to do.

The more keywords you have in the Rank Tracker, the more data you can use to find high-potential pages. Pages that rank at the bottom half of the first page of the SERPs (position 6-10) usually offer the best potential.

5. Find keywords to target with new or existing content

Use Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder to uncover low-competition keywords you can target with new content. Enter a keyword and look at the suggested related keywords provided by the tool. You can see details like monthly search volume and keyword difficulty (KD). You can also sort the list by any of the data columns.

You can check the box of any keyword and add it to a list.

In addition to creating new content, you can also use the Keyword Finder to identify the best keywords to target when you update or optimize existing pages.

6. Steal your competitor's keywords

Rankracker’s Keyword Finder also makes it easy to spy on your competitors. Instead of starting with a seed keyword, click on the “domain” tab and enter the URL of one of your competitors. The tool will show you a list of the top keywords that are sending traffic to the site, along with details like search volume and keyword difficulty.

You can also add keywords to a list from this tab by checking the box.

Once you’ve identified the keywords you want to target, create your own content around those keywords and make it better than your competitor’s. This is especially helpful if you research smaller sites, those with less domain authority, or those you think you can outrank.

7. Steal your competitor’s backlinks

Of course, inbound links are important for SEO, but finding link opportunities can be a challenge. Thankfully, Ranktracker’s Backlink Checker allows you to see which sites and pages are linking to your competitors. With a little research, you may find opportunities you can duplicate to get the same links to your site.

You can click on the “new” tab if you want to see the links that have been added recently.

Bonus: Use the AI Writer to create content targeting specific keywords

Ranktracker also now includes an AI writer that makes content creation easy. It also integrates easily with the Keyword Tool. For example, when you find a keyword that you want to target with new content, click on the magic wand icon to open the AI Writer.

Next, enter the description of your article and have it generate titles.

From there, the AI Writer will lead you through a short series of steps to create a full article you can use on your site.

Conclusion

By using the tools available from Ranktracker, you can improve the traffic and revenue of an existing site and increase it’s value. Manage the site for at least 6-12 months (or longer) and sell the site for a profit. Of course, there are no guarantees of success, but Ranktracker provides tools that give you a clear advantage.

Best of luck!