Philadelphia SEO Meetup January 2015: Flippa Case Study:
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Flippa Case Study - An E-Commerce Business Valuation Exercise During January's Philadelphia SEO Grail Meetup the topic of discussion was purchasing a website using Flippa.com. During the evening's presentation, Bill Rowland and Jeff Louella presented an analysis using a e-commerce business currently for sale. This deck touched on the following areas: - Online Business - Build vs. Buy - Intro: SeedAndGarden.com - SEO Audit - The Business - Valuation - Opinion - Recommendation
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Philadelphia SEO Meetup January 2015: Flippa Case Study:
- 3. AGENDA • Online Business • Build vs. Buy • Intro: SeedAndGarden.com • SEO Audit • The Business • Valuation • Opinion • Recommendation
- 4. ONLINE BUSINESS • Benefits vs. Brick & Mortar • Many Business Types • Revenue Models – Advertising – E-commerce – Affiliate – Subscription – Others
- 5. BUILD vs BUY Build a Website Strengths Weaknesses Lower Initial Cost Longer Time Horizon Gain Experience Time Intensive Pursue Topic of Interest Buy a Website Strengths Weaknesses Proven Concept Higher Initial Cost Immediate Feedback Extensive Due Diligence Faster Results Can Resell Immediately
- 6. SEO AUDIT • Analytics • On-Page Optimization • Site Health • Issues & Opportunities • Off-Page Optimization • Challenges • Keyword Rankings • Platform • Domain Changes
- 7. SEO AUDIT • No Access to Google Analytics* Analytics
- 8. SEO AUDIT • Yearly Cycle Tells Different Story Analytics
- 9. SEO AUDIT • Traffic too low for SimilarWeb, Compete, and Quantcast to give a report. Analytics
- 10. SEO AUDIT Accessibility • No XML Sitemap • Page Speed: Fair – Home: Mobile: 64 Desktop: 78 – Cat Mobile: 63 Desktop: 77 – Prod Mobile: 61 Desktop: 75 • Indexation: Good – Site: 540 vs. Sfrog: 340
- 11. • Title Tags • Headings • Content – Product Descriptions – Supporting – Cornerstone SEO AUDIT On-Page
- 13. SEO AUDIT Off-Page • Low Authority • Under Developed Link Profile
- 15. SEO AUDIT Keyword Rankings 2 Algo Updates •Panda # 20 •EMD
- 16. SEO AUDIT Keyword Rankings Clear dependence on one brand
- 17. SEO AUDIT The Platform The site uses Bigcommerce as a platform. Bigcommerce is a very popular SaaS platform that competes closely with Shopify. ● Flexible hosting options ranging from $30 to $200 a month ● Themes and Apps similar to Wordpress ● Built in blog. Though not as good as Wordpress ● Good customer service
- 19. THE BUSINESS •Website •$10 K Inventory •1760 Member Client List •8 Related Domains •90 Days Support •Legacy Services (Discount) •Supplier Relationships •Related Social Media Accounts
- 21. VALUATION
- 22. OPINION • No Unique Value Proposition • Selling Commodity Products • Over Dependence on One Brand • Little Social Engagement • Low Profit Margin ≈ 25% • Overpriced for Value Recieved
- 23. RECOMMENDATION
Editor's Notes
- Online Benefits vs. Brick & Mortar Low Startup Cost Greater Flexibility Can Often Greater Upside Potential Many Business Types Services Software Information Retail Information Products Revenue Models Products Software Services
- Access to Google Analytics was declined by the site owner, which is a big red flag. However, “Verified” metrics from Google Analytics are provided within the listing but these should always be independently confirmed. On the surface, the performance of this seasonal business would seem to make sense…
- However a closer look at trend data which is estimated by SEM Rush suggests that this business has been on the decline for over two years. In and of itself this is not necessarily bad; however this must be carefully considered when making a bidding decision
- Accessibility is difficult to guauge without access to analytics or webmaster tools. Upon review, the Robots.txt filed appears to exclude pages correctly. Within the Robots.txt there is no reference to an XML sitemap; furthermore one does not exist at /sitemap.xml . This is common on smaller sites, but it would be preferable if one was present to identify potential indexation problems. Indexation is judged to be roughly good. The Site: operator is compared to the Screaming Frog scrape.
- Title Tags – Under-optimized and could be expanded to attract broader search traffic Heading Tags – H1s wrap the site Logo. Multiple H2s wrap Primary Heading (Should be H1) and Supporting Headings (Arguably Should be H3s) Note: None of the Product Titles are Wrapped in Headings Content – Product Descriptions – Product descriptions are only adequate. Could include more. Content – Supporting – There are customer reviews (vendor Yotpo), however the content cannot be seen by search engines. Some product pages have embedded manufacturer videos (dup content). Content – Cornerstone – There is no cornerstone content (e.g. blog, how to articles, FAQs, etc…)
- SeedAndGarden.com generally performed well 2230 Pages Missing Image Alt Tags Minimal Duplicate Content (Page Descriptions) 49 Page No Meta Description Tag
- Keyword rankings have trended downward since September 2012 Two Algorithm Updates Occurred in September 2012 Panda # 20 Exact Match Domain Update Based on the relatively low quantity of on-site content, it was probably Panda that affected keyword rankings
- Using SEM Rush, the keywords ranking on the first two pages were broken down by category: Jiffy 26 – Brand Pots 10 Testing 10 Tree Seeds 7 Seeding 6 Equip 6 Veg Seeds 3 Misc seed 2 This suggests that these are likely to be the most popular products, which is troubling There appears to be an over-dependence on the Jiffy brand (which is distributed by big box retailers) Also, Peat pots are also among the most popular which is likely to be more of a commodity.
- Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/
- What you get: My assistance for 90 days to ensure a smooth transition 10k worth of inventory shipped to you. That's our cost, not retail value! A great domain name plus 8 other domains, 9 total. See below. A unique and trademarked logo including the .ai and .cdr source files. Includes a very nice business card design with source files. The website Save 5$ per month per email account. Includes a free google apps account which currently handles the email. Google no longer offers these accounts for free. Save $29 per month. Includes a grandfathered in free StitchLabs account. They no longer offer free accounts. List of suppliers and contact names Supplier price lists and their terms Google Analytics account with custom scheduled weekly reports so you can see how your business is doing and where the traffic and orders are coming from. Facebook page with around 340 likes Twitter account with 2,285 followers Mailchimp account with 1760 subscribers and a custom template matching the look and feel of the website. Includes a Dymo label printer for the tree seed packet labels.
- Access to Google Analytics was declined by the site owner, which is a big red flag. However, “Verified” metrics from Google Analytics are provided within the listing but these should always be independently confirmed. On the surface, the performance of this seasonal business would seem to make sense…