We’ve all heard urban legends of people whose long-forgotten Star Wars figurines are worth thousands of dollars or the lucky guy who bought a $5 picture at a sale that ended up being a long-lost Renoir. Your mom may have thrown out your toys but don’t despair. It’s possible that you’ve overlooked another potential goldmine. That’s right, your website might be worth a LOT of money. In fact, here are 4 Valuable Hidden Assets Within Your Current Website that you may not realize you have.
#1 – Your URL
One of the hidden assets within your current website that could possibly generate you the most money is your domain.
Let’s take a look at an example that was recently in the news. It involves a Snapchat name rather than a domain name, but the principle is the same.
According to USA Today:
A young boy, 9 years old, went on a cruise with his parents. He was so excited after returning from his trip that he made @carnivalcruise his Snapchat name. (This was back when Snapchat was relatively new to the social media scene).
Fast forward to 2018.
The boy is now a teenager and Snapchat is VERY popular. Guess who wants that name? You got it! Carnival Cruise Lines tracked down the young man and offered him some pretty nice incentives to turn it over. He did and is now reaping the benefits of free vacations.
Who might want your domain name?
“Nobody wants my domain name,” you say.
Are you sure?
If your domain name is only 3-letters, you could be sitting on a URL worth half a million dollars. Many company acronyms are only 3 or 4 letters and they will pay big bucks to get the rights to those domains.
In case you are now wondering what your domain is worth, you can check on it RIGHT HERE.
#2 – Longevity of the Site
Another of the hidden assets in your current website is its age.
The older, the better.
Google loves sites that have been around for 10-15 years. Age shows permanence and stability and Google rewards that with a boost in the search results. Now, keep in mind, age has nothing to do with your web design. If you’ve been keeping the same “look” for over a decade, then its akin to shag carpet and avocado refrigerators in your home. Your site is definitely due for a redesign.
Rather, if you’ve owned your domain name for many years and regularly updated content and had steady traffic, you’re sitting on an asset many companies would love to have. After all, the better you do in the organic search results, the less you have to spend on ad marketing.
A penny saved is a penny earned. – Benjamin Franklin
#3 – Valuable Backlinks
Over time, without you even knowing it, other sites will link to your products or your content. These backlinks are worth their weight in gold.
Almost literally!
According to Ahrefs, the cost of buying a single backlink in 2018 is $352.92.
And people buy them because Google LOVES backlinks. Remember, better organic search results means fewer advertising dollars and more net income.
So, how many backlinks does your website have? CHECK HERE
Our website has 2454 links and if you do the calculations, they’re worth approximately $866,000. It’s true that I can’t sell backlinks but I will be forever grateful that I never had to pay for them and so should you. Make sure you hold onto to this valuable asset by hiring a web designer that knows how to transition an old site to a new one without losing your ranking.
#4 – Intellectual Property
Your website content belongs to you and is copyrighted the moment it’s published. For most companies, it represents a significant investment of time and money. Someone had to come up with the ideas, create the site structure, and actually write the words. If written correctly, it’s your content that will help with search engine optimization and boost your Google rank.
If your existing site is rich in content and ranks well, you DO NOT want to lose that asset in the transition to a new site.
Do you remember those valuable backlinks? Well, without content, there wouldn’t be anything to link to.
And it’s not just content. You have other valuable intellectual property on your site. Images (also copyrighted) are big business. Shutterstock reported its 2017 revenue at $557.1 million and that’s just one stock photo company. Apart from the dollar value of your images and content, you also have the intrinsic value. Your intellectual property defines your brand and how clients engage with your company. It’s hard to put a value on brand recognition, but without it, many businesses would flag.
How to Preserve the Hidden Assets Within Your Current Website
As you can see, your website might just be more valuable than you realized. Whether it’s the actual dollars or the harder to measure, brand recognition, your assets need to be protected. The first step before you begin a website redesign is to evaluate the hidden assets within your current website and ask how your web designer plans to protect them. Can he preserve the backlinks? Is it possible to move the site without losing Google rank?
Should you sell your URL worth half a million and start over?
Only you can answer that one!
The point is that you need to work with a web design agency (like Thomas Digital) that knows how to protect your assets. Contact us. Not only can we advise you on how to do a website redesign the right way, we provide a Free Mock-Up of your new site in just 7 days, with no risk or obligation.