Evaluating Online Presense Value for Service Business

cormie

Hi folks,
I'm just wondering if anyone knows of any sources that would be able to evaluate the worth of a website/brand with a relatively good web presence. I'm trying to gauge whether it's possible to get a monetary value on a business based on web presence and reputation to be presented to potential buyers in the same fashion a set of accounts may be presented to evaluate the sales figures etc.

This is for a business I'm considering selling but feel the accounts don't reflect anywhere near the potential sales the business could generate under a better equipped and structured team. The business has been a one man operation since the start so has been limited by the availability in terms of current work load, personal commitments, mental capacity and everything else that life brings.

I think it would be best to try and sell to an already existing company in the same sector both in terms of leaving it in good and experienced hands as well as them having the structures and systems already in place to maximise the additional sales and queries through the acquisition of my business.

I have had Google Analytics on the site and the last two years has had an average unique visitor count of about 1,500 a month, the last year this has been closer to around 2,000.

My google+ page has had over 60,000 views where I have a reputable fully authentic review record. I appear relatively high in organic search terms related to the services offered. Of course I've facebook (also with a very high review rating) and twitter and even youtube.

I'm looking for any advice really on how best to present all this to potential buyers who may not understand the value it holds and what it could mean in terms of new sales generation if they were to take it over both to attract more buyers and of course increase the price I'd get for the sale.

Also if I'm to be approaching already existing businesses in the same industry, it would be nice to show a comparison of my web presence to theirs.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

winsletray

To improve your business value, SEO would be great and must used for your visitors as well as for sales.

EdenStudios

It's not clear to me what your business actually does. Are they buying a website which sells an electronic product or are you drop shipping physical goods? Are you an affiliate marketer or a bricks and mortar business with stock and a customer database.

You also mention unique visitors. If I was purchasing I'd be more interested in conversion rates etc.

I'd consider packaging those up into any seller profile.

tricky D

It's a one man with a van biz afaics, executed well and with proper insurance. I reckon most of the value here is in the person, a little but not much in repeats and referrals and perhaps some asset value. Also as previous poster says, without conversion, the visitors and likes are kind of meaningless though there might be some insight in the accounts.

Sorry about that cormie, I know you want to attach as much value as possible, but being honest, I can't see that much value, so I think you are clutching at straws a bit. Said as some one who has referred people to you (all happy customers) and have (happily) watched your progress via boards.

EdenStudios

Would also be helpful for buyers see how much of that traffic is relevant, targeted traffic. IE generic traffic coming from Boards signatures would have a much lower value than traffic triggered from keyword based organic searches etc.

cormie

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate the referrals Tricky, along with all the advice you've given along the way

I guess it's a happy medium between your white van man and a full service home relocation service who would be finding your kids schools and all the rest. Price wise too.

The reputation I've built has indeed been down to my level of attention to providing a decent service but a lot of that is also down to the systems used to take bookings to ensure as best as possible for on time arrivals, no double bookings and being able to do whatever the customer needs and then equipping the vans properly and all the rest.

I'd be hoping now that I've built it to this stage, I'd be able to keep the standards in place and any prospective buyer would too as frankly, it just works better that way and when you get people telling you they received cheaper prices but wanted to go with you because what they saw online, this is the main asset and worth far more than what the vans and other material assets I have. It's just trying to convey this to any potential buyers and was hoping there was some way to put even an idea of value on it based on my online presence in comparison to similar service providers.

How would it be best to track conversion rates for such a business I wonder? I got a plugin installed that tracks form submissions, but only since I started this thread. I can track the amount of phone calls to the 01 number too.

EdenStudios

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a great business and you've clearly put a lot of time into it.

You can track conversions using Google Analytics which you seem to be running already?

Basically, you set a Goal. This would be the URL of the confirmation/thank you page which users can only reach upon submitting a form.

cormie

Thanks for the input, yep that's what I just set up recently, had the basic analytics running on my site for years but never tracked form submissions unfortunately

It seems like it would be something very difficult to track and analyse though. Some sales can be less than €100, some can be a few thousand so how to calculate potential sales from that is beyond me.

Maybe it would be better just to pay somebody to do a comparison of my site versus other removal companies I may approach to see if they would be interested in purchasing it and could show them how many more enquiries and form submissions/phone calls they would get to work within their own structures if they took over my site/email/calls too.