Canadian Website Acquisition Due Diligence Checklist

Start with control, not the traffic chart

Before evaluating growth, establish exactly what is being sold and whether the seller controls it. The domain registrant, registrar account, hosting project, code repository, analytics properties, advertising accounts, email systems, databases, brand assets and social profiles should map to a named transfer path. A screenshot proves neither control nor continuity.

Ask for read-only access or direct exports from each source system, then reconcile dates and identifiers. A deal can look attractive in a presentation while depending on a contractor account, an undocumented integration or content rights that do not transfer. Those are not administrative details; they are part of the asset.

First gate: can the buyer identify, access and legally receive every system required to keep the user promise working?

Reconstruct the demand engine

Search performance should be segmented by query family, landing page, geography, device, brand and period. Review at least two seasonal cycles when the history exists. Note how much visibility sits in a small number of pages or queries, and whether those pages answer a durable user need or simply benefited from a temporary gap in the results.

Google recommends checking a recently purchased domain for manual actions and removed URLs, and its migration guidance emphasizes URL mapping, redirects, verification and sitemap monitoring. Review those records before designing a relaunch. A change of ownership is already disruptive; it should not be combined casually with a new domain, platform, information architecture and editorial strategy.

• Export Search Console performance by page and query, with branded and non-branded demand separated.
• Inspect index coverage, canonical behaviour, robots controls, structured data, sitemaps and true 404 responses.
• Record historic migrations, manual actions, security incidents, algorithm-sensitive periods and unexplained traffic breaks.
• Identify the tools, datasets, recurring users or direct demand that remain valuable if rankings decline.

Test the content and authority claims

Sample the pages that produce most of the demand and revenue. For each, document who created it, which sources support it, how often it needs review and whether text, images, data or testimonials were licensed for commercial transfer. Content volume is a liability if the buyer cannot establish provenance or maintain accuracy.

Links and mentions need the same treatment. Separate editorial references, partnerships, directories, acquired-domain redirects, paid placements and suspicious patterns. The diligence question is not how large the backlink count appears; it is whether the authority reflects genuine usefulness and can withstand a change in ownership and editorial behaviour.

Reconcile leads, revenue and obligations

Trace a representative sample from landing page to action, qualified lead, partner disposition and recorded revenue. Define what counts as a lead, who confirms its quality, how duplicates and spam are treated, and whether revenue is gross, net, recurring, collected or merely attributed. Search, analytics, CRM and financial totals will differ, but the differences should be explainable.

Review customer and partner concentration, refunds, chargebacks, renewal terms, unpaid balances and the seller's ongoing service obligations. Also map the personal information collected, consent language, recipients, retention practices and deletion process. A buyer inherits operating responsibility, not just a database export.

Convert diligence into closing conditions

The final report should distinguish facts, assumptions, open questions and red flags. Material gaps become closing conditions or price adjustments; they should not disappear into a general risk paragraph. Preserve a dated evidence index so the operating team knows which conclusions were verified and which still depend on seller representations.

Build the first 90 days around continuity: secure account ownership, preserve proven URLs, document recurring operations, verify tracking, test forms and backups, and monitor user and search signals. Redesign and expansion come after the transfer works. The downloadable checklist turns these stages into a practical review record.