Website Selling and Leasing Glossary

The terms

These are the terms owners meet when they sell or lease the website of a business they no longer run. They are listed alphabetically. Where a term needs more than a paragraph, the entry links to the guide that covers it fully. The entries on contracts and tax are general information, not legal or tax advice; for your own case, speak to a qualified lawyer or accountant.

Asset purchase agreement

The written contract in which a buyer agrees to purchase specific assets of a business, here usually the domain, the website content, its design files and related accounts, rather than the company that owned them. It lists exactly what is included, the price, how and when it is paid, what each side promises about ownership and condition, and what happens if something goes wrong. It is general practice, not legal advice: have a lawyer review any agreement before you sign.

Auth code

A transfer code, also called an AuthInfo or EPP code, that a registrar issues so a domain can move to another registrar. Whoever holds it can start a transfer, so it should only be shared at the agreed point in a deal. Under ICANN’s Transfer Policy, a registrar without a self-service tool must provide the code and remove the transfer lock within 5 calendar days of the owner’s request. See how a website transfer works.

Authority link

A link to your site from a respected, independent website that chose to mention you: a newspaper article, a university page, an industry association, a supplier, a local government listing. For a former business these links are lasting evidence of the trust it earned while trading. We look for at least two or three strong ones. The guide on what counts as a strong authority link shows how to find yours.

Auto-renew grace period

A window after a domain’s expiry date during which the owner can still renew it, usually at the normal price. For .com names, Verisign’s registry agreement sets the Auto-Renew Grace Period at 45 calendar days, though each registrar decides how much of that it passes on to customers and when the site stops resolving. Treat it as a safety net, not a plan: the website usually goes dark long before the window closes.

Backlink

Any link from one web page to another site. Ahrefs counts backlinks as a total count of all backlinks pointing at a target, which means one site that links to you from a hundred pages adds a hundred backlinks. That is why the raw backlink number can look impressive while saying little. For valuing a website, the quality and independence of the linking sites matter far more than the total count.

Branded search

A search for a business by its own name, such as the store’s name or the app’s name, often with a word like “login”, “reviews” or “shop” added. When a closed business’s website still ranks for its own name, it shows that people still look for it and that Google still links the name to the domain. The guide on why a brand that still ranks is worth more explains what this tells a buyer.

Capital gains

The profit made when an asset is sold for more than it cost. Many tax systems treat capital gains differently from ordinary income, often depending on how long the asset was held. In the US, the IRS treats an asset held more than one year as long-term. A business website may be treated differently from a personal asset. This is not tax advice; see the guide to taxes when you sell or lease a website and a qualified accountant.

Change of registrant

An update to the registered owner of a domain, the step that legally hands it to a buyer. Under ICANN’s Transfer Policy, the registrar must impose a 60-day lock on moving the domain to another registrar after a change of registrant, unless the registrant opted out before the change. If the buyer plans to move the domain to its own registrar, ask your registrar about opting out before you make the change.

Domain drop

The moment an expired domain is finally deleted by the registry and becomes available for anyone to register. For .com names it follows the redemption and pending delete periods. Once a domain drops, the original owner has no special claim to it, and anyone can register it first. For an owner, a drop is the point at which an asset that could have been sold or leased is simply gone.

Domain Rating

Ahrefs’ score of how strong a website’s link profile is compared with others in its database, shown on a 100-point scale. Domain Rating, or DR, is useful for a quick comparison, but it is one company’s metric, and a high score does not prove the links are relevant or that the site gets visitors. You can check it free with the Ahrefs Website Authority Checker. See how to read Ahrefs numbers.

Dormant website

A website whose business has stopped trading but which is still online, or could be brought back online, with its content and history intact. Many dormant websites keep organic traffic, rankings and authority links for years after the business closes, which is why they can still have value. They also slowly lose it as pages break and renewals lapse. The guide on what a dormant website is still worth covers both sides.

Due diligence

The checks a buyer runs before committing to a deal. For a website that usually means confirming that the site is indexed, that traffic claims hold up against Search Console data, that the links are genuine, that the seller really owns and controls the domain, and that the site is free of hacks, warnings or legal disputes. A seller who prepares this evidence in advance usually gets a faster answer and fewer surprises.

Earn-out

A part of the price that is paid later and only if the asset hits agreed targets after the sale, such as a level of revenue or traffic. Earn-outs are common when a business is sold while still running. They shift risk to the seller, because the final price depends on results the seller no longer controls. It is general information, not legal advice: make sure any earn-out terms are precise and reviewed by a lawyer.

Editorial link

A link that a writer or editor chose to include because the subject was worth mentioning, for example a news story about a local shop or a review of a startup’s app. The business did not write it or place it there. Editorial links from respected publications are the clearest kind of authority link, and they are the ones a buyer looks for first when assessing a former business’s website.

Escrow

An arrangement in which a neutral third party holds the buyer’s money until the seller has transferred the asset. With Escrow.com, the buyer pays in, the seller transfers the domain, Escrow.com confirms the buyer is now the registrant, then releases payment. Its standard fees run from 2.6% on deals up to $5,000 down to under 1% on large deals, and the parties agree who pays.

Expired domain auction

A public auction in which a registrar sells domains that their owners failed to renew. At GoDaddy, an expired domain is listed about 26 days after it lapses, and all auctions end on day 43. Anyone can bid. For an owner who meant to sell or lease the site, an auction usually means losing it without being paid.

Google Business Profile

The free listing that shows a business on Google Maps and in local search results, with its address, hours, photos and reviews. When a business closes, the profile can be marked closed and stays visible, labelled permanently closed. The profile and the website are separate, but searches for the business name often show both. See your Google Business Profile after you close.

Google News

Google’s news service and the news surfaces in search. Since April 25, 2024, publishers can no longer set up Google News publications in Publisher Center; content that follows Google’s policies is automatically eligible for consideration. That means there is no Google News approval to transfer with a site. What a former news site keeps is its archive, its reputation and the links it earned. See former news sites in 2026.

Indexation

Whether Google has stored a site’s pages in its index, which is what lets them appear in search results. You can check it with a site: search, typing site:yourdomain.com into Google. If pages appear, the site is indexed; if nothing appears, it likely cannot be found in search, whatever other tools say. The search is a quick rough check, and the Page indexing report in Search Console gives the precise picture. Indexation is the first thing we check when we evaluate a website.

Installment sale

A sale in which the price is paid in parts over time rather than all at once. In US tax terms, the IRS defines it as a sale of property where you receive at least one payment after the tax year of the sale. A lease-to-own deal has some of the same features, but tax treatment depends on the agreement and your country. It is not tax advice: ask a qualified accountant how your deal is treated.

Knowledge panel

The information box Google sometimes shows beside search results for a business, person or organization, built from its Knowledge Graph. Knowledge panels are automatically generated: there is no way to apply for one, but an official representative can claim a panel Google already shows, and not all panels are claimable. A former business that still has a panel is still a recognized entity in Google’s eyes.

Lease-to-own

A deal in which the buyer takes over a website and pays the owner a monthly amount until an agreed price is paid in full, when ownership passes completely. Our lease-to-own offers are typically roughly $300 to $500 a month per site, and the monthly route pays a higher total than a cash offer. The buyer takes on hosting, renewals and upkeep from day one, and the terms are set in a written agreement before any transfer. See what a lease-to-own deal looks like month by month.

Organic traffic

Visitors who reach a site by clicking an unpaid search result. Ahrefs describes its figure as an estimation of how many clicks from Google a site gets each month, and says its data is just an estimate, not actual search traffic. Search Console shows real clicks. We look for at least 500 monthly organic visits as estimated by Ahrefs.

Outright sale

A sale in which the buyer pays the full agreed price, usually in one payment or through escrow, and takes ownership of the domain and website at closing. It is simpler and faster than a lease-to-own deal, and the seller has no further involvement. The trade-off is that a cash offer for a dormant website is usually lower than the total paid over a lease-to-own term. We make outright offers for the right asset.

Pending delete

The last stage before an expired domain is released. For .com names the registry’s pending delete period lasts five calendar days, and during it the name can no longer be renewed or restored by anyone. When the period ends, the domain drops and is open to new registration. If your domain reaches pending delete, it is effectively too late to keep it.

Profit multiple

A way to price a running online business: annual net profit multiplied by a number that reflects risk and quality. On Flippa in 2025, ecommerce stores sold for about 1.4x annual profit on average and content sites about 2.6x. A dormant website with no current profit has nothing to multiply, which is why other evidence, such as traffic and links, decides its value instead.

Redemption grace period

A period after a domain has been deleted when the former owner can still recover it, usually for an extra fee on top of the renewal. ICANN’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires most generic registries to offer a 30 day Redemption Grace Period after deletion. During it the domain does not resolve and cannot be transferred. It is the last realistic chance to keep a domain you forgot to renew.

Referring domains

The number of different websites that link to a site. Ahrefs defines it as the count of unique websites that point at a target, so ten links from one newspaper count as one referring domain. It is a better guide than the raw backlink count to how widely a site was cited. For a former business, a modest number of referring domains that includes a few respected names is often worth more than a long list of small directories.

Registrant

The person or organization recorded as the legal holder of a domain name. The registrant is the one who can renew it, transfer it or sell it, so in a deal the registrant on record is the person who must sign. Problems arise when the registrant is a former cofounder, an agency or a company that no longer exists. Checking who the registrant is should be one of the first things an owner does.

Registrar

The company where a domain is registered and renewed, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or Cloudflare. The registrar sends renewal reminders, holds the account where the domain is managed and issues the auth code needed to transfer it. Under ICANN rules, your registrar must warn you at least twice before your domain expires, roughly a month and a week out. Make sure those reminders reach an inbox you still read.

Search Console

Google’s free tool for site owners, showing which searches a site appears for, how many real clicks it gets and whether Google has problems indexing it. It is the best proof of traffic an owner can give a buyer. The performance report keeps the last 16 months of data, so export it before history disappears. See how to prove traffic with Search Console.

Transfer lock

A setting that stops a domain from being moved to another registrar. Owners can switch it on to protect against theft, and registrars apply it automatically in some cases. Under ICANN’s Transfer Policy, a registrar may deny a transfer within 60 days of a domain’s creation or of a previous registrar transfer. Before a deal closes, check the lock status in your registrar account so it does not delay the handover.

URL Rating

Ahrefs’ score of how strong the links pointing to one specific page are, rather than the whole site, measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, according to Ahrefs’ metrics guide. URL Rating, or UR, is useful for spotting which pages on an old site attracted the most links, often a press mention, a popular product page or a well-known article. Those pages are worth keeping online.

Valuation

An estimate of what an asset is worth to a buyer. For a running business it often starts from profit; for a dormant website it rests on evidence such as index status, organic traffic, authority links, brand rankings and business history. Different buyers can reach different figures for the same site because they weigh the evidence differently. How we evaluate a site is explained on the call, and the checks we run are on our evaluation page.

Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive’s public archive of web pages, which has preserved over one trillion pages. Buyers use it to see what a website looked like in earlier years and to confirm that it belonged to a real, trading business rather than a site built recently. Owners can use it too, to recover old pages, product descriptions or press mentions they no longer have copies of.

Website broker

A firm or person that sells online businesses on behalf of owners in exchange for a fee, usually a commission paid when the sale closes. Brokers typically value a business on its profit, prepare it for sale and find buyers. A broker is often the right choice for a profitable, running site. A dormant site with no current profit often does not fit a broker’s model. See website broker vs direct buyer.