"What's my website worth?" has a cleaner answer than most founders realize: it's whatever someone will pay for it on Flippa or Empire Flippers today. In 2026 the formula behind almost every private-marketplace sale is the same monthly net profit × earnings multiple. This guide shows you the exact multiples by niche, walks through real examples, and points you at a free calculator you can run on any domain.
The valuation formula
Every content-site sale in 2026 resolves to:
The multiple depends on five factors:
- Niche SaaS trades 40×–60×, content 24×–36×, thin niche 18×–24×.
- Traffic trajectory growing = premium, flat = average, declining = discount.
- Revenue diversification 5 income streams beats AdSense-only.
- Domain authority + backlinks DR 50+ commands higher multiples.
- Owner involvement less hands-on work = higher multiple.
Real sale-price examples by niche
| Site type | Monthly traffic | Monthly profit | Typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal finance affiliate | 50,000 | $4,500 | $130k – $170k |
| B2B SaaS (micro) | 8,000 | $6,000 (MRR) | $240k – $360k |
| Recipe blog | 200,000 | $5,200 | $140k – $190k |
| Tech review site | 100,000 | $2,400 | $60k – $90k |
| Gaming blog | 150,000 | $900 | $18k – $32k |
| E-commerce (single SKU) | 30,000 | $7,500 | $200k – $300k |
Sources: blended 2026 data from Empire Flippers, Flippa, and Motion Invest public listings.
Why the same traffic can produce 5× different valuations
A gaming blog at 150k/month and a finance affiliate at 50k/month can both sell for $130k because monetization dwarfs raw traffic. The gaming niche has $3 RPM; finance has $25. Same 100 visitors, 8× revenue.
Don't value yourself on traffic. Value yourself on monthly net profit × appropriate multiple.
5-minute DIY valuation
- Run your domain through SiteWorthIt's free traffic checker to pull real monthly visitors.
- Multiply visitors × 1.8 to 2.5 (pages per session) for total pageviews.
- Multiply pageviews × niche RPM (finance $22, SaaS $18, tech $10, gaming $4) / 1000 = gross ad revenue.
- Add 2–3× for affiliate or product revenue if applicable.
- Subtract 20% for running costs → monthly net profit.
- Multiply net profit × 30× (the 2026 median marketplace multiple) = rough sale price.
Or skip the math and let our value calculator do it automatically from DataForSEO data.
What increases your multiple (and what kills it)
| Lifts the multiple | Kills the multiple |
|---|---|
| Revenue from 3+ streams | 80%+ revenue from AdSense alone |
| 12+ months of stable traffic | Post-Google-update volatility |
| < 5 hrs/week owner work | Founder-dependent content |
| Email list > 10k subscribers | No owned audience |
| DR 40+ with diverse backlinks | Sitewide footer-link profile |
| Documented SOPs | Everything lives in founder's head |
When estimates are enough (and when they aren't)
Estimates are fine for:
- "Should I bother listing this for sale?" screen
- Directional conversations with a broker
- Informing your refusal price on an inbound offer
Estimates aren't enough for:
- Actually accepting a buyer's offer demand Empire Flippers-style diligence package first
- Investor valuations for equity raises
- IRS / tax basis calculations
The 24x–42x Monthly Revenue Multiplier
The 24x–42x multiple isn't arbitrary — it reflects the time it would take a buyer to recoup the purchase price from ongoing profits, assuming no growth. At 24x, the payback period is two years; at 42x, three and a half. Marketplaces like Flippa and Empire Flippers anchor their pricing to this range because it matches comparable private-equity deal structures for small digital assets. The lower end (24x) applies to sites with single revenue streams, volatile traffic, or strong founder dependency. The upper end (36x–42x) is reserved for sites with consistent 12-month revenue history, multiple monetization layers, and an operations structure a buyer can inherit without the seller staying on.
Understanding where your site sits in that range before you approach a broker lets you walk in with a defensible number rather than accepting whatever they quote. If your site has diversified revenue and growing traffic, push for the upper third. If it's AdSense-only with a single traffic spike, accept that you're in the lower third and price accordingly.
What Buyers Actually Pay For
Sophisticated buyers evaluate four things that raw traffic numbers never show. First, traffic quality: a site with 50,000 engaged monthly visitors spending 3+ minutes per session and converting at 2% is worth more than a site with 200,000 bounce-heavy visitors from low-intent social referrals. Second, content age and depth: articles more than 18 months old with accumulated backlinks and consistent search impressions signal durable ranking ability, not a recent content sprint. Third, niche defensibility: can a well-funded competitor publish 500 articles next quarter and take your rankings? Finance, legal, and health niches require expertise signals (EEAT) that slow down copycats. Fourth, revenue diversification: a site earning from display ads, affiliate programs, a digital product, and an email list commands a meaningfully higher multiple than one that disappears if Google AdSense suspends the account.
Before you list, audit your own site across all four dimensions. Fixing the weakest one — even partially — before going to market often adds more to your final sale price than six months of additional traffic growth.
Frequently asked questions
How is a website's value calculated?
Apply an earnings multiple to monthly net profit. Content sites trade 24×–36× in 2026, SaaS 40×–60×, thin niche 18×–24×.
How much is a website with 10,000 visits worth?
Depends on niche. Finance affiliate at 10k visits: $500–$1,500/mo → $15k–$45k sale. Gaming blog at 10k visits: $50–$150/mo → $1.5k–$4.5k.
What's the fastest way to value a website?
Use SiteWorthIt's free calculator pulls traffic + revenue from DataForSEO, applies marketplace multiples in under 3 seconds.