5 Firefox Plugins for Website Buying Due Diligence

by Luke Moulton 34 Comments

If you’re not familiar with Firefox, it’s a great browser alternative to Internet Explorer for many reasons.  One of the great features of Firefox is all the extra add-ons available to extend its functionality.  Here are 5 Firefox add-ons that will help you investigate a website’s credentials before you decide to bid on a Flippa listing.

Backend Software Information

Backend Software Information will help you discover what sort CMS or blogging platform the website you’re investigating is running on. Currently, over 120 different versions from more than a dozen backend systems are supported. The ad-on will help detect:

  • Drupal 6.x, 5.x
  • WordPress 2.x
  • phpBB 2.x / 3.x
  • MediaWiki, MoinMoin, Dokuwiki
  • Django, Blogger, Reddit
  • Joomla! (1.0.1-1.0.15, and 1.5.0-1.5.9)

If a platform is detected a small icon will show up in the Firefox status bar.

SEO Quake

Although we provide a heap of stats in the right column of every listing, SEO Quake will help give a complete overview of a website’s credentials, particularly backlink information.

Screen shot 2009-12-10 at 9.47.54 AM.png

Flagfox

If you’re interested to know where in the world a website is hosted, Flagfox will show you by displaying a country flag in the address bar and provide quick access to detailed location and web server information. Clicking on the address bar flag will give you information about the website’s hosting location and IP address. NOTE: This is not an indication of where the seller is located.

Screen shot 2009-12-10 at 9.57.37 AM.png


SenSEO

SenSEO is a quick Search Engine Optimisation audit tool which indicates how well a website has been optimized around a particular keyword. Many startup sites on Flippa are focused on a particular keyword phrase.  The domain name included for sale in the listing is usually a good indication of the targeted keyword phrase in startup sites. SenSEO will provide a score out of 100 for how well a site is optimized towards a keyword phrase. This is great tool for spotting opportunities in the market.

Screen shot 2009-12-10 at 10.03.25 AM.png

Google Global

Google Global lets you find out if a website website is ranking on Google in other countries. When you perform a keyword search in Google, this add-on allows you to see what the Google search results that you are viewing look like from different geographical locations.

Screen shot 2009-12-10 at 10.39.11 AM.png

Tell Us What You Use

Do you have a favorite Firefox ad-on you use for assessing websites? Leave a comment with your weapon of choice.

34 Responses to 5 Firefox Plugins for Website Buying Due Diligence

  1. Ping 4 Free says:

    Thanks for the suggested plugins. I had not tried SenSEO or Google Global. I have been using SEOQuake for a long time and it can’t be beat for getting a quick picture of PR, links, Alexia ranking and more on your sites or others you are investigating.

  2. Suzanne says:

    Now if we could only have Firefox “Buyer” Due Diligence plugins like how to detect fake bidders who bid and then don’t pay, and how to detect fraudulent bidders who pay and then file Paypal disputes to get a refund for something they already now own.

      • Suzanne says:

        One seller got hit twice on the same auction with a non-paying bidder. I just had one last week. I’ve heard it talked about often enough to know that it’s not rare. Another well-known seller has had sites stolen from her through Paypal disputes.

        • JD says:

          Suzanne…I thought it was difficult to file Paypal disputes on electronic items? Didn’t you combat one yourself and win? It might have been someone else….

          Another thing that would help sellers is for Flippa to temporarily close down the auction, like they do when waiting to accept a bid or buy-it-now, until payment is completely received. Then close out the auction. If payment is not received, the seller can simply reopen the auction and use their original listing fee that they PAID for. You could also “stop the time clock” while the seller waits for payment and give us sellers a break here. We do pay the majority of these fee’s.

          I’d like to see more help for sellers over on this blog.

      • Chris says:

        Hi Miah,

        In the scenario where you have a non-paying bidder, it doesn’t cost you anything since Flippa will waive your success fee and will allow you to re-list free of charge.

        • JD says:

          Yes, but as I remember, your terms say wait 3 days. Then we have to go through the whole dispute process. A seller’s terms may be different. Most say 48 hours.

          Plus, it looks bad when something is relisted over and over again because a bogus buyer doesn’t pay. It makes it appear to be an unwanted listing or devalued.

          There’s really no reason for you to show the link that says, “This has been listed 3 times before on the marketplace”…or whatever that says. Then the seller has to write about why it keeps getting relisted. Why does that need to appear at all?

        • Dave Slutzkin says:

          JD,

          There’s really no reason for you to show the link that says, “This has been listed 3 times before on the marketplace”…or whatever that says. Then the seller has to write about why it keeps getting relisted. Why does that need to appear at all?

          As I’m sure you can appreciate, we want to make it as easy as possible for buyers to do their due diligence. If the site’s been listed before, that’s something which a potential buyer has a right to know. Hiding that information would be downright misleading!

        • JD says:

          Not sure I would call it misleading as many of these websites are sold on other auction sites before they are listed here and even while they are listed here. I know it is against Flippa’s Terms to list it elsewhere while listed here, but it’s still done.

          It is misleading when a seller accepts a bid or but-it-now from a buyer that has no intention on paying. Not sure why we can’t wait to close out the auction until after the payment is received?

    • Chris says:

      We share this concern and are always thinking of measures to help prevent it and lessen its impact when it does happen. When you compare things now to the way they were 2 years ago when we were the SitePoint Marketplace, I firmly believe that things are moving in the right direction here. We still have a lot of work to do but there’s no magic-bullet solution.

      I’m beginning work on a major new feature this morning, which we’re likely to be pushing into production in the new year. Users have been asking for Escrow integration for a while now and we feel that this addresses a lot of the concerns about these situations.

  3. Kus says:

    Sounds like Suzanne has a good point. Instead of doing all of this, how about preventing so many unsold auctions?? So many bid, don’t read, want things their way! Sometimes to top it off, they end up ripping you off.

    • Ansel Taft says:

      Unsold auctions?

      Have you seen some of the unrealistic prices/reserves some people set for their crap sites?? It’s no wonder sites go unsold. If they’d ‘let it ride,’ with pure bidding, the market would determine its worth. Instead, they attempt to take advantage of ignorant buyers who fall for their overpriced snake-oil.

      There’s a lot of hogwash auctions buyers (like me) have to wade through. It’s CRUCIAL to ask a lot of questions before buying (read: do your diligence).

      And a quick tip for everyone: domain appraisals are utterly useless. They are made by the same people who sell domains (i.e. Sedo). Their figures are inflated by 10x because it’ good for their industry. If they tell the guy who owns Jarate-Is-The-New-Snake-Oil.com that their domain is worth $2,000 (which they would, because it is pro-SEO), then the owner of Jarate-Snake-Oil.com must have a $5,000 domain (because it’s shorter and catchier).

      But neither is true if put up for auction. The marketplace would determine their worth, and I GUARANTEE neither valuation would hold. Well, a sucker IS born every minute…

  5. Mike says:

    @Suzanne – That’s why I absolutely never accept PayPal. This sort of thing is way too common and there’s no reason you should ever risk a sizable sale or part with a prized domain name/website without using a service like Escrow.com.

  6. Eric says:

    I can definitely vouch for the awesomeness of SEO Quake.

    I was unaware of SenSEO and am really happy to have been introduced to it! I have easily identified a few items to tweak on a couple of my sites! Hopefully that’ll help me out in the SERPS!

  7. Eric says:

    Oh, one more thing… Before installing SenSEO, you need to install a plugin called Firebug. I was having big troubles figuring out why SenSEO wasn’t working for me.

  8. Angela says:

    What the heck is going on w/ Flippa the last couple days? All of the auction pages are completely messed up. Somebody needs to fix this as this looks less than professional.

  9. m00ndoggy says:

    i have a n urgent problem and support is not responding.my listing will end without being seen.I have uploaded the flippa file but it’s not working.If i manually check, it’s there.Could someone please help me quick I have a 1 day auction and a few hours left :(

  10. SEO says:

    I want to add Firefox plugin provided by SEOBook.com which I use for my everyday work. It has a huge amount of helpful features.

    Thanks for useful set of plugins.

    • exit7 says:

      And then what are we your buyers to do, trying to make sure we are not going to be scammed ourselves? I make payment and hope I get something in return? Some of you sound like there are no dishonest sellers, or that sellers are the only ones that get robbed here. Trust me, as an honest buyer, it goes both ways.

      • Dave Slutzkin says:

        And that’s something we at Flippa definitely realise – sellers need protection from buyers, and buyers need protection from sellers. Just because sellers tend to be more vocal than buyers doesn’t mean they’re the only ones we listen to.

  13. pete says:

    hi,

    then what are the other possible payment processor that make buyer and seller feel safe when transacting?

    I have heard about escrow but what are the other alternatives?

    Thank in advance.

  14. Mr Singh says:

    In my view, everyone has to use escrow.com for fast and secure payment.

    What’s your comment on this. Is i am right ? Share your views with me.

  15. Tony says:

    Everyone needs to be using tools and get educated on how to do due diligence. It is sad how I see sellers faking their stats and ripping noobs off.

    • JD says:

      I agree Tony and not only faking stats, but poor content as well. Why don’t these new buyers READ the content on the site?

      We can’t even comment on anything or the seller will just delete it and wait for a new buyer to come along.

      It is very sad.

  16. Joe says:

    I continue to be disappointed at all the things society does to keep the few bad apples in check. I am sorry to hear about all the challenges many of the posters have written about.

  17. Stef says:

    After all i read, i’d like to mention one point. When you create a paypal account, it’s not very quick. I’m a buyer and I meet a problem with Paypal to pay the seller. Paypal accepted my first payment (happily, it gives me credential to my seller), but for the second one (with the same seller), I’m still waiting for a paypal approval. Just to say that sometimes, seller must trust the buyer and wait more than 3 or 4 days to be paid.