SEO Due Diligence Supports Private Equity Firm & Predicts Non-Brand Traffic Drop
We’ve been working with private equity firms for several years, assisting with digital marketing due diligence and supporting their portfolio companies with paid search, SEO, website experience & messaging. Eyeful Media has earned the trust of firms such as Great Hill Partners, Freeman & Spogli, Riata Capital, Sumeru, and others that we can’t share publicly.
Our team understands the sensitive nature of diligence work, especially at the later stages of the process. We work to gather key information while maintaining client confidentiality and minimizing the burden on both the PE firm and the acquisition target.
Although the majority of the companies we evaluate have upside with limited risks, we occasionally find more glaring issues. Our team is vocal about highlighting these issues, and rather than waiting until a deliverable is finalized, we reach out immediately to discuss our findings. Keep reading below or download a PDF of the case study.
Here’s an example of one situation we flagged to the private equity partner. We take our NDAs seriously, so we won’t name any names. This site was heavily dependent on SEO for its traffic acquisition.
On the surface, this company seemed to be in great shape from an SEO perspective. It had things that would normally pass with flying colors, such as:
High domain authority
Steady, upward trend on traffic growth
Strong do-follow backlinks & referring domains
Domain authority. Source: Ahrefs
Traffic trends. Source: Ahrefs
Referring domains. Source: Ahrefs
However, when we dug deeper, we found that the majority of the anchor text for the website wasn’t aligned with the company name or industry. We discussed this as a team and evaluated the risk, believing it was meaningful.
We felt that their strategy could be penalized in an upcoming algorithm update and that there would be a loss of non-brand traffic. The risk could be mitigated, but it would take substantial work including site re-architecture and a revised SEO strategy.
We also found that nearly 80% of their SEO traffic was from brand terms, a disproportionately high number for a business of their size. It was likely people searching for their brand name to log in to the platform.
We armed the PE firm with information. The company and sell-side m&a firm disagreed with our findings, however, our private equity partner accepted our recommendation and ultimately walked away from the deal.
Anyone looking at the surface-level performance might think we made the wrong call - traffic is still up. However, when you look at non-brand search volume, you’ll see a different story.
As we predicted, non-brand traffic has slipped. The business was being evaluated in July 2021, the peak for non-brand traffic. As of 10/25/22, non-brand traffic has dropped by more than 40% since our diligence findings were delivered.
Non-brand SEO
Non-brand traffic trend. Source: SEMrush
This is just one example of where proper digital due diligence can help your private equity firm make the smartest decisions possible.
Reach out today to learn more about our digital & SEO due diligence services for PE & VC firms or to receive a copy of this case study to share with your colleagues.