We deliver due diligence that uncovers hidden marketing and business risks so you only acquire bulletproof digital assets.
Uncompromising Due Diligence for Buyers, Sellers, and Brokers Across SAAS, Hosting, Content Publishing, and Digital Businesses.
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❓ Are you about to acquire a website, SaaS platform, or content property and need to know whether its traffic and rankings are real or one algorithm update away from collapsing?
❓ Are you selling a digital asset and want to know exactly what a buyer’s SEO and AI Visibility due diligence will uncover before they do?
❓ Have you been handed a “too good to be true” traffic or ranking screenshot and need an independent expert to verify it before you commit to the deal?
Great news! We can help — before the deal closes, not after.
✅ During your initial FREE consultation, we will learn about the deal you are evaluating (buy-side or sell-side), the deal size and timeline, and share our tailored due diligence approach for that specific asset.
✅ Clients who order a due diligence review typically surface at least one material risk or negotiation point before closing. See how in your free consultation.
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Answer the questions below to personalize your 30 mins, non-binding consultation.
What's Covered in a Digital Marketing Due Diligence Review
✅ Every review is scoped to your specific deal. You receive a clear risk-rated findings report with a Go / Go-with-Conditions / No-Go recommendation, plus all supporting evidence: crawl exports, backlink and referring-domain data, competitive positioning data, and expert interpretation of what each finding means for the deal.
✅ A Digital Marketing Due Diligence Review gives buyers, sellers, and brokers an independent, 360-degree view of a website, SaaS product, or content property’s organic health, competitive standing, and backlink risk — across traditional search and AI-driven platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
✅ We gather data from Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster, Ahrefs, Wayback Machine, and other tools to independently verify claimed traffic and rankings across 80+ digital marketing risk factors — financials, revenue, and legal/contractual due diligence are outside our scope and remain the domain of your accountant or M&A advisor.
What We Actually Catch
Below are anonymized categories of findings from actual due diligence engagements across content sites, SaaS acquisitions, and marketplace/forum properties.
We share only the category-level summary here. Full due diligence reports are confidential and covered by an NDA. We removed all identifying details before publishing.
Traffic That Wasn't What It Looked Like
A seller’s screenshot showed steady growth. Our independent pull of Search Console and Wayback data showed the real trendline included a manual action and a since-recovered traffic drop the seller never disclosed.
A Backlink Profile Built to Expire
A large share of a target’s referring domains came from a single expiring PBN network. Once those links lapse post-acquisition, rankings — and the value of what the buyer paid for — were at direct risk.
Content Built for an Algorithm That's Gone
The content library was optimized entirely for keyword-match SEO with near-zero AI Visibility footprint — meaning the traffic base was more exposed to AI Overviews erosion than the buyer’s plan assumed.
TRUST Framework™ — Our Five-Phase System for Digital Marketing Due Diligence
Whether you are the buyer, the seller, or the broker in the middle, COMPETICO runs your due diligence using the proprietary TRUST framework — a five-phase system focused entirely on digital marketing risk, validated across content sites, SaaS platforms, and marketplace/forum properties, including deals in high-risk industries most generalist advisors won’t touch.
Every phase produces evidence, not opinion — so your findings report holds up in negotiation. We work discreetly and under NDA, without alerting the other side that a review is underway unless you want us to.
Phase 1 – Traffic Verification
We independently pull Google Search Console, Analytics, and third-party estimators to verify claimed traffic, rankings, and growth trendlines against the seller’s own representations — flagging any gap, manual action, or unexplained spike.
Phase 2 – Rankings & Reach Verification
We benchmark the target’s organic rankings, keyword footprint, and share of voice against its named competitors — the same competitive-intelligence lens we use for ongoing clients — to confirm its market position is what the deal deck claims.
Phase 3 – Uncover Hidden Risk
We run a full backlink and referring-domain risk audit (PBNs, expiring link schemes, penalty exposure), a content-authenticity check, and a technical debt review — the risks that don’t show up until 3–6 months after closing.
Phase 4 – SEO & AI Visibility Scoring
We score the asset’s structural resilience — how dependent it is on legacy keyword-match SEO versus how well it is positioned for continued visibility on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — because that resilience is what protects the value of what you’re paying for post-close.
Phase 5 – Transaction Report & Recommendation
You receive a risk-rated findings report and a clear Go / Go-with-Conditions / No-Go recommendation, with specific negotiation leverage points tied directly to the digital marketing risks we found — ready to hand to your broker or M&A advisor alongside their financial and legal findings.
Know What You're Really Buying or Selling — Before the Deal Closes
For buyers, sellers, and brokers of digital businesses, the asking price is only as good as the traffic and rankings it’s based on. Our review gives you an independent, expert-led picture of the digital marketing risk behind the asset — what’s real, what’s at risk, and exactly what to renegotiate — delivered fast enough to fit inside a live deal timeline.
Due Diligence for Small & Medium Business
Designed for content sites, niche sites, and small-to-medium SaaS or affiliate properties in single-site deals. Verify the digital marketing risk before you commit.
What’s included:
- Traffic verification against Search Console, Analytics, and third-party estimator data
- Rankings & competitive reach check against the target’s named competitors
- A backlink & referring-domain risk audit that flags PBNs, link schemes, and penalty exposure
- A technical SEO health check covering indexation, crawlability, and structural red flags
- An AI Visibility exposure score exposing how dependent the asset is on legacy SEO versus AI-era discovery
- A risk-rated findings report with a Go / Go-with-Conditions / No-Go recommendation;
- A 1-page executive summary suitable for a broker, partner, or investment committee;
- Two weeks of email support to discuss findings during negotiation;
- Delivered within 5 business days of order placement.
$2,450/One-time
Due Diligence — Enterprise
For hosting companies, larger platforms, multi-property portfolios, and high-risk-industry acquisitions (adult, crypto, affiliate, forex) with complex site architecture.
What’s included: everything in the SMB tier, plus:
- Content-authenticity review, including AI-generated-content exposure and duplication risk;
- Multi-site or multi-subdomain review for portfolios sold as a single asset;
- Expanded competitive-intelligence benchmarking against 4+ named competitors;
- High-risk-industry review covering platform-policy and traffic-source concentration exposure;
- A 15–20 page expert findings report with full evidence trail and impact ratings;
- A negotiation memo with specific digital-marketing-risk leverage points for your broker or advisor;
- Follow-up Zoom call to walk you and/or your broker through findings before you sign;
- Six weeks of email and call support through to close;
- Delivered within 10 business days of order placement.
From $5,500/One-time
Prices as quoted are final. No VAT added (Exempt under Romanian Fiscal Code Art. 310 / Small Business Scheme).
All Due Diligence Reviews are conducted under NDA and delivered directly to you — never shared with the counterparty, broker, or marketplace unless you instruct us to. Our scope is strictly digital marketing risk (SEO, backlinks, content, AI Visibility, competitive positioning); we do not review financials, revenue, or legal/contractual matters, so findings are built to sit alongside your accountant’s or M&A lawyer’s own due diligence, not replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Digital Marketing Due Diligence service?
Our Due Diligence Review is an independent, expert-led verification of a website, SaaS product, or content property’s traffic, SEO health, backlink risk, competitive positioning, and AI Visibility exposure — before you buy it, sell it, or fund it. Daniel and the Competico team cross-check the seller’s claimed digital marketing metrics against independent data sources and score the asset across 80+ risk factors.
The review concludes with a risk-rated findings report, a Go / Go-with-Conditions / No-Go recommendation, and specific negotiation leverage points. For buyers, sellers, and brokers, this is the fastest way to know what you are actually acquiring or letting go — on the digital marketing side of the deal.
Do you review financials or revenue as part of due diligence?
No. Our review is scoped exclusively to digital marketing risk — traffic, SEO, backlinks, content, competitive positioning, and AI Visibility. We do not verify revenue, review contracts, or assess legal or financial structure. We’re often engaged alongside your accountant, lawyer, or M&A advisor to cover the digital marketing risk they typically don’t have the tooling or expertise to assess.
Why do I need SEO and AI Visibility due diligence before a deal?
Most financial and legal due diligence never touches the SEO, backlink, or AI Visibility health of the asset — yet for a content site, SaaS product, or marketplace, that is often the entire traffic engine behind the business. A traffic drop, an expiring link scheme, or an AI Overviews exposure gap can undermine the value of what you paid for within months of closing.
Our review fills that gap: it tells you whether the traffic and rankings behind the asking price are durable, and gives you evidence to renegotiate if they are not.
Is this for buyers, sellers, or brokers?
All three. Buyers use it to verify claims before committing. Sellers use it to get ahead of what a buyer’s diligence will find and fix or disclose issues proactively, which usually protects the asking price. Brokers use it to give both sides an independent, defensible third-party report that speeds the deal to close.
What does the Due Diligence Review include?
The review covers: [1] Traffic Verification against Search Console, Analytics, and third-party estimators, [2] Rankings & Competitive Reach Verification, [3] Backlink & Referring-Domain Risk (PBNs, link schemes, penalty exposure), [4] Content Authenticity & AI-Generated-Content Exposure, [5] Technical SEO & Site Architecture, [6] AI Visibility Exposure Scoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity & Google AI Overviews, and [7] High-Risk-Industry Review where applicable (adult, crypto, affiliate, forex). Each area includes specific findings, an impact rating, and a recommendation.
Why should I choose COMPETICO over a generalist due diligence firm?
Most due diligence firms check financials and legal structure but treat SEO and AI Visibility as an afterthought — or skip it entirely. COMPETICO has spent over a decade building, operating, and exiting digital properties, so we know exactly where sellers hide digital marketing risk and where buyers get burned.
What makes our reviews stand out:
- We are among the few firms treating AI Visibility exposure (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) as a first-class deal risk;
- Our reviews are 100% manual and expert-conducted, no templated tool exports;
- We have direct experience in high-risk industries (adult, crypto, affiliate) most advisors decline to touch;
- Findings are delivered as negotiation-ready leverage points, not just a data dump;
- Everything is conducted under NDA and delivered only to you;
- Daniel and the team are certified in Semrush, HubSpot, and Google, with firsthand M&A experience on both sides of the table.
How fast can you turn a review around?
The SMB tier is delivered within 5 business days of order placement, and the Enterprise tier within 10 business days — both built to fit inside a live deal timeline rather than a generic audit schedule. If your deal has a harder deadline, tell us during the free consultation and we will confirm whether we can accommodate it.
What is the difference between due diligence and an SEO audit?
An SEO & AI Visibility Audit is built for a business you already own, to plan improvements going forward. A Due Diligence Review is built for a transaction — it independently verifies someone else’s claims about an asset you don’t yet own (or are about to sell), and produces a recommendation and negotiation leverage rather than a growth roadmap.
Will the seller or the marketplace know a review is happening?
No. All reviews are conducted independently using publicly available and client-provided data, under NDA, and delivered only to you. We do not contact the seller, the marketplace, or any counterparty unless you specifically ask us to as part of a verification call.
What data do you need from me to start?
At minimum, the listing or deal deck and the domain in question. If available, Search Console and Analytics access (read-only, buyer-side or via the broker) significantly deepens the traffic verification. We will confirm exactly what’s needed for your specific deal during the free consultation.
Can you review high-risk-industry properties (adult, crypto, affiliate, forex)?
Yes. This is a core part of our practice. Daniel has hands-on operating and exit experience in high-risk verticals, and the Enterprise tier includes a dedicated review of platform-policy and traffic-source concentration exposure specific to those industries — risk most generalist due diligence firms are not equipped to assess.
What happens if you find a deal-breaking issue?
You get it in writing, rated by severity, as soon as it’s confirmed — we don’t wait for the final report if something time-sensitive comes up mid-review. Many clients use a single confirmed red flag to renegotiate price, request a holdback, or walk away from a deal entirely.
How do I order and pay?
The SMB tier is a one-time purchase — click the Order button, complete the details, and pay securely via Stripe or PayPal. The Enterprise tier is scoped per deal, so click through to book a call and we’ll confirm final pricing before you commit. Either way, we contact you within one business day to confirm the order, collect the deal details and any access we need, and begin work immediately given the time-sensitive nature of most deals.
Not ready to order yet? Book a free consultation to discuss your deal, review relevant risk categories, and ask any questions before committing.
Still have questions?
Contact us directly through the project request form below, or email Daniel at daniel{at}competico.com. Given the time-sensitive nature of most deals, we respond to due diligence inquiries within one business day.
For additional questions, contact us at support{at}competico.com or via the Contact Us page. We respond within two business days.
Trusted by Buyers, Sellers, and Brokers Worldwide
Most clients are covered by NDA, so we cannot publish deal names or details publicly. The logos below represent clients who have given their approval to be listed.
What Our Clients Say
Services That Work Alongside Due Diligence
A Due Diligence Review tells you what’s true today on the digital marketing side. Pair it with our other services to act on it before or after close. Order an SEO & AI Visibility Audit once you own the asset to build a growth roadmap, or add Competitive Intelligence to go deeper on how the asset stacks up against the market it competes in post-acquisition.
Talk to Daniel Stanica — COMPETICO Founder & Due Diligence Advisor
Evaluating a deal and need an independent read on the digital marketing risk behind it? We would love to hear about the property, share relevant risk categories we’ve uncovered before, and show you how a TRUST Framework review fits your timeline.
About Daniel
Hello! I’m Daniel Stanica, the SEO, AI Visibility, and digital marketing Due Diligence advisor to digital business buyers, sellers, and brokers. I’ve built, operated, and exited digital properties myself, so I know exactly where the risk hides.
Share a few details about the deal below, and I will show you specifically how we can help.
