Websites can be valuable assets

While it’s true that websites can be dynamic funnels that bring patients into your treatment center, experts specify that some websites hold more financial potential than others.

“These websites are valuable if they’re generating organic traffic,” says Kevin Taggart, managing partner of Mertz Taggart, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.

For example, a recent transaction in the market included the sale of two directory websites that have been “wildly profitable,” according to Taggart. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the buyers found the organic traffic to be a selling point. They aim to build a treatment center portfolio in the coming months.

Cory Mertz, managing partner of Mertz Taggart, says a website is a valuable asset if it generates cash flow. Directory sites typically charge for premium listings or for allocating space to Google AdSense display ads. In addition, sites that offer phone call routing services from a toll-free number would charge for the redirect.

Some aggregator sites have been known to command high prices. For example, in 2015, the marketing organization Referral Solutions Group, which owned sites such as Rehabs.com, sold for $60 million.

Your own site

“[The internet] should be one of your ways to get patients, but you certainly shouldn’t rely totally on Google or the internet because if something changes, your patient flow can stop overnight,” says Taggart.

He says referral sources and channels to attract patients are among the assets that buyers examine in acquisition targets.

 “When a treatment center has its own website, that site is really a means to drive clients or patients into the treatment center,” says Mertz. “So it’s looked at as any other marketing website.”

In a deal transaction, such a site would likely not be valued separately in addition to the value of the treatment center, he says.

“One exception might be if a treatment center’s organic site is generating so many referrals that they can’t handle them all and have to turn folks away. Then a strategic buyer might see it as having extra value,” Mertz says.