We hide most of the URL’s in our listings to protect the end-buyer and to prevent copycats from popping up and competing directly with the site.

We get quite a bit of traffic and there are many out there that would rather piggyback off an already successful site, creating a ton of competition for the new buyer in the niche. This is especially important when the website is in an undiscovered niche or hasn’t (yet) earned enough brand recognition to stand on its own and compete publicly in an open market.

An example would be content sites monetized with AdSense (where competitors could clickbomb the site), new(ish) dropshipping sites, etc. The more defensible the business, the less important it becomes to hide the URL in the listing because it’s more difficult to copy.

Hiding the URL is done to protect the end-buyer to give them enough time to further build the site out before inviting a ton of competition to their niche, especially for sites that are just starting to take off.

Occasionally, we do have listings that reveal the URL. This is usually because the website or business are extremely defensible and years ahead of any new competition in the niche.

These listings are typically better for the seller as they attract much more attention from buyers and tend to get more interest, deposits, and sell faster than the rest. Both the seller and the vetting team at Empire Flippers have to be in agreement for the URL to be displayed publicly.