Buyer beware: Are you missing key digital assets when you buy a business?

Karl Aguilar

9th May 2025

A digital marketing agency has raised concerns over an emerging situation that can be detrimental to Australian business buyers and owners.

Peter Curran, founder and business development manager at Digital Surfer, has expressed alarm at how common it is now for buyers to purchase businesses without gaining full control of their online presence, such as Google Business Profiles, social media accounts, and domain names.

Curran warned that this situation can adversely impact customer acquisition, credibility, and revenue.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of business buyers who assume that things like their Google Business Profile or Instagram account will just come with the purchase,” said Curran. “But unless it’s explicitly transferred and ownership details are updated, they’re often locked out, or worse, left starting from scratch.”

Curran added that the problem is not limited to business sales. Many businesses that engage digital agencies also find themselves without administrative access to their websites, ad accounts, or business profiles. In some cases, agencies register assets under their own name and fail to provide adequate transparency.

“We’ve had clients come to us who’ve spent tens of thousands with an agency, only to find out they can’t access their Google Ads account or website backend,” he noted. “That’s unacceptable. Businesses should always have ownership or administrative rights over their digital assets.”

Digital Surfer is advising business owners and buyers conduct a digital asset audit to ensure all critical logins and ownership details are accounted for, particularly the business’ Google Business Profile (GBP), website domain registrations, website hosting and CMS access, email hosting, Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, among others.

“Digital presence is often one of the most valuable assets a business has,” said Curran. “Not having access means you’re operating blind – or not operating at all.”

• This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.