Zillow, MyNewPlace climb Web rankings
ActiveRain, Curbed.com among fast-rising sites
By Inman News, Monday, August 18, 2008.
Real estate site Zillow.com climbed from sixth place in June to third place in July and apartment search site MyNewPlace.com rose from 19th place to 16th in the latest monthly ranking of real estate Web sites released by Web metrics company Hitwise.
Brokerage company ZipRealty's Web site slid from third in June to fifth in July in the rankings, which are based on total visits to real estate category Web sites.
Move Inc.'s category-leading site Realtor.com, which is operated through an agreement with the National Association of Realtors, had a 7.3 percent market share of visits to the category in July, compared with second-place Yahoo Real Estate, at realestate.yahoo.com, which had a 3.06 percent market share.
MSN Real Estate's realestate.msn.com site fell from 15th in June to 17th in July, rental site ForRent.com dropped from 17th to 19th in the rankings, and Realtor.com's sister site, Move.com, rose from 22nd in June to 20th in July.
Curbed.com, a real estate blog site, ranked among the fastest-climbing real estate category Web sites for the four-month period ending in July, Hitwise reported. Curbed.com climbed 383 places to 94th on the list in market share for visitors to real estate category sites.
PropertyLine.com, a site focused on the marketing of commercial properties and the promotion of commercial brokerage companies, moved up 414 places to 999th in the Hitwise real estate rankings; and KCStar.2.Homescape.com, a part of Classified Ventures' Homescape.com search site, jumped 277 places to 817th.
TheMLS.com moved up 83 places to 77th; PrudentialCal.com, the Prudential California Realty site, moved up 79 places to 323rd; ColoProperty.com, a Colorado real estate search site, moved up 58 places to 212th place; brokerage site Redfin.com moved up 49 places to 48th place; My.Realtor.com moved up 33 places to 75th; real estate brokerage site Movoto.com moved up 23 places to 91st; and real estate blog network ActiveRain.com moved up 16 places to 52nd in the Hitwise rankings.
The top search terms leading to real estate category Web sites during the four-week period ended July 26 were: "Realtor.com," "remax," "zillow.com," "zillow," "real estate," "apartments," "realtor," "coldwell banker," "century 21," and "for sale by owner," in that order.
About 25.6 percent of all visits to real estate category Web sites went to the top-10 category Web sites in July, with 36.9 percent going to the top-20 Web sites and 65.5 percent going to the top-100 sites. The average visit duration for real estate category Web sites in July was 11 minutes, 28 seconds, a slight decrease from 11 minutes, 45 seconds in June.
Real estate category sties that did not appear on the top-100 list in June and joined the top-100 list in July include: my.realtor.com, themls.com, realtyusa.com, movoto.com, curbed.com, circlepix.com, realtor.org, foreclosurestore.com and realestateshows.com.
Real estate category sites that ranked among the top-100 in June but left the list in July include: realtystore.com, livingchoices.com, homefinderconnect.com, newhomesource.com, californiamoves.com, buyatimeshare.com, sibcycline.com, home-listings.org and seniorhousingnet.com.
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Submitted by Jay Thompson on August 19, 2008 - 5:52am.
It would be interesting to see this entire list. I assume it's only available through Hitwise as a for-pay service. Maybe someone at Inman could do a little wheeling and dealing and get it made available for Premium Inman members?
Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty
Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
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Submitted by Mott Marvin Kornicki on August 19, 2008 - 6:53am.
The Internet is growing by the second. It is no surprise that real estate websites that privide timely information, blog and/or network capability and accurate market values will continue to climb the ranks.
Mott Marvin Kornicki, Broker
www.WaterwayRealty.com
305.935.3533 Main Line
Submitted by Daniel Rothamel, the Real Estate Zebra on August 19, 2008 - 6:59am.
Jay,
Hitwise used to release this data on their blog, but I haven't seen it at all this month. I know that you can take a look at the top 10 real estate search terms for free, but after that, I guess everything is a paid benefit.
http://www.RealEstateZebra.com
Submitted by Vincent Spoto on August 19, 2008 - 7:10am.
Vincent Spoto
Does anyone know how traffic volume compares month to month over the past three or four years? One would expect that market conditions should be reflected in traffic volume. Also, one would expect that traffic increase might be a precursor to market turnaround.
Submitted by Joseph Bridges on August 19, 2008 - 1:12pm.
What I think is great is how fast some of these sites move up the ranking. Kind of gives hope for everyone and shows how fluid the Internet really is. It may also say that the consumer is constantly changing what they are looking for in terms of real estate.
I think of note is that the biggest in the business (Realtor.com) has just 7.33% market share. That shows, to me, that this is a big market and that there is plenty of room out there.
Visit the blog at: http://www.InternetRealEstateSuccess.com
Real Estate Resources at: http://www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com
Submitted by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu on August 19, 2008 - 5:10pm.
The biggest of the bunch realtor.com may only have just over 7% of the total searches partly due to the overwhelming use of search engines. While the big sites can spend money to optimize for certain cities, users searching for real estate in smaller, less competitive areas are likely finding useful local sites.
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu
Davis, CA
www.DiscoverDavisHomes.com
Submitted by Todd Beitler on August 20, 2008 - 12:42pm.
Responding to Joseph's comment, "I think of note is that the biggest in the business (Realtor.com) has just 7.33% market share. That shows, to me, that this is a big market and that there is plenty of room out there."
While their market share is impressive, I don't see any how anyone will be able to attain that level of penetration or even keep it very long.
When I started in the foreclosure business, there were 14 websites listed in the search engines. Today there's about 80 million. How can anyone achieve or maintain such a large market share when the online industry contains to fractionalize with so much saturation?
Todd Beitler, President
Real Estate Information Services, Inc.
Submitted by Brett Shaw on August 22, 2008 - 12:53pm.
Brett Shaw from Cyberhomes:
I would also like to see the entire list. It is amazing to see how fast some of these sites move up in the ranking. Most of them I haven't heard of. Judging from the growing popularity of Cyberhomes.com, I would expect that we'll be seeing that ranking soon. Thanks for the update!
Submitted by Jodi Summers on August 24, 2008 - 9:23am.
How does an agent leverage themselves across all these sites?
Do we just focus on the monthly top 10?
Any suggestions anyone has on advanced online marketing and how to best leverage your time and presence, would be greatly appreciated.
best,
Jodi Summers
Sotheby’s International Realty
jodi@jodisummers.com
www.SoCalMultiunitRealEstateBlog.com
www.SoCalGreenRealEstateBlog.com
www.SantaMonicaLandmarks.com
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The real voyage of discovery consists not in making new landscapes but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust