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Realtor.com Still Top Dog - Source Hitwise

In an article that was reporte by Inman news, the latest statistics from Hitwise are out and Realtor.com is still top dog. However, if you've been ignoring some other major players you're missing the boat. Everyone's favorite, "no need for an agent" sites, Zillow and Trulia are in the top 20. With Zillow having a major impact at number 4. Think you might want to reconsider featuring your listing on there? Or how about the Realtor.com featured ad? Think your clients are being served by Realtor.com....

Not so fast. A key number is the marketshare each site has and the difference between 4 and 11 (or Zillow & Trulia - which is .8%) could be mere tenths of a point or huge percentage swings. Which is alot when compared by millions of visitors. So how bad did Realtor.com beat the other sites in the perverbial war of the internet?

Realtor.com has over 8% of the marketshare compared to its nearest competitor Move.com at 2.73% of marketshare. For those that are counting, Realtors account for over 10% of the market share over the pay for sites, FSBO sites or even Company specific sites. Score one for us - say what you will about managing of these sites.

Other Tidbits from the report:

The average visit to real estate Web sites in December was 11 minutes, 38 seconds, up about 30 seconds from November.
27.08% of all visits to the online 'Business and Finance - Real Estate' industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of December 07.
38.77% went to the top 20 websites and 68.12% went to the top 100 websites.

TOP 15 SITES (% of Market Share)

Realtor.com (8.03%)
Move.com (2.73%)
HomeGain (2.34%)
Zillow (2.28%
Remax (tied)
Rent.com (2.12%)
Yahoo! (2.05%)
ZipRlty (1.96%)
Apartments.com (1.84%)
ServiceMagic (1.45%)
Trulia (1.42%)
HUD (1.40%)
MSN (1.25%)
VisualTour.com (1.20%)
Homes.com (1.17%)
C21 (1.17%)

When we look at these reports it's an interesting look at the dynamics of our sites. If you were to dig into the top 1000, sites that were generic or "stealth" sites seemed fare better overall than the name recognition sites, at least "globally." Whereas some company's name are netting them higher traffic allowing them to sell the leads back to their agents, other companies are educating agents how to do their own SEO.

This will be a fun race to watch in '08, among others.

Joshua Jarvis
direct : 770-374-4667

Atlanta Short Sales

Posted by Joshua Jarvis on 01/09/2008 05:46 AM

Comments (17)

seo, website rankings, realtorcom, realtor, move, buyers, sellers, visitors, traffic, market share

17 Comments on Realtor.com Still Top Dog - Source Hitwise

JAN

2008

JJ,

Realtor.com is losing their luster!They over charge,which doesn`t bode well with majority of us.

In fact this is the first time in 7 years, I stopped over compensating them to the tune of $3500. That`s double what I paid in 06.

There are too many sites who are moving up the ladder faster than ever!

RE/MAX's site is tied for 4th with Zillow and everyones listings are on that site. Pretty impressive considering the competition that is out there now. Wonder what happened to RealEstate.com.

Thanks for the great information on who's who in web sites.

Scott - I'm with you on the service and fees, but it's hard to argue with #1.

Miriam - Remax is a household name. It's the coke or pepsi of real estate. If people only have room for 3 real estate names (another article) then it's cut down to two. Of course, I'm not sure how many agents like the idea of their own company using them to gain more market share and then turning around selling the leads back to them. That's another article as well. LOL. That's what this study shows that the top 20 or so are or are striving to be household names and it's working. However, the lionshare of traffic is being divided up by localized specific sites.

Realtor.com ROI is not what I expected.....which is why they tie you to a contract for 12 months.......

Russ - There's even more at Hitwise.com Julie - I'm with you there. I pay to have the listing "enhanced" and maybe get one closing a year from that, but I do it for the exposure - I can honestly attribute showings or closings to Realtor.com - just not buyers or seller leads that turned into closings.

I havn't dished out the fees yet but am debating starting. Just not sure if there is a Canadian calling.

Thanks for the great post I was surprised about move

Well - it must be area specific - I get a fair amount of pretty good leads from realtor.com.

Unfortunately, the blogs I have read concerning Realtor.com is that the "Hits" don't turn into "Leads". Several people on this forum have paid thousands of dollars and have not seen the rate of return yet others believe it is fantastic......

JAN

2008

Realtor.com offers others ads and popups.

And I pay for it?

Being Number 1 with only 8% of the market doesn't float my boat.

That is because no one sits down and runs their own tests! There is a major difference between hits, and unique visits! You have to ask your self are closing sales as a direct result of Realtor.com or are you just throwing away your money because you don't understand it? Most just don't understand it.

JAN

2008

Paul - Ask your counterparts in your area. Seems some people are getting great results, but it may have to do with your locale.

Kevin - Thanks for you post! It's good to see that SOME people are prospering with it.

Mike - It might not float your boat or provide leads, but to miss the fact that 8% market share of such a large market is foolhardy to say the least.

Jim - I'm with you, I'll take the focused qualified leads over sheer hit numbers any day. The article wasn't to promote Realtor.com, but rather to show what's out there. Realtor.com may be where people start, but they crave the localized information that a content rich site like yours has.

Joshua - Noticed your comment to Miriam about RE/MAX selling leads back to their agents - That is not the case. RE/MAX does not charge agents for leads through their internet portal. There is a program called Lead Street where agents are given leads with no charge.