Competition among national real estate sites is very competitive, to say the least. Keeping track of the top 10 visited each month is an obsession, since it has such a direct bearing on advertising revenue. According to Hitwise, a national tracking service, the sites with the highest market shares in the month of November 2008 were:

1. Realtor.com
2. Yahoo Real Estate
3. Zillow.com
4. ZipRealty.com
5. Rent.com
6. RE/MAX.com
7. HomeGain.com
8. Service Magic.com
9. US Dept of Housing and Urban Development
10. RealtyTrac.com

The interesting thing about these results, however, is that most people who eventually are ready to buy a home do local searches. For example, someone searching in southern Maine will start with a key word search like "Portland Maine Real Estate". That is why we have devoted ourselves to search engine optimization (SEO) on a local and regional level. Any search of important key words will result in you finding our website MaineHomeConnection near the top of the organic search results.

When it comes to national real estate websites, one thing to keep in mind is that it is all about advertising. That is essentially their only revenue stream. Local real estate websites do not focus on advertising, but rather on providing information that people need and want when making home buying and selling decisions.

For example, we have devoted countless hours creating rich content that helps potential buyers understand the Maine real estate market. Although this may sound self-serving, special features such as Relocation Services, Community Profiles and Maine Waterfront Real Estate are customer centric first and foremost.