Real Estate Website Traffic Numbers for March '08. Where's Google?

There are 2 kinds of people: Those who think there are 2 kinds of People and those who don't.

There are 2 kinds of Real Estate Websites: Those selling homes (subscription sponsored Websites like Realtor.com and the National Broker Sites) and those selling ads (Big Search Engines, Yahoo Real Estate, and Real Estate Verticals, Zillow and Trulia).

Selling homes is a lot different than selling ads. Zillow and Trulia are much more like network media, than commodity sales. Zillow and Trulia need to drive big time traffic, a home shopper at any stage of interest. Realtor.com and RE/MAX need to drive home buyers, some one who's going to buy a home in the next 30 to 90 days.

The big fear of Big Real Estate is that once the home buyer/shopper voyeurs get used to using Zillow and Trulia to find a home, they will stick with them and their advertisers to buy a home. The Realtor fear that Zillow and Trulia will steal our commission lunch, is now the reality that they will eat our advertising budget.

The traffic numbers for March '08 are much samo-samo with a little of David and Goliath and new kids on the block mixed in. But where's Google Base?

The numbers come from Hitwise and ComScore Media Metrix, the 2 most important media tracking companies for Real Estate Websites. Hitwise focuses primarily on "Market Share" which includes total traffic, most important for Ad Sale Websites. While ComScore focuses more on unique visitors, most important for Home Sale Websites.

On Hitwise, as usual, Move, with their Realtor.com and Move.com Websites based on NAR listing data, had a market share total of 6.63%, over 2x the share of RE/MAX.com, the #2 Website with a 2.85% share.

ZipRealty.com at #5, Century21.com at #13 and ColdwellBanker.com at #18 joined RE/MAX.com as the only National Broker Websites with a top 20 share.

Zillow.com came in at #4, with a 2.2% share, beating Trulia's #11, 1.47% share. Interestingly on ComScore, Trulia ranked #8 in unique visitors, while Zillow ranked #10. Those Bay City Boys are giving those Seattle Microsoft Alumni a run for their VC money.

Locally, in Rochester, NY, if you Google search the full address of a home (pushed out to Trulia), Trulia is #1, and often #2, for its page for the home's Zip Code. Zillow is no where to be found on the first 3 pages of my Google address searches.

Another interesting point is when you Google search on the whole address, at the top of the results page you get a Google Map and Google directions, ie: 220 SANDRINGHAM ROAD Rochester, NY 14610. But when you just search on: 220 SANDRINGHAM ROAD, you don't get a Google Map and Google Directions, unless you go to the first result, www.trulia.com/property/37266652-220-Sandringham-Rd-Rochester-NY-14610. Trulia is a Google Enterprise Partner using Google Maps, Google Direct ons and Google Ads. Google Analytics, anyone?

Trulia was early using SEO and putting the whole street address in the detail page's domain name. Trulia now enjoys an edge on Zillow, which is just now converting over to using the address and not just their own tracking number. Interestingly Move.com has a beta for Realtor.com, incorporating the Town, State and Zip Code in the Realtor.com domain.

Should you have directions on your home detail page? Should you push your listing data out to Trulia and Zillow? Should you put your picture and profile with your listing data on Trulia and Zillow (It's free, not like Realtor.com)?

Avoid these features at your own peril.

Trulia and Zillow, Our lunch is waiting.

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Comments

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Clifford,

I recently tried to analyze Trulia and Zillow myself. Between these two posts, it pretty much took care of a complete analysis. I'm going to add you to my blog roll tonight because you have a great writing style. Looking forward to reading what you have to say...

[Ed]

where can we find the complete march 2008 comscore real estate site rankings?

Thanks, Ed

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