PORTALS
“We can get onto portals with 180 million searches a month.” It’s not hard work. Using DezRez
(as Think Property does) or any of the other platforms, an agent can run the feeds to numerous portals from the in-house system. However, Peter Joseph warns, “You do find that some of the platforms are not that happy to feed to all the smaller portals. You really don’t want to be putting properties on manually.” It’s worth noting that many smaller portals are now making themselves available via standard feeds. For instance PropertyPenguin can accept Rightmove, Globrix, or fish4homes formats, among others. Doug Shephard, business
development director at search engine
home.co.uk says, “A lot of smaller portals, like homesonview, Country Life, and PropertyLive, are still thriving.” He believes many have overlooked their attractions; besides, he says, “with the smaller ones you can often get on for free.” He also believes it’s quite viable
for an agent not to use Rightmove. North-East England agent Pattinson, he says, “doesn’t use either Rightmove or Findaproperty; instead, it uses Zoomf and
Mouseprice.com,” as well as PropertyPenguin, a portal targeted specifically on the North-East. With 29 branches, Pattinson is
quite a large chain, so this isn’t only a strategy for the smaller agent.
Bags of choice There’s a great deal of choice out there below the top four or five. However, the available choices include a number of different business models; there are property listings, free and paid-for portals, and search engines, as well as portals associated with affinity groups or print publications (such as PropertyLive, the NAEA site, and Country Life). A few, like homesonview and Vebra, are run by property software firms, as a service mainly for their clients. Some, like
home.co.uk and Nestoria, aim to be as comprehensive as possible; while others, like SmartNewHomes, Country Life, and PeriodProperty, are tightly targeted. Choosing the right selection of portals, therefore, isn’t as easy a task as it might seem.
Page views are only the raw material; it’s
conversions that really matter.
Trinity Mirror was early into the
portal space, but its digital properties never quite hit the top spot. However, Smart New Homes has created a strong niche, and has responded to tough times in the market by raising its game. Steve Lees, director at Smart New
Homes, says, “There is life there! The site has evolved according to the demands of the market, helping promote what our clients do.” For instance, the plethora of
special offers from developers has led to changes in the site to reflect what’s available, and a discrete affordable housing section has been added, though advertising for affordable homes is also integrated to the main site. Although it’s the property listings that drive any site, Steve Lees points
A lot of smaller portals, like homesonview and Country Life are thriving.” doug shephard
home.co.uk
out that page views are only the raw material; it’s conversions that matter. So SNH has set out to use client registrations imaginatively, for instance by creating a First Time Buyers’ Club which offers handholding for those using the government FirstBuy scheme, as well as sending out emails and providing expert advice forums. Editorial content and newsletters should improve ‘stickiness’ as well as driving higher conversion rates, but that’s something many of the smaller portals don’t offer; nor do the vertical search engines. SNH focuses on developers and,
increasingly, housing associations, rather than estate agents, as its clients. “We fit better for a developer’s needs than an agent’s,” Steve Lees says. Development videos and virtual
site visits can be embedded on the site, and major developments also have their own microsites. “You can bed content into your development page and the individual property page,” he says, “We’re always looking at ways to enrich our users’ experience.” SNH now represents 75 to 80 per
cent of the market, down from 85 PROPERTYdrum FEBRUARY 2012 21
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