There were more online searches made by UK consumers in May for places to buy as opposed to rent, according to the latest quarterly analysis of online search data by independent search and social marketing consulting and technology firm Greenlight.
Its report, ‘Real Estate Sector Report May 2010’, also reveals that when it came to sales by location, Scotland proved the most sought after region. Edinburgh was most popular followed by Glasgow then Aberdeen. Cumulatively, they accounted for 19% of all location-specific sales keyword searches.
Using industry data and proprietary technology, Greenlight identified and classified 2,800 of the most popular search terms used by UK consumers when they went online in May to look for accommodation to rent or buy. The research profiled generic lettings keywords, generic sales keywords, lettings by location and sales by location. Greenlight also used the data to compile its quarterly league table of the top 60 real estate companies and aggregators, in both ‘natural’ and ‘paid’ search, based on their website’s visibility in relation to the most popular search terms. Greenlight also ranked the 15 most proactive real estate brands and aggregators in social media.
There were 1.7 million searches performed for real estate-related keywords. This was a 10% increase since April, when over 1.5 million searches were made. Of the total, 681,000 consumer searches were sales-related whilst 630,000 were for lettings. This compares to 619,000 and 1.3 million, respectively, in February.
The term ‘Houses for sale’ accounted for 301,000 searches in May, which was 17% of all real estate-related searches, compared to 13% in February. In fact, 75% of all generic sales searches consisted of just three keywords, ‘Houses for sale’, ‘Property for sale’ and ‘Home for sale’. Websites which achieved visibility for those few terms secured much of the overall share of voice.
Overall, RightMove was the most visible real estate website in natural search, achieving 80% visibility. It was also the most visible site for sales-related searches, achieving a dominant 99% visibility through ranking at position one for 25 keywords.
For sales by location, the terms ‘Edinburgh property’ and ‘Glasgow property’ were searched for 22,200 times each. Cumulatively they accounted for 16% of a total of 283,000 location-specific searches. FindaProperty was the most visible website for sales by location achieving 47% visibility.
Searches for rental by location accounted for 150,000 searches with London featuring in 16% followed by Glasgow with 5% then Edinburgh (4%). Zoopla was the most visible advertiser in paid search achieving 67% visibility.
