Today we are proud to release a new report produced in cooperation with RealTrends, the highly regarded research and consulting organization headed by Steve Murray: "The Top Ten Real Estate Brokerage Websites in America."
You can download the full report here (be patient–the download may take a couple minutes.)
You can also view the report online here, on Scribd.
This report was compiled over a three month period, during which we examined the websites of every company on RealTrend’s 2008 "RealTrends 500" list, which ranks the largest brokerage companies in America.
There are no doubt smaller shops that offer excellent websites. And many of you will offer your own picks. And that’s the point: As we note in our introduction:
"We hope this report serves as encouragement for brokerage companies that seek to create websites commensurate to their already considerable offline success. We do not pretend to have the last word, and recognize that there will be legitimate disagreement over our findings. Let this then be the first word in a long and fruitful conversation. The real estate experience matters. We can do better. Brokers can do better."
We hope you enjoy the report.
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A mist of difference
Freaking...
I think it is interesting that the sites you picked are not all the best google ranked or even ranked at all.
you should check out http://www.bocaexecutiverealty.com as a better choice than corcoran for the South Florida market
Bear in mind, we did not base our list on ranking, volume of business or how much money was spent building the site. We based this solely on the criteria we established in the report that would mark the site as a good consumer destination.
Ranking and other criteria, are not factors consumers consider.
I'm guessing David works for said firm. It must be a bummer having no income coming in from your leach like profession.
Good information.
In my opinion, a website cannot be characterized 'the best' unless search-engine friendliness is taken into consideration. It is an objective measure that could be incorporated into your criteria.
It does a company little good to create an attractive website which cannot be found by consumers. SEF follows the same logic as the point that was made about browser compatibility–if a large percentage of users cannot view the site, that is a big strike against it.
I think 'user-friendly' is a more apt characterization websites on this list.
We share a difference of opinion here in two areas: 1)A site can't be best with taking in SEO friendliness and 2)The site not being by consumers.
Most important to us and this particular analysis was designed around the consumer experience based on the standard mechanics of building a good, solid, usable website. Period.
While some of these sites employed strong SEO, the reality is many of the elements used in real estate to garner ranking also ruin the usability.
But considering the volume of sites we analyzed, and the vast amount of severe issues the site possessed outside of SEO, measuring SEO and the process required would have made the project unbearably difficult if not impossible. And, in our opinion, not what this exercise was about.
As for the site not being found by consumers, well… I would respectfully disagree on that. Most of the brokers on the list, if not all, are name brands in their market with high volumes of sales fueled by generations of mass marketing materials that bring considerable traffic to their websites. When you do billions in sales, consumers are indeed finding these sites.
Don't get me wrong, SEO is clearly a viable strategy which we respect and recommend and perhaps become a study we will consider undertaking someday.
Thanks for your contribution.
Checked out the boca executive realty website David endorsed. In my opinion it is too busy and the need to scroll from right to left is not user friendly.
http://www.bocaexecutiverealty.com. This site feels like it was desgined inside a Crayola factory that exploded. But… and honestly, it has the makings of great website.
Search by schools rocks.
Listings of country clubs
Gated Communities
Content galore!
Missing from this site is organization. Honestly, a simple wireframe that reorganizes their information and a new design that says 2009 rather than 1992 is all this site needs for the most part.
One other recommendation is some acknowledgment of the markets condition. Let's face it folks, Boca and for that matter most of Florida is hard hit by the state of our economic affairs. There is an air of transparency missing from this site that we would advise the firm to consider employing.
BocaExecutiveRealty.com is one of our competitors down here… We did our site almost 2 years ago with minimal changes since then and receive more natural search traffic than any other site in South Florida and get compliments every day about the usability. I think we've come pretty close to mixing both consumer friendliness and SEO friendliness…
Per what David's comment related to, it's interesting that there are a lot of real estate websites that are non-existent on Google and have virtually no PR but kick "you know what" because of their universal ads and USP that drive visitors to their site. Some of the sites on the list probably do well locally in their own respective markets because of their "brand" recognition.
Exactly. Remember folks, nothing out there was perfect. Everyone had some flaws. It's the nature of the beast that is real estate peppered with politics, agents issues, MLS issues, cost factors., etc.
As long as we keep our criticisms constructive unlike Jim Rosen whose comment is not appreciated, all will benefit.
Marc,
Your points are well taken.
Right, analyzing each of 500 sites on SEO factors could be an arduous task (although a lot could be automated).
True–companies that employ a large amount of offline advertising or enjoy a huge brand name recognition advantage can drive people to their website regardless of SEO. Still, I don't think a 'best website' should have to rely on outside advertising to generate sales. The 'best' website should be effective at generating sales independently.
I think the combination of good design, engaging copy and functionality, usability and SEO is the ideal that we should all be shooting for (and as you mentioned there is a lot of room for improvement for everyone).
Not that I disagree Brett, but the point here is the average consumer doesn't look at a site and say "wow, their SEO strategy rocks!"
I want to state this clearly for the records, we took the Joe the Plumber view rather than Sundeep the technician.
All we focused on for this study is how easy it was to find what a consumer what look for and not how easy it was for the consumer to find the site.
And given the fact that these are all Real Trends 500 sites, with major market share and brand awareness, the SEO angle seemed moot.
Again, that is not what this study was about.
And to your very last point Brett, this is exactly why we did not choose a #1. A great site in totality is a combination of great design, engaging copy and functionality, usability and SEO.
Marc,
I'm getting ready to delve into redesigning my site. I think the information in this report will help me tremendously. I'm looking for the right "feel" for the site. Of the sites you reviewed, which ones do you think had the right design and navigation structure going?
I can look past their faults, and I know several of them probably didn't make it because of failing in other areas, but I'm looking for something to create that spark inside my head…Any help would be greatly appreciated!
While content is king so is the consumer. Quick, easy maneuverability without having to register, sign in, get a password or have to unlock the gate to the information makes all the difference in the world. Being where the consumer wants to go next is where we must be. Anticipating their next click and having the button to click keeps them coming back and increases agent Lead Generation. Great report.
Seth,
Of the 500 sites we reviewed we felt the 9 we picked offered the best of all the criteria and offered a feel that works for each of the firms we chose.
To achieve great feel Seth, the most important task at the onset is creating a wire frame for your site that properly positions the most important elements of your firm alongside clear and simple language that allows the user to completely understand who you are, what your offering and how it will benefit them.
A great feel is going to come the successful attempt at marrying these components. No one site got it perfect but yet all 9 sites we chose each offered a different version of what that feel is so it would be hard to point to one site and say "that's the best way" because while it might be the best way for them, it could very well be a terrible way for you.
Great list guys!
I think the conversation about seo is an important one and certainly friendliness to google bot and incorporation of something like a blog should be taken into consideration. BUT at the same time you may have an awesome website and be doing quite well for yourself and your brokerage only consist of 5 people in norther Alaska which will more than likely index worse (if you simply look at something like page rank) than a brokerage with an AWFUL website in NY that has 500 agents.
Anyway, can't wait to see this list grow and evolve over time and hopefully push the quality of offerings for Realtors forward (if us vendors get on board
You made the point for us Chris. SEO is important and it get's people to find the site. But what good is it is the site is poorly designed or harbors mediocre content. SEO is a given. Seems to me everyone knows that. What now appears obvious is the very thing we focused on – getting the site itself in order.
Thanks
PMZ Real Estate feels VERY privileged to be considered one of the top real estate websites in America. We started our website back in 1997 and have always kept our technology and design in-house, enabling us to be dynamic and original.
Thanks for the constructive comments and we will continue to push forward to give our clients the best experience online.
I think that it was an interesting analysis of brokerage sires, and the new tools that are becoming a standard. Do you think that individual agent websites fall under a different category? Is that somewhere you might venture into creating a top 10?
Riverside,
Creating a top 10 list of agents sites would be virtually impossible given the vast amount of them spread across the web. In fact, creating a top 10 brokerage of all the brokerage sites on the web would also have been equally as daunting had we not carved it from the Real Trends broker 500 list.
Even though I'm no longer at Intero Real Estate any more, I still felt a little pride in seeing them at #5 on your list. We worked very hard with Ash and his Terabitz team to provide consumers with technology that had not been seen in the industry before coupled with a graphically pleasing site design.
Thank you for sharing your findings. I think it brings up some interesting insights that definitely provide for additional analysis.
The "Takeaways" section on what can be implemented now, is particularly helpful. Too often people try to be innovative without thought for function or usability, which just turns people away. I always say that "people are a click away from someone who makes it easier".
I look forward to sharing your report with our community so people can model off of your research and findings.
I also think "riverside' might have a point as well about a list of top agent websites out there might be good. Tough to find a good control group on that one, but I am sure there would be some similarities, but also some wide differences in the aspects of branding and providing of information.
I'm surprised to not see Zip Realty on your list. Their site seems well designed, with strong search and other tools including web 2.0 features. What was the rationale for that?
Zip Realty was considered and received high grades in many areas. However, what kept it out of the top 10 was the default to a map search and the requirement to register to view photos of the properties which I did and was then assaulted by a drip email campaign that was difficult to turn off without have to make several calls to the agent and then corporate.
In the end, we failed to see how that experience lends itself to the enhancement of the consumer interests.
Thanks for the info, if you dont mind I would like to share this site: about IVF , in return.,
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