Inman

Coldwell Banker climbs real estate Web rankings

Coldwell Banker Real Estate’s ColdwellBanker.com Web site soared to eighth place in a monthly ranking of real estate sites by online metrics company Hitwise — the site had sat at 18th on the list for several months.

LoopNet, a commercial real estate search site, jumped onto the top-20 list for the first time, rising from 24th place in August to 20th in September.

No other sites on the top-20 list climbed or fell more than two places in the rankings from August to September.

The market share of visits to top-ranking real estate site Realtor.com dropped from 7.04 percent in August to 6.63 percent in September, Hitwise reported.

Yahoo’s realestate.yahoo.com site gained in market share, rising from 2.63 percent in August to 3.51 percent in September.

Zillow was third with 2.52 percent market share and ZipRealty was fourth with a 2.13 percent market share of site visits to real estate category sites.

Nine Web sites joined the top-100 list of real estate category sites in September that were not on the list in August. FrontDoor.com, a real estate search site and information site that is operated by Scripps Networks and integrates content from the Home & Garden Television network and the HGTV.com Web site, jumped from its 101st ranking in August to 46th in September.

Homes-justlisted.com rose from 116th in August to 66th in September, and other sites joining the top-100 list included: buyatimeshare.com (from 161st to 67th); lead.mbrokertools.com (129th to 80th); harrynorman.com (709th to 82nd); the Inman News Web site, sandbox.inman.com (209th to 85th), landsofamerica.com (164th to 94th), the National Association of Realtors Web site, realtor.org (106th to 96th); and sibcycline.com (104th to 98th).

Sites that dropped off the top-100 list in September include: sublet.com (from 83rd in August to 104th in September), crye-leike.com (87th to 113th), realtyusa.com (88th to 102nd), lakehouse.com (91st to 117th), seniorhousingnet.com (93rd to 109th), circlepix.com (94th to 105th), nhmsi.com (95th to 110th), ehbsr.com (98th to 130th), and wyndhamvacationresorts.com (99th to 115th).

About 65.6 percent of all visits to real estate Web sites went to the top-100 Web sites in that category in September, Hitwise reported, with 36.8 percent of visits going to the top-20 Web sites and 25.1 percent going to the top-10 Web sites in that category, which is comparable to the August statistics.

The average visit duration to real estate category Web sites was 11 minutes, 24 seconds in September, compared with 11 minutes, 36 seconds in August, and 11 minutes, 28 seconds in July.

"Realtor.com" was the top real estate search term sending traffic to real estate category Web sites during the four-week period ending Sept. 27, 2008, followed by: "remax," "zillow," "real estate," "zillow.com," "realtor," "coldwell banker," "century 21," "apartments," and "remax.com homes for sale."

The Hitwise report also lists several "Fast Movers," or Web sites that have climbed quickly in the real estate Web rankings during a four-month period ending in September.

The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Web site, at leadingre.com, climbed 1,083 places during that period to rank 318th — the site features property listings information supplied by independent real estate firms.

Fidelity National Real Estate’s realestate.fnf.com site, which offers information about real estate industry and consumer tools and services, moved up 745 places on the list, to 1,261st.

RealSeekr.com, a real estate search and networking site, moved up 709 places to 1,092nd in the rankings. Leslieandassoc.com, a real estate brokerage company based in Asheville, N.C., moved up 627 places on the list to 1,098th.

Transparent Real Estate, a real estate blog site at TransparentRE.com, rose 595 places, to 1,203rd. Other "Fast Movers" include: Grojean Realty and Insurance Agency site at grojeanagency.com (up 572 places to 861st); landsofnevada.com (up 544 places to 1,050th); allhud.com (up 473 places to 921st); sandbox.inman.com (up 124 places to 85th); and landsofamerica.com (up 70 places to 94th).

Hitwise Sept. 2008 Real Estate Web Site Rankings

Sept. ’08 rank

Web site

Aug. ’08 rank

1

www.realtor.com

1

2

realestate.yahoo.com

2

3

www.zillow.com

3

4

www.ziprealty.com

4

5

www.rent.com

6

6

www.remax.com

5

7

www.servicemagic.com

7

8

www.coldwellbanker.com

18

9

www.hud.gov

10

10

www.homegain.com

8

11

www.trulia.com

9

12

www.apartments.com

11

13

www.century21.com

13

14

www.realtytrac.com

12

15

www.homes.com

14

16

realestate.msn.com

15

17

www.mynewplace.com

17

18

www.visualtour.com

16

19

www.forrent.com

19

20

www.loopnet.com

24

Source: Hitwise.

***

What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.