Anybody else noticed Realtor.com is doing PPC

[Ryan Ward]

I think as with all things like this - it's easy to get caught up in the numbers and not look past it, but, we must. So let's look at this the way a consumer would....

I'm shopping for a new home. Hmm where should I start? I know. realtor.com......

What happens next? Well, that's easy of course. They quickly see that the info is bad, hard to read and limited. I know what I do as a consumer and we all know that this is what they do as well. They hit Home.

This takes them to a new opportunity to search for homes. This time they think, I will be more specific. since I know I am moving to Atlanta, let's try "atlanta real estate"

This is where the big ugly genreic "city real estate" terms can be quite useful. If you have a clean, easy to navigate site with a solid MLS listing database you have now found a consumer that sticks. you have local info, you are local and they can contact a person if they wish.

If that's not good enough, they can go even more local. Even better for chasing after logtails. How many longtails does r.com come up in? umm....none in my market.

So really, just because someone starts at r.com doesn't really mean anything. If they had a better user interface with real MLS numbers and addresses and things that consumers actually want, they might be more of a headache.

[Bob Crain]

At least they havn't taken over our area yet. I don't see them much in the serps in Bellingham.

I just did a search for Bellingham Wa real estate and realtor.com is #10 in the sponsored search results.

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...wa+real+estate

For all you agents in Bellingham WA who are buying featured listings or any of R's other marketing tools AND doing PPC...

The reason why your PPC budget is so big is because YOU are paying your competition to bid up the PPC listings.

[Bob Crain]

Ref: Hitwise numbers:

I noticed that out of all the top search terms shown ... realtor. com was the only one that had a .com shown in the search.

Now, color me suspicious but I have to question the relevance of this top position.

Has realtor .com become a generic term.

Who is making these search inquiries ... consumers or realtors?

No,

Many people don't realize how to use the internet. They type a URL into the various serps instead of typing it into the address bar.

It also goes to show you the importance of having a good short URL.

[Susan Zanzonico]

I think R's short url is the key for consumers in NJ...its easy to remember and spell. GSMLS for the public is a much better site as its up to date, many of my clients don't know about it.

[ericbramlett]

I really don't care about national search statistics. Show me the % of searches that were "city real estate." What % of searches are long tails that R will never rank for?

Or better yet...how 'bout R.com shows us their localized traffic? That could shut all of us up quickly, if it were in their favor.

My biggest beef w/ R.com is that it represents us, as Realtors, poorly. While many of us are very savvy, the average (tech savvy) Joe would look at R.com and think we're an organization of technological dinosaurs getting ready to be passed in evolution by zillow, trulia, et al.

And btw - if you're curious about the metro areas that R.com is shooting for, take a look at their footer. Pretty proud that we're all killing them in Austin!

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

look at this listing i found on r.com

http:// homes.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?pg=1&ctid=27116&typ=7F&sid=c1c1 1d62651a4282a3e30f1e620808fb&lid=1093227258&lsn=2& srcnt=9460#Detail

[Joe Cline Austin]

Yeah. I'm glad we in Austin must be considered a second tier city to realtor.com. I just did several searches on G/Y/Live and didn't find a single Realtor.com sponsored listing for our area!

Joe