Monday, March 8th, 2010
Since publishing our series of blog articles about which commercial property websites are leading the way, we have had a number of requests asking to have all the articles in one place. We have now created a pdf file containing all the analysis and comment for you to download:
As always, if you have any questions or comments please contact us.
Monday, March 8th, 2010
(Part 5/5)
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 1: Website Grader’
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 3: Site Traffic’
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 4: The Top 100’
This is the final part in this blog series. Previously we have looked at the marketing effectiveness ratings of UK commercial property websites according to WebsiteGrader.com, at Google Page Rank and at inbound links (according to Alexa.com). We then looked at traffic both globally and from the UK (again according to Alexa.com). For anyone still awake and interested this is how we went about compiling the list.
Compiling the List of companies
We couldn’t find a generic list of top 100 UK commercial property companies on the internet so the first challenge was to come up with a list of top UK based commercial property search engines. In order to do this we looked at three different things:
Mailing List – we were provided with a mailing list of commercial property companies by MJM Marketing Ltd (who specialise in mailings and mailing lists for the UK commercial property marketplace) for which we are very grateful. We then compiled a list of all the companies that appeared on this list and that had 50 or more employees.
NovaLoca – we then asked NovaLoca for a list of any agent that had over 100 properties listed on NovaLoca.com and added any that didn’t appear on the mailing list data.
Google – we then undertook a few generic Google searches (“Commercial Property”, “Commercial Property UK”, “Industrial Property”) and looked at the first few pages of the search results and added any companies that did not already appear to the list.
We then made some decisions on which URLs to exclude from the list and used the following principles:
1. For any company site where they had two sites, we used the higher rated site. An example of this would be www.edwinhill.co.uk and www.altus-edwinhill.com – we took www.edwinhill.co.uk
2. We excluded sites where they either have very few instances of commercial property or are a portal where the primary focus is residential property. An example being www.findaproperty.com.
3. We excluded any site where the predominant raison d’etre is to market businesses rather than commercial properties. Examples being www.rightbiz.co.uk and www.daltonsbusiness.com.
4. We excluded sites which may be focused on commercial property but where they did not market commercial property. Examples being www.rics.org and www.communities.gov.uk.
Following the analysis we then drew an arbitrary line at a round number of companies close to a websitegrader score of 50/100.
We are sure that we are missing some (probably obvious) companies for which we can only apologise and assure you that this is inadvertent. We may repeat this exercise on a regular basis and if we do we would like to improve the list so please email me at neil@thetechnologystudio.co.uk if you have any suggested inclusions for next time.
Deciding on what metrics to use
When doing this analysis we were really looking to find a trusted independent third party who could provide data on all the commercial property websites. One obvious choice was Alexa.com which has become the gold standard in comparing website traffic. Alexa is a company owned by Amazon.com that has built a database of information about sites that includes statistics, related links and more. All of this information can be found on Alexa’s site overview pages, traffic detail pages and related links pages. You can look at all the parameters over one month, three months, six months or a year. Balancing recency against a robust time period, we opted for last three months.
The next choice was to use Google’s page rank which is an indicator of the relative value Google places on a website relative to a comparable website. This is available through the Google toolbar.
The last choice was less easy and we looked across the web to find a company that specialised in not just giving data on traffic but also analysed how good the site is for SEO. My theory was that you can have a poor site for a big international brand and a fantastic site for a small regional brand and based on traffic, back links, page rank etc, the bigger, poorer site would score better. However, it would be the small company that would be arguably the more successful in the digital marketplace. We looked at quite a few solutions but in the end arrived at WebsiteGrader. WebsiteGrader is a free SEO tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective. It is owned and operated by HubSpot who are a specialist internet marketing company.
Timing
Alexa traffic ranks, Google Page ranks and WebsiteGrader ranks can all change on a relatively frequent basis so we gathered all the stats over a relatively short period of one week between Tuesday 16th and Thursday 25nd February 2010. Please note that if you go and check any of the data now, it will have changed at least slightly but this may be perfectly natural due to the ebb and flow of traffic etc.
Reporting any inaccuracies
This is the first time we have looked at pulling together research such as this (though we may make it a semi regular thing depending on the feedback). If you find any errors or would like to make any comments on how we could have improved this, please let me know and we will endeavour to make restitution and to apologise in advance. Please contact me via email at neil@thetechnologystudio.co.uk.
Friday, March 5th, 2010
(Part 4/5)
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 1: Website Grader’
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 3: Site Traffic’
In the previous parts of this blog series we looked at the marketing effectiveness ratings of UK commercial property websites according to WebsiteGrader.com, at Google Page Rank and at inbound links (according to Alexa.com). We then looked at traffic both globally and from the UK (again according to Alexa.com). Now it’s time to put all these together and reveal the top 100 UK commercial property websites.
But, before revealing the list, let me explain how we came up with it: Firstly, we have ordered it by the web sites’ WebsiteGrader ranking (as this series of blog articles was really about who excels at marketing UK commercial property in the digital space and not who has the biggest company). We then included their Google page rank, global traffic rank, UK traffic rank and the number of inbound links they have (according to Alexa.com). So, sit back and enjoy…
This is the bit where we rant on about SEO and usability and how important they are… well maybe a bit. Here are a few thoughts for those trying to really succeed in the UK commercial property digital marketplace.
1. Being national helps, being international helps even more
The Google algorithm likes big sites with lots of indexed pages. It also likes well established sites. However, it especially likes lots of relevant and high page rank sites linking to your site (non reciprocal links). It is much easier for you to achieve this if you have national, or better still international, presence or have another helpful way of doing this (e.g. being part of a publishing group like EGPropertyLink).
2. You have to fight really hard to beat the big boys and portals - but be smart and fight hard in your areas of strength
You can try and compete for the search term “commercial property” or “commercial property London” but good luck. If you are a regional or local agent you almost certainly can’t beat the big boys but you really CAN compete in your locality for search terms such as “Industrial Units in Accrington”. If you type this in (and we really did pick this at random) the first on the list is www.taylorweaver.co.uk, the second is www.thomasvshaw.co.uk and the third is NovaLoca. This is because NovaLoca’s SEO strategy was to target hundreds of thousands of keyword combinations rather than the most popular – it is no surprise therefore that only less than 10% of visitors arrive on NovaLoca’s home page as most arrive on a page much more targeted to their search terms.
3. Marketing Effectiveness is not just about traffic
As we have mentioned before, it is one thing to appear as high as possible on a Google search, but it is quite another to create a compelling experience when a user makes it to your site. You need to think hard about page layout, calls to action, usability, language, ease of search, the right information at the right time, maximising conversions, tracking usage and ongoing development. A website is often seen as a product that can be launched and ignored for two or three years. This is not true if you really want to drive ROI.
4. There are 30 commercial property websites with a UK presence that Website Grader puts in the top 10% of marketing effectiveness worldwide
This means that the competition is challenging and improving all the time and it takes lots of effort to get further up this list. Emerging technologies are really playing a part in this too (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, iphone apps, blogs) and you really need to have a strong view on where you are going to focus your energies to maximise your returns. It really isn’t about building a pretty website and then putting it on a URL – “Build it and they will come” is alright for Kevin Costner (Field of Dreams) but it doesn’t work in the real world.
5. If you work really hard you can beat the odds
There is hope. We like stories like NovaLoca, Paramount Investments and UK commercial agents like Gerald Eve who all beat EGPropertyLink in terms of their websitegrader score. They may not beat them in terms of UK or global traffic but we bet you that where they focus their energies is their localities and their specialism’s they are really winning. It takes initiative, innovation, focus and frankly a lot of hard work, but it is possible.
6. If you are going to focus your energies on one thing, make it back links
It has long been known that back links are massively important to Google. In many ways this is because they are the greatest compliment that can be paid in the impersonal world of the internet, but it is mostly because they are so difficult to get if you want them and don’t have them. What’s more, your web developers can’t just get them for you no matter how much money you throw at them. Yes, you can register on press release sites and directories but generally people only link back to you if you have something valuable to say or offer. A good example is NovaLoca who launched Street Level View in the UK a full four months before Google did in partnership with a small Italian company called Seety. This didn’t create the huge PR that Google did but it certainly provided some press coverage and some good back links.
7. If you receive an email that says something like “We guarantee to get you to the top of Google”, our advice is to delete it immediately
It just isn’t possible to guarantee anything with Google (or any other search engine) and anyone who promises to is just after your cash. Page ranks go up and down, back links are so important (but not under your control) and SEO is so much about what you do as a company and how much effort you are prepared to invest. The best strategy is to find a technology partner who knows what they are doing and who knows their limitations and then works extremely hard on both technical and non technical SEO activities. Then watch what happens. A good rule of thumb is try ten things and probably two will be really valuable – you just won’t know which two until you try!
If you want to know more about why your site appears where it does on the list, if you want to explore the data in more detail, if you want to complain about an inaccuracy or hopefully most importantly you want to chat about how you can get the most out of your digital marketing spend then please feel free to get in touch with me directly:
Neil Osmond
email me at neil@thetechnologystudio.co.uk
call me at 0845 642 9885
follow/contact me on twitter @mredonny
skype me at neil.osmond
or please feel free to comment on this blog article.
Read ‘Who leads the way for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 5: Methodology’
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
(Part 3/5)
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 1: Website Grader’
In the previous parts of this blog series we looked at the marketing effectiveness ratings of UK commercial property websites according to WebsiteGrader.com and at Google Page Rank and inbound links (according to Alexa.com). Now we turn our attention to website traffic.
Using Alexa.com (established as the most used website for traffic stats) we looked at the rank (in terms of traffic) both globally and for UK based visitors. The following table looks at the global traffic rank (e.g. google.com is ranked at number 1):
This definitely weights towards the multinational commercial property organisations such as CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Instant Offices, Jones Laing LaSalle & Chesterton. This therefore begs an obvious next question: “What does this table look like if we looked at UK traffic figures?” (which is what we are focussing on in this analysis). Does this change the list much?
The following table outlines ranking for UK traffic only:
The simple answer is that 75% of the companies are the same as the global list. However, you do see significant differences. For example:
Scottish Property, Eddisons, Commercial Property Database, Goadsby, and Bidwells make it onto the list despite their UK only focus. However, as an example we would like to use Paramount Investments which comes in 23rd on the list. Paramount Investments are a commercial property investment consultancy based in London whose online marketing is an example of what it takes to punch well above your weight on this list. They track and monitor their search engine positioning on keywords such as “Freehold Pubs for Sale” and publish market leading blogs with the latest news and information on their specialist commercial property investment niches. Then they collate their KPIs (traffic sources, conversions, leads, click through rates) and implement changes that impact on their top and bottom line.
It is probably those that disappear from the list that are more interesting. These are CBRE (#2), Cushman & Wakefield (#3), Jones Lang LaSalle (#6), DTZ (#12) and The Crown Estate (#20). This really demonstrates the value of localised SEO activity and how Google’s algorithm is very specific to search terms and location. Just because you have a Google Page Rank of 7, WebsiteGrader score of 98/100 and rank #3 on the global traffic list (as Cushman & Wakefield do), you are not guaranteed a first page slot on Google when searching for “Offices in Basingstoke”.
This list also shows how UK focused portals really come into their own, probably due to their targeted SEO efforts, combined with their nationally distributed, larger property portfolios. EGPropertyLink, ShopProperty and NovaLoca all appear in the top 10 sites for traffic in the UK.
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 4: The Top 100’
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
(Part 2/5)
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 1: Website Grader’
In the previous part of this blog series we looked at the marketing effectiveness ratings of UK commercial property websites according to WebsiteGrader.com. In this part we will be looking at how Google views the value of commercial property web sites using Google Page Rank as the metric for doing this. Please note that we could look at other search engines but given Google is the dominant player, we assume that if you rank well for the Google search term it follows you probably will for other search engines.
Now a lot has been written about page rank and its importance (or otherwise) but there is no doubt that this is the most public indicator of the value of a site to Google. However, it does not automatically follow that a site with a page rank of 5 will listed above a site with a page rank of 3 on a search results page. A search on the term “Commercial Property” in google.co.uk today (22nd Feb 2010 @15:10) shows www.ukbusinessproperty.co.uk as second on the list despite it having a page rank of 2 (and despite 74 of this list having a page rank of 3 or above). There is a lot more to SEO than a good page rank for one keyword or term. However, the companies in the list with a page rank of 5 or above are listed below:
Some surprises again?
EGPropertyLink – doesn’t even feature on this list as it has a page rank of 4. Despite this, it still commands a lot of traffic and when searching on the term “Commercial Property” in Google.co.uk today (22nd Feb 2010 @15:10) it shows first on the list. However, it does probably mean that for less popular, more local, keywords such as “Industrial units in Aldershot” (we promise we picked this at random) it doesn’t rank as highly as NovaLoca, ComProperty and many local agents (EGPropertyLink’s first entry is 26th on the list).
The Crown Estate – this is similar to Land Securities as it seems to punch well above its weight in terms of page rank (and WebsiteGrader result). Looking more carefully this high ranking is probably mainly due to the quantity and quality of the 221 inbound links from other websites according to Alexa.com (which include high ranking sites such as Google.com, BBC.co.uk, Guardian.co.uk, Economist.com, and sky.com). It really shows the importance Google places on inbound links.
But not such a surprise …
The top 20 here are probably more representative of a list of top commercial property organisations in the UK than the previous section. This is almost certainly because the larger the company, the more likely you are to have inbound links to your site from well viewed sites (news stories, blogs etc.). It shows how hard it is for smaller organisations to break in and how much effort this really takes.
To give you an example of what we mean, the table below lists the top 20 websites from the list in terms of inbound links (often referred to as back links) as measured by Alexa.com:
If you want a very full explanation on Google Page rank and the Google algorithm, you may want to refer to the article “Page Rank Uncovered” by Chris Ridings and Mike Shishigin but beware, it is not a short document.
Read ‘Who leads the way for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 3: Site Traffic’
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
(Part 1/5)
If you are a commercial property agent, have you asked yourself the following questions?
1. Am I falling behind in the fight for the digital space?
We strongly suspect you may not even know how you stack up. We certainly couldn’t find a good analysis of who the winners and losers in the online UK commercial property space are.
2. Who is winning and what are they doing right?
Hopefully this article will help you to understand who is winning a lot better. We have looked at a number of data sources to come up with a list.
3. What are my opportunities to win online?
Now that’s the hard question. Albert Einstein once said “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” Winning online is usually a combination of client passion, an excellent technology partner, and the appropriate business resources (both money and human).
At The Technology Studio we believe that websites are only really about two things:
The first is all about Search Engine Optimisation or SEO and this is what this article focuses on. The second is all about usability. For example, you can have a site with a great Google page rank and great SEO but is hated by users and is very poor at converting visitors to leads. That site will still rank highly on the lists below as there are many more objective metrics for SEO (e.g. visitors, page rank, back links) than for usability.
Anyway, onto the analysis.
Methodology
This is normally the long boring part that you had to write in science reports at school. To make it easy for the reader, we will put a lot more detail in the final blog article in the series (for any insomniacs) but suffice it to say that we used a number of sources to get a representative list of more than 100 significant players in the commercial property marketing sector in the UK and then ran a lot of data queries over a period of a week to identify the top 100 and their key data and statistics.
Marketing Effectiveness
We didn’t want to just do some analysis on who got the most traffic (though we have that later in this series of articles) but wanted to give you a view on the marketing effectiveness of the websites. We looked around for an independent assessor and decided to use Websitegrader.com. In essence, WebsiteGrader looks across many of the parameters that Google uses to assess the value of your website and analyses how effectively it implements technology and content. It then turns this into a score out of 100 to rank a website vs. the 2m+ other sites it has already analysed. These are the top 22 from the list of UK commercial property websites we analysed.
Some surprises? We think so. It is worth noting a few on the list.
NovaLoca – this site didn’t exist 30 months ago yet has risen to 3rd on this list in that time. We are biased (The Technology Studio built NovaLoca) but it is a triumph that this is possible despite lower traffic levels, a lower number of back links and a UK only presence unlike many of the top 20. From our point of view this is directly due to the tenacity and innovation in the team and frankly a lot of hard work but we are pleased it is paying off.
Land Securities – this is a great success story and we commend everyone working on this site as it scores 97/100 (and a Google page rank of 6/10) and this despite it only being ranked 51st in the list for UK traffic. We also like the layout and usability of the site – a really good all round success story and one others should aspire to and could learn from.
EGPropertyLink – being careful to be fair, 30 out of the 100 sites have a score of 90 or more putting them in the top 10% of sites in the world according to WebsiteGrader. However, whilst EGPropertyLink is the dominant UK portal with the most properties, it only comes in 23rd on this list.
Read ‘Who leads the pack for commercial property websites in the UK? Part 2: Google Page Rank’
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