Our annual conference is over once again and as always, we had great participation from our members. One topic that always sparks a lot of conversation is syndication. We have been educating our members of the dangers of syndicating content to “black hat” outlets for more than a year now and have highlighted a couple of important points publicly from earlier this year that are worth reading. The first was when Google opted out of the real estate search market, and the second when Zillow and Yahoo announced a new partnership.
Since then, while preparing for our conference, we reviewed the situation and found that our predictions are quickly becoming fact. While our 2010 conference focused on educating members on syndication issues, this is the year for taking action.
For those of you who don’t know me, let me start by explaining that I don’t believe there is a need, nor a place, for these syndication outlets in our market. A typical user starts their search on Google. Luckily Google no longer provides direct real estate searches. So the best thing that could happen to your brokerage is to have users searching for real estate in your market area find you at the top of Google, and become loyal visitors of your site as a result.
The reality, however, is quite different for most of us. Somehow, we have been convinced that we need extra exposure from these giant syndication sites. We give them our content, they take SEO authority over it by placing “no follow” links from that content to our sites, and they work on amassing more inbound links than us. The result? They end up ranking higher than us for our own content in Google. So now, rather than have traffic go straight from Google to us, we allow customers to familiarize themselves with another brand and real estate search system, hoping that maybe through these 3rd party sites we might get some of our customers back. Crazy right?
When looking into the data, we find more horrors.
- On average, traffic arriving to our sites from “Trulliow” bounces over 54% of the time. That’s HUGE!!! The majority of the remaining 46% doesn’t stay past 2-3 pages. Why? Because they are already immersed in a search system, why should they learn or adapt to a new one? Especially if the information is pretty much identical. You can focus on improving usability and making sure to highlight your new lifestyle searches, proximity searches and much more, but you still won’t convert as much traffic as you would get by removing these sites from the equation and focusing on the source, Google.
- We compared the average growth for all referring traffic and found that “Trulliow” is growing around 25% faster than other referrers. Sounds like they are doing a good job for us at first, as if they are sending more traffic to us. When considering the above point we see that most of this traffic doesn’t really end up as loyal visitors, and when considering reality we realize this traffic would probably be ours to begin with. This growth also indicates we have to act fast.
The truth is, syndication is not a service that adds value to the end user. At best it can be equated to a middle man that often gets his facts mixed up (as these sites are not the source for this content, often many inaccuracies can be found). Having a nationwide coverage, rather than an expertise in a specific location, results in a diluted experience for the end user that they associate with your listings.
However, with all the above information, brokerages are still giving their content away and some are even paying to have greater exposure on these sites. The model seems so solid that these syndication sites are raising substantial funding. If we allow this to carry on, users will associate real estate searching with “Trulliow” just like users associate social networking with Facebook. What will happen when agents will be able to start bidding for leads? Now your free content becomes someone else’s lead.
We are the experts in our local markets. We have real agents… and we own the content, so it should be easy for all of us to claim our content back and watch their house of cards come apart.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. I am sure agents will be the first to cry that competitors will be able to easily beat them in selling presentations. A competitor will mention how much more exposure they will get and drop a few big names, leaving your agent a slim to none chance of getting this seller. But we see that by removing the syndication sites we would likely gain more customers and have a better chance to sell the property in question. This is the problem that got us here in the first place. We are not focusing on what’s important in our listing presentations and are acting out of fear.
I call it “The Naked Lawyer Syndrome”. Imagine there was a lawyer who dressed himself up for each court case. He was the exact representation of the ideal lawyer image. However, he only won around 50% of his cases. Now take this other lawyer who didn’t like to dress up so much. In fact he preferred being naked, but he won 95% of his cases. Who would you choose to work with?
The same applies in our listing presentations. We need to stop focusing on the fluff and start focusing on the results:
- How quickly do we sell?
- How much do we sell for?
If an agent is a good negotiator, he may sell your house for more than another agent could, and if another agent has more exposure she may sell your house faster, but those are functions of the results, not the actual results. The actual results are how fast this agent sells houses and how much for in comparison to others. It would seem to me that one would only need to focus on these functions (e.g. I can get extra exposure by placing your listing on “Trullio”) if the results don’t speak for themselves. If that is the case, we need to look at ways to improve these results, not dress up the sale with diluted offerings.
I encourage you to be the first to take a strong stance on the topic. Educate your agents and have them inform their sellers that, unlike much of the competition, they will be focusing on the results rather than promises of exposure.
There are many other points of focus that can be utilized effectively in a listing presentation. I will leave these for another time.
In the meantime, I know most of you will have a strong feeling about this topic either way and I would love to hear your opinions.
Thanks…until my next rant.
By Ido Zucker
Related Posts:
Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate Create Syndication Network
Google Drops Real Estate Search
2010 Conference Highlight: Syndication
Ido…great blog. This is a topic we have discussed in our local Association for years as we do have a public facing MLS. I agree the challenge to the Broker is to provide instruction to the agents that will allow them to give greater weight in their presentation to local and company facts rather then spend a lot of time on the syndication sites. I would venture to guess that the agent who focuses a large portion of his or her presentation on this subject (syndication) doesn’t have a lot of personal and company information to back up the “listing to sales price” and “days on market” data that is truly of interest to the consumer. That is why, as Brokers we must arm the agent with pertinent information necessary to win the listing – at the right price, of course!
Ido – This was an interesting rant. Many brokers have accepted the notion that syndication is a “double-edged sword”. For example, they are not happy with the accuracy of syndication data and other variables however, they want the most exposure and advertising for their listings.
Will a notable broker take a stand and denounce syndication? It would certainly be interesting…
What would a syndication outlet that would be beneficial to the agents and brokerages look like?
Thanks for the great feedback guys.
Jeremiah, an ideal syndication outlet would not compete with the source of it’s content. It would also provide an added value to the end user, or it simply has no place.
In my eyes an ideal syndication outlet in today’s market would be one that offers a lifestyle search, allowing users to find the ideal community for them to live from the national pool all the way down to user defined areas. Once the user finds the ideal location(s), brokerages and agents serving that area can be listed, rated, and contacted.
We’ve said this before, but without us, syndication outlets would not exist. We have the data, but we’re willingly sending them our listings and allowing them to become the authority on OUR content. We know it’s not an easy solution, but we need to think about the long-term effects this will have on our brokerages. If we continue to syndicate to these major outlets, it’s only a matter of time before they become the go-to-site for real estate search (instead of you).
As brokerages, we have the unique advantage of being the local experts in our regions. So why are we allowing (and in some cases, PAYING) a third party site (that is not even based in our local communities) to compete with us for that role?
All great points made. While it will be difficult to get agents on the same page, it is going to have to happen. Not only for our business but to ensure potential clients are getting accurate information delivery. Our local board just implemented an admin function that allows Brokers to choose where (if anywhere) their company’s sites are syndicated which is definitely a step in the right direction. If enough Brokerages stand up for themselves, the Trillows of the world will be forced to either leave or change their ways to benefit the people whose content they are taking.
Kortney, I am not so sure it will be such a hard sell to the agents. When they realize the truth of the volume of leads that go out the door and the fact that many of the syndication outlets do a great job of selling those leads to anyone who will pay for them — forget about if they even work in this market, I don’t think they will be so far away from willing.
Right on target as always Ido!
I hope the day is approaching when, as Tom Flanagan mused, that a major broker decides they’ve had enough of having their listings shown inaccurately, enough of providing their information for free only to have it sold back to them. And you nailed it when you said we should be focusing on results. Not taking any credit for this, but we’ve ben doing a marketing piece for 12 years that compares our average days on market and our average sales price to the original list price to that of the competition, and have found that most sellers care a lot more about that than where their listings show up.
Well done!
Thanks again for all the great feedback everyone!
David that is really awesome to hear, you are already way ahead of the curve.
Do sellers ask about your exposure at all once you show your results off?
Do you feel that removing syndication outlets from your presentations would create problems for your agents?
We have a GREAT opportunity here, industry……!
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Sara from Zillow here. I just saw this post, sorry to have not seen it earlier, and have a few comments.
1) First, to say that Zillow places no-follow links on the listing detail pages back to the data source is inaccurate. We’ve always followed the link back.
2) Secondly, we don’t “sell leads back” or at all for that matter. That isn’t our business model. If you as the listing agent have created a free profile on Zillow, you will be displayed four different times on the listing detail page and if someone chooses to contact you, you are directly sent the lead. If you don’t create a profile, you displayed as the listing agent (if we’re being sent this info) in the Listed By section of the page at the bottom.
3) Regarding the bounce rate, this doesn’t surprise me at all. What I don’t get is if the agent ends up getting a new buyer or seller, why do they care if the orginal contact came from a media site or their own site? of course I understand why you would take this position as a website developer, as you get judged on traffic measures. But for the agent getting a live body in their car is the most important thing when earning a living.
Lastly, I find your position confusing, as someone who offers syndication as a benefit of the product suite they offer? If you don’t believe in syndication, why offer it to your clients as stated on your Products page?
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