A sample of Rightmove consumer users will from today be able to view the portal’s new test search pages.
This link was sent out to all Rightmove’s agent customers yesterday so they could view the new pages and see what their properties look like on the new site.
The link will be available for one month during the second stage of Rightmove’s web trial – which the portal is calling the ‘beta’ phase.
And from today a random sample of users from the public will be given the option of viewing the new pages themselves.
Rightmove was prompted to make changes to its site by the fact that 60% of its visitors are now browse using either their mobile or tablet.
The new site will feature improved functions such as filters which allow potential buyers to select multiple criteria at one time – like choosing both detached and semi-detached properties.
The new design will also have enhanced featured property listings and featured agent adverts.
Featured agent and featured property will also, for the first time, be visible on Rightmove’s mobile site and via apps.
Alex Cubitt, Rightmove’s director of estate and lettings agencies, told EYE yesterday: “After sharing the early designs a few weeks ago we’ve now been able to give Rightmove agents an exclusive preview of the new search pages so they can see how their brands and properties look, and try out the functionality.
“The pages benefit from new cutting-edge search technology which will give home-hunters even more functions than before and a faster search experience.
“As more and more people are using mobile devices to look for property we’ve made the search experience consistent for both desktop and mobile, and the featured property and featured agent products now appear on both mobile and desktop for the first time, which gives agents who use these products double the exposure on average for their brand and properties.
“We wanted to give agents a preview of the changes before it is then tested with a small percentage of users as the first step of beta. Since revealing the early designs we’ve listened to feedback from agents and we’ll continue refining the designs over the course of the beta phase to make sure they deliver the best results for them.”
Other features include a side-bar map of the area being searched and a ‘change location and criteria’ bar which will move from the left-hand side of the page to the top.
The horizontal bar will remain in place at the top no matter how far users scroll down the page – similar to the one on the OnTheMarket page, although Rightmove insists it thought of the idea before OTM was launched.
Rightmove has not yet set a launch date for the new service.
Comments (35)
The Premium Listings on RM are a complete waste of time and thus money. Why bother having a product that can stand out but quite possibly be on page 10!!!! A **** listing with rubbish photos on page 1 will still get more views than a premium listing with flashy photography on page 10. Really the search needs to default to Premium Properties first. RM could make a fortune doing that, so for a web portal who are criticised for bleeding agents dry that’s quite a paradox that they don’t. They’d sell way more premium properties…….
RM doing this Pom would be the very type of own goal which “could” swing a fair few fence sitters in the direction of OTM – Wealthier agents may chose to list their entire stock as PL and less fortunate agents be a victim of this – Not all agents could compete and whilst I should say so what if I can I don’t care, it is the very point of AM (Agents Mutual) forget the OTM bit…… Agents looking after the industry as a hold! Lets all fight for business, but lets not have RM dictate this based on spend with them!
Not if RM or any website for that matter, reduced subscription costs at the same time as implementing the products ranking in that manner. Especially if it was targeted as vendor paid, as you as a portal would effectively be saying, Mr Agent I’m reducing your bottom line cost (aka the subscription), and focusing on vendor paid products. The intelligent agents out there will then understand that upgraded listings like this aren’t just going to get more enquiry (due to permanently being on page1 of the default search), but when vendors do their research they’ll see those agents who have used those products and it works as a branding tool for that agency as well. Bonus is they haven’t spent a penny.
Don’t be surprised if OTM implement premium products of some description at some point. The likes of Knight Frank etc, may have good intentions at this stage, (or tell you that) but sooner or later they’ll want a return on their investment, and without driving revenue from either subscription or upgrade products, that’s not going to be possible. Really, the truth is, the agents are going up against Rightmove etc, as they want to control the flow of revenue, not stop it.
90% of votes have to favour a motion like that (ie introduce products)…….. 1 company 1 vote regardless of the number of offices you own…… so you would need a lot of KFs to agree! Products we ready for launch but were scrapped following the first member survey.
In a way OTM favours the higher numbers of 1 to 4 office agents. Your wealth and standing in London means squat, so I cant see it any time soon, that 90% of the current AM members will vote to introduce “paying more”.
The agents signed up get AM, whilst many still can’t see past OTM. Old argument and one I have had enough of now. What will be will be.
It’s got a slight AM look about it, hmm…. especially the drop downs
http://labs.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=STATION%5E5471&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=24&radius=0.5&sortType=2&index=0&propertyTypes=&viewType=LIST&mustHave=&dontShow=
vs
https://www.onthemarket.com/for-sale/property/london/
If the new ad space gets me more exposure I’ll be using it ahead of all you RM haters who seem intent on moaning about every little thing when you should spend a little more time focusing on your own business.
Do you really need to pay for more exposure on your property listings when we are in a rising market with more buyers than sellers?
Would your money be better spent on other campaigns outside of Rightmove to increase your brand awareness?….After all, a straightforward listing on Rightmove is all that is required to generate enquiries at present as most serious buyers have set up an alert for new listings totheir inbox.
Wilko, you’re missing the point completely, because of the size of it’s audience RM will always sell stock but the point of using the banners etc is to get as much company exposure as possible, as soon as you realise that you’ll see the point of giving them your cash.
I guess where we disagree is that you see value in increasing your brand awareness by paying Rm for featured property/agent etc and I don’t.
I appreciate that your logo may be seen slightly larger than your competitors on that site but how much extra business does that really bring you in ( I appreciate it is probably too hard to quantify). It’s just since (a couple of years ago) I dropped all the RM extras (and I had loads across our chain) and invested the large amount of money saved into other bespoke brand awareness campaigns on a local level (leaflets, own bi-monthly magazine, station,billboard, local radio etc we have increased our valuation/instruction levels much more than when we had the RM extras.
It would be nice to have an unlimited pot to spend on all the RM extras in addition to what I’ve mentioned but unfortunately all agency budgets cant do everything on offer and diversity is definitely worth considering in my view.
Wilko, I take on board all your points, would be worth talking to the rolls driving rep about the new package though, we went to it and our numbers have gone crazy
Been there, done it.
I speak with great authority when I say RM banners/Email ads are absolutely rubbish at gaining you anything
Agree, We use to pay for the full Monty, for a full 12 months. No noticeable uplift in business and no noticeable difference once we dropped it.
Local advertising like Ric has said with leaflets primarily make the biggest difference.
Extra £500 p.m. on leaflets and you can almost guarantee instructions!
We’ve been on the new optimiser for 4 months ands it’s been brilliant, not sure if it’s available to everyone yet though
All very nice but I thought it was all about adding value to the site – for advertisers and users alike – and this doesn’t in my view………what about adding some free to use video games like “multiple open house viewing” where your video character has to fight all the other interested parties on the front lawn of an open house viewing event. If successful you get to buy the house……….Or an adventure based video game where you have to work out who the money launderers are and take them down by filling in reports to Criminal Investigation Service…..just an idea, after all property websites, whichever way you look at them, are a bit boring.
Sign me up for the Beta testing on that one 🙂
They should have a “Guess the price game” where you can guess a property price and display it for the public to see!
oh wait……… Z have beat them to it 😉
Not sure I’m a fan tbh, but the premium listings are more useless now than they were before, I didn’t think that was possible!
I am sure Gump, if the PL impact has been weakened as a result of the new layout, rest assured there is a Ultimate Premium Listing on the way! something that bit better to brainwash the weak.
Premium listings are a waste of money.
Good property, with good photography, at the right price, and a motivated vendor, thats a premium listing.
Aren’t they just! Your name suits that comment perfectly!
Oooh UPL’s!! I need them in my life 😛
The search results screen looks very, very familiar… Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
Oh goody! I cannot wait for the quotes and pressure to start from RM to have your agency featured in the middle of the search results.
I wonder which agents will get it for nothing for a while to make the next agent pay to “keep up”.