Zoopla has this morning repeated its message that it is the “only credible alternative to Rightmove for agents this year”.
It said that valuation leads to agents were up 64% in the last quarter of last year, compared with the same period in 2017.
Zoopla also said that site visits in 2018 peaked at a new monthly high of 58.3m, with visits averaging around 50m per month.
Downloads of the Zoopla app increased 11.3% over last year to 11.2m.
The company also said that removing non-property related advertising from its listing detail pages since the start of last month has resulted in 35% faster page speeds, improved SEO and a 9% uplift in listing page leads to agents.
This gives EYE a chance to clarify that Zoopla has not removed non-property related adverts from its search results pages – an issue raised by a reader, who sent us the screen grab below.
A spokesperson for Zoopla said: “There is a distinction between the listings details pages and the search results pages.
“There are no non-property related ads on the listings pages, as per Zoopla’s original announcement.”
Zoopla managing director Charlie Bryant said of the coming year: “Providing value for money to our agents, and the most effective service in a challenging market, is our primary aim for 2019.
“We have dramatically increased the number of valuation leads delivered to our agents over the last year which provides crucial volume for all-important instructions and we’re driving consistently high volumes of consumer traffic to our website.
“Last year was significant for us, particularly our acquisition by Silver Lake, which has paved the way for significant investment in creative solutions to the benefit of our agent clients in the years ahead.
“This, coupled with increased consumer awareness of the Zoopla brand, means we are in a position to offer agents our most valuable and comprehensive service ever for 2019.
“More than 50m customers visit our websites every month, we hit a new high in 2018 in terms of our monthly site traffic volumes, and our app downloads are on a strong upward trajectory.”
Comments (4)
If they have reduced the presence of adverts on their site I hope their advertisers have been provided with discount for less exposure.
If Z are losing fee revenue from those adverts I wonder where they will make it up? Higher portal and CRM fees would be one way to make up for lost revenue.
Couldn’t agree more BY. That’s why we decided PropertyHeads’ portal would give increased exposure to branches in their local markets versus the onliners.
All those valuations probably go to onliners. Zoopla and rightmove seem scared to police onliners . While traditional agents used to need an office to get a licence , they have allowed d.i.y. agents on with no questions asked… still not sure how pay any way is legal, never mind backed by rightmove and zoopla.
When you say valuation leads have increased, do you mean people that have ticked that box, but either then never respond to being contacted, or when you do get hold of them have no idea that they actually asked for a valuation?