Editorial Policy

Our aim is to help overseas estate agents and developers select a shortlist of property portals to test by providing unbiased and objective information.  

All publishers have an editorial profile which is compiled by our editorial team, by analysing each portal against set criteria. See below. Publishers are allowed to provide statements which are then checked and verified by our team. If they say they get 100,000 users per month, you can be sure that we have checked it by getting access to a printout from their web analytics system. Finally, each portal has a “Regions & Google Positions” section that summarises where they have property content and top 20 natural search positions on Google (UK). See About this data for more information.  

Editorial profile

Our aim is to be fair and transparent. We regularly analyse over 40 overseas property portals using four main criteria:  

• Content
• Design & Navigation
• Business Model
• Consumer Marketing

Content

Content is important. Without it, buyers have little to look at and will soon leave a website, perhaps never to return. Property listings are, in our opinion, more important than editorial content. Buyers want to search for property, compare houses, prices, locations and facilities. We use this as one of our criteria because if a portal lacks property content in key areas, it can affect the number of leads you receive.  

Overseas buyers are often hungry for information. Editorial content (guides, podcasts, videos etc), if produced and presented well, can help build trust with users, which helps conversion rates and keeps people coming back. If a property portal does this very well, we mention it, as it often helps lead generation.

Navigation and design

On the internet, buyers are only one click away from the competition. If they get lost or frustrated, they will leave. Inspired by the famous usability book by Steve Krug*, we ask the question, does the website make you think? How hard do you have to work to find the property you want and enquire about it? If we think it is too difficult, we mention it, because sites with usability issues are like leaky buckets. They lose buyers!

Design can be subjective. We try not to focus on whether we like the colours! Instead we ask, does it look professional and slick, or cheap and amateurish? A cheap-looking design does not inspire user confidence and will convert at a lower rate, so we use this as another one of our criteria.    

Business model

As an agent or developer, you want quality leads at a reasonable price. The only way to truly tell if a portal will work for you is to test it. It is obviously more attractive to test portals where you share the risk through a commission-share or pay-per-lead business model. However, portals that have a monthly payment model can sometimes produce a lower cost per lead if their marketing is very good. The business model of the portal should be a consideration when you draw up a shortlist but the critical issue is marketing. Without good marketing, you are wasting your time (and your money, if you are paying monthly).

Consumer marketing

With so many property portals on the market, it is marketing that differentiates one site from another. Most overseas property buyers will use the internet to search for property and the majority will click on natural search listings to find websites**. If a portal ranks for terms in the country you are selling in, consumers will have a good chance of finding them. We compare and contrast each portal for their rankings on Google (UK) on popular search phrases used by British buyers. See About this data  

Consumers will also go to sites directly, bypassing search engines, if the portal has a strong brand, spends a lot on marketing or has other routes to market (magazines, TV etc). We also evaluate the sites on the other forms of marketing activity they undertake, in order to provide a balanced picture of their marketing activity.


* “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug
** A survey by Iprospect in 2004 found that 72.3% of Google searchers picked the natural results as the most relevant.