My First Case Study

2010 March 05
tags:
by Bob Hendren

I've done some random samplings in the past of how ListingWare-powered websites turn up in search engine results.  However, last night I got the urge to go a little more in-depth.

The reason for this was I was testing how the new Mobile IDX Website styling looks on both my wife's and my phone.  After that, I used the Google Mobile app (I'm on iPhone) and just ran a random search on "Atlanta Homes For Sale".  On the first page of results, 4 of them were ListingWare customers!  Holy cow!

This morning I went further: I decided I'd check the first 50 results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing.  And I'm talking about the natural results, not the paid placement ads on the top and side of the pages.  Here's the results:

Top 50 Google
LW Customer 18
Aggregator 14
Other IDX 8
Independent 4
Broker 4
AJC 2
Top 50 Yahoo
Aggregator 17
LW Customer 11
Other IDX 11
Broker 7
Independent 2
AJC 2
Top 50 Bing
LW Customer 17
Aggregator 12
Other IDX 7
Independent 6
Broker 5
AJC 2

 

So, a few definitions are in order:

  1. LW Customer: Someone actively using LW in their site.
  2. Aggregator: National sites like realtor.com, trulia.com, zillow.com.
  3. Other IDX: All other companies that compete with ListingWare combined.
  4. Independent: Random sites that are not a broker's site and may or may not have a home search feature.
  5. Broker: A recognized broker in the Atlanta area.
  6. AJC: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper website.

Now, we have a bit of a Chicken-And-Egg thing going here.  I'm not saying that having ListingWare is the sole reason that these sites are appearing high in the natural results.  They have to have other content in order for search engines to find them relevant.  And is it they're successful because they chose ListingWare?  Probably not...but I'd like to think that because they're successful, they recognized what ListingWare could do for them.  And it obviously has helped in getting them high in search engine rankings!

I'm not trying to be a Snake Oil Salesman and say that we'll get you guaranteed natural search engine rankings.  That's impossible.  However, it's pretty difficult to argue with cold, hard facts, isn't it?

I'm so geeked out right now!  WooHoo!

2 Responses leave one →
  1. Jim Crawford Atlanta Real Estate
    Mar 5, 2010 at 4:57 PM

    Now you let the secret out! You have a great product, and viewers come back to find what they are looking for. It isn't the title, the domain or the keywords. It is the product! The proof is in the cross section of web placement!

  1. Jodi
    Apr 29, 2010 at 10:40 PM

    Listingware is not a back end solution i.e. the IDX service is provided by framing or redirecting users to the Listingware product. I believe any SEO value from Listingware is only in the form of links from my Listingware URL pointing to my site. It would be great if Listingware could be incorporated into a back end solution so that everything would truly be under my own domain. Otherwise I do believe that many power players use Listingware because it offers so much bang for the buck.

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