Blog

With an increase in buyers and sellers looking online as a primary route to market, it’s vital to have an effective web presence in your area. So much so, that some agencies are closing their high street branches and focussing their efforts online, while taking their core business activities into one central office. A single office allows you to centralise your core functions, yet still meet clients if they prefer to visit you. By visiting prospective clients at the properties that you are selling, you essentially have a “mobile office” at the place that matters – the property in question.

It also highlights the need to have an online presence that is as comprehensive as possible. This not only means having a website but giving online users a complete view of the property, from photos and plans to detailed descriptions. The leads generated from your site are vital and as good as if a person visited your high street office. It’s important to use the technology out there to understand your customers better and meet their needs. Online office uses Google analytics to accurately track what your users are looking at on your site to give you an idea of what’s popular and how many people are visiting your site.

An online presence gives you the ability to talk to your customers about things that you know they are interested in. An effective email marketing campaign will help you target your customers and get your name out there as the market leader in your area.

09/08/2010 01:55

Property specialists movewithus have launched their Online Office Express service this month, which promises to provide agents with a brand new website within 10 working days from the point of order.

The Online Office Express service is a sister product of Online Office, the website service that movewithus have provided for years to help increase their client’s online presence and compete in the modern property market.

Key features of the Online Office Express service include:

• A fully working, cost-effective website within 10 working days
• National search – properties are featured on 400 other agent websites, visited by nearly a million visitors each month
• Links with whitehot property, a national sales channel who list must sell properties
• All services easily accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Simon King, movewithus online director, commented: “The Online Office Express service is indicative of our commitment to our customers, as we want to help them compete in the online market without delay. With Google’s recent entrance into the market with a property search, we believe that now is the time for estate agents to invest in their website. This will help our partners to become less reliant on other property portals and gain unique selling points to help them win listings and instructions.”

12/07/2010 05:18

movewithus enjoy record breaking month

Property specialists movewithus have broken their record by launching 20 websites for their estate agency partners during June through their Online Office website production service.

The Online Office service aims to help estate agents win more listings and instructions through increased online presence.

movewithus have helped to launch the websites of over 400 estate agency offices across the UK, which are offered exclusively to members of their agency network, which is currently the largest network in the country with 1200 offices.

Simon King, movewithus online director, commented: “We are delighted to have reached the 20 mark for June and we have our sights firmly set on breaking this record in the coming months. We are committed to delivering high quality websites to our agency partners, helping them to increase the listings and instructions they win from the online market.”

08/07/2010 02:54

The way in which we search for property could be changed forever, with the announcement today that Google have launched their property search for the UK.

The service will be free, allowing estate agents and private sellers to upload their properties via Google Maps. This will increase the agent's ability to market their brand to a much wider audience, for no additional cost or great effort.

The Google Property search will allow agents to drive traffic directly to their own sites, rather than through the portal. This will save the agent valuable money, as they will no longer have to pay subscription or fees to the portal.It is too early to estimate the impact this is likely to have on the major property portals, but the potential financial implications to their business is huge.

Google will also agents the opportunity to buy advertising space on the location pages, giving businesses the chance to steal a march on their competitors with strategically placed messaging.

The market has been dominated in recent years by the major portals but, with the entrance of Google into the market, this could be set for dramatic change. Now is the perfect opportunity for estate agents across the UK to win market share online and increase the number of website visitors that they receive.

16/06/2010 02:14

Estate agents look set to be investing in further domain names, following the worldwide launch of the .co domain name this year.

There has been much hype and buzz around this specific domain recently, with .co almost universally recognised, primarily due to its similarity with .com and .co.uk. Recent statistics from the .CO Internet registry has found that 75% of the thousands of consumers surveyed equated .co with ‘company’, ‘commerce’ or ‘corporation’. It is already a popular abbreviation in the United States, with over 20 countries using .co as a second level domain because of this.

.Co is originally the country code domain for Colombia, with the University of The Andes carrying out strict regulation on those allowed to register for this code. This means that, currently, there are only approximately 28,000 .co domains registered.

.Co is set to be launched later this year, with several businesses looking to purchase these domains to enhance their online business, or potentially stop rivals from scuppering their marketing plans. Due to the global credibility and instant recognition of the .co domain, this looks set to have a huge part to play in the future domain market. The estate agency industry is no different, and several savvy online businesses will now be looking to invest in their respective domain names to increase market share and bring the maximum number of consumers to their website.

26/05/2010 05:08

After months of speculation search engine giants Google have announced that they have no immediate plans to launch their own property search, putting an end to months of speculation. Instead of launching the anticipated search the corporate giants will instead be focusing on their advertising tools for businesses across the property market.

Speaking at the Property Professional Show in Birmingham James Bacon, of Google Property, stated that it was rumour that linked the company with a housing search, with the company focused on providing tools to help estate agents market their businesses more effectively online, including their analytics programme and Adwords software.

Despite this recent revelation estate agents are being urged to continue their search engine strategies, using both on page and off page optimisation to help attract increased amounts of customers to online businesses. Property specialists movewithus are working with agents to ensure that their businesses are fully utilising tools such as Adwords and analytics to develop their marketing strategy and increase the number of visitors they receive at their website.

Simon King, movewithus Online director, added: “Although Google’s recent announcement is a bit of a surprise estate agents must not take their eye off the ball when it comes to driving business to their website through search marketing. Climbing to the top of the search engine results pages is one of the most cost effective ways for estate agents to maximise the number of sellers and buyers on to their website. Combine this with an effective email marketing strategy, and agents have the essential tools needed to win new market share.”

24/05/2010 11:24

Property specialists movewithus has launched Online Marketing Services (OMS) to help independent estate agents attract more customers through search engines, increase site visitors and gain online market share.

As global giants Google and Tesco infiltrate the property market, agents need to look at available techniques to stay competitive and profitable.

The movewithus Online Marketing Services is an extension of the Online Office website design solution, consisting of Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click and Email Marketing, with the aim of driving customers to the website.

Pilot agents using OMS saw:
• 316% rise in website visitors over a six month period
• e-marketing campaign creating 165% visitor increase in one day
• 100 viewing requests and 35 valuation requests in one month

movewithus will be showcasing their range of online services at the Property Professional Show, held at the ICC in Birmingham on the 17th-18th May.

Simon King, movewithus online director, commented: “Fully utilising customer data and search marketing is fast becoming one of the most important and beneficial online marketing techniques available to estate agents. Through our Online Marketing Services we use cost-effective and measurable tactics to help our clients find new customers online and win more business.”

17/05/2010 09:12

Email campaigns are considered one of the most cost-effective and effective marketing tactics that businesses can employ, as they can target thousands of customers through measurable mailings.

The most successful campaigns tend to be those that are targeted at a specific recipient group who you believe, or know, will be interested in the product that you are offering. Once the mailing has been delivered, to potentially thousands of customers, it is then advisable to conduct a review of the success or failure that the email may have enjoyed.

There are many email reporting tools available in the market which you can take advantage of. By fully utilising these you can analyse the number of people who opened the email, who clicked through to your website and those who deleted the mailing without reading. This is particularly beneficial if you choose to target the same group with a future mailing, as you will be able to delete the uninterested parties from the list of recipients.

The use of these analytical tools will also allow an insight into the success of the content that you include in the email. If your target customers are deleting or not clicking through to your website then you can assume that your content is lacking or failing to engage. You can amend and review the content with reference to the data you possess from the analytics tools, which you can use to improve the success of your future mailings.

06/05/2010 01:17

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the quality or volume of traffic a website receive. The higher the page appears on the search engine results, the more likely it is to receive the maximum number of visitors.

One of the key things to consider with SEO is that it is a long term strategy, which does not guarantee any short or medium term success. The main search engines use ‘crawlers’ or ‘robots’ to index the site according to the key words and phrases you have used and this indexing can take weeks or even months. Search engine crawlers look at a number of factors when checking the site for the key phrases, including the meta data and the distance of the page from the site directory or site map.

As well as the on page optimisation of your website it is also extremely beneficial to steadily increase the inbound links to your site, as this will show the search engines that you are a valuable source of information. Partner with local companies and websites to share links back and forth and this will help to improve your search engine rankings.

Once you have created a long term SEO strategy, including both the implementation of keywords and the introduction of link building tactics, you position yourself to increase the exposure of your website and generate additional revenue for your business.

05/05/2010 10:17

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) specifies the ‘address’ of a webpage on the internet, helping consumers to find where exactly where your online offering is situated. In common sense your URL should be clear and concise, containing either the name of your brand or the key words that your customers would be targeting.
It is much easier for your customers to find you online if your URL is easy to spell and memorable, reducing the likelihood that online users will be unable to find you. With this in mind it is advisable to avoid heavily hyphenated URLs, as these will look like spam to the user and will be harder for them to remember.

It is not only the homepage URL that needs to be focused on, as traditional estate agent websites often have hundreds of property pages specific to each listing they possess. The URLs for these listings are often displayed as a series of numbers, which would not be recognised by any customer or search engine. By adapting these URLs to contain the house descriptions or locations of the property you not only improve the search capability but also give your customer a clear idea of the page that they are viewing.

29/04/2010 02:59

When you are in the initial planning stages of your website it is important to form a long term strategy with regards to the on page optimisation of your site.

It is advisable to research into the key words and phrases that you believe will be searched for most by your customers, as it will be these terms that drive the maximum amount of traffic to your site. For estate agents it is worth not only defining the main key phrases for each page that you are setting up but also for each location that your office covers. Many home buyers and sellers search for the specific location they wish to move to and agents can optimise their site according to their most popular locations. The search engines that track these phrases are increasingly sophisticated and will recognise and pick up on variants of the terms, so these are also worth investigating.

In setting up a key phrase strategy you are effectively building the foundation of your website, as the rest of the website will be optimised accordingly as a result of this primary research. You will then be best placed to receive the maximum amount of traffic to your website and convert these visitors into leads.

27/04/2010 12:28

Email campaigns are one of the most effective marketing resources that can be utilised by estate agents to target their existing customer database.

The majority of estate agents possess large amounts of information from previous customers, often stretching several years back. With many of these likely to be in a position to move on and look for a new property agents can use emails strategically to expose their brand to these home movers and highlight the services they offer.

Marketing emails can clearly display the logos and brand of the agent, with each email designed to replicate the high street offices that their customers will recognise. Once they have engaged with the recipient a wide number of services can be included within the email, from the latest new instructions to the most recent property related news.

Email campaigns tend to distribute new mailings on a weekly or monthly basis to help maintain momentum and keep the brand directly in front of the consumer for the maximum amount of time. Successfully engaging with a customer through this will help to get your business name out to a large amount of people with minimum cost.
One of the major benefits of email campaigns is the ability to measure and monitor the successes of the mailings. Using the correct tools you will be able to record the open rates of the emails, the bounce rate and the number of emails where visitors have clicked through to your website.

23/04/2010 09:22

The content on your website is arguably the most important factor when it comes to your online offering. The text you include on your web pages is what is viewed by the search engines to determine your page ranking and consequently your position in front of your customers. By keeping your content original you stand the best chance of driving the maximum number of visitors to your site.

Duplicate content can either be caused by repeating content from other web pages on your site or from creating a number of different sites that all contain identical text. As search engines look to deliver the most relevant results from their searches they remove duplicate content and consider it as spamming by your business. As a result it is the most authoritative sites that show at the top of search engine results.

To help your business achieve this status as a relevant source it is advisable to create new and unique content for your site on a regular basis, as search engines respond positively to this, which in turn helps your site remain high in the search page results. Copy and pasting large amounts of texts from other sources will achieve exactly the opposite, as the search engines will recognise this as ‘stolen’ from another site and will refuse to index your site as a result.

20/04/2010 04:53

Website analytics can be utilised as an important tool for any online business, as they will provide the tools to use in order to measure how their business is performing with regards to their goals and objectives.

The details received from the analytics tools can provide vital information on what pages customers are visiting, where the visits are coming from and what aspects of your website are the most popular or successful. This places you in the best position to keep your website performing to its full potential and, most importantly, drive your business ahead of your competitors.

The site statistics will provide you with the following information:
• Daily visitors
• Number of unique visitors
• Time spent on site
• Popular URL’s
• The most visited content on the site

The continual monitoring of site statistics allows you to follow the behavioural patterns of your customer, from the journey they take on your site to the pages that keep them most engaged. This type of details analysis is an important factor when it comes to determining your future website strategy, enabling you to increase your site traffic and the general performance of your site for your customers.

13/04/2010 05:21

Online Media is playing an increasingly pivotal role in the success of businesses across the world, as many have recognised the opportunities available by directly targeting the consumer, whether it is through social media sites or internet blogging sites.

A blog is essentially a short monologue, expressing the thoughts and opinions of the author, generally on a subject that they believe will be engaging and thought provoking to their customer base. A blog serves several purposes, it provides your visitors with vital information regarding your industry, it helps establish your authority in a particular industry, it brings additional visitors to your site, and it helps you develop relevant anchor text links, which are vital for the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your site.

A successful blog will vitally increase your brand exposure, as you can help to establish yourself and your business as a relevant and credible source to your customer. If the blog is placed on your website then this will increase the traffic you receive and help to engage consumers with your brand and the services you provide. If used correctly you can also use specific keywords within the text to improve your search engine ranking, through SEO and link building methods.

08/04/2010 12:37

Email campaigns are a cost effective and useful tool that can be employed to target the large databases that estate agents possess. Unfortunately this type of marketing strategy often results in a number of emails being returned to sender as they are ‘bounced’ back from the recipient.

Bounced emails occur for a number of different reasons, from the recipient’s mailbox being full to the email address being old and no longer existing. The problem with these bounced emails occurs when a mailing is sent from a personal address to a large number of recipients and then all the bounced emails return to this individual account.

To combat this potential problem sub domains can be set up and subsequently managed, which allows you to send targeted mailings from a number of different accounts that can be managed from one central location. The benefit of this is that personal email accounts are not flooded with bounced or failed mailings and databases can be managed correctly, with campaigns targeted at relevant and active customers.

07/04/2010 09:10

A site map is essentially an easily accessible guide for your website, similar to a table of content found in a book. An effective site map should fully list the pages of content contained within a site and how they are related to one another. The main purpose of a site map is to create a directory which can be accessed quickly by website visitors and the search engines that visit your site.

A site map tends to come in the form of a web page, typically organised in hierarchical fashion, which displays each page of content present on the website. Users can then find the specific page they are searching for, rather than waste time searching through the entire contents of the site.

Site maps are also beneficial to improve the search engine optimisation of a site, as search engines are taken directly to the relevant content pages. Submitting a site map is a key part of the website development process and will contribute significantly to the page ranking achieved through the search engines.

01/04/2010 03:15

Google Street View, the advanced technology that allows users to view millions of streets and roads across the world, has extended its coverage across the UK so that home movers can now view potential neighbourhoods even earlier in the process.

At the beginning of March Google increased its Street View coverage to over 99% of the UK’s roads, both rural and urban, covering a total of approximately 238,000 miles. This nationwide exposure allows home buyers to:

• View potential properties before they visit
• Research into the local area
• Form an initial impression without even visiting the house

As a result, estate agents across the UK are being urged to incorporate this type of technology into their marketing plans, using it to their advantage.

Estate agents now have the chance to use Google Street View as part of the viewing procedure. Along with the photos of the property, home movers can now look around the area without leaving the comfort of the agent’s high street office. This really is taking curb appeal to the next level.

31/03/2010 09:18

An increasing number of businesses across the world are starting to utilise the vast benefits of social media, to help increase the online buzz created by their brand.

To put the power of online media into perspective the social networking site Facebook now has 350million active users, which would represent the third largest population in the world. By displaying your brand effectively to this type of audience you can advertise your full range of services using cost effective marketing strategies.

There are a large number of social media and networking sites now available on the internet, including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The management of these represents a time consuming task but one that can have significant benefits, as it allows you to build an online presence and profile for your company that can be accessed 24 hours a day by your customer. As well as creating an online buzz and brand exposure the networking sites can also be utilised as valuable link building tools for your business, as you can direct traffic back to your website and increase the number of visitors that your site receives. Link building is also viewed favourably by the search engines such as Google and can help you to improve your page ranking on the search results.

Establishing an online presence for your brand is an ongoing process, as you will need to maintain and update your various profiles to keep your customers interested and engaged with your brand. If the time and dedication is in place then the rewards are great, as you can get your name out to the millions of users browsing social media sites and drive them back to your online offering.

30/03/2010 05:24

The majority of websites will face page re-organisation and removed content during their lifespan and it is essential to ensure that your site maintains the ability to be indexed by the major search engines, for instance Google.

Previously your website will have been crawled by search engine robots and each page will have been indexed to help drive traffic and visitors to your website. However, by moving pages on your website you are essentially misdirecting the robots to a page that is no longer there. This in turn will either end up in an error message when customers search for that page or your page my even disappear completely from the search engines, potentially missing out on valuable business.

To combat this you can set up 301 redirects on each page that has been moved. This means that any visitor, or search engine robot, that lands on the old page will be automatically redirected to the new version. The robots will also know to update their records and place your in their ranking accordingly. Creating 301 redirects for any page or section you move on your website places your business in the best position to increase website traffic and vitally maintain a high level of customer retention, which in turn can be converted into leads and revenue.

25/03/2010 02:59

The text and content located on a website is one of the most important factors when it comes to achieving a higher ranking on the search engine results pages. Search engines and online visitors react positively to unique and updated content, placing your business in the best position to achieve a higher number of site visitors. The ‘spiders’ searching your website will be more likely to drive your position in the search rankings higher if your content is updated on a regular basis, which in turn means that failing to keep your site fresh may cause you to lose your placing in the search results.

One of the major problems faced by many websites is the presence of duplicate content, whether it is from repeated pages within the site or text that has been copied/stolen from another source. Either way this will cause you problems as the search engines will view this as unoriginal and a type of spamming, causing your site to not be fully indexed.

Over the years search engines have become more sophisticated and aware of the dishonest techniques used by several websites to increase their SEO positioning, for example making copies of the same page but calling them various, differing names. Simple techniques such as refraining from copying and pasting large amounts of text across the pages on your website will place your website in the best position to be indexed successfully, therefore exposing your brand to the maximum amount of traffic and visitors.

24/03/2010 09:09

When planning a marketing strategy for your website it is fundamental to carry out initial competitor analysis to prepare your business for the market. Similarly to any offline promotion, you must conduct primary research into your competitor’s offering to understand what you are competing against.

Selecting and measuring search volumes for specific, targeted keywords will help you to create the content for your website. You will be able to select the key phrases that your customers are searching for and incorporate these strategically throughout your pages. The search engines will then index the relevant content on the site and your page ranking position will rise as a result. Successful keyword and phrase research will also indicate which search terms not to focus on, whether because of low search volumes or if they are commonly overused and the competition is too high.

In terms of the website, examining fellow competitors will highlight the amount and type of traffic you should be looking to aim for, using their statistics to measure the needs of the consumers and their search volumes. This will then allow you to prepare your website to meet this level of visitor, helping to prevent any system disruption or failure.

The benefits of conducting competitor analysis are clear, as you can identify who you are competing against which allows you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your online proposition. Consequently you will then be able to identify the specific actions needed to be taken in order to improve your competitive position within the market.

18/03/2010 04:35

An effective email campaign is an important part of any marketing strategy, as this is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to target and utilise your existing customer database.

Unfortunately, with the high number of web browsers currently available in the marketplace, the creation and subsequent testing of the email campaigns is a time consuming process which requires a significant amount of resource from the company.

By ensuring that your emails render well in all browsers, your business stand the best chance of improving their email statistics, such as bounce and click through rates, and this in turn will help to keep the recipient of the email engaged with your brand for the longest possible time.

With the ever increasing use of mobile phones as a primary resource for internet research and browsing it is also recommended that any emails are tested in the browsers used for phones such as the iPhone or the Blackberry.

Regular testing of the prepared emails is necessary, as although they may work in the browser that you currently operate in, this does not mean to say that they will function correctly in the browser used by your recipient. Not only will the customer be discouraged from learning more about your products, but they are also more likely to regard you as a source of ‘spam’ or unreliable information.

By thoroughly checking the browser compatibility of each email that you distribute you place yourself in the best position for exposed coverage and an improved reception of your release, as the maximum number of customers will be exposed to your offering.

16/03/2010 04:31

Estate agents are being encouraged to ensure that their website is compatible with the major web browsers, following a recent announcement from Microsoft that they will now be offering their users a choice of internet software. Failure to ensure compatibility could mean some or all of the agents’ website may not be displayed; meaning that prospect customers may go elsewhere.


Millions of customers across the UK and Europe will now be offered a choice of the 12 most popular browsers, meaning that estate agents will need to ensure that their website is compliant with these in order to meet the needs of the internet user. This is furthered by the dramatic rise in home movers using their mobile phones to surf the internet, as this increases the variety of browsers commonly used.

The website of the agent should be fully functional with the major browsers, in order to retain the interest of the online user who is typically easier to lose then one entering the high street office of the agent.













Recent statistics*have shown that Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer is the most commonly used browser on the market, with 62% of market share. Firefox is second at 24%, with Google Chrome third with 5.22%.


Simon King, movewithus Online director, commented: “Our Online Solutions team go to great lengths to ensure that our website, and any that we manage, are compatible with the major web browsers. The increasing use of mobile phones to surf the web, especially the iPhone, has made this even more vital and we are advising all agents that we work with to do the same, ensuring that they can meet the needs of the online user.”

*Released by web stats firm Net Applications

10/03/2010 03:28

With recent reports highlighting that Google receives 39 billion page views every month, this is an online marketing channel that can’t be ignored by any business in today’s market. This is especially true in the property market where it is estimated that over 80% of customers start their new homes search online, with the addition of the anticipated Google property search set to put further emphasis on the agent’s compatibility with search engines.

But how do you improve your position on Google? There are so many companies out there claiming to know how to get you to number one on Google. However, even Google does not promise this so how can these companies make such strong statements. Google is constantly updating itself to ensure that its search function returns relevant results to the end user, ensuring fairness and impartiality. After years of research and extensive testing the fundamentals for improving your businesses position on Google come down to three main principles.

The first thing to consider is understanding and researching what customers in your local area are searching for on Google. Most search companies and business fail at this point as they spend thousands of pounds updating their websites to include keywords that customers are not searching for and that all their competitors are targeting. A prime example of this is adding the word property to your website; how many customers actually search for property on Google? This is a commonly used word in the industry but most consumers talk about homes and houses so their search habits are likely to reflect this. Like any marketing activity doing your research upfront can be the difference between failure and success.

Once you understand what your potential customers are searching for, the second step for improving your search position is adding these keywords to your website. This is known as ‘on page optimisation’ and it an important and time consuming part of search engine work. Where many businesses go wrong is by trying to add too many search words to a page on the website. This is known as keyword stuffing and it will actually compromise your search rankings rather than improve them. If you compare this to an offline technique it would be similar to trying to promote twenty different products/services on one advert. Not only will you confuse potential customers, but the editor of the publication is likely to complain about the content and refuse to include the advert. Google acts in a similar way by removing pages from its database, which in turn stops them from being indexed.

The final principle for improving your search position is around building lots of inbound links into your website. This part of SEO is seen as the most important by most online marketing agencies. These links are the online equivalent of getting customer and supplier testimonials and they are seen as a stamp of approval. The more stamps of approvals you have the higher your page rank as Google feels that website owners would only link to sites that are relevant for their users and include good content. Links can be built at a local level and at a national level using online press and social media sites.

We all forget that Google is just a robot that is built to follow a series of logical steps. When it visits a website, it is not like a human as it can’t work around spelling mistakes or misused content. Our job as online businesses is to make sure that when Google visits our website it is easy to follow, includes all the relevant keywords in the right places and has lots of good quality inbound links. This must be done at no expense to the customer journey on our websites and if we follow these easy steps, then we will go a long way to improving our search positions, which ultimately will lead to more people visiting our online offering.

05/03/2010 12:41