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Globrix claims record traffic as other portals buckle

06 July 2009
Written by rosalind renshaw

The number of unique visitors to free portal service Globrix reached nearly a million in June, 18 months after launching. At over 990,000, it was the highest level of traffic the property search engine has reported.

According to Globrix, it also bucks the trend of what has generally been seen in the portal industry. The latest figures by ComScore show decreasing overall traffic to property websites, although the giant Rightmove still claims 30m visits a month. Nielsen has shown similar evidence of a decline in traffic to portals, and taking an average from ComScore and Nielsen data shows that Globrix is the only property search site that is increasing in traffic levels.

Globrix’s chief executive Daniel Lee said that the site’s growth in traffic has all been organic. He said that whilst most property portals buy traffic from third party sites such as Google to boost their traffic numbers, Globrix has never done this.

Lee said: “I’ve never believed that it makes business sense for portals to buy traffic just to be at a certain position in a league table. The traffic that portals buy from third parties is often poor quality, which is little value to the agents themselves.

“On the other hand, the traffic that comes to Globrix is very high quality as people only come to Globrix to look for property, not to get house price estimations and so on.

“As the recent Propertyfinder case has shown, you can have impressive levels of traffic but it’s not a sustainable business if you have to pay to get your users. You’re much better off investing in the site itself and then the users will come to you anyway.”

Globrix has been a stablemate of Propertyfinder, both owned by News International, which now appears to find the free search engine model more attractive as a business proposition than the traditional subscription model.

Propertyfinder was put up for sale by News International and its other co-owner, REA Group, after making heavy losses. It is thought that talks were held last Friday with Zoopla, which looks set to purchase at least some of the Propertyfinder business.  

However, all the portals have an uphill battle on their hands. A recent Globrix survey has shown that over three-quarters of agents rate the site as ‘very important to them’, but 21% said they don’t track where the traffic to their site comes from.

Lee said: “We send millions of clicks a month to agents, so to find that a fifth of agents don’t track where their site traffic comes from is disappointing. No matter what industry you work in, it’s absolutely vital that you track where your traffic comes from or you won’t have any idea what’s working for you in your marketing strategy. It’s very easy to track your site traffic, as tools like Google Analytics are available free of charge and are simple to implement.”

Comments

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    If Google enter the property search market in the UK Globrix will be finished and Rightmove will proably just ban Google from scrapping its site for the properties etc.

    • 08 July 2009 17:24 PM
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    The portal versus search model is all about one thing when you get down to it - efficient business models. Globrix can continue to make decent revenues if they attract traffic and balance that with good value ad products for its client base. Rightmove and the other legacy portals have to support massive capital costs in people, offices and marketing. And they also need to promote the paid inclusion model. Which is not what consumers want. They want to see all the property available in an area, which is what the free inclusion is all about, Zoomf too.

    Anyone can buy traffic. Give me a 2 million pound PPC budget and i'll buy a lot of traffic and get to the top of ComScore. Is that sustainable as a business?

    What do you think (insert sarcasm here)

    • 07 July 2009 19:20 PM
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    When are we going to hear about this new charging model? After talking about their traffic figures - surely they should come clean about their new payment plans?!?!

    • 07 July 2009 18:59 PM
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    The white label sites send some of the same unique users to the others so you are actually double counting. Also these sites get over 50% of their traffic from search engines as they have no brand recognition, and are therefore at risk. Also Propertyindex charge, Globrix is definately going to and so will Zoopla if they buy Propertyfinder so you will be paying more for less.
    As for the 22k visits in 6 months on Globrix's new pricing you'll be paying over £7k for your 4 offices. Think your money can be better spent on PPC.

    • 07 July 2009 17:07 PM
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    @portal sums, comscore doesn't measure traffic from white label and network partners and so significantly under reports oodle and nestoria to name two. You'll be looking at 1.2m+ unique visitors a month in property from these sites

    • 07 July 2009 16:06 PM
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    Errrm - NO! You wouldnt even have 3rd place if you added all of their traffic together. PropertyIndex, Oodle and Zoomf arent even in Top 10 in comScore. All free though - for now!

    • 07 July 2009 09:22 AM
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    globrix + zoomf + propertyindex + oodle + nestoria = #2 in market at zero cost. Why wouldn't you?

    • 06 July 2009 22:47 PM
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    Be good to hear more about their charging model... Surely only a matter of time.

    • 06 July 2009 16:27 PM
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    In my humble opinion, talking of other portals "buckling"; you have seen nothing yet, you wait until the new google portal arrives then its bibi portals as we know them and if we do not watch out its also bibi to many more estate Agents! You have been warned!

    • 06 July 2009 15:49 PM
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    I don't know where your strong opinions are coming from but here are some facts.
    In Jan-June 2008 Globrix directed 3,961 visits to the greene&co website.
    In Jan - June 2009 Globrix directed 22,174 visits to the greene&co website.

    I'll take that traffic, thank you very much... oh, and I'll also be very happy to hand over the small charge for featured, targeted ads also :)

    • 06 July 2009 15:43 PM
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    if agents concentrated the free ones and marketed globrix and propertylive then rm would wither away. Why pay all this money to rm when we can save money?

    • 06 July 2009 14:19 PM
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    Have you not had your rep turn up with the good news yet that its going to cost £200 per month to compete on the site. This article has been very well timed with their new pricing model and based on the fact that I and others who do monitor have had nothing of value from them I will just read this as further PR. To EAT you were made aware that they plan to charge 2 weeks ago and as yet you have kept very quiet. Can we expect some Globrix banners to appear on your site soon by any chance?

    • 06 July 2009 13:40 PM
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    I am totally impartial here, but Globrix offers free marketing, easily the best search experience for buyers and tenants, and sends visitors directly to agents own sites when a property is clicked on.

    I'm seeing 10+ agents every week, most of whom are unaware of the key Globrix difference, that it sends traffic straight to YOUR OWN website. It doesn't send you leads like other portals.

    They also send weekly email reports telling you exactly how many people they have sent to your site.

    I know I might sound like a sales guy for Globrix but it's just such a zero-risk win win for agents who don't even need to set up a feed to get properties on there.

    So why all the cynicism people?!

    • 06 July 2009 13:32 PM
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    Globrix will simply never be a market leader - they are massively behind the top3 portals in terms of traffic, have very low brand recognition amongst home searchers and will be forced to change their model, find ways to make money, if they can ever compete with the top 3....

    • 06 July 2009 13:19 PM
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    In 10mths we have never had one single enquiry, but then it took them 4mths to set us up!!! who is getting their leads then???????

    • 06 July 2009 12:11 PM
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    Surley its only a matter of time before Google create a property / real estate search which pulls back listings from estate agents websites directly into Google. At this point Globrix will struggle and may go out of business.

    • 06 July 2009 12:09 PM
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    I think it's great that a new portal has reached suck traffic levels in 18 months. But, I don't understand their business model. Is this going to be another RightMove in the making? Free until they are market leader, then introduce a subscription fee, cross advertising, something to generate money.

    • 06 July 2009 11:39 AM
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    The Globrix site looks good but how is it a sustainable revenue model? Agents won't pay for depth products because they've gone so hard on the 'it's FREE, you'll never have to pay'.

    So I am pretty sure NEWS would be looking to ditch them next. If you don't make money soon Globrix, you ain't worth keeping.

    • 06 July 2009 10:54 AM
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    It is surprising how many buyers actually search out of the box for property using a standard Google search. Property with land is very much in demand for example. Globrix have almost perfected a superior search engine for property. Globrix can only get better and stronger - and best of all, it is currently free to list.

    • 06 July 2009 10:52 AM
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