The results were taken from entered search term requests using Google in the UK for the week ending 22nd May and are an astonishing indication of how Rightmove has become synomonous with the property sector in the minds of the UK public.
Google’s Insights for Search tool provides data on the popularity of search terms using a system which scales search request data and provides it with an overall popularity score. Rightmove started 2010 with a score of 71 compared to a score of 89 for ‘property’.
The gap in popularity of these search terms has narrowed over the course of the year with both terms drawing level in terms of popularity by the week ending 15th May. Rightmove then edged ahead on week ending 22nd May with a score of 98 compared with 94 for ‘property’, and has maintained the lead ever since.
As well as being a more popular search tern than ‘property’, ‘Rightmove’ came on top in search popularity over all other related terms including ‘properties’, ‘homes’, and ‘houses’.
Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove comments:
“To get to a stage where consumers now place your name first in their search behaviour is a notable achievement and a real sign of the strength of our online brand.
"As well as our top score for search popularity, our overall site traffic has had a record breaking year, showing that when the UK public thinks of property they look for Rightmove.”
The results are backed up by the Rightmove website’s recent traffic. March was Rightmove’s busiest ever overall month and April 6th the company’s busiest ever day. This traffic has allowed Rightmove to assert itself over its competitors, with a market share of 83% amongst the top four property websites according to Hitwise measurement of page impressions.
Last week’s Google Insight data shows the next highest property portal has an overall score of just 5 for search popularity compared with Rightmove’s top score of 98.
