Our software has been collecting data from the first page of Google since 2020.

We carry out common property searches across more than 3000 UK locations and aggregate performance in terms of Organic and Paid listings.

In this article, we take a closer look at performance within London across the last two years.

OUR TOP 5 OBSERVATIONS

Foxtons have held the top spot since our very first data run in 2020, they are only based in the city so can focus their efforts, whereas bigger agencies with branches split across the UK have to stretch their resources.
Their current search coverage is 41%, with Dexters (29%) as next best traditional challenger, giving Foxtons a huge leg up when it comes to organic search and map listings.

With their recent announcements about ‘bad marketing decisions’, it seems Purplebricks have decided to accelerate their PPC spend, moving up 11 positions on our rank table (agencies are ranked by number of searches).
Increasing their paid search volume from 62 searches all the way up to 220, just in London. Paid search is a reliable method of increasing leads, so it seems they are making safe decisions now.

3. AGREED.CO.UK ENTER THE MARKET

Self-service property listing provider Agreed has started to use Paid Media to cover 45 different searches in the Greater London area.
As an online agent organic and map listings are less attainable so running search ads is a great way to boost their position on the page to the top 4.

4. MAP DOMINATORS

Foxtons have the most map listings in London. Benefiting from 86 map listings, being London based, we expect a high local visibility from Foxtons.
However, they are appearing in locations where they do not have physical branches; they have 50 branches in the capital but over 50% more location search results than the number of branches. Meaning they show up in more locations for “estate agent near me or “estate agent [location] than just their branch locations.

The closest competitors in number of London based map listings are Dexters, with 70 branches and 81 map listings and Winkworth with over 70 locations in London but only 61 maps results.

5. RIGHTMOVE PERFORM COMPARABLY POOR IN LONDON

13% of searches, ranked 16th in London, whereas they rank 1st in almost all other counties and if not first they are in the top 5 agencies by a number of searches covered.
This could be due to the success of Foxtons impressive map listings, covering all its London branches with over 30 more map listings than branch locations
Their lack of physical locations could explain their poor visibility in the capital - there is so much competition in London that it is difficult to rank without paid advertising and Rightmove do no paid advertising.