Rightmove clinches top place as UK’s ‘most searched for’ on Google

Rightmove was the most searched-for business in the UK this year, Google has announced.

It beat the likes of Next, Tesco, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.

Rightmove’s head of marketing Iain Kennedy said: “To get to the position of most searched-for UK business on Google has taken 15 years of building up the Rightmove brand and constant innovation, to make the site the place people turn to first for property.

“The announcement shows that consumers instinctively think of Rightmove when starting their property search.

“Agents getting ready for 2015 can be reassured that by listing their properties on Rightmove they are with the property brand that is at the forefront of home-hunters’ minds and the first place that consumers will see their vendors’ properties when they are starting their search online.”

The full top ten of UK businesses most searched-for, according to Google’s Year in Search report, are:

  1. Rightmove
  2. Gumtree
  3. Next
  4. Tesco
  5. Asda
  6. John Lewis
  7. NatWest
  8. Halifax
  9. Santander
  10. Marks & Spencer
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40 Comments

  1. The Outsider

    Congrats to those at RM for this.
    Genuine question: Should agents be more grateful for how RM have helped their businesses? You're in an industry where a website that enables you to reach an audience has the most searches in the country! That's an amazing stat.

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  2. Ric

    “The announcement shows that consumers instinctively think of Rightmove when starting their property search" ………Interesting…… It showed me House Hunters instinctively thought of "Google" when deciding to sell a house!!!

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    1. Ric

      I mean "starting their property search" rather than "sell a house"

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  3. Trevor Gillham

    Of course they are as over 10,000 agents a day enter 'Rightmove' to search stock and listings.

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    1. Blue

      Not via Google though Trevor, they will go direct.

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      1. Trevor Gillham

        Disagree, my homepage is google, so I type 'Rightmove' in the search box.

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        1. joe2014

          Trevor the 10,000 agents using rightmove is the smallest percentage of people actually using rightmove on a daily basis.

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          1. Woodentop

            If the data is coming from goggle analytics then the search will show all access to RM no matter where the enquiry is going through, even direct from home PC to RM.

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  4. Harree

    And some AM agents are dropping AM. That decision beggars belief.

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  5. stephenjury

    Google and rightmove the super powers for property buyers. Good luck AM with no brand or historic SEO value.

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    1. Benay

      Can you explain that in a little more detail Stephen? Agents mutual control 100% of the data stock on their portal. Rightmove and Zoopla control 0%, RM and Zoopla are service suppliers to service suppliers. Despite their current profits that makes them very vulnerable businesses, their only asset is goodwill. 20% of that goodwill has already abandoned one or other. Let's look at your business model- you are 100% reliant on the service supplier of your competitors remaining strong and dominant. Given the choice of losing your business at the request of the remaining 78% of the industry who haven't joined AM and are not your PI contemporaries can you not see that you aren't really in any position to be crowing quite so loudly. Yours is a very very susceptible and vulnerable business model. Best keep schtumm for fear of sounding stupid. Well done on all the likes!

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      1. Benay

        Get on Stephen whack that like button some more, Shinerock has the record for self liking both in the real world and the virtual one so at 16 like you are only worth 1/4 of a Shinerock- depressing or what?

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      2. EHenderson

        Hang on. What about the consumer? They decide where the data goes ultimately. If they decide to snub your business because they perceive you placing your own interests before theirs, you'll have no data to control!

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        1. Benay

          By consumer you mean who exactly?

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  6. Proper Agent

    Why would anyone type "Rightmove" into Google? Or Tesco, or Next? You already know who you want.
    Total rubbish. stephenjury- not a clue what you are on about, but pretty sure I know which company you work for.
    Brand awareness comes over time, there is no on switch and you can throw millions at SEO, but it counts for nothing if you just type in "On the market".
    Who gave out the list anyway, and who requested it. There are 3 banks on there, who searches for their bank? Total fiction.

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    1. Proper Agent

      By the way, just type into Google- "on the market". Amazing- steps back in amazement, it comes up top of the list. Thank you Google.

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      1. Proper Agent

        Don't want to hog the page this morning, but this article has wound me right up. Search:"most searched-for UK business on Google".
        Absolutely no mention of RM apart from a mention in an article by Property Eye which tells me that PE is more popular than RM. Come on PE, there is mileage in this for you. STOP PRESS – "Google rates PE higher than RM".
        https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=on+the+market&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=AUqRVLmgI4X8ULPLgcgB#q=most+searched-for+UK+business+on+Google

        http://www.google.co.uk/trends/topcharts

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    2. Clarkuk

      I think the reason people type these things into Google is because Joe Public doesn't know whether it is a .COM or .CO.UK

      People DO type in these things to Google. I have actually done it myself once or twice.

      But you also have to think that people will look EVERY day at Rightmove
      TESCO the'll buy their weekly shop ONCE a week.

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    3. CLG

      Read the first line… This data is direct 'from the horse's mouth'.

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      1. Proper Agent

        CLG – which horse? Can't find this data anywhere on google.
        Clarkuk – the . co.uk or .com is irrelevant. any site worth it's salt grabs both domain names and more.
        Forget google. just type the word you want into the WWW line, even include the spaces eg "on the market". dont search it, just type it in. Amazing things these computers, blooming things do all the thinking for you.

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    4. SteveP

      Most of the searches will be from the browser address bar as most use Google as the default. So a lot of people while wanting rightmove.co.uk are lazy and just type "Rightmove" and then click the first link in the search results. This will be the same for things like the banks.

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  7. MsTB

    I like their Top 3 searches starting with How to……..(in London)
    How to kiss
    How to draw
    How to meditate
    Im understanding the 3rd one but cant believe people would actually google the first!!!!

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  8. Harree

    Proper Agent on December 17, 2014 at 9:15 am

    Why would anyone type "Rightmove" into Google? Or Tesco, or Next? You already know who you want. Total rubbish. stephenjury- not a clue what you are on about, but pretty sure I know which company you work for. Brand awareness comes over time, there is no on switch and you can throw millions at SEO, but it counts for nothing if you just type in "On the market". Who gave out the list anyway, and who requested it. There are 3 banks on there, who searches for their bank? Total fiction.
    ____________________________________________________

    This has to be the daftest most naïve post I've read on here – period. "Why would anyone type "Rightmove" into Google? Or Tesco, or Next? You already know who you want. Total rubbish" No ProperAgent it's YOU that is talking total proper rubbish … Unless a searcher has a site saved in their favourites the ONLY way they can get to a site they want to view is to type in that company's name ie., Rightmove, Tesco, Next etc. What do you think actually happens … that a searcher looks at their screen … thinks Rightmove … and it actually appears automatically on their screen?? As for who gave out the list … Google did … they do it EVERY YEAR at this time of the year. And it is FACTUAL. You might consider yourself to be a 'ProperAgent' but you know absolutely nothing about online marketing. Your post is a joke.

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    1. Clarkuk

      Proper Agent you can't see past what YOU are able to do on the internet. Not everyone approaches the internet knowing everything about the market, who they are going to use and how are they going to search.
      And has it really annoyed you that much???
      Ask Eye where they got their info from? if they are reporting it and you cant find it it must be made up!!

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      1. Harree

        In my area alone – very rural – within a 15 mile radius there are 60,000 searches a month where people type in searches like "property for sale in (town in my area)". I know this because I have marketing tools which accurately record online search terms. Rightmove and Zoopla are the top two SEO sites that appear EVERY TIME and they will get huge traffic from these searches.. Yes, OTM will appear top on Google for the few people who type in OTM (mostly AM agents!), but OTM will be nowhere to be seen for real searches by real home hunters.

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        1. Harree

          Ric on December 17, 2014 at 7:34 am
          “The announcement shows that consumers instinctively think of Rightmove when starting their property search" ………Interesting…… It showed me House Hunters instinctively thought of "Google" when deciding to sell a house!!!

          __________________________________________

          Another ridiculous post. So what you are saying is when anyone types anything into Google they aren't thinking they want that company, product or service … they are thinking GOOGLE?! Absolute nonsense again. It's hard to believe that business people can be blinded by such logic in their desperate attemps to belittle any pro Rightmove or Zoopla information. They actually belittle only themselves.

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          1. Ric

            Afternoon Harree "So what you are saying is when anyone types anything into Google they aren't thinking they want that company, product or service … they are thinking GOOGLE" No, cant remember saying that?

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    2. Proper Agent

      Harree- I think the key statement I made was "Why would anyone type "Rightmove" into Google?– The "Into Google" is the relevant bit. You know who you want, you are telling Google who you want, Google is not searching, it is making a link to that site for you. Google will/have counted that as a search. It only proves that RM is a well known brand and as there only haoppens to be they and Zoopla out there, it will rate high. Thought transfer, maybe that is the way forward.

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      1. Harree

        I haven't got a clue what you mean. And I doubt anyone other you does.

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        1. Clarkuk

          I think he is trying to say that people only type Rightmove into Google when they know that they want Rightmove, that shouldn't be classed as a 'search' – Fair enough
          BUT…. they still have the brand awareness to type Rightmove the reason people 'search' for this so much is that it is the biggest and best out there.

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    3. Property Pundit

      Has Harree been outed as a RM or Zoopla rep/employee yet? Doesn't post like an agent.

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      1. Harree

        I am an estate agent who knows a bit more about SEO and online marketing than many on here. Sorry to spoil your conspiracy theory.

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  9. RealAgent

    In itself this is an interesting fact but not a startling one. Lets face it property is a hot search option; from how much would it be to buy a property near George Clooney to is there a property for me to buy. It shouldn't be forgotten however is that the reason that people visit RM is that the majority of the property for sale is on their site. You look at the other names on this list and the difference is they all have, I suspect, customer loyalty, customers who want to shop there, not just visit it because its the UK property sectors biggest library. So as a result of that I doubt that RM's search results will change over night but it will. It would be interesting to know where Zoopla appear on that list however.

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    1. Harree

      Zoopla I understand are in the top 40.

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  10. wilko

    2 things….Firstly it proves that we made the right decision dropping Zoopla….Secondly it shows, more than anything else, that uk citizens are total property junkies….they need a regular fix of the property market, which bodes extremely well for the launch of OTM with their "exclusive to OTM" properties.Once the stunning adverts are seen across the main tv stations the same public
    that google RM more than anything else wont be able to stop themselves trying this new site.

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  11. ringi

    I use firebox at present, on the top of the page is two text boxes, the left side one requires me to add “.com”, or “.co.uk” or whatever, the right hand side does a search on Google. If I type RightMove into the right hand box, Google gives me the option of “property for sale”, “property for rent”. So typing RightMove into the right hand box is less typing AND fewer mice click!

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    1. Proper Agent

      Hi Ringi, less typing if you use the left box. Don't bother with the .com bits. If you've been there before, just type "Rig" Return in the left box and you are straight in. Doesn't add to Rightmoves inflated figures that way either.

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  12. Herb

    http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB

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    1. Benay

      There seems to be a problem with that link Herb- RM isn't anywhere to be seen let alone top anything at all. Perhaps Miles dreamt that and got someone to copywrite the story with out checking his lucidity.

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  13. Woodentop

    Common situations when a user clicks a hyperlink in a web browser, the browser sends a request to the server holding the destination webpage. The request includes the referer field, which indicates the last page the user was on (the one where they clicked the link). ………………… So any attempt to access RM via a search engine or direct will show as a search result. As with all statistics, they are not what they always seem.

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