Only a tiny handful of agents have had an increase in demand for their brand by Google searches, a new report claims.

It also shows Rightmove sweeping the board when it comes to all property brands, with Purplebricks dominating the agency sector, and  OnTheMarket having the biggest uplift of any property brand in the number of Google searches.

Zoopla is in second overall place behind Rightmove, but has fewer people searching for its brand than a year ago.

The report, by digital marketing agency MediaVision, is based on Google data.

The report analyses brand search – ie, the number of people that are Googling a particular brand on a monthly basis, for example “Savills” or “Rightmove”.

The report, specifically into the property sector including developers, commercial brands and portals, looks at the period September 2018 to August 2019, and compares the results with the same period 12 months earlier.

Five online brands are in overall top place, Rightmove, Zoopla, Purplebricks, OnTheMarket and Primelocation, ahead of commercial brands and bricks and mortar names.

The report also shows that of the top ten property brands searched on Google, six saw an uplift in brand demand.

Of these, OnTheMarket showed easily the most growth, with a 136% uplift.

The other five were Rightmove, with a 4% increase; Purplebricks, with a 3% uplift; and developers Places for People, up 8%, and Persimmon, up 11%.

The report also looks at brand search for 141 individual estate agent brands – with some surprising results.

Only two of the top ten estate agency brands have seen an increase in Google search demand. They are Savills (top with an average monthly search volume of 74,000, a rise of 1%); and Century 21 UK, with 12,100 monthly searches and a rise in demand of 2%.

However, Knight Frank which is second in the league table with an average monthly search volume of 49,500, has seen a 5% drop in demand.

Foxtons, with 40,500 Google searches a month, has had a 12% drop; haart, with 22,200 Google searches, a 21% drop; and Winkworth, with 18,100 searches, a 9% drop.

Outside the top ten, Chestertons, Dexters and Martin & Co have seen drops of 4%, 12% and 10% respectively, whereas Chancellors and Stirling Ackroyd have seen Google searches for their brands rise by 3% and 13%.

Notable names where Google searches for their brands have fallen off include Strutt & Parker, down 19%, Marsh & Parsons, down 12%, and Northwood, down 30%.

Berkshire Hathaway Kay & Co, now part of the huge global brand, has seen its Google searches fall 20%, while Godschmidt and Howland has seen brand demand dip 24%.

The report also details brand searches on Google for the online sector – it includes in this both portals and online agents.

Rightmove wins by miles, with 11.1m monthly searches – a rise of 4%.

Zoopla is in second place with 2.74m, which is down by 10%.

In third place is Purplebricks, with 550,000 monthly searches for its brand, up 3%.

OnTheMarket has 368,000 monthly searches, up 136%.

In fifth place is Zoopla brand Primelocation, with 135,000 monthly searches, an 18% drop.

Yopa is in sixth place with 40,500 searches up 12%.

easyProperty seems to be one of the worst brands for loss of Google searches – it has 6,600 monthly searches on Google, a drop of 76%.

Doorsteps has also lost traction, with 1,900 searches, down 38%, while Settled has 520 searches, down 28%.

Overall, searches for residential brands were slightly down on the year before, while the report also shows that search volumes for property portals were flat although with spikes in May and July.

Overall, across all the property brands (commercial, portals, developers and residential), Rightmove comes first.

In second place is Zoopla; in third Purplebricks; fourth comes OnTheMarket, and fifth is PrimeLocation.

The top developer is Places for People, in sixth place. Knight Frank is in ninth place, with Foxtons and Yopa at 11 and 12.

MediaVision CEO Louis Venter said: “As we did last year, we are seeing pockets of key winners, with online brands and portals doing particularly well comparatively.”

Property Brand Demand Report 2019

Below, the five brands in the top ten which have had growth in Google searches in the last year: