We often get questions, and are sometimes challenged, on the traffic numbers to REALTOR.ca. But, the bottom line is, no other real estate website in Canada has as much reach and exposure as REALTOR.ca.
Between regular and mobile versions of the website and the mobile apps, REALTOR.ca had over 226 million visits in 2013. Growing at over 20% from the past year, visits are turning into more exposure for property listings in Canada with over 2.7 billion page views across all devices.
But, as we all know, being popular isn’t everything.
REALTOR.ca is also a proven lead generation tool for REALTORS® with over 1 million leads being sent directly to members and their offices (make sure that you have the correct email address in your profile on your Board’s MLS® system). Coupled with the fact that homebuyers have shared property listings with their friends almost 2 million times, and you can see why REALTOR.ca is a powerful resource for REALTORS® across the country to build and grow their businesses.
That’s great and all, but we can do even better.
Over 37% of visitors coming to REALTOR.ca come through search (Google, etc.) which is significant compared to sites such as Kijiji.ca Real Estate, which gets approximately 27% of its traffic from search engine referrals (SOURCE: Alexa). We are continuing our efforts to improve on these results to help connect REALTORS® and their property listings with homebuyers looking for their new home or property.
CREA is also focused on addressing the growing shift to mobile visits for property searches. In just the past year, mobile device traffic (including mobile phones and tablets) to REALTOR.ca has increased from 11% to 18% of visits. This does not include the rapid growth of CREA’s mobile apps that garner an average of 74,000 new users every month and has seen a 49% growth over 2012.
In 2014, we’ll release new versions of our mobile apps to take advantage of the latest features of the newer mobile devices and improve overall visitor experience, with particular focus on improving homebuyer engagement.
We know that understanding the behavior of the home buying market in Canada will ultimately help REALTORS® succeed. And, that’s a big deal to us.
Your turn! What other areas of insight would you like to see on CREA Café? Share with us in the comments, below.
