Sellsius real estate marketing blog

Zillow.com should change the name from "Zestimates" to a more appropriate name "GUESS-IDIOTS"

Zillow must have no problem being listed in the appraisal category. Being as they have a relationship with Yahoo I guess they could ask them nicely to be removed since they are not appraisers. Do you see any problem with them being in that category?

The Yahoo! Directory is controlled by the Yahoo! editors. You submit your site, they evaluate the category it should go in.

Maybe Zillow submitted their site to this category or maybe the Yahoo! editors put it there. Ultimately, the Yahoo! editors are responsible for the placement in the categories.

Jason, that is very interesting and intriguing. It's the "maybe" we're hoping someone will look into. We need an SEO guru on the case or maybe I'll just ring up Larry or Sergey.

But how do you explain Zillow getting in the Yahoo Directory for real estate Appraisers? Did Yahoo do this?

Go to Google and type in miserable failure.

Result #1?

George W. Bush's bio page at the White House.

How did that happen? He's not even in the failure business, right?

You can get the search engines to do anything you want. Maybe Zillow manipulated the results, or maybe people who don't know any better link to Zillow in the same sentence they mention home appraisals. Either way, it's hard to say whether Google is making the connection itself or not.

Take this page of comments, when it gets crawled by Google... Google sees Zillow, home appraisals, Zillow, home appraisals...

Google's not as smart as we are. It's completely believable that Google might make a connection where there really is none.

Zillow's ranking is excellent already and they've hired a top-notch PR firm. Their Expedia experience will keep them on top for visits and that's fine. Bloggers will add very little to their success or failure. But, in our opinion, lack of visitors is not their problem. It's whether they can convince real estate professionals to advertise on the site that will be the determining factor. With an advertising business model it's essential. When you see Dave Liniger & the big boys & girls give the thumbs up and jump on board the Z ad train, that will be their success. We couldn't care less about Z's success or failure. Our focus has been on consumers and "informed" choice and how zillow markets itself to consumers. This post looks at the SEO work that has gone into getting them this #1 ranking. They are also #4 for "home appraisals" on Google. Very impressive.

lenny - "If I’m an appraiser or a consumer looking for an appraisal, I would certainly wonder why #1 on the list is a company that does not provide appraisals or even a referral service to appraisers (do they?)."
great point! we are wondering the same thing lenny. i do not think they offer referrals to appraisers or real estate agents. maybe that's in their future plans. who knows.

re: flip-flop - we'd like to understand it too.

thanks for the feedback lenny, we appreciate the dialougue.

If I'm an appraiser or a consumer looking for an appraisal, I would certainly wonder why #1 on the list is a company that does not provide appraisals or even a referral service to appraisers (do they?).

BTW: The flip-flopped take on Zillow by Bloodhound is interesting and I'd love to know what changed his mind so quickly. Let us know if you do, in fact, find the answer.

condo blog - well alrighty then! please let us know what you find. thanks.

rebloggirl - that sure is interesting. if you have any more seo goodies for us, please send them over. we love pudding:)

so how did they get so high in the organic search results on both google and yahoo for the term "appraise my home" and "home appraisal" if they do not provide appraisals? is it just that "home appraisal" meta tag? we're all dying to know. any idea rebloggirl? thanks!

You know what kills me about all of this is Marketing 101 says don't call attention to your competitor- it will likely backfire on you. Case in point- Zillow is now more searchable due to this crazy Zendetta (love it- have to use it everywhere now). In fact from an SEO perspective, Andy Hagans/Aaron Wall (SEO Book) wrote in their 101 Ways to Build Backlinks, "63. Get sued by a company people hate. When Aaron was sued by Traffic Power, he got hundreds or thousands of links, including links from sites like Wired and The Wall Street Journal."

The proof is in the pudding!

Lenny, I understand your point. But if I'm an appraiser and zillow isn't, why should they be ahead of me & #1 no less? It's as if a FSBO put broker in the metatags and got to the front of the line. It's obvioulsy not illegal but it kinda rubs us the wrong way. In zillow's case to get to #1 for appraise my home took some doing on both Google & Yahoo.

Good find Sellsius. Im looking into search volumes right now...that should tell all. Huge search volumes...maybe a little "gray juice", low volumes, maybe just a harmless offering.

Users searching on "home appraisal" are looking for an estimated value of their home. That is what Zillow provides, an estimate, which they disclose, is not an appraisal. It is an effort to get traffic. Are the people searching on "home appraisal" actually looking for an appraisal or just an estimate of home value? Do they actually know the difference? Is this a bait and switch tactic? Am I wrong in using "Tampa home appraisals" as a keyword or tag to try to get seller leads even though I cannot provide an "appraisal"?

Even Zillow's description in the results for "home appraisal" says "provides a free Home Valuation Tool for Real Estate enthusiasts. Whether you're an agent, broker, buyer of investment property or first time ..."

You're implying that it is wrong to use a keyword or tag to get traffic, even though you don't necessarily provide that service. I think this practice is fairly common throughout the web. Does that make it right or wrong? Should provide for some good discussion.