Introduction
An in-depth analysis of the online presence of estate agents across East Anglia—including Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire—reveals which agencies have the strongest coverage and which may need to boost their visibility.
In this blog, we’ll look into the online exposure of various estate agencies within these three counties, covering both large agency groups and smaller independent firms. Additionally, we’ll offer practical tips and insights to help you enhance your agency’s performance in your local area or postcode.
Methodology for Assessing Agency Rankings in East Anglia
How We Rank Agencies
With our partners Roar, a digital marketing agency specialising in data and location marketing, we’ve been monitoring a wide variety of relevant search results across 4,000 towns, counties, and postcodes in the UK every month over the last few years. For every one of these locations, we record which businesses appear in search results for a host of keyword searches such as “estate agency in Norfolk”, “value my house Cambridgeshire” or “how much is my house worth in Ipswich?”.
This means we have built a comprehensive data picture over the past few years, helping us understand how different estate agencies across the country can be found on Google, and we’re able to drill down to investigate the data in East Anglia specifically.
At the national level, Rightmove and Zoopla dominate with a massive organic presence, supported by some targeted paid search in the areas they need a little help to stay on top. Your Move is the agency with the most widespread exposure on Google, benefiting from both a strong organic presence and backed up by map listings, then On The Market and Yopa appear, with a slightly greater dependence on paid exposure. Beyond that, there are well known chains with large branch networks, as you’d expect at an overall national level, such as Hamptons.
East Anglia-Specific Rankings
Just over 8,000 searches were identified across the 3 counties, highlighting the possibility of ranking in 155 locations. Not all agencies will want to rank in all locations of course but we do get to understand the potential. The national players of course cover each of these locations but interestingly we saw William H Brown rank higher than the portal, On the Market.
We see some independent agencies, such as Tucker Gardner, ranking well despite their size and the competition. In situations like this, where competing with the big players feels impossible, smaller agencies can be clever with their limited budgets and target niche areas where their personal customer service and local knowledge will help them stand out.
We can run the report specific for your agency, free of charge, to give you a detailed and personalised understanding of how you compare to your competitors at the town level, country or as targeted postcodes you operate in. Please just get in touch and we’ll be delighted to help.
Domain Authority Explained
Domain authority is crucial in understanding how well an estate agent’s website is likely to rank on search engines. Your domain authority is an index out of 100 that tells search engines how trustworthy your site is.
It can be measured by tools like SEO Moz, SEMRush and Ahrefs, and depends largely on the quantity and quality of other websites linking to your site. Higher domain authority means better visibility and higher rankings due to your site being viewed by search engines as more secure and better quality.
Factors contributing to this include: a strong backlink profile; valuable and relevant content that attracts natural links; maintaining a strong social media presence, optimising on-page SEO elements such as meta tags and URL structures; and ensuring a user-friendly website experience with fast loading times and mobile responsiveness.
But why is this important for your agency’s ranking in the East Anglia area or in your local town?
It’s because smaller, local agencies can’t compete on a national scale with the big players or portals. But they can and do win the fight for local search results because they have a strong domain authority and strong local SEO tactics.
With a strong and optimised homepage, a smaller agency can rank highly in their local area for those highly localised searches bringing in quality traffic. A three branch agency such as Annafield Estates does this very well, for example.
Websites with higher domain authority are able to rank highly for keywords that are more competitive, or with fewer backlinks, as Google, and other search engines, can already see that they are high quality sites that can be trusted. So a good place to start when trying to improve your organic ranking is improving you domain authority and increasing the number of backlinks to your site.
A Closer Look: Peterborough
Let’s take a closer look at Peterborough as an example, to see how different types of agencies perform at a town level.
Local winners:
The stand-out winner is Mandairs, covering 5 searches in this location and ranking in the top 10 for all searches on average. But they aren’t the only ones. A number of medium and small agencies are ranking well in Peterborough through paid, organic or map rankings, outranking the big portals.
The Role of PPC and SEO
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising
Paid search results are becoming more crucial in online marketing. It offers faster results than SEO so can be a great option for agencies who need to plug a short term visibility gap. Many users click on these ads since they are prominently displayed at the top of Google and often feature text that closely aligns with their search query.
In East Anglia, estate agencies like Leaders and Balmforth, along with portals and even Purplebricks, utilise PPC to ensure their presence at the forefront of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Through PPC, estate agencies have the ability to target specific locations and keywords, and they can also remarket to users who have previously visited their website to view a property or look up an area guide. These advertisements can appear on other platforms, such as social media, to entice users to revisit the agency’s site.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Basic SEO practices are essential, which we explore in detail in other dedicated posts. Once you’ve implemented fundamental practices like content marketing, meta descriptions and titles, you can shift your focus to long-tail SEO to attract more targeted traffic. This strategy involves optimising for specific, less common search terms that are still highly relevant to your business and potential customers.
For example, optimising for a phrase like “2-bed house for sale in Ely” can generate substantial traffic when done correctly, through blog posts, area guides, or detailed content that appears prominently in on-page results.
Additionally, you can enhance technical SEO elements such as site speed and responsiveness, alongside building a strong backlink strategy. These efforts collectively signal to Google that your content is relevant to users’ searches and is high quality, helping to increase your domain authority and improve your rankings.
When should I optimise my site for search engines?
The sooner the better. The short answer is that you should continually optimise your site for search engines and new updates but this can be a huge task and it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
We usually recommend that you should create and work through your SEO strategy with an agency all the time, but also in advance of and during a website build. Homeflow sites have all the necessary tools to ensure your site ranks highly and can house optimised content. Once you are updating your old content for the new site you can implement all the new keywords and meta descriptions. However, if you are already operating your website, then making regular small changes that impact SEO is a sound strategy.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Embracing New Trends
The Impact of AI
AI, particularly generative tools like ChatGPT, are transforming the SEO landscape and how people search for information. Many users now prefer these platforms for quick, concise answers over traditional search engines, potentially diminishing the dominance of classic SEO tactics.
To optimise for AI-driven responses, there will need to be a greater emphasis on producing high-quality, context-rich content that aligns with AI algorithms and natural language processing models.
For instance, asking ChatGPT “Who is the best estate agent in Peterborough?” results in different top agents each time, highlighting the dynamic nature of AI-generated search results. This makes it crucial to stay updated with AI trends to maintain SEO success.
Google’s AI, Gemini, aims to improve search capabilities by providing more nuanced, context-aware results that better understand user intent and deliver highly personalised responses. This could lead to more accurate and relevant search outcomes, reducing the need for users to sift through multiple pages.
As AI evolves, businesses will need to adapt their digital marketing strategies to maintain visibility and relevance in this new era of search.
Steps for Understanding and Improving Your Rankings
1. Request a Company Report: Analyse your firm’s performance, identifying strong and weak areas within your company intelligence report. You can also see how your competitors are performing in your area too. (You can request analysis on your agency with the form below).
2. Check Your Domain Authority: Use tools to see where you stand and how easy it will be to improve your ranking.
3. Optimise Technical SEO: Ensure your meta titles and URL structures are optimised.
4. Consult with Experts: Book a free consultation with Homeflow to analyse your paid and organic rankings and provide actionable insights to improve your digital marketing strategy. Whether that’s an updated website, performance marketing techniques or a custom strategy based on your specific needs.
By following these steps, you can enhance your visibility, attract more clients, and stay ahead of the competition in East Anglia.
For personalised assistance and free, actionable insights for your agency in your town or on a specific branch, please reach out to us via the form below.