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| July 2, 2003 |
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If you are an online mortgage lender, broker or other mortgage Web site, put a useful mortgage calculator on your site and spring for some original, objective editorial content. Competition for online visitors remains stiff among mortgage and real estate Web sites. Even the most popular real estate Web sites can lose scores of visitors if they don't offer what consumers want. First and foremost, mortgage shopping consumers want bottom line information more than other kind of mortgage information, according to Reston, VA-based comScore Networks Media Metrix service. comScore Networks is a consumer behavior research firm. comScore's Media Metrix qSearch service measures Internet usage. Mortgage Search Terms Of 1.86 million consumers conducting approximately 5 million mortgage-related searches in March 2003, variations on "mortgage calculator" searches ("mortgage calculator," "mortgage calculators," "mortgage calculater sic," and "mortgage rates calculator") accounted for 6.7 percent or 322,000 of the searches -- the largest keyword search category containing the word "mortgage," comScore reported. "Mortgage calculator" alone, was the largest single query term used by online mortgage shoppers who keyed it 194,000 times in during the month. That's not surprising. A good mortgage calculator is an invaluable tool that helps consumers quickly estimate the size of their monthly mortgage payment and related costs, compare loan programs and check out how interest rates will affect their bottom line, all to determine how much mortgage is affordable. Real estate experts typically advise home shoppers to get preapproved for the mortgage they can truly afford before they go shopping. A mortgage in hand is a strong negotiating tool because it reveals the home shopper as a more serious buyer. It also helps the buyer focus their shopping efforts on homes they can truly afford. "All-time low mortgage rates continue to fuel home buying and financing activity, and consumers are flocking to search engines to find resources and support for this important process," noted Lynn Bolger, executive vice president of agency development at comScore Media Metrix. "But consumer search patterns are extremely diverse. A detailed understanding of these complex dynamics can clearly make the difference between winning and losing valuable customers," Bolger said. Along with calculator searches, the Top Ten search queries included the terms "mortgage," "mortgages," "mortgage rates," "liberal mortgage," "mortgage companies," and "Wells Fargo home mortgage," comScore reported. Search Engines Accounting for nearly 84 percent of mortgage searches, the Top 5 search engines of choice for mortgage shoppers were: A whopping 37.4 percent of all queries for any subject on Google.com in March, 2003 were mortgage-related, comScore reported. Mortgage Content It's also no surprise that editorial content remains king in the online mortgage shopping world. The Top Five most visited mortgage information Web sites, and the number of visitors in March, were: Mortgage content leader, independent Bankrate.com, by far, contains more objective content than the other Web sites. A mortgage is often the largest, most complex financial transaction most consumers ever complete and solid content is an obvious online draw. Offline Help Sought Online Meanwhile, browsing for housing was showing a seasonal uptick in activity this spring with Thousand Oaks, CA-based Homestore.com leading the pack, but Walnut Creek, CA-based AgentConnect.com yielded the greatest surge in visitors among all major real estate Web sites, according to comScore's "Summer Heats Up The Web" report. AgentConnect's surge reveals more and more consumers are looking online for help finding real estate professionals to help them offline. The Web site matches buyers and sellers with real estate agents. Homestore.com (Realtor.com, Homebuilder.com, etc.) welcomed more than 10 million visitors in May, up 13 percent from April's 8.8 million visitors. The depth of its content, features and industry affiliations makes it the 800-pound gorilla to beat. AgentConnect.com's visitors jumped a whopping 93 percent to 2 million visitors in April from a little more than 1 million in April. AgentConnect.com's surge pushed it ahead of its nearby competitor Emeryville, CA-based HomeGain.Com, which saw a 24 percent increase in visitors in May (1.8 million), after 1.5 million visited the site in April. Other hot sites included MSN House and Home, with 6.1 million visitors in May, up 14 percent from 5.3 million in April and Yahoo! Real Estate, 1.8 million visitors in May, up 10 percent from almost 1.7 million in April. AOL House and Home (which uses Homestore.com's content and features) remains among the most popular sites for real estate consumers, with 4.8 million visitors in May, but that reflected a drop of 7 percent from the 5 million April visitors. Visits to real estate Web sites was up 10 percent overall, while the number of visits to Internet sites in general remained virtually unchanged from April to May. "With interest rates at their lowest levels in recent history and summer just around the corner, it's no surprise that real estate sites are seeing a significant increase in visitation," according to the comScore report. |
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