SEEK Commercial is a business portal showcasing businesses and franchises for sale across Australia and is owned and operated by SEEK the largest job portal in Australia.
A few stats I found from back in July:
- SEEK Commercial holds #1 position for Google search term “business for sale”
- Potential buyers spend an average of 10 minutes on SEEK Commercial – more time for you to engage with them
- More than 6,300 genuine enquires about a business for sale were received in July 2011
- 744% YoY growth in Google impressions (July 2011)
- Over 100,000 business buyers visit SEEK Commercial monthly
Source: Nielsen
From their site you can read:
SEEK Commercial captures 50% of overall online market visits, when evaluating franchise and business for sale websites. This is two and a half more visits than our nearest competitor. This means more people choose SEEK Commercial to buy & sell their business.
– On average there are 110,000 visits to the site every month
– Our business buyers choose to spend more than 7 minutes2 on the site
– Every day, on average 1000 of enquiries are submitted to business advertisers
When I first heard about SEEK Commercial last year, I was sceptical as to whether a non real estate based online company could enter this space and successfully compete against Domainbusiness (Fairfax) and Realbusinesses (REA). But these guys have had an impact on the sector. In the eyes of business brokers, SEEK Commercial are as important as the other 2 portals and should be included in a successful marketing campaign.
They’ve been pushing advertising relatively hard along with paid SEM so this could explain some of their success. But if you think about the SEEK job portal then this could provide a major source of traffic for SEEK Commercial for users looking for business and franchises.
You’ll also notice that the search and way listings are displayed is a lot different than the other two portals. I feel the business portals operated by REA and Domain are styled on real estate portals, whereas the feeling and style of SEEK Commercial is more closely aligned to Seek.com.au and a job portal. This is very interesting, as from a site browser your experience is very different.
What’s also interesting about SEEK Commercial is they charge business brokers a pay per listing/bundle model rather than a flat monthly fee for all you can list. Pay per listing/bundle is how Seek.com.au charge for job ads. The integration of this into their business portal has proved to be a success.
I admire SEEK Commercial for taking a different approach and look forward to following their success.
48 Comments
Glenn Rogers
Watch out if they move into real estate……
Vic
Great synergies in the concept. “Sick of working for yourself, sell your business and get a job” AND “Sick of working for a boss, resign and buy a business”. Great stuff.
Ian
Vic, don’t forget, – Can’t get a job you like, buy one!
Sal Espro
Glenn, they tried that. They got across the Sensis team who buggered-up yet another Sensis attempt at real business with Just Listed. The ended-up turning them into “Business development managers” and more “Strategists” (with such great records 🙂
forsaleforlease
Ryan
I just did a google search and position 1 for the term “business for sale” is http://www.business-trader.com.au, 2 businessforsale.com.au and 3 http://www.business2sell.com.au. the results are similar on other short tail keywords like sell a business, sell business, sell businesses, sell business melbourne etc. The three majors do not dominate the top spots when it comes to google rankings for the most commonly used business sale terms.
Another new site that is moving up quickly in google and has just moved into the top ten is http://www.listabusiness.com.au owned by an ex REA employee. It is no surprise to me that seek’s first move into the property space was business sales because if you wanted to go toe to toe with the establishment this would be the easiest first step.
My own stats support seek’s hype, when it comes to enquiries generated the are catching up to http://www.realcommercal.com.au and i personally would love to see that happen. Nothing like fair competition to keep things interesting.
PropertyNow Real Estate Portal
Ryan, I have them at Position one also ( as a paid ad ) They are number nine in the Google Serps on Saturday afternoon.
Bounces are normal of course …and it is a nice PR6 with a reasonable amount of backlinks and Alexa likes it, so it may be a contender…..but at present it’s ninth for the phrase you mentioned.
Andrew
PropertyNow
Charlie
Interesting choice of name though, why not seekbusinesses.com.au? I was speaking at the AIBB Conference recently in Brisbane, and that was a question from the brokers. But they are making waves, into #2 position and seemed like nice guys. Seekrealestate or seekproperty beckons?
Ryan O'Grady
Charlie, good point that is very confusing. Maybe something to do with their lack of experience in the real estate sector.
Glenn Rogers
Yes the name shows a lack of understanding of terms used in the real estate industry and presumably business sales industry also..
Vic
Pay per list for $299 +gst per month, $645 +gst for 3 months and $995 +gst for 5 months.
Glenn R. you should get back into Commercial.
Glenn Rogers
I’ve never sold businesses.
“””Glenn R. you should get back into Commercial.”””
Who have you been speaking to ?
Vic
Get back into a Commercial/business portal – I meant.
Glenn Rogers
I repeat , who have you been speaking to ?
Manish
This is not true that Seekcommercial holds Rank #1 for term “business for sale” . in July or every, they are not number 1 ranked.
Officically you can only claim Rank #1 when you are in organic results not in paid results. Seek Commercial is on rank 6th organicly.
On top a simple site like business2sell.com.au beats seek in any organic results in industry. search for top 5 keywords
Business for sale
business2sell.com.au Rank 3
Seekcommercial Rank 6
Businesses for sale
business2sell.com.au Rank 2
Seekcommercial Rank 7
region searched like
business for sale sydney
business2sell.com.au Rank 1
Seekcommercial Rank 55 , lost over 30 spots in last 2 months.
you must check your facts before saying things
PropertyNow
I am glad you said this Mannish.
A large part of the premise of this thread is therefore completely flawed and I posted the same comment 2 days ago, but as often happens my posts don’t reach the page for some reason.
Why ignore Mannish’s comments as though they don’t exist. He just explained that the discussion in here is not based on fact.
Andrew
PropertyNow
PropertyNow
Just double checked in case Mannish and I were on drugs and seeing differently to everyone else. Seek are not even on the front page for the term Ryan.
Andrew
PropertyNow
Ryan O'Grady
Guys……..I said “A few stats I found from back in July” these were numbers they reported from July not today or last week. When I did check their position when the article was published they were around the 8th result.
And Andrew for about the 10th time we DON”T hold back your comments they end up in spam!
Business for sale
Thanks Andrew.
Business Brokers Industry has been struggling for years, It is always considered the 3rd option for realestate websites. like Realestate.com.au and Domain (Fairfax) . 6 years many sites came but only 4 on top seek, business2sell, bsales and trader have survived.
If seek will stop spending money on Paid adverts their traffic from 100,000 will drop badly. They are charging over $300/ month and so is every other website in the industry. ONLY Business2Sell which is ranked higher charges from $300 / year. Unlimited everything. get over 30,000 unique visitors.
200k + pages viewed / month.
Manish
Business2Sell.com.au
It is time to recognise the small businesses then only running after BIG Players who have money and can buy their way in any industry.
Business for sale
Thanks Andrew.
Business Brokers Industry has been struggling for years, It is always considered the 3rd option for realestate websites. like Realestate.com.au and Domain (Fairfax) . 6 years many sites came but only 4 on top seek, business2sell, bsales and trader have survived.
If seek will stop spending money on Paid adverts their traffic from 100,000 will drop badly. They are charging over $300/ month and so is every other website in the industry. ONLY Business2Sell which is ranked higher charges from $300 / year. Unlimited everything. get over 30,000 unique visitors.
200k + pages viewed / month.
Ryan : Definitely Seek have pushed the Bar to higher level for DomainBusiness and Realbusinesses to rethink their strategy.
I think, It is time to recognise the small businesses then only running after BIG Players who have money and can buy their way in any industry.
Manish
Business2Sell.com.au
Ryan O'Grady
And here is the source for the stats http://www.business2.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/SEEK-Commercial-Brochure-v4.pdf Andrew, I did not pluck the figures out of the air.
Vic
Manish, that’s a great site that you have and your prices are more than fair.The problems with us small business operators is also our inability to promote/advertise in the News corp and Fairfax newsprint.
This limits us to organic search and paid keywords. You have gotten the page results- well done and you have the content. Shouldn’t be too hard now to attract investor money to provide for a strong marketing campaign via paid keywords.
The thing that confuses me a little is your site says that for the highest premium your listers can be seen on Seekcommercial and others. Would seem to me that your charge would not cover what seekcommercial is asking as a pay per list charge- just wondering?
All the best- great site.
forsaleforlease
Vic
A Current Affair interviewed and filmed me yesterday, some of the questions were in regards to the problems my business had experienced regarding the limited cross media ownership and dirty tricks the two dominate portals and traditional real estate agents have undertaken to try to impeed my companies growth.
It might be worth a phone call to see if they have an appetite for a follow up story. It is one of few media outlets not heavely influenced by Fairfax and News corp. They were aware of the media watch story about the editorial my business recieved in the Sunday Times and the dramers this created. Idealy ACA will want national interest stories that save consumers money. Have a think about about this before pitching. Good luck.
Business for sale
@ Ryan : I never doubted you, you wouldn’t post without FACTS, but as we can see SEEK is doing False Advertising . nothing against you. 🙂
PS: I never believe anyone for what they say, i always double check.
@Vic : Thanks Vic, the section you went into was for Private Sellers, FSFL provides this service for Private Seller and we are partnered with them to use other sites and give more exposure.
Regarding Investors, I still have some last minute updates left. Once these will be out ( Max Jan 2012 ). We will look into this. Right now the ground work is getting done for that.
Ryan O'Grady
Can you double check the results for July?………….Unless you know what the results are from July then maybe you should reserve your judgement as to whether SEEK are false advertising.
Vic
Mannish,
Now I am confused. In taking on a private sale client, then using FSFL as a vehicle to advertise on REA and Domains business portals, does this mean that your client then becomes a client of FSFL and the services they offer such as negotiating, and organising conveyancing apply?
If they don’t become a FSFL client, is it breaching any terms and conditions of REA and Domain? – Just asking.
forsaleforlease
Vic
All FSFL listings are customers of FSFL regardless of where they are referred from. The legislation requires I have an authority to act, which I have from all clients. All my customers are entitled to all the services I provide without additional cost. This is no longer a requirement of my subscription with the REA, as Greg Ellis backed away from forcing this higher level of service on all my customers after the ACCC investigation. I have chosen to continue offering this as a value ad to differentiate my business from being seen as just an advertising service rather than an online real estate advisor service. As an agent i am entitled to offer the level of service i choose and charge what i believe will be valued. Where i source my customers from is my business, particularly when the REA has stated on numerous occasions they do not deal directly with private sellers. This is my niche
Vic
Thanks for the clear and direct and honest answer Michael. Gets rid of the confusion.. Always believed that there is a place in the market for a number of types of service providers for the home/business seller.
Propertynow Real Estate
Ryan, fair enough that your stats are from July but why post them when they are now not relevent in October? I can tell you what happened in 2009 but what’s the point? The start of this thread infers ( actually states ) that seek had serp domination that it clearly does not have any more.
I do find that Manish brings lots of clarity here. He stated so accurately what should be self evident to all the people spruiking portal stats and website hits and all the rest. Manish knows the truth and it’s this – Pull out the paid traffic from every major portal and show the 3 month traffic stats after doing so. Apart from being out of business their traffic numbers would shock everyone. In other words they succeed only so long as their budget can cope with the high cost acquisition of traffic. That’s a model that is very shaky.
I can drive 10000 visitors a day to PropertyNow tomorrow. I log into my adwords account, input an extremely comprehensive list of long tail keywords, set my CPC at 50 cents and then load my account up with $500 for the days advertising. So again thanks for the clarity and quality you bring to this discussion Manish.
Ryan, I am offended at you calling my comments spam but you are entitled to your opinion. I just see this as an extraordinarily biased blog where differing views are tolerated very grudgingly.
If I see something that’s inaccurate I like to point out the discrepancy and the lead in to this thread was accurate in July only, if at all. What’s wrong with pointing that out? It’s clear most people took the rankings you quoted ( from July ) literally and were not even aware that they were long out of date.
Andrew
PropertyNow
Propertynow Real Estate
Ah my maths is out. I will actually need $5,000 per day ( not $500 ) at least, to drive the traffic and thereby impress the pundits who watch Alexa traffic stats.
Andrew
PropertyNow
Ryan O'Grady
Andrew, they are stats that I dug up…………….i am not inferring, stating they are facts or making them up. I have provided proof from where I found them.
“Ryan, I am offended at you calling my comments spam” I am not calling your comments spam Andrew. Once again read my comment carefully………….”And Andrew for about the 10th time we DON”T hold back your comments they end up in spam!”
I can’t control what Akismet does…………….but it does not like your comments and often they are placed in spam automatically.
forsaleforlease
Andrew
I think your comments were delayed from being published as my post beforehand had to many links in it. My post took days to appear as well.
I have been watching the business sales sites for some time and to my knowledge http://www.seekcommercial.com.au has never been position 1 for the term “business for sale” organically. Their advertising must be relying on their paid position. Real Estate Agents won’t care at the end of the day. If seek have the resources to continue paying to occupy the paid position one and this generates enquiries that’s the only stat real estate agents should be worried about.
Glenn Batten
Ryan
You have better things to do than constantly monitor your spam queue???
His constant akismit triggers will be as a direct result of him trying to spam the links back to his own website. Akismit will see the one email constantly posting but with different keywords back to the same email address. That is exactly what blog comment robots do.
You play with fire you expect to get burnt!
PropertyNow
Glenn Batten, I swear to god you are clueless. Take a look at the last 30 posts I have made in here over the past 6 months.
I am one of the few people who don’t put links in the text and message ( maybe once in 30-50 posts ). Others do put links in routinely. I know how Akismet works and the suggestions you guys are making are pure nonsense. Again I repeat, I don’t even include a clickable link other than in the post title ( as most people do ) and it most definitely does not trigger Akismet since I post virtually the same way each time and Akismet does not pick and choose.
Michael Atwell has the same protocol in his title in the very post two spots above this – i.e. forsaleforlease ( as he should – and good for you Michael ) It is not merely accepted practice but jolly good commonsense and sound marketing when writing his post.
As I said Glenn Batten you are totally clueless and out of your depth on these matters. You have showed this to me every single time you have spoken about PropertyNow, its rankings, its traffic etc. You even stated bizarrely Glenn Batten, that being ranked for the largest property phrase – real estate – was largely unimportant and in the same thread ( a different thread to this ) challenged me as to why I don’t rank for Coffs Harbour real estate. Seriously, how stupid was that comment?
This bias and constant ridicule, most particularly from Glenn Batten, has happened in such a manner and so repeatedly as to suggest bias by either an editor or editors. In fact I don’t have to prove it as the editors have actually admitted it from time to time.I have also been accused of self promotion constantly ( guilty as charged ) and my counter claim is that PropertyNow is despised by key controlling elements of this blog.
It’s the only way to explain how REV were afforded a long lasting thread on B2, when they managed to usurp Domain for about 3 hours over a period of a day and a half a month or so ago….and yet when PropertyNow manages the same feat for 7 out of the past 12 days( sometimes for 2 or 3 days at a time ) nothing is even mentioned. Big news when the favoured site does it for 5 minutes and not mentioned at all when we do far better and for far longer.
This is absolute evidence of a complete bias in the blog and it stems from an intense dislike of the PropertyNow business model …and that is cloaked in personal attacks constantly in this blog.
Now Ryan, I consider you to be a very good fellow and we almost became business partners a few years ago. In addition we each share real estate agent clientele and help one anothers businesses. I understand the delineation you made in calling my comments “spam caught” as opposed to saying they are actual spam. In fact I knew you would point that difference out as soon as I posted and I didn’t deem it necessary to explain that at all. But I felt it was very clear that your comments come across to uninformed people very differently Ryan, than perhaps was your intention…… and I feel you should have chosen your words more carefully.
I too could have chosen my words more carefully Ryan when referring to your premise for this thread… but in fairness Ryan 9 people out of ten would have thought the data you reported from July,was current. In fact clearly several people did think that and Manish and I pointed out that it was simply not the case. No big deal and yet…..bang …Batten goes into attack mode again and hijacks the actual thread and then pretends that PropertyNow did the hijacking.
This is how it works with Batten – Something inaccurate is posted on B2. I then post something about the inaccuaccy. Batten then turns his rage onto PropertyNow and complains about us. Think I’m exagerating? He did it when we correctly held that the ACCC story about REA and Price Gouging in the Fin Review was total bollocks. Batten held the position for months and for all I know still does. When we tried to correct he went to his pattern of attacking PropertyNow instead of assesing data on its merits. He completelely ignored the truth and on that occasion accused me of seducing the Fin Review editor Ben Hurley to mention PropertyNow. Never let the facts get in the way of your opinion Glenn Batten
just for the record Glenn Batten our spammy site ( PropertyNow ) has added several thousand new listings in the past week and 16 new real estate agencies in a single day last week. And we support all of those agents completely free of charge and at considerable expense. We were also recently approached by a major real estate Franchise who wish to list on our site.
Glenn Batten, get off my case and PrropertyNow’s case or I will ask our clients to come over and take up the cudgels with you in here to even things up. That ought to give Akismet a workout eh Glenn? No doubt you would consider there well intentioned comments spam though.
Please find another cause to denigrate. You surely have posted every negative anti-PropertyNow sentiment left available to you…or have you? Of course you haven’t.
PropertyNow has done monumentally more for both the real estate industry in Australia and for thousands more people than I suspect you ever have or will Glenn Batten. The difference between us is that I only defend myself to you Glenn but you constantly attack me and my business.
We will continue to prosper without your goodwill Glenn Batten and that’s just as well as we never expect to have that goodwill from you. The only time you stopped attacking me in the past was to concentrate better on attacking Peter Mericka, Enzo Raimondo or Glenn Rodgers. Those were the first three people that came to mind but no doubt your hit list is much longer Glenn Batten and I am sure that Propertynow occupies pole position on your list of people and businesses to disparage at every available opportunity.
Final note: the constant references to Glenn Batten by his full name in my post is not because of anger at Glenn Batten but because he shares the same name and spelling as Glenn Rodgers ( who also posts a lot in here ) and I do not want to confuse people about whom my rant is about. Glenn Rodgers is a very likeable and seriously smart fellow.
Andrew Blachut
PropertyNow
Ryan O'Grady
As Glenn pointed out, I don’t have time to monitor the comments every day. But its done when we login every couple of days.
The comments which are placed in there either:
1. have links in the comment or
2. As Glenn pointed out, the Name of the user changes regularly.
If you want your comments to appear automatically and not a few days later then its best to use the same name when posting your comments. If you would like to add links or change your name then that is fine, but they could be held back until we check the spam section. Please don’t excuse us of not publishing your comments.
Ryan O'Grady
And Andrew the reason the article was published about REV was because it was brought to our attention by a reader and subscriber of Business2. This person is completely independent from either organisations and thought Domain slipping would make a good topic…which it was given there were 100 + comments.
It was good news at the time and if PropertyNow had been number 2 and not 3 the article would have been about you.
Andrew if you read the first paragraph of that article you will see PropertyNow.com.au is clearly mentioned.
“Over the last week it appears Realestateview has launched itself up the Google search results for the term “real estate” now ranking number 2 behind Realestate.com.au. Domain which was number 2 has now been pushed down to the 4th result below PropertyNow.com.au”
http://www.business2.com.au/2011/09/realestateview-moves-in-front-of-domain-in-google/
PropertyNow
Ryan, I accept what you say and it makes some sense. You are saying that if a username is changed in the title of a post then Akismet may get triggered and that means comments have to wait until you or someone else approves them ( or doesn’t approve them….if you get my drift )
The apalling bias still exists in the blog though and Batten needs a new cause celeb. He spends a great deal of time finding negative stuff about PropertyNow. So far he is annoying, negative and very ill informed but hasn’t yet overstepped to the point of slander.
So Ryan, given what you said in your post above…. do you want to be informed when we again hit number two in the serps as you were informed with REV?
On other matters Ryan, did you build this blog template and site with Pete? I am wondering about getting you to fix up my real estate blog, if you do that sort of thing at AgentPoint.
Andrew Blachut
PropertyNow Real Estate Portal
Ryan O'Grady
Andrew, its old news as Domain only loose the 2nd spot for the 1st time once.
We can help with your blog but there are plenty of excellent and cheap (less than $100) WordPress themes out there which can easily be setup. Have a look at these http://themeforest.net/.
PropertyNow
Old news Ryan?? I bet domain don’t think so. Your rationale for that leaves me speechless.
You use stats from July about SEEK and that’s not old news??
You also tell me how strong the interest in the domain thread was ( as you pointed out over 100 comments ) when they sevured second spot for 5 minutes. We retain it for days at a time ( including today) and you deem it unimportant Ryan.
Mate you just sealed my argument about the obvious bias in here. Time I left you guys well alone and focused even more on my business.
Thanks for the blog theme link Ryan. Careful about those links you put in the post buddy……could be considered spam:-)
Andrew
ProeprtyNow
Vic
Andrew,
You mentioned Property Now 15 times in your long critical post against Glenn B. Must be a record- well done I say 🙂
Business for sale
@Ryan :
I have been checking all the keywords ranking for over 6 years now. every week, everyday . I can tell you which site was ranked where around what period. I can even tell you how many listings each site had in last 6 years and in the specific periods who has grown how much.
I am in the industry and like to keep all the stats handy.Specially the keyword “business for sale”
Business Trader is on rank 1 from last 16 to 18 odd months, before that it was businessforsale.com.au rank 1 . Seek commercial was never rank 1.
They cannot provide any proof of rank1 in Organic, I can bet you on this.
Now regarding False advertising, It is twisting and turning the words. As they just called Paid Advert as Rank 1. so does a lot of other non IT people do.
Glenn Batten
Vic,
He is just looking for attention and somebody that I decided quite some time ago never to directly address. With so little time these days (notice my lack of posts) he is Just not worth the effort really 🙂
It’s quite amusing to watch him fall over himself. . That big long rant then only to have to admit that “it makes sense” after Ryan repeats “as Glenn points out”……. priceless !!!
Business Trader
This thread was brought to my attention today and obviously I found it very interesting. My only advice is that Seek should be very careful with their claims, as losing trust with the customer will cost them dearly in the end.
Business Trader
Ryan, the source of the stats you provided does not have any credability. First of all, your stats are a direct result of ‘paid’ traffic. Secondly, we would need to see your traffic stats directly from analytics, awstats, etc. What you have provided is simply a pdf which you have created.
Ryan O'Grady
Business Trader, The pdf was created by SEEK Commercial not myself.
Business Trader
I assumed it was created by Seek, however if you are going to provide evidence of traffic stats, it needs to be undisputable proof from a credible source. Otherwise we would have websites making all sorts of ‘crazy’ claims about traffic stats to try and lure the customer.
Seek isn’t the only website in our niche claiming to be in the #1 position for the term ‘business for sale’ which is unethical and deceptive. It is unprofessional and leaves me scratching my head as to why any website owner in our niche would make the assumption that any potential customer is not smart enough to do their own research. I think it is fair to assume that most potential customers will do their own research prior to making a financial commitment.
Vic
I’m with you on this one Business Trader. Nothing is more frustrating, to us in the portal world, than the spurious claims of being NO 1 in this or number 1 in google search etc.
There is only one measure of success in business and that is only measured against the goals you set for yourself and your team.
Business Trader
Here is another site claiming the #1 position for the term ‘business for sale’:
businessforsale.com.au/why-us
They have even photoshopped an image. This is not the way to conduct business and will almost certainly result in loss of business…..unless you actually do rank in the #1 position.
This type of deceptive marketing happens all of the time. All we can hope is that the potential customer does their research, which I know for a fact that they do.
List a business
I agree with manish on this one. I truely believe that seek has used its buget to create the stats it has. There too big a company to be “false advertising” i think to us as we know the world of seo and google rankings a little better than the public we dont respect the fact they call a paid lising a # 1 position.
Im constantly competing as the newbie to the scene with the likes of peter watson(business trader) and manish(business 2 sell), seek commercial and REA’s Commercial sites.
The fact remains that what business trader has just said, the consumers will do there homework. they will research and do research the keywords themselves and alot of them know what a paid listing is.
Just my two cents