Google Insights maps where people search from

Posted by Jim Reppond

People are often amazed at how much relocation business we are involved in. Some people think that we get all this business from relocation companies like Cartus, which Coldwell Banker Bain is the primary broker for in the Seattle area. While Cartus is huge and represents about 80% of company sponsored relocation business, we do a lot of non-sponsored relocation business as well. Why would people choose us over some other real estate company if they don’t know us? It’s simple: BRANDING. People from all around the country know and respect the Coldwell Banker brand.

Google has come out with a cool new tool that really lets you drill down and see where people are searching from called Google Insights. I thought I would try this tool out to see where people searching for Coldwell Banker’s website are coming from, compared to the other two major real estate companies here in the Seattle area, Windermere and John L Scott. I think the results tell the story:

People are searching for Coldwell Banker (above) from all over the United States.

People searching for Windermere (above) are coming primarily just from the Northwest, with some searching from California and Arizona, where they have some franchise offices.

And finally, the vast majority of people searching for John L Scott (above) are coming from Washington, and to a limited degree Oregon.

So it’s not rocket science. People search for and use Coldwell Banker when looking for real estate from other geographic locations. And all this time I thought it was my great website!

*Check out Lani Anglin-Rosales’ post on AgentGenius and how she has used Google Insights to compare real estate companies and trends. Also, Joel Burslem has an interesting article at The Future of Real Estate Marketing on this topic.