Its always interesting to discover the backside of someone's claim to #1. Car dealerships have long claimed the #1 spot, even though one city may have 30 #1 dealerships. They all use some sort of basis... personally I think they are all #1 in BS.

Your test of where someone ranks where it really counts, the Google SERPS, is a much better test of a worthy ranking. The only trouble is that Google rankings can fluctuate and vary depending on the search terms.

Regardless, as long as you keep your focus on the right audience, they will always find you as their #1!

Great article.

Ed Nailor

President, Found By Design
http://www.FoundByDesign.com

**FoundByDesign´s last blog post..New Client: BA Eldridge Interiors</abbr></abbr>

It is easy to see that you have worked hard on your site and your blog. I will do my best Mr. T imitation and say, "I pity the fools that believe the FSBO dude who misrepresented his achievements."

try this site for rankings (byowneraz doesn't rank)
http://www.compete.com

Jay - As can be expected you and Gregg at on top of it. I ran mine on Alexa and ranked 411,417. Not quite Gregg or you, but a work in progress. Number one is no fun anyway, there's no place to go but down.

When I hear and read about articles in the newspaper I am always reminded of what a professor said about natural horticulture. If you need good strong fertilizer, use newspaper. It's full of it.

Jay, there's a Canadian trainer that actually advises agents to just begin advertising that they are "number 1." Apparently he did it with a fair bit of success early on in his real estate career.

I agree that the public has almost had enough of these vague and often meaningless claims.

Jay - I took a look at the "wonder site" mentioned above. Their testimonial page has a total of 10 entries. 7 from 2005 when everything available was moving quickly, 2 from 2006 and just 1 from 2007 so far. Seems to be a sharp decline in the number of satisfied customers - not that 10 in 3 years represents much in the way of market share!

"#1 Real Estate Website in Phoenix - as ranked by Alexa.com"

So he just drops "as ranked by Alexa.com" and he's kosher.

As it is now, it's not puffery, its a gross misrepresention of the value of a listing on his website. Homes on his website will not get anything close to the exposure claimed.

If I were a disappointed client, I would ask for my money back immediately.

Yeah, hard to imagine isn't it Norm? Sadly, I see all sorts of agents with similar claims. I once got a flyer on my car from the self-professed "#1 Agent in Phoenix!!". The guy had been licensed for something like a month.

I don't think the general public puts much credibility in these sorts of claims. If anything, it just adds to a lot of the negative connotation that real estate agents have. Sadly, there probably are some consumers that are duped into using someone based on their false claims. Hopefully they are better agents than they are marketers and statisticians and those that use them don't get totally screwed.

So a fsbo website told a lie? :)

Congratulations on your excellent Alexa rating!

Not boogerish at all! (and *nice* ranking! Could well be the true “#1 real estate site in Phoenix”)

Just further evidence how far off base this claim of “#1 real estate website in Phoenix” really is. I suspect there are *hundreds* of Phoenix real estate sites with higher Alexa rankings than byowneraz.com.

Just for grins, I picked out a few more.

scottsellsaz.com ranks #250 on Google for “Phoenix Real Estate”. They have higher Alexa ratings than byowneraz.com…

movetoarizonahomes.com ranks #475… yep, you guessed it — higher ranking than byowneraz.com…

jasonrfriedman.com ranks #623 in Google, and yes, has a better Alexa ranking than byowneraz.com…

Their claim to be the #1 site is ludicrous. Kind of makes one suspect every other claim on their site, doesn’t it?

Real estate consumers need to proceed with extreme caution when faced with claims like, “#1 real estate site in Phoenix”, “Top producing agent in town”, “#1 Agent on the planet” etc etc, ad nauseam.

Not to be a complete booger, but...

Traffic Rank for BloodhoundRealty.com: 64,436

It's BloodhoundBlog, of course. The brokerage is only competitive on long-tail searches.

Its always interesting to discover the backside of someone's claim to #1. Car dealerships have long claimed the #1 spot, even though one city may have 30 #1 dealerships. They all use some sort of basis... personally I think they are all #1 in BS.

Your test of where someone ranks where it really counts, the Google SERPS, is a much better test of a worthy ranking. The only trouble is that Google rankings can fluctuate and vary depending on the search terms.

Regardless, as long as you keep your focus on the right audience, they will always find you as their #1!

Great article.

Ed Nailor

President, Found By Design
http://www.FoundByDesign.com

**FoundByDesignu00c2u00b4s last blog post..New Client: BA Eldridge Interiors</abbr></abbr>

It is easy to see that you have worked hard on your site and your blog. I will do my best Mr. T imitation and say, "I pity the fools that believe the FSBO dude who misrepresented his achievements."

try this site for rankings (byowneraz doesn't rank)
http://www.compete.com

Jay - As can be expected you and Gregg at on top of it. I ran mine on Alexa and ranked 411,417. Not quite Gregg or you, but a work in progress. Number one is no fun anyway, there's no place to go but down.

When I hear and read about articles in the newspaper I am always reminded of what a professor said about natural horticulture. If you need good strong fertilizer, use newspaper. It's full of it.

Jay, there's a Canadian trainer that actually advises agents to just begin advertising that they are "number 1." Apparently he did it with a fair bit of success early on in his real estate career.

I agree that the public has almost had enough of these vague and often meaningless claims.

Jay - I took a look at the "wonder site" mentioned above. Their testimonial page has a total of 10 entries. 7 from 2005 when everything available was moving quickly, 2 from 2006 and just 1 from 2007 so far. Seems to be a sharp decline in the number of satisfied customers - not that 10 in 3 years represents much in the way of market share!

"#1 Real Estate Website in Phoenix - as ranked by Alexa.com"

So he just drops "as ranked by Alexa.com" and he's kosher.

As it is now, it's not puffery, its a gross misrepresention of the value of a listing on his website. Homes on his website will not get anything close to the exposure claimed.

If I were a disappointed client, I would ask for my money back immediately.

Yeah, hard to imagine isn't it Norm? Sadly, I see all sorts of agents with similar claims. I once got a flyer on my car from the self-professed "#1 Agent in Phoenix!!". The guy had been licensed for something like a month.

I don't think the general public puts much credibility in these sorts of claims. If anything, it just adds to a lot of the negative connotation that real estate agents have. Sadly, there probably are some consumers that are duped into using someone based on their false claims. Hopefully they are better agents than they are marketers and statisticians and those that use them don't get totally screwed.

So a fsbo website told a lie? :)

Congratulations on your excellent Alexa rating!

Not boogerish at all! (and *nice* ranking! Could well be the true u00e2u0080u009c#1 real estate site in Phoenixu00e2u0080u009d)

Just further evidence how far off base this claim of u00e2u0080u009c#1 real estate website in Phoenixu00e2u0080u009d really is. I suspect there are *hundreds* of Phoenix real estate sites with higher Alexa rankings than byowneraz.com.

Just for grins, I picked out a few more.

scottsellsaz.com ranks #250 on Google for u00e2u0080u009cPhoenix Real Estateu00e2u0080u009d. They have higher Alexa ratings than byowneraz.comu00e2u0080u00a6

movetoarizonahomes.com ranks #475u00e2u0080u00a6 yep, you guessed it u00e2u0080u0094 higher ranking than byowneraz.comu00e2u0080u00a6

jasonrfriedman.com ranks #623 in Google, and yes, has a better Alexa ranking than byowneraz.comu00e2u0080u00a6

Their claim to be the #1 site is ludicrous. Kind of makes one suspect every other claim on their site, doesnu00e2u0080u0099t it?

Real estate consumers need to proceed with extreme caution when faced with claims like, u00e2u0080u009c#1 real estate site in Phoenixu00e2u0080u009d, u00e2u0080u009cTop producing agent in townu00e2u0080u009d, u00e2u0080u009c#1 Agent on the planetu00e2u0080u009d etc etc, ad nauseam.

Not to be a complete booger, but...

Traffic Rank for BloodhoundRealty.com: 64,436

It's BloodhoundBlog, of course. The brokerage is only competitive on long-tail searches.