First Page Impressions

In my last post, I talked about three key metrics for OTA listing success, with First Page Impressions being a crucial one. Why? Because if your listing isn’t showing up on that all-important first page, it’s much less likely to get clicked on!

But what’s a “good” rate of first page impressions? It depends on a few factors like your market, listing age, and competition. Here are some benchmarks to consider:

* High-demand markets: If you’re in a competitive market like 30A or Orlando in Florida, achieving 20-30% first page impressions rate is often considered good. That means for every 3-5 searches, your listing shows up on the first page.

** Smaller markets: In less competitive markets like small mountain towns, 40% or more might be achievable, simply due to lower competition.

*** New listings: For newer listings, aim for 10-15% impressions in the early months AFTER 1st 30 days as newer listings may see a burst of views early on due to platform algorithms prioritizing fresh content. Over 6-8 months period, anything above 30% for newly established listings is strong.

So far only Airbnb provides 1st Impressions Rate in insights, but what to do if you only see number of views in your stats and you’re unsure how to assess your listing’s 1st impressions, here are 3 practical takeaways:

1 - Start by benchmarking: Compare your impressions to similar listings in your area to gauge your performance.

2 - Leverage your portfolio: Managing multiple listings? Use your best-performing or average home's number of 1st page views as an internal benchmark.

3 - Use ranking tools: Tools like Rankbreeze can help you track impressions and do the heavy lifting on rankings. Just be cautious of the costs, especially for bigger portfolios as the tool is designed for individual hosts on Airbnb only.

Remember, First Page Impressions aren’t the only factor, but they sure are an important one as a top of the sales funnel on any channel, including your website. Curious how your listings stack up? Let’s chat!