{"id":2983,"date":"2008-04-29T10:36:25","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2983"},"modified":"2009-02-28T08:38:13","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T15:38:13","slug":"truliamazing-tricks-of-the-trade-dont-link-to-your-trusted-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2983\/truliamazing-tricks-of-the-trade-dont-link-to-your-trusted-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"Truliamazing tricks of the trade: don’t link to your trusted partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg is impressed how Trulia so dominates the search results for “714 West Culver Street”<\/a>. Heck – they got the listing from somewhere, right? Why does Trulia show up above the original sources of data? In this case, two reasons: the original source doesn’t even display the address on the page<\/a> (dude – MLS rules are stupid, but they usually let you display your own property’s address at least – you gotta fix that!). But the much more common reason is that Trulia blocks Google from following their links<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How do I know? Go to any listing on Trulia. See that “See more photos and details” button? Hover over it and look at the bar at the bottom of your screen. See how it says something like http:\/\/www.trulia.com\/transfer.php?s_id=10424505&feat=1&p_id=1053500646&t_id=fdpt3 ? That gobbledygook links internally to a page on Trulia that instantly passes you on to the listing broker. However it tells Google that it is a temporary redirect (a 302 redirect), which Google has explicitly stated does not pass any PageRank<\/a>. That means while you move on to the listing broker, Google goes no further than that internal page.<\/p>\n

Why would Trulia withold PageRank from their trusted partners?<\/strong> They might argue that they need to track the number of people they are referring to brokers. However, Trulia appears to be very technically savvy and there are a number of other search-engine friendly ways to accomplish that including javascript onunloads or 301 redirects (which do pass PageRank). Why else would anyone withhold a link from the original source? Because in doing so, Trulia becomes the original source for properties in the eyes of Google. If Trulia were to link back to trusted broker partners, particularly if they were to use relevant text like the address (instead of an image link), they risk telling Google that they are borrowing that information from somewhere else – an original source – and Google might rank the original source higher in the search results.<\/p>\n

Why would brokers who share their listings allow this?<\/strong> My best guess is they aren’t tech savvy enough to identify that this could be a problem. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg is impressed how Trulia so dominates the search results for “714 West Culver Street”. Heck – they got the listing from somewhere, right? Why does Trulia show up above the original sources of data? In this case, two reasons: the original source doesn’t even display the address on the page (dude – MLS rules […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8560,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8560\/trulia-a-search-engine\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":0},"title":"Trulia – A search engine?","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Quote from Rudy Bachraty on REBarCamp Denver's announcement that he will be speaking there: (my emphasis added) \"Trulia is a real estate search engine and online community where you can find homes for sale and detailed local real estate information.\" This is the second time in recent days that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3059,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3059\/the-realtybot-shuffle-truliacoms-response-to-complaints-about-nofollow-tags-on-partner-supplied-content-seems-truly-atrocious\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":1},"title":"The Realty.bot shuffle: Trulia.com’s response to complaints about nofollow tags on partner-supplied content seems truly atrocious","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Galen Ward's post on Trulia.com's policy of adding \"nofollow\" tags to links back to its own listings partners has elicited quite a bit of controversy. The original post itself excited a great deal of commentary, and this is explored in encyclopedic detail in a fascinating post by Union Street Media's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4084,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4084\/with-a-new-iphone-application-and-support-for-other-mobile-devices-truliacom-is-pushing-the-realtybot-race-into-the-cloud-but-its-new-free-weblogging-platform-may-put-activerain-under-a-cloud\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":2},"title":"With a new iPhone application and support for other mobile devices, Trulia.com is pushing the Realty.bot race into the cloud, but its new free weblogging platform may put ActiveRain under a cloud","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Who's winning the Realty.bot race, Trulia or Zillow? There is a constant flurry of new press releases from the two companies, but their boastful claims often sound like a pair of garrulous amputees agreeing with each other that the two-legged world is off its rocker: \"Five million visitors! Ha-ha!\" \"A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":232,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/232\/if-the-cute-little-baby-wants-to-chew-up-your-copyrights-who-are-you-to-complain\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":3},"title":"If the cute little baby wants to chew up your copyrights, who are you to complain?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Marlow Harris at 360Digest has an incisive post about the incipient conflict between copyright-holding brokers and national dot.com real estate listing aggregators:But what does the agent do who has signed a TOS Agreement with their broker indicating that the Broker owns the listings and the broker does not want their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1408,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1408\/is-truliacom-the-unzillow-realtybot-emerges-from-beta-with-a-new-qa-feature-and-robust-system-wide-automated-alerts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":4},"title":"Is Trulia.com the UnZillow? Realty.bot emerges from beta with a new Q&A feature and robust, system-wide automated alerts","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Come with me to the newly-reconfigured Trulia.com, freshly emerged from beta status. Let's search for an ideal house. The criteria we can use are limited -- location, type of structure, price range, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage -- but we can still scare up some results. Plus which, if you really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2480,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2480\/the-trulia-publisher-platform-and-the-hypothetical-elastic-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":2983,"position":5},"title":"The Trulia Publisher Platform and the hypothetical elastic mind","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Trulia.com is releasing a new product offering this morning -- or at least a new product skin. It is called Trulia Publisher Platform, and what it amounts to is customized branded hosting of Trulia's real estate content on third-party publishers' sites. For example, you can get your Trulia fix under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7206,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions\/7206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}