Writing for the portals vs writing for your own site
The same property, described in the same words, on Rightmove and on your own website. It feels efficient. It's a missed opportunity. The portals and your own site are different jobs with different rules.
The same property, described in the same words, on Rightmove and on your own website. It feels efficient. It's a missed opportunity. The portals and your own site are two different jobs with different rules, and writing for both as if they're one leaves money on the table.
The portal is a level playing field, deliberately
On a portal your listing sits in a grid next to everyone else's, formatted the same, ranked by the portal's rules rather than yours. Your description has to win attention in that crowded, standardised context, which means a punchy, scannable opening, the kind of description that sells, that survives being one of forty on a results page.
Your own site is your home turf
On your website you control everything: the layout, the length, the order, the calls to action, the related content. You can tell the fuller story, show more, and, crucially, capture the lead directly instead of handing it to the portal. Here the rules are yours to write, so write them in your favour.
On the portal you're a face in the crowd. On your own site you're the host. Write for each accordingly.
Why not just copy-paste?
Beyond the missed opportunity, identical duplicated text does you no SEO favours. More importantly, the portal description is optimised to win a click in a grid; your own page is optimised to convert a visitor who's already interested. Same home, different reader, different job, so the same words can't be right for both.
How to write for each
- Portal: front-load the hook, keep it scannable, and make them want to click through
- Your site: expand the story, add the material information, photos, floorplan and a clear enquiry route
- Both: honest, specific, and never the same generic paragraph twice
The portal should point home
Treat the portal as the shop window and your own site as the shop. Wherever you can, use the portal to pull interested buyers back to your own listing page, where you own both the relationship and the data. Capturing that lead yourself, rather than renting it, is the whole point, and it's the same logic that drives your valuation funnel.
The portals and your own website aren't the same channel, and writing for them as if they are wastes the strengths of both. Write sharp, scannable copy to win the click on the portal, then a fuller, richer, lead-capturing page on your own site. Same property, two jobs, done properly, which is exactly how we build listing pages. A free site review will show you how hard your own pages are working.
Our articles are drafted with the help of AI tools that we regularly use. Each one is measured, edited and approved by real people who stand by it.
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How to write a description that sells
The difference between a listing that gets scrolled past and one that books a viewing, in a few simple moves.
Win the click, then the buyer.
We build listing pages that capture the leads your portal descriptions send home, so you own the relationship, not just the ad.
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