Could You Start Weaning Yourself Off Rightmove Today?

Weaning yourself off Rightmove. Is it unrealistic, reckless or insanely unreasonable? Let’s be honest, it’d save agents thousands of pounds. 

Portal dominance, shared for the most part between Rightmove and Zoopla, is a lingering issue. In the past the way to combat this has been to….create another portal. This hasn’t really worked, nor is it a solution for our AI-driven, social media addicted world.

We’re not going to suggest you go cold turkey on Rightmove tomorrow. No need to terminate your Zoopla contract either. That would be too radical. We’re saying stick to portals but also dare to dream what an alternative could look like. 

Imagine a future where your estate agency’s own online marketing delivered more leads than Rightmove and Zoopla combined.

Why reducing Rightmove reliance matters

Most agents stay on Rightmove for one simple reason: certainty.

It delivers exposure and enquiries. Even if fees keep climbing, there is reassurance in knowing the portal is doing its job. Can an agent become too reliant on Rightmove and Zoopla? Yes. Will fees end up bankrupting your business? It’s quite possible in particularly unfavourable market conditions. 

This thought experiment forces you to think more strategically about resilience.

What would that actually look like?

It would not mean deleting your portal listing package, hoping for the best. It would mean gradually increasing the number of leads that come from elsewhere.

That could include:

• Stronger local SEO so your agency appears in Google when people search for valuations or local agents
• Google Ads campaigns targeting sellers and landlords with clear intent
• Social media activity that keeps your brand visible between moves
• Email marketing to past clients, applicants and landlords already in your database
• Reframing your online content so it’s visible to AI tools
• Helpful content such as area guides, market updates and moving advice that builds trust and visibility

None of this replaces Rightmove overnight but it builds a broader marketing ecosystem that eliminates the ‘eggs in one basket’ approach.

Why should agents be doing this now?

How people search for property isn’t changing. It has already happened. More importantly, how people choose an agent to instruct now involves multiple touchpoints away from portals. Landlords and sellers are using social discovery and generative search to make decisions. Reviews, trust signals, displays of knowledge, case studies and authority? None of this will come from Rightmove or Zoopla.

Your agency should show up in Google, on social feeds, on ChatGPT and in local searches. This is how agents build recognition that exists outside portals.

A more realistic way to think about it

The goal isn’t to completely leave Rightmove and Zoopla. It’s to make sure your agency is in a stronger position if the market shifts, fees rise further or home mover behaviour changes over the next few years.

It means your inbox has five valuation requests off the back of a Facebook post. It means your website’s own traffic is spiking because an area guide you published was served to a mover in Gemini. It means your agency’s website was at the top of a Google results page.

Achieve this and you’re not in a portal stranglehold. Your future could mean Rightmove and Zoopla supplement your other online activity, not dominate your marketing.

Time to take action?

So, could you start weaning yourself off Rightmove today?

• Yes — if you’re invested in building an agency that’s less reliant on portals and is more supported by SEO, paid media, social media, email and content.
• No — if you’re not going to plug the gap with other digital marketing activities. This won’t happen by itself.

It’s not really about leaving Rightmove. It’s about asking whether your agency is doing enough to build independent visibility beyond it.

At Superb Digital, we help estate agents do exactly that with SEO, paid media and data-led digital marketing strategies that generate leads outside the portals. If you’re like to start building resilience away from Rightmove, book a discovery call with us today and let’s chat.