Arady Listing Ranking Explained for Agents and Companies

What Is Arady and Who Lists on It?

Arady, both through arady.qa and the Arady app, is ranked #1 when it comes to advertising properties for sale in Qatar. Arady only includes properties for sale (there are no rentals), so visitors are focused only on purchasing properties. All types of properties for sale are included on Arady, whether apartments, lands, villas or investment properties such as buildings. Buyers are then able to inquire directly with the agent, company or owner who advertises the property on Arady.

This guide helps agents and real estate companies understand Arady listing ranking, how listings are ordered when buyers search for properties, and how to get leads on Arady once a listing is visible. As per the Arady Advertise page, more than 6,000 properties for sale are listed on Arady, and these properties drew more than 2 million property views in the past year.

Is Arady a real estate agency? No, Arady is not a real estate agency or broker. As a listing platform, Arady does not act on either side of a deal for listings posted to the site. Each listing is the property of the listing agent, brokerage or property owner who posted it, and buyers work with whoever posted the listing.

Where do owners start? Single property owners interested in selling on Arady can start by reading the separate owner guide to selling on Arady. The rest of this guide is addressed to agents and real estate companies.

Why Is It Called Arady?

Arady means lands in Arabic (أراضي). The portal started life as a site for land for sale in Qatar, and for the first stretch land was the only category on it. As the listings grew, agents and buyers kept asking for villas, apartments and buildings as well, so Arady opened up to every type of property for sale in Qatar. The name stayed. By then the Arady media arm on Instagram had built a large following and the word Arady had become a strong brand in the Qatari market, so a new name would have thrown away recognition that took years to build.

How Does Arady Listing Ranking Work?

Arady results pages have listings organized into 3 levels. Gold listings are at the top, followed by Silver listings, and then the Standard listings below that. Within each of these tiers, the most up-to-date listing will appear at the top of the tier, with the others organized in reverse order of last update time. A Gold listing therefore sits above every Silver and Standard listing in the same search, no matter when those other listings were published or refreshed.

The listings within a tier are ranked by recency, with the most recently refreshed listing at the top of the tier. Therefore, two Gold listings for the same location could be listed in reverse order on a different day because one of them was more recently refreshed than the other.

Regarding visibility, Silver ads are stated to have about 2 times more visibility than Standard ads, based on the Arady Advertise page. These ads have a Silver badge next to them and appear above Standard ads. Gold ads have the highest visibility on Arady, approximately 5 times more than Standard ads. These ads have a Gold badge next to them. Both types of promoted ads can have up to 2 custom highlighted labels on the listing card.

Both types of promotions are valid for 12 months from the date the promotion is launched on Arady. Once a property has been sold, the promotion is applied to another listing in the same account. Arady also offers Gold and Silver listings for agents and real estate companies through packages created by its business development team. These packages also include bulk promotions and a dedicated account manager. For a full comparison of all listings available on Arady, see the Gold and Silver listings page.

The 24-Hour Refresh and How to Use It

A listing may be refreshed once every 24 hours from the dashboard. There are no automated refreshes from Arady. So a listing which has not been updated by anyone will de-prioritize and fall down the tier while other listings in that tier are getting refreshed.

After a refresh, a listing moves to the top of its tier. A refreshed Standard listing will be moved up to the top of the other Standard listings, but will not move above any Silver or Gold listings. A refreshed Gold listing will return to the top of the page.

Arady recommends that all brokerages refresh their live listings daily, preferably at roughly the same time. This is especially true for extremely competitive locations where a tier fills up quickly. Refreshing all listings each morning keeps them higher in their respective tiers throughout the day when potential buyers are browsing.

Why a Top Position Alone Does Not Bring Leads

Ranking merely displays the ad to the buyers, nothing more. An agent who spends money on a Gold listing with a poor photo and inaccurate information will not only waste the money, but will also disappoint potential customers, leading to lower conversion rates.

Customers browse through the results page, comparing the ads and trying to find the one that fits their needs. They decide which ads to click based on what they see at first glance, the first photo, the price, the size and the location. Position decides whether an ad is seen at all, and the quality of the ad decides whether customers will click on it or not.

There are 4 key elements to an effective listing, listed below in order of importance, and each one relies heavily on the one before it.

• Photos
• Agent profile
• Accurate information and pricing
• Location coverage

Property Photos Decide the First Impression

Photos are the most important aspect of an apartment or villa listing. The first photo appears on the Arady search results pages to attract attention, and the photo gallery is what convinces a potential buyer to contact the agent about a listing. Arady highly recommends that agents and real estate companies hire a professional photographer, or at the least attend a short photography class. Properties should be photographed during the daytime with a steady, level camera.

A minimum of 10 unique photos should be uploaded for every apartment or villa. The gallery should include the outside of the property, the living areas, the kitchen, all bedrooms, all bathrooms and any outside space such as a patio, pool or yard. The worst mistake anyone can make with a residential listing is uploading duplicate photos. Buyers see through tricks like taking three photos of the same room at different angles, or reusing photos from previous or current listings. They assume little effort was put into the listing and continue their search elsewhere.

Photo requirements are different for land listings, but Arady still recommends high quality photos for all listings. Three pictures are enough for a land listing, as long as they are the right pictures.

1. A plot plan of the land, showing the shape and outline as well as the specific measurements.
2. A satellite image, to show the area around the land.
3. A real photo of the land taken on site.

These three photos answer the first three questions people have before they call about a piece of land.

The Agent Profile Photo Builds Trust

Buyers want to know who they are going to be calling. Although not widely appreciated by agents, the picture uploaded to the agent profile, on the profile page of the Arady dashboard, has an influence that goes beyond what most expect. The picture appears beside all of that agent’s Arady listings.

A good quality picture of the face, well focused, properly lit and against a neutral background, speaks volumes. Buyers see a licensed professional. The same picture should then be used across the agent’s listings and social networks. Using a picture of a car or a house, the sky or the company logo, or having no picture at all, gives the impression of an unknown agent with only a phone number.

For real estate companies, Arady suggests using the company logo in the company profile, while ensuring that all agents linked to the company have their own head shot in their personal account.

Accurate Price and Complete Fields

It is very important that the price in the listing is the same price quoted over the phone. Potential leads are put off straight away if they think an agent has misled them about a property, and they rarely call that agent about another property. An incorrect price is the fastest way to lose a lead. Before creating a property listing, agents should check what similar properties in similar locations are going for on the Arady Property Prices map, and update the listing whenever the owner changes the price.

Fill in all of the mandatory fields in the listing and as many of the optional ones as are relevant. Size, bedrooms, bathrooms, year of build, finishing, parking and view are all relevant to potential buyers. A detailed listing is more likely to appear in search results filtered by these options, and a buyer is also more likely to believe the rest of the description if it has been written in detail. If these fields are left empty, the listing loses valuable filtered search results and may not receive any leads as a result.

Provide as much relevant information about the property as possible, written in a plain style. Useful information includes the location, type, size, state of repair, what is included in the sale and what makes it a unique property. Potential buyers are less likely to believe a description that includes chunks of uppercase text, the same words used time and time again, or claims not backed up by the pictures.

Spread Listings Across Locations and Promote Where Competition Is Highest

By covering a larger number of locations, a company has a better chance of featuring in search results. For example, if a company has properties for sale in Lusail, The Pearl Island, Al Wukair, Al Thumama and Al Wakra, then it features on 5 search results pages, not just 1. Most buyers search by location first.

Agents should also be mindful of how competitive certain locations are. A Standard listing with a daily refresh may well hold a favorable position on its own if the location in question is not too competitive. However, in more popular locations, the top position in the Standard tier changes hands several times a day, and usually only agents using Gold or Silver listings hold a consistently favorable position.

To establish how competitive a location is, look at the total number of listings on its search results page. Obviously, a location with 250 lands for sale is far more competitive than a location with just 20. The lands for sale and villas for sale pages show the number of properties listed in each location. When assigning Silver and Gold listings within a package to individual properties, the agent or company should first assign them to the locations with the highest number of competing listings.

Habits That Keep a Listing Strong

Listing quality and search position get an agent those all important views and clicks, but to ensure leads month after month it is all in the habits.

• Respond to inquiries as soon as possible. Many buyers contact several agents at the same time and whoever replies first and clearest will usually get the viewing. Within the hour if at all possible.
• One listing only per property. Multiple listings of the same property will confuse and divide inquiries, and it looks spammy.
• Make sure photo number 1 (the first photo uploaded) is the best photo as it is used in the card on the search results pages.
• Refresh the listing daily to keep it as high up in its tier as possible.
• Revisit the asking price each month to ensure that it is in line with changes in the market. The Arady Property Prices map is the place to check.
• Mark as sold on completion so the promotion can move to another listing.
• Check the agent profile regularly to ensure that the photo is up to date and the phone number is correct. Leads can dwindle unnoticed if these change.

Score a Listing Before Publishing It

The scorecard below gives a listing two scores out of 100, one for visibility and one for quality, and a verdict on which side to fix first. Eight quick questions:

Frequently Asked Questions