Holiday search trends revealed in study

The number of searches made on Google UK for holiday-related keywords was down by 34% in November to 3.1 million from the peak summer month of August, a new study shows.

Research by independent search and social media marketing agency Greenlight found that Thomson was the most visible website in integrated search, achieving high levels of visibility in both natural search listings (64%) and the paid media space (35%).

On the Beach was the most visible advertiser in the paid media space, achieving a 67% share of voice through bidding on 53 keywords, at an average ad position of four.

Both Thomas Cook and Thomson ranked at the top of Greenlight’s social media league table as both attained a Klout score of 53. Lastminute had the largest following on its Twitter account (16,135) and Thomas Cook had more than 5,000 LinkedIn followers.

Icelolly saw its visibility in the natural search listings decline by 8% and its paid media visibility increase by 5% since August. On the Beach saw its share of visibility in the paid media space increase by 23%.

The search term ‘cheap holidays’ was queried 550,000 times, accounting for 17% of all searches while generic-related keywords accounted for more than half (61%) of all searches totalling 1.9 million.

‘Holidays’ was another popular search term, with more than 368,000 searches having been performed in November. Queries for holidays in Europe were the most searched for, with more than 573,000 searches.

Searches for holidays in Africa increased by more than 60,000 compared to August levels.

“Interestingly, since our previous report (August 2011), searches for short-haul and long-haul destinations increased by 7% and 8%, respectively,” Greenlight said.

Teletext Holidays attained a 53% share of visibility in natural search through ranking at position two for the search term ‘all inclusive holidays’ while Direct Holidays saw its visibility increase by 6%.

Thomson and Thomas Cook were the most visible brands across the social media platforms analysed, with both achieving a Klout score of 53.

“Research into search trends by Google established that most travel-related queries are performed on Mondays, with slightly fewer on other weekdays,” Greenlight said.

“The fewest travel-related searches are made over the weekend, with Saturday seeing the least number of queries.”

Comments