Brand term search dominating in travel, SimilarWeb research finds

Brand term search dominating in travel, SimilarWeb research finds

Research into the most used key terms in travel in the US has found brands are winning out over generic terms. ‘Expedia’ emerged as the most searched travel term online, generating 32.7 million organise searches in the period January to November 2015 studied by SimilarWeb.

Research into the most used key terms in travel in the US has found brands are winning out over generic terms.

‘Expedia’ emerged as the most searched travel term online, generating 32.7 million organise searches in the period January to November 2015 studied by SimilarWeb.

In the UK ‘Ryanair’ achieved top spot with 3.87% share of all keywords ahead of ‘Skyscanner’, rival budget airline ‘easyJet’ and ‘Trainline’.

Other brands that ranked highly in the US Included a slew of carriers – ‘American Airlines’, ‘South West Airlines’ and ‘United Airlines’ – as well as intermediaries ‘Airbnb’ and ‘KAYAK’.

In the US the top 10 searched for terms made up 15.3% of all keyword searches in the 11 month period.SimilarWeb said this demonstrated a high level of trust and brand recognition for the leading sites.

Pascal Cohen, SimilarWeb insights manager, said: “In any industry, organic searches are a major barometer of brand recognition and trust.

“In the travel industry this is particularly evident with many of the biggest online sites now front of mind whenever we book a trip.

“In an industry where more than 40% of travel companies generate traffic from search, companies not getting searched for are unlikely to generate bookings.

“Understanding the right keywords driving traffic to sites can make a major impact on a company’s success in this competitive market.”

In the UK the generic non-brand term ‘The Lake District’ replaced ‘Las Vegas’ as the most searched for.

In the US ‘Flight tracker’ was the highest non-branded keyword in 24th place with 0.41% of all searches).

This was followed by ‘hotels’ (0.31%), ‘flights’ (0.17%) ‘restaurants near me’ (0.11%), ‘flight status’, ‘vacation rentals’, and ‘cheap airline tickets’ and ‘cruises’ (each generating 0.09% market share of searches, ‘plane tickets’ (0.08%) and ‘Las Vegas’ (0.07%).

In November, 2015, search traffic in the US generated 43% of traffic to all websites, 96% of which was organic, and 3% from paid search results, which involving advertising within a sponsored listing, reported SimilarWeb.

Top Travel Keywords for the UK

Top Travel Keywords for the USA