Travel companies are targeting consumers with weather-related keywords in search engines, with Expedia.co.uk grabbing over 10% of traffic from users searching for “holiday weather”. Research by Internet analysis service Hitwise UK revealed Expedia.co.uk had also snapped up almost a fifth of traffic on keywords “weather in Egypt”. The figures indicate the extent to which travel…
Travel sites targeting weather searches
Travel companies are targeting consumers with weather-related keywords in search engines, with Expedia.co.uk grabbing over 10% of traffic from users searching for “holiday weather”.
Research by Internet analysis service Hitwise UK revealed Expedia.co.uk had also snapped up almost a fifth of traffic on keywords “weather in Egypt”.
The figures indicate the extent to which travel websites are seeking to attract users by pay for weather-related keywords that, coupled with an unseasonably rainy month in the UK, has seen a rise in consumers searching for weather in short-haul destinations.
Director of research Heather Hopkins said: “Searches that combine a destination and the keyword ‘weather’ have proved popular in recent weeks, as consumers eager to escape the inclement weather research holiday destinations.”
In the four weeks ending 20 May the most popular weather-related search term was “weather in Turkey”, followed by “weather in Cyprus” and “weather in Egypt”.
Expedia has clinched significant numbers of clicks from weather-related searches during the same period, but other sites have shied away from using the keywords in their pay-per-click strategy.
“While Expedia is capitalising on the opportunities to attract website visits through weather-related searches, other major travel websites are not targeting weather-related destination searches to the same extent,” Hopkins said.
“This may in part be due to concerns among online marketers that consumers making such searches are not at the right stage of the decision making process and are less likely to convert.
