Keyword searches in travel industry generate 43% of total traffic to sites, SimilarWeb reveals. Expedia was followed in the top 10 travel by other well-known brands: ‘Kayak’, ‘American Airlines’, ‘TripAdvisor’ ‘South West’ ‘South West Airlines’ ‘United Airlines’ ‘Airbnb’ ‘Orbitz’ and ‘Cheap Flights’.
NEW YORK – ‘Expedia’ has emerged as the most popular search term for U.S holidaymakers and travelers looking to book their next vacation, an analysis from digital market intelligence company, SimilarWeb has found.
The study looked at the most popular online keyword searches in the industry from January to November 2015. The keyword, ‘Expedia’, is the most searched term in the online travel industry, generating 32.7 million organic searches in this period. Leading online travel agents and airlines occupied all of the top spots for organic online searches, as travelers avoid generic travel terms.
Expedia was followed in the top 10 travel by other well-known brands: ‘Kayak’, ‘American Airlines’, ‘TripAdvisor’ ‘South West’ ‘South West Airlines’ ‘United Airlines’ ‘Airbnb’ ‘Orbitz’ and ‘Cheap Flights’.
These 10 searches, made up 15.3 percent of all keyword searches in this 11 month period for travel, demonstrating high level of trust and brand recognition for the leading sites.
Generic (non-branded) travel keywords played a much smaller part in generating traffic to websites. ‘Flight tracker’ was the highest non-branded keyword (24th place, and 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 to the industry 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.
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.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
