26 November 2009

Which sites top latest flight search results?

The most visible flight websites in natural search results during September were Skyscanner, Cheapflights and Travelsupermarket.

They reached 90%, 68% and 68% of the searching audience respectively.

Seven of the top ten websites were aggregators, while the remaining three were direct providers, according to research by independent search marketing agency Greenlight.

The study was based on more than 139 million searches that took place in the third quarter for 3,200 of the most popular flight-related terms consumers search for, including both generic and destination-led keywords. The data was then used to rank the most visible brands on page one of Google’s search results.

Skyscanner topped the league table when analysing generic keywords for natural search. This is due largely to its position one, page one ranking for the term ‘flight’ for which it attained 98% visibility.

Cheapflights took top position when looking specifically at domestic, short and long haul destination keywords, which is consistent with Greenlight’s previous flight sector report
for the previous quarter of 2009.

EBookers has the greatest share of voice in paid search reaching 77%, achieved largely by the company’s effective bidding on 112 of the top 120 keywords analysed at an
average ad position of eight.

In the paid search league table, seven of the top ten advertisers were aggregators and only three were direct providers (Lufthansa, Swiss and British Airways).

Cheapflights achieved the top position in Greenlight’s integrated search league table due to its relatively equal exposure in both natural and paid search.

The paid search section of the report determines an advertiser's share of voice based on how often they appear on Google, which ad position they are bidding for and the search volume generated for the keywords they bid on. The ranking represents visibility across the top 120 keywords in September 2009.

by Phil Davies