Trivago.co.uk, the British arm of the hotel search engine owned by travel giant Expedia Inc, appears to have vanished from search visibility -- possibly as the result of a Google penalty for breaking guidelines.
The claim comes from a report from LinkResearchTools, a search engine optimization (SEO) consultancy. The site appears to have suffered a 95% plunge in visibility between February 2014 and today.
When Tnooz sought comment from Trivago UK, a press officer responded: "We do not comment on our Google visibility."
The report says that in January, nearly 40% of Trivago UK's keywords were in the top 10. But in February, only 4.77% remained in the top ten, according to SearchMetrics' web analytics tool.
If true -- that must hurt.
According to Searchmetrics, these competitors have survived without a significant drop in visibility. It’s interesting to note the “blip” in lastminute.com’s visibility.
The same thing happened to Trivago.co.uk a few months before this drop. Could this be something to watch out for? Aside from this, there haven’t been any significant drops in visibility to Trivago’s competitors (expedia.co.uk, laterooms.com, travelsupermarket.com).
But depending on the brand's response, the move doesn't have to be fatal.
This past winter, equity markets slammed Expedia because of a reported Google penalty to the flagship brand. But the impact on the company's earnings and eventual stock performance was negligible.
The LinkResearchTools case study, which is a masterwork of thoroughness (though its claims can't be independently verified), says "Trivago has been very aggressive with the use of anchor text."
If so, that -- and the other SEO issues (such as widgets as the main linking scheme) -- could be promptly fixed.
Nobody is safe from Google Penguin.
ELSEWHERE: "Why Travel Bloggers Should Avoid Trivago"