Some interesting figures from UK digital agency Greenlight Search which shows that size and brand does not matter when it comes to exposure in natural search results.
In a wide-ranging report looking at different elements of travel search, Greenlight found that a number of smaller players than the well known top 20 websites were found competing head-to-head for recognition in search results.
Greeenlight calculated that approximately 8.3 million worldwide holiday-related searches were carried out in February 2010, so has worked out how many different travel brands would have featured on page one during this period.
The most heavily exposed site in February 2010 (when the data was collected) was Directline Holidays, a top 20 online travel agency in the UK but usually far down the pecking order from the likes of Thomas Cook, Expedia et al in terms of share of overall traffic.
Greenlight estimates Directline reached around 66% of all searches in the UK relating to holidays in worldwide destinations in February 2010. This compares to 17% for the site in tenth position and 6% in twentieth.
Top 20 most visible holiday websites in natural search (note the absence of market leader Expedia):
- Directline Holidays - 66%
- Thomson - 61%
- HolidayHypermarket - 56%
- Thomas Cook - 46%
- TravelSupermarket - 45%
- First Choice - 40%
- OnTheBeach - 37%
- Lastminute.com - 27%
- Dealchecker - 25%
- BeatTheBrochure - 17%
- Teletext Holidays - 15%
- CheapHolidays - 14%
- Virgin Holidays - 13%
- CoOpTravel - 12%
- Sunshine.co.uk - 8%
- Co-Operativetravel - 8%
- CheapHolidayDeals - 8%
- Kuoni - 7%
- CheapTurkey - 7%
- Lets2Go - 6%