Tnooz asked Yahoo to generate a list of the most searched-for travel site terms via Yahoo Search in 2013 for the US and the UK.
The list of typical travel-related terms in organic search implicitly reveals which brands are digital marketing stars. After all, users must recognize a brand name if they're going to type it into a search bar.
We supplied Yahoo with the names of the major digital players in travel. Not all of these names ended up being ranked. In some instances, the amount of people searching for the term was too low to rank.
The terms are in line with how people query, according to Yahoo Search. For example, people don't type in "hotwire.com"; they search instead for "hotwire". But there were exceptions, such as people typing "booking.com".
US Ranked Travel Sites on Yahoo, as searched by name, for the past 365 days, by most to least searched:
- southwest airlines
- delta airlines
- expedia.com
- united airlines
- american airlines
- travelocity
- priceline.com
- delta
- amtrak
- orbitz
- us airways
- hotels.com
- cheaptickets.com
- spirit airlines
- hertz
- alaska airlines
- marriott
- allegiant air
- hotwire
- frontier airlines
- united
- booking.com
- kayak
- virgin america
- best western
- hilton
- travelzoo
- avis
- national car rental
- british airways
- jetblue.com
- cathay pacific
- thrifty car rental
- budget.com
- air france
- hyatt
- lufthansa
- trivago
- tripadvisor.com
- agoda
- virgin atlantic
- emirates
- amtrack [as a misspelling]
- ana
- skyscanner
- ryanair
- jet airways
- cheapoair.com
- easyjet
- dollar.com
- air india
- groupon getaways
- intercontinental hotel
- united airline
- american airline
- agoda.com
- airtran airways
- starwood
- hipmunk
- room77.com
Some unranked names (not enough searches by US users to rank): Qantas, OTAs, Kimpton, Accor, Gateguru, Europcar, Auto Europe, Airfarewatchdog, Seatguru
UK Ranked Travel Sites on Yahoo for the past 365 days:
- easyjet
- ryanair
- hertz
- british airways
- skyscanner
- booking.com
- expedia.com
- virgin atlantic
- trivago
- aer lingus
- emirates
- travelzoo
- air france
- lufthansa
- thomas cook
Without a prior-year comparison, it's impossible to see trends. But some brands may take heart from these rankings.
Exhibit A: Booking.com's TV ad campaign in 2013 seems to be establishing name recognition among Americans, given that it is one of the top 25 most-searched for travel brands in the US.
True, 21st place isn't as good as its 6th position in the UK, but Booking.com is a relatively new brand in the US.
One name that poses a difficulty for the dataset is Kayak. How to parse people's intentions in searching on that name? Did they mean a water-based vessel? So the results are imperfect.