By Krishna Rao

Clocking up a total of two million searches, the term ‘Cheap holidays’ came tops. ‘Holidays’ and ‘last minute holidays’ followed in second and third place with searches totalling 1 million and 751,000, respectively.

‘Last minute holidays’ saw the highest jump in search volumes (50%) rising from 301,000 in May to 450,000 in June. ‘All inclusive holidays’ likewise enjoyed a 23% surge. However, those for ‘Direct holidays’, fourth in the rankings, saw the greatest fall. June volumes slumped 18% on May’s level.

Turkey was the only destination to feature in the top ten with the term ‘turkey holidays’ in seventh place raking in a total of 110,000 queries. In fact June’s search volume rose 22% on May. It remains to be seen which destinations and terms will be flavour of the month in August and if they might even mimic May-June trends.

Regardless, says Greenlight, online vendors need to have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to the terms consumers use to find and purchase goods. The insight can be used to optimise their websites so they are visible to searches, thereby maximising on the online opportunity when it comes to netting traffic and potential sales.

Top 10 holiday-related search terms (May-June 2011)

About the author

Krishna Rao is PR at Greenlight, an independent specialist search and social marketing firm, with over 100 blue-chip clients including Santander, New Look, Thomas Cook, Sky and ghd. Greenlight publishes industry reports, original research, speaking at trade events, and delivering a highly respected digital marketing training programme via the Greenlight Academy. Founded in 2001, Greenlight is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. http://www.greenlightsearch.com/.