Recent studies show: The number of people in need of a vacation who still personally book their flight to the destination of their dreams at a travel agency has significantly decreased in recent years. Conversely, the number of online bookings is steadily increasing – with an upward trend.
Who are the top players? Who has the best rankings and who has the most social fans and followers? Where is there potential for optimization?
We at Searchmetrics try to answer theses questions and have embraced the recent developments as an opportunity to take a closer look at the air travel industry and the performance of the respective online portals in search engines. The result: Travel portals on the Internet such as Expedia or Kayak perform a little better in this country than the airlines themselves, who are though quite well-performing.
Online bookings for air travel are increasing
While it is not quite time yet for the owners of travel agencies to completely close their doors, the percentage of those who book their air travel in a personal conversation or on-site has been declining for years. This is at least what some recent studies of the travel sector show.
In comparison, both the information about and the booking of travel and flights online has increased to the same extent as the customer traffic in travel agencies has been declining. It is only logical that traffic and sales of the flight (travel) portals on the Internet are consistently rising.
Searchmetrics study: SEO for air travel providers – U.S.A., Germany, France and United Kingdom
This is of course an advantage for those who are already well positioned in the market. For other companies, however, there is certainly potential for optimization.
We as the leading provider of digital marketing services have scrutinized the entire air travel industry and compiled and evaluated the results in a study. The focus was on the national analyses of four countries: the US,Germany, France and Great Britain.
Download the study here:
>White Paper – SEO Air Travel Industry <
The white paper “SEO and air travel providers – Who’s grounded and who’s taking off?” provides a complete overview of the current industry, market leaders in the air travel sector, and the social performance of each competitor.
Our extensive (the world’s largest), steadily growing database enables us to provide sound information both about online trends in general and about specific markets and trends.
Europe: travel portals ahead of airlines – greatly different backlink and social strategies
A brief insight into the study: The online presences of European airlines themselves perform significantly worse than the larger travel portals, whose keyword density is simply higher.
The situation in the U.S. is quite different. This applies both to the organic keyword rankings (SEO), as well as to search engine marketing (SEA).
USA: airlines are top dogs – but there are only a few holistic strategies
There are very large differences between airlines as well as between travel portals, both in terms of backlink structures – for example with regard to the quality or nationality of the link source (server locations) – and the social media performance.
Conclusion: The European market still seems quite diverse; special potential for optimization exists in the airlines. In the U.S., they have already taken a position, but there are still only a few market participants with holistic strategies.
Flight industry overview: market leaders, competitors and optimization potential
Context of the study: We have analyzed the top players, market shares, individual rankings and performance, (SEO and social) visibility, PPC, backlink structures and other KPIs of relevant competitors on the basis of a comprehensive, industry-specific set of keywords.
From these data, we have generated a comprehensive overview of the market, which allows us to prepare specific recommendations, strategies and opportunities for market participants.
Analyze – optimize – succeed: our data for your success
What do we do?
Using our software – the Searchmetrics Suite and the Searchmetrics Essentials – markets, competitors and your own performance can be analyzed and targeted to individual needs – data that ultimately leads to the development of optimization potential.
Why do we do this?
We support you with our data and our software in market analyses, optimization of your online performance and the successful implementation of your online campaigns to help you reach your goal: increasing your ROI!
How do we do this?
Three words: analyze – optimize – succeed!
What do you think of our analyses and the white paper? Let me know in the comments!