Search engines still have huge potential for travel say experts

Friday, 02 Feb, 2006 0

Agents and operators can still exploit the potential of search engines, according to speakers debating the issue at the Travel Technology Show in London.

Despite a widespread belief that search engine optimisation has reached its peak Hitwise director of research Heather Hopkins advised delegates there was still room for companies to use the medium.

“The idea that it is locked up is a myth. If you take companies such as Opodo and ebookers only 9% of their search terms overlap.”

Hopkins advised travel companies to look at what search terms were working for competitors and be creative with their own terms.

According to figures from the internet tracking company the volume of searches for airports is higher than actual destinations but, competition for search terms incorporating the word ‘airport’ is less.

“Out of 17 searches for a destination more than half of them were for an airport.”

Google’s vertical market manager for travel Daniel Robb argued pay-per-click advertising still had a place especially for companies wanting to get a specific commercial message across.

Robb said there were gaps ‘to be exploited’ in online advertising because of the small share of budget going online in proportion to the amount of time individuals spend on the web.

He advised travel companies to get the right mix in terms of quantity and quality of keywords for pay-per-click and said terms such as ‘flights’ cost about 10p while ‘flights to Majorca’ costs about 5p.

Despite the cost, click through rates for ‘flights to Majorca’ were far higher than for just ‘flights’.

Report by Linda Fox

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Linda Fox

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