Brits search Google for 'packages' in July

From Travolution.

Search queries are increasingly aligned with holiday periods, claims the latest research from Google.

The "Searching For Sun" study reveals a surge in queries post Easter coinciding with the school holidays and reaching a peak in the seven days to 12 April. A 39% growth in queries year-on-year was recorded during the period.

However, according to Google the surge was a missed opportunity for the industry because it was not met with the corresponding investment.

The search giant predicts July will once again be the highest query month in line with 2007's figures.

It also highlights that queries on packages outperformed the travel sector as a whole in July 2007.

Both Paris and Barcelona retained their popularity year-on-year in terms of destinations being searched although long-haul regions are showing consistent growth despite economic concerns.

Queries for both North America and the Middle East showed the strongest growth with an increase of 20%.

The research also shows potential opportunity in August when monthly cost-per-click is lower than January, so while CPC's are declining throughout the summer queries and ad clicks remain high because people are nearer the purchasing decision.

How to build site links without upsetting Google

Over the last few months there has been so much online chatter about what incoming links are useful and which ones are considered to be spam by the search engines. If you are confused about how to build incoming links to your website without using techniques that could attract a Google penalty a useful interview by Eric Enge with Matt Cutts, the head of Web Spam at Google, clarifies a few points.

When asked what type of links have the best longevity Cutts replied "Those links are typically given voluntarily. It is an editorial link by someone, and it’s someone that’s informed. They are not misinformed, they are not tricked; there is no bait and switch involved. It’s because somebody thinks that something is so cool, so useful, or so helpful that they want to make little sign posts so that other people on the web can find that out.."

Cutts goes on to suggest that article distribution and social media site promotion are acceptable forms of generating incoming links. On reciprocal linking (link swaps) Cutts suggests that it is natural for most sites to have a few link exchanges with related or complimentary businesses, however, Cutts warns "avoid the excessive reciprocal links".

The full Matt Cutts interview is here.

Yahoo and Google agree online ad deal

Yahoo and Google have reached an agreement which will see Yahoo use the search engine giant's advertising technology. Under the agreement, Google ads will appear alongside some Yahoo search results in the US and Canada. There are no announcements as yet as to when this arrangement will roll out in Europe.

Yahoo said the agreement with Google could be worth up to $800m (£410m) in additional revenue every year.

"This commercial agreement provides Yahoo with the opportunity to deliver more relevant ads to users and provide advertisers and publishers with better advertising technology," said Eric Schmidt, Google chairman and chief executive.

"We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development" in online advertising industry, said Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.

The partnership will initially last for three years, but could last up to 10 if Yahoo decides to renew.

More details will follow.

Online Ad Spend Unaffected by Economic Woes

Despite difficult trading conditions across the globe online ad spend is continuing to hold up, in the USA at least. According to new data released by IDC, total online ad revenue increased by 23.9% to $7.1 billion in the first quarter - up from $5.7 billion in Q1 of 2007.

IDC projects online advertising to continue growing at a rate of 15-20% this year despite their expectation for ad spend across media to decline by 7%. IDC anticipates online advertising to double over the next five years.

"What happens is that the current economic crisis puts pressure on advertisers to save money and find more effective marketing channels," said Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Marketplace and New Media at IDC. "Effectively, the crisis accelerates the shift of advertising budgets from traditional media into new media."

Google Dominates UK Search Market

Hitwise report that Google's stranglehold on the UK search market has tightened even more. Google generated 87% of UK searches in May 2008, which represents a 12% increase year-on-year. Yahoo! accounted for 4.09%, a 2% increase. MSN saw 3.72%, up 2% and Ask.com saw 3.07%, up 6%.

In the USA Google is less dominant with 68.29% of the search market over the same period.