Fortune 500 Travel Companies Still Only Receive "Adequate" Grade for Overall Visibility

iCrossing (http://www.icrossing.com/), a digital marketing agency committed to people's desire to find, announced the results of the "Search 500 Index: Travel." The "Search 500 Index" is a study series measuring the visibility of Fortune 500 companies among people who search online. The "Search 500 Index: Travel" finds that Fortune 500 travel companies in general have adequate natural search visibility on the major search engines, based on 110 travel-related keywords that iCrossing has determined online searchers are most likely to use. However, the study did find that there is room for improvement within certain segments of the travel industry. The complete study can be found at (http://www.icrossing.com/research).

"Natural search visibility" refers to the non-sponsored (non-paid advertisement) position of a company's brand, products and services resulting from a user searching with a keyword relevant to that company's brand, products and services on an Internet search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com or AOL. Beyond driving direct sales, high natural search visibility can be critical to building awareness, positioning, and protection of a company's brand both online and offline.

  Key Findings of Search 500 Index: Travel
  -- In general, Fortune 500 travel companies are doing an adequate job of
     achieving natural search visibility. Airline companies have been more
     effective to date at gaining natural search visibility than
     hotel/resort companies.
  -- There is room for improvement for Fortune 500 travel companies, as most
     did not rank well in the overall search visibility list for this
     keyword set.
  -- Online travel agencies significantly outpaced traditional hotel/resort
     companies in natural search visibility.  Of the top 100 highest ranking
     sites in this industry, 63% were online travel agencies, demonstrating
     their importance and prominence in the overall travel industry.
  -- Fortune 500 travel companies with a large Web presence (many distinct
     domains) did not necessarily do better than those with fewer domains
     for this keyword set, underscoring the importance of the quality - not
     the quantity - of websites.

Recommendations

Based on the results of the analysis, iCrossing has identified several opportunities for Fortune 500 travel companies to improve their natural search visibility, including:

  -- Re-evaluating the competitive set based on the accessibility of
     information available through natural search and come to recognize
     highly visible companies as direct competitors in their space;
  -- When considering a partnership with or buying media on the sites of
     relevant online companies, making sure those companies have an
     effective natural search visibility strategy;
  -- Focusing efforts on primary and well designed Web sites as they may
     work more effectively than multiple scattered websites.
  -- Conducting in-depth, search-based competitive analyses to derive as
     many insights as possible from the strategies and tactics of industry
     leaders.

Methodology

The methodology employed in the Search 500 Index is based on the iCrossing Brand Scorecard, a patent-pending iCrossing process, and the iCrossing Keyword Analysis Report. The main purpose of this index is to demonstrate the natural search visibility of Fortune 500 travel companies, compare Fortune 500 travel companies on the basis of natural search visibility, and compare the visibility of all competitors in a given online keyword landscape. For this report, we analyzed search engine position data from the following US search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, and AOL. A full explanation of the methodology can be found in the report at (http://www.icrossing.com/research).

About iCrossing

iCrossing is a different kind of digital marketing company. Driven by customer insight, the company creates programs and engaging experiences designed to help brands be found, help them talk to their customers, and help them achieve marketing success. Through a proven combination of talent and technology, iCrossing helps its global client base - including 40 Fortune 500 companies like The Coca-Cola Company - find solutions to their digital marketing challenges. Founded in 1998, the company has 350 employees worldwide. iCrossing is headquartered in Scottsdale with U.S. offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York and San Francisco, and U.K. offices in London and Brighton.

Source: iCrossing

Web site: http://www.icrossing.com/
http://www.icrossing.com/research