A new study shows travel aggregators such as Orbitz and Expedia continuing to top most major US airlines when it comes to the strength of their search engine marketing efforts.
Researchers queried search engines with over 1,000 air travel-related keywords including terms such as “vacation packages” and “airline travel” and compared how aggregators and domestic carriers were represented in organic and paid results.
Seven of the top ten are aggregators, with Continental Airlines, United, and Delta as standout exceptions.
While it’s not surprising that Internet-based businesses like aggregators are better able to leverage search than their offline counterparts, we predict it won’t be long before the airlines gain equal footing. Many of them are already well on their way.
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