The volume of US Google searches about financial topics spikes in the beginning of the year; travel searches are most popular during the summer months; and retail searches start building for the holiday season in September; according to a recent report by WhosOn.
The analysis examined five years of US Google Trends data for four key industries—automotive, finance, retail, and travel—to determine how search volume and topics vary from season to season.
Below, key findings from the report.
Search Volume
- Automotive: Search volume about automotive keywords traditionally spikes and dips throughout the year, with the spring and summer months being especially volatile. Early May and July are when the highest search volumes occur, whereas the second-lowest is in early June.
- Finance: Searches about financial topics traditionally occur at the highest volume in the beginning of the year—ahead of tax season—and then steadily decrease after February. The lowest volume of searches usually comes in November.
- Retail: Not surprisingly, retail volume is highest in the fall, leading up to the winter holiday season. Traditionally, volume starts to rise steadily in September and reaches its peak from the end of October onward.
- Travel: The number of searches about travel topics historically spikes in the summer—with volume steadily rising beginning in April, peaking in early June, and slowly declining until November.
Search Topics
- Automotive: In the early months of the year people traditionally search for automotive keywords relating to winter servicing, the analysis found. In spring, searches about dealers are common and these types of keywords stay popular through the fall.
- Finance: January historically sees a rise in insurance-related searches; spring through fall are popular for house-buying keywords; and September sees a jump in student loan-related topics.
- Retail: The seasonal popularity of retail keywords in the US often maps to major holidays, including Valentine's Day, Mother's/Father's Day, Halloween, and—of course—Christmas.
- Travel: Travel keywords also often map seasonally to holidays, as well as to sports (skiing), sporting events (Indianapolis 500), and other events (Fashion Week, Mardi Gras).
About the research: The report was based on five years of US Google Trends information (minus December data) for four key industries—automotive, finance, retail, and travel.
