Search Slump in the Sunshine?
As the UK heads into another sunny weekend, we look the weather is impacting our search behaviour and volume.
Brits love to complain about the weather. Too hot, too cold or lots of #UKSNOW - we are a nation obsessed by weather. After a poor start to the year the sun has finally shone sending everyone outside.
This desire to be outside is impacting search volumes across the board. PPC Search consultants Unscrambled suggest the past 2 weeks have seen a drop in search impressions of 25% which makes some sense. Consumers are keen to enjoy the sunshines to the detriment of searching for stuff.
Last weekend in particular saw a very noticeable drop in search demand. The combination of a Lion’s Victory and that Andy Murray Wimbledon Final was almost the ’Perfect Storm of Distraction’ attributing to a 14% drop in average weekend search volumes.
But its not all bad news. Splitting out desktop and mobile search volumes paints an interesting picture. Desktop was the biggest loser in search volume, dropping on average 25% last weekend with mobile only dropping 2%.
This weekend is set to be another scorcher with some distraction with the ashes. Brands that are geared up for desktop/mobile optimisation will be looking to ensure maximum relevance on mobile devices until the inevitable clouds roll back in.
The big challenge with these drops will be to watch for latent demand - will we see an unseasonal spike in demand later this summer once the sunshine has past? Only Time well tell.