Kunal Dutta, Media Week, 14 August 2008, 2:45pm

Branded keywords gaining currency in search

LONDON - UK internet users are shunning generic internet searches such as "cheap flights" or "broadband", choosing the names of popular brands instead according to a new report.

Search via branded keywords account for vast majority of internet searches

Experian identified that searching via branded keywords now accounted for 88% of all internet searches, a 20% increase from 2005.

The data also showed that Facebook was the most searched- for term in the UK, accounting for one in every 72 searches. Four other social media-related terms were also in the top 10, Bebo (ranked second), YouTube (fourth) and MySpace (sixth).

The report also revealed that websites and blogs were cashing in on the online equity of big brands. According to the report, 8.7% of all searches for the top 100 online UK brands resulted in users visiting websites that are not directly owned by the actually brand.

Meanwhile 1.4 per cent of searches go to a social networking site, and traffic to blogs from branded search had increased by 185 per cent since the start of this year.

Robin Goad, research director of Hitwise, part of the Experian group, said: Before Google’s trademark changes, sites had to rely on effective search engine optimisation to pick up large volumes of traffic.

However, SEO can now be complemented with a paid search strategy for branded terms. Consequently, with branded search continuing to rise in the UK, the only way companies can protect their brands is to fully understand how they are searched for online.