During the Lockdown, the internet has proven to be a true lifeline. A recent study is showing how the nations Google search habit is changing. Google searches for food deliveries have as expected spiked, but other search topics such as ‘How to get pregnant’ and ‘Hairdresser scissors’ are also on the increase!
Since the first cases of COVID-19 in the UK, our priorities and online interests have had to adapt – daily Google searches now include things like can I leave my house? And what is social distancing? And especially now that we’re under lockdown measures, how have our online searches changed?
Reboot Online Marketing Agency sought to find out.
Using reliable search engine marketing tools Google Trends and SEMrush*, trending topics over the past 90 days have been investigated to reveal which have increased and which have decreased in popularity through numbers of searches.
Google searches with the largest increase
- Rent gym equipment ⇑ +3600%
- Pubs delivering food near me ⇑ +3100%
- Fish & chips near me ⇑ +2900%
- Baking recipes ⇑ +2500%
- Things to make with plain flour ⇑ +2250%
- Supermarket opening times ⇑ +2025%
- Coronavirus cure ⇑ +1700%
- Grow plants ⇑ +1150%
- Local farm delivery ⇑ +900%
- Yoga online classes ⇑ +800%
- Home workout ⇑ +700%
- Online pharmacy delivery ⇑ +700%
- Restaurants delivering near me ⇑ +700%
- Flour ⇑ +690%
- How to lose weight ⇑ +669%
- Allotments ⇑ +575%
- Wholesale foods ⇑ +417%
- Cycle routes ⇑ +400%
- Banana cake ⇑ +321%
- Online games ⇑ +238%
With workout sessions at the gym now out of the question, this has resulted in a whopping 3600% increase in searches to rent gym equipment. As the search with the biggest fluctuation, it seems many Brits are willing to pay to replicate their gym set-up at home.
Brits also appear to be missing the great variety of food the nation usually offers. Food dominates second, third, and fourth place (alongside others in the top 20), as follows:
- Pubs delivering food near me ⇑ +3100%
- Fish and chips near me ⇑ +2900%
- Baking recipes ⇑ +2500%
In fifth place, things to make with plain flour is up a whopping 2250%. The flour shortage in Britain seems to remain an issue, with flour more generally also up 690% in 14th place.
In 20th place but still increasingly trending is online games. A 258% increase can be attributed to both children and adults having more time to themselves at home.
Interesting Google searches:
- Coronavirus cure: ⇑ +1700%
- Local farm delivery: ⇑ +900%
- Online pharmacy delivery: ⇑ +700%
- Cycle routes: ⇑ +400%
Down 99% in searches, the topic which has decreased the most is city breaks. Unsurprisingly, a weekend getaway is the least of our concerns right now.
In second place is travel insurance which is down a substantial 97%. While unsurprising to see a reduction in interest for holidaying, assumedly Brits would still need to consider their insurance policies when cancelling trips?
This is followed by cinema times (-97%), taxi to airport (-97%) Ticketmaster (-95%) and holiday insurance (-93%).
Google searches with the biggest drops
- City breaks ⇓ -99%
- Travel insurance ⇓ -97%
- Cinema times ⇓ -97%
- Taxi to airport ⇓ -97%
- Ticketmaster ⇓ -95%
- Holiday insurance ⇓ -93%
- ComicCon ⇓ -93%
- Pubs near me ⇓ -92%
- Gyms near me ⇓ -91%
- Nail salons ⇓ -91%
- Restaurants near me ⇓ -90%
- Wedding insurance ⇓ -89%
- Hen party ⇓ -88%
- Camping sites ⇓ -87%
- Flights ⇓ -86%
- Prom dress ⇓ -85%
- Conventions ⇓ -84%
- Hairdresser ⇓ -83%
- Dog shows ⇓ -82%
- Breakdown cover ⇓ -80%
Other topics of interest include comic con in seventh place (down 93%), prom dress in 16th place (down 85%), and dog shows in 19th place (down 82%) – proving Britain’s interests before Coronavirus took hold.
Other Google searches of note:
- Botox ⇓ -66%
- Condoms ⇓ -65%
- Get a divorce ⇓ -62%
- Houses for sale ⇓ -38%
- Hairdresser scissors ⇑ +250%
- Netflix ⇑ +128%
- Home births ⇑ +107%
- Virtual holiday ⇑ +55%
- How to get pregnant ⇑ +12%
*Specific topics were collated based on general research and current trending news.
*Data was gathered from over a 90-day period between January 18th and April 15th 2020.
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