Australian Travel Insurance SEO
The information in this post is dated from 2015. To get the latest insights into How Australian’s Search for Travel Insurance online in 2017, download our latest whitepaper on Australian travel insurance SEO.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Methodology
- Summary
- Trends in the Travel Insurance Market
- The Most Dangerous Countries for Australian Travellers
- Niche Markets
- King of Competition
- Travel Insurance Brands
- Who Gets the Most Links?
- Demographics
- Linguistics
- Devices: Mobile
- Launching Your Campaign
Introduction
With a steady incline in the searches for travel insurance throughout Australia, we thought it would be interesting to explore the online travel insurance space and develop key insights into the industry. We took a close look at some of the major trends in the travel insurance space.
We’ve delved into global events and analysed their impact on the market, we took a look at the year on year trends and the ‘travel insurance’ search forecast in Australia.
We determined what the Australian people are searching for within the confines of the travel insurance industry and took a look at demographics and linguistics for you to better understand your target audience.
We also took a close look at the niche markets within the travel industry and analysed the big brand names in the space so that you can get a feel for your competitors, learn from them and ultimately outperform them.
We inspected peoples preferred devices and explored seasonality trends, identifying the best possible time for you to plan and launch that next campaign.
Methodology
Keyword, trend, demographic and competitor data has been collected using a combination of sources and that information has been thoroughly analysed to identify key categories and insights into the online travel insurance space.
Key events, seasonality and platform trends were analysed to identify patterns and gain insight into the industry. Analysis of the keyword data set was used to develop a linguistic report of the market and to further understand the language Australians use when they search.
Search volumes were analysed to discover and explore the key categories within the travel insurance industry and develop a better understanding of niche markets within the sector. Competitors were ranked by their performance in natural search for the online travel insurance market as a whole and within niche categories.
Data was recorded in July 2014 and gives analysis of information from months to years prior, indicated within each segment of the paper. Natural search rankings were recorded in July 2014 and may have changed by the time this report is published.
Download our latest report on How Australian’s Search for Travel Insurance – Australian Travel Insurance SEO, to get current data and information.
Summary
- The Australian market is heavily dominated by generic travel insurance search terms, meaning consumers are unaware or not sure of the more specific policies.
- Australian’s are most often searching for domestic travel insurance.
- There are a number of specific travel insurance niches, the most popular being ‘senior travel insurance’, which presents a space for smaller brands to enter the market.
- Almost 90% of ‘travel insurance’ searches are being conducted on desktop computers as opposed to mobile devices.
- Searches for ‘travel insurance’ have been steadily increasing over the past decade.
- The most popular finance related search term is ‘cheap’.
- Aside from generic travel insurance, Australian’s are most often searching to ‘compare’ travel insurance.
Snapshot of the Australian Travel Industry
- Corresponding with our most popular finance-related search term, Australians are looking for ‘cheap’ travel insurance. Grant Waldeck, spokesperson for comparethemarket.com.au said “Alarmingly we do see many travellers booking their policy based on price alone.”
- Overseas arrival and departure data shows that Australians took 8.2 Million international trips over the 12 months, ending February 2013
- InsureandGo’s most popular destination for travel insurance is Asia, selling 35% of all policies to Asia in 2013, with a rise of 2.94% from the previous years recordings
- Travel Insurance is often a last minute purchase for many customers “In 2013 we found that approximately 35% of all the policies we sold were from customers whose departure date was either the same day or within the next 2 days.” – Sebastian Kaisin, General Manager of InsureandGo
Most Frequent Claims in 2013
- 38% of all claims were related to smartphone theft and damage.
- 37% were related to medical expenses with gastroenteritis the most frequent condition, followed by food poisoning and physical injuries from a slip or fall.
- 18.9% were coming from travellers in the US (compared to 13% the previous year), followed by Thailand (18.23%) and Indonesia (16.27%).
Trends in the Travel Insurance Market
Year on year trends
If we take a look at the chart below we can clearly see how searches for ‘travel insurance’ have gradually increased and have fairly consistently been on the rise over the past 10 years.
Global event: Boston bombing
Global events often have an effect on what people are searching for, so we thought it would be interesting to take a look at a couple of global events, both positive and negative and see what kind of impact they have on search volumes within the travel insurance space.
As you can clearly see from the chart above, searches for ‘travel insurance usa’ are at the highest point over a 12 month period within the 4 months following the Boston Marathon bombings that occurred on April 15, 2013.
Global event: World cup
The 2014 world cup has also clearly impacted searches for ‘travel insurance’ with searches for ‘world cup’ increasing dramatically, while at the same time searches for ‘travel insurance’ also increased.
This can also be noticed in search volume for ‘travel insurance brazil’ which increased substantially in May, 2014, corresponding with the dramatic increase in ‘world cup’ searches at that time.
Australians Want Domestic Travel Insurance
While most Australians are searching for generic travel insurance, many are also searching for travel insurance for a specific geographical location. By understanding which areas Australians are most interested in, you are better able to target your product offerings, marketing campaigns and website optimisation.
In the map below we can see how search volumes for travel insurance by Australians varies across the world. The darker the colour, the more people in Australia are searching for travel insurance in that region. We’ve also listed the top 10 locations Australians are searching for within the travel insurance space.
The Most Dangerous Countries for Australian Travellers
As insurance is generally taken out to cover risk, we thought it would be fascinating to determine the search trends associated with countries deemed riskier than average.
We looked at the number of Australian searches looking for travel insurance for the locations determined unsafe and classified as ‘do not travel’ by smarttraveller.gov.au. These locations are as follows:
- Afghanistan
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Iraq
- Libya
- Mali
- Niger
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
Average search volume has been determined over a 12 month period from June 2013 to June 2014. These are the top 5 place to visit:
- Afghanistan
- Chad
- Iraq
- Central African Republic
- Yemen
Niche Markets
Segmenting the market is important in order to understand and better target and serve potential customers. We have categorised the top niche markets in the Australian travel insurance search space.
This tree map displays the relative popularity of each niche market within the travel insurance space. Generic ‘travel insurance’ searches make up approximately 91% of searches by Australians within the sector and generic ‘holiday insurance’ searches in last place, making up approximately only 1% of the market. Therefore more specific niche markets make up the extra 8% of the online travel insurance space.
This clearly shows that the vast majority of Australians aren’t sure exactly what type of travel insurance they are looking for and/or they don’t know what type of insurance is available. This implies that there is great opportunity within the travel insurance space to educate travellers on what type of insurance is best suited to them. The vast number of Australians searching to ‘compare’ travel insurance also backs this up.
King of Competition
Determining where you’re placed in the Australian travel insurance market and knowing who your competition is, is important in order to compete, optimise your website and grow your customer base. By knowing and understanding your competition you can learn from them, observe their tactics and ultimately, outgrow them.
The Whole Travel Insurance Market
The graphics below display who the market leader is in each travel insurance group. The overall travel insurance king in the online space is undoubtedly travelinsurancedirect.com.au with the number one ranking for the generic ‘travel insurance’ search term.
It’s interesting to note that within the related ‘travel insurance’ search terms ‘travel insurance direct’ is the second most searched for phrase within the sector by Australians with an average 22,200 searches monthly.
Senior Travel Insurance
Seniors travel insurance is the largest of the niche markets, representing approximately 4.5% of all related niche search terms. This niche market is dominated by a mixture of specialist and generic websites, however ultimately ruled by the specialist insurer, the Australian Seniors Insurance Agency.
Within this niche market space, smaller and newer travel insurers will find it easier to compete, with large websites including travelinsurancedirect.com.au only ranking 10th. This opens up the market for new brands to carve out a niche.
Cruise Travel Insurance
‘Cruise travel insurance’ is the second most popular niche market with over 1,000 Australian searches per month. The overall king of the market, travelinsurancedirect.com.au is also the leader of cruise travel insurance, while the more specific pocruises.com.au comes in second.
Student Travel Insurance
‘Student travel insurance’ is the third most popular of the niche search terms and is dominated by generic travel insurance websites and student-specific travel insurance websites alike.
Travel Insurance Pregnancy
‘travel insurance pregnancy’ is another popular search term within the market and is perhaps the most open niche market to new competitors as the 5th website is not even an insurance brand but a pregnancy and baby forum.
Travel Insurance Pre-existing Conditions
Every month there are approximately 540 Australians searching for travel insurance for pre-existing medical conditions. This niche market is dominated by generic travel insurers and insurance information websites.
Backpacker Travel Insurance
‘Backpacker travel insurance’ is dominated by many of the big names in travel insurance, including Travel Insurance Direct and Insure and Go but also makes room for category-specific travel insurance brands.
Multi Trip Travel Insurance
‘Multi trip travel insurance’ is dominated by the category-specific, multi-trip.com.au while the rest of the top 5 positions are made up of the overall big names in the industry.
Ski Travel Insurance
‘Ski travel insurance’ is made up of a mixture of the big name brands and more category-specific sites. Interestingly, Insure and Go is in 2nd place and features in the top 5 of all the niche markets with the exception of ‘travel insurance pregnancy’.
According to a Roy Morgan research survey, a decade ago, approximately 4 out of 5 Australian’s seeking a skiing or snowboarding holiday chose domestic locations. Today, almost half head overseas with popular destinations being New Zealand, North America, Europe and Japan.
Travel Insurance Brands
While brand marketing and offline messaging play a vital role in driving online traffic, search volumes for generic terms such as ‘travel insurance’ are approximately 10 times higher than branded search terms with the exception of ‘travel insurance direct’ at just 5 times under ‘travel insurance’.
Who Gets the Most Links?
The amount of natural inbound links to a travel insurance site shows just how well that site performs in providing information and resources, as people and other site owner’s link to their top picks within the space. As a result, the more quality links a site has pointing to it, the higher it will rank in search results.
Demographics
Obviously, understanding the demographics of your potential customers is important to better target your market, online messages and content and improve your Australian travel insurance SEO.
Age Groups
According to research conducted by SureSave, Generation X’ers are the riskiest travellers, with 34% of 30-39 year olds opting to travel unprotected.
According to the same study, the top travelling age group for Australians is 50-54 at 9.4%. The peak age group is slowly rising over time. In 2002 the peak age for international travel was 45-49 but rose to 50-54 in 2012.
In the graph below you can see the percentage of Australian travellers in each age group and how the number has changed within a decade.
Gender
The ratio of male to female Australian departures is slowly evening out over time with short term resident departures being 121 males in 2002 (the number of male departures per 100 female departures) and just 111 males in 2012.
The highest gender ratios were found in the 40-44 age group in 2002 with 158 males and 2012 with 129. The lowest ratios were recorded within the 15-19 year group in both 2002 with just 85 males and 2012 with 81.
Linguistics
Creating a better understanding of the language and phrasing Australians use when searching for travel insurance is essential when wanting to rank highly in search results.
By matching the language, keywords and phrasing on your site with the language Australians use when searching, you are far more likely to rank well for those same queries.
Compare Travel insurance
Cheap Travel Insurance
Keywords
Below we can clearly see the most used keywords within searches. The cloud map shows the most common keywords used in search terms by Australians looking for travel insurance online. The larger the word the more often it’s used. The words ‘travel’ and ‘insurance’ have been omitted for the purposes of this map.
Devices: Mobile
Mobile search is now a huge player in the online space but how relevant is it when it comes to Australian travel insurance SEO?
Insure and Go reported that 15% of their policies were purchased via tablet or smartphone in 2013, up 5% from the previous year.
While mobile search is certainly growing, travel insurance searches are still primarily made via desktop computer with a total average of just 10.58% of ‘travel insurance’ searches conducted on mobile devices over the last 12 months.
Launching Your Campaign
Understanding seasonal trends in the online travel insurance space can help you better plan activity and prepare you for launching your next campaign.
Knowing when your target audience is making travel arrangements and searching for ‘travel insurance’ helps you to plan and push your campaigns, content, online and offline messaging.
In the graph below we show the seasonal trends for generic travel insurance and associated niche markets. The seasonal activity has been calculated by the average number of monthly searches over the past two years (June 2012 to 2014). The darker the colour, the more searches there are in that month.
How Australians Search for Travel Insurance
Download our latest research into the travel insurance industry in Australia and get the most up to date information on how Australians search for travel insurance online in 2017.
Our current whitepaper is full of Australian travel insurance SEO research.
