Greenlight's findings follow The Council of Mortgage Lenders latest estimates which show the UK's total gross mortgage lending in July increased to £16.6bn, representing a rise of 12% from £14.8bn in June and 29% higher than the total of £12.9bn in July 2012. This is the highest monthly estimate for gross lending since October 2008 (£18.6bn).
Greenlight's report "Retail Banking - Issue 17", profiled search behaviour when consumers went to Google UK to look for borrowing, banking and savings & investments products and services. The report identified the most popular search terms and those sites that were most visible to searches.
According to the report, in July, there were 3.7 million retail-banking related searches.
Those pertaining to loans, lending and borrowing accounted for 65% of all consumer queries, compared to 27% for savings & investments and 8% for banking.
Greenlight's data shows the keyword 'mortgage calculator' was queried 550,000 times and related terms cumulatively accounted for a 25% share of borrowing-related queries, indicative that working out rates and repayments on mortgages would seem to have been all-important.
Loans and credit cards followed, clocking up 201,000 and 90,500 consumer online search queries, respectively.
Greenlight's league table charting the most prominent sites to consumer retail banking-related searches overall, shows moneysupermarket.com was the most visible website in both the organic* and paid listings**, attaining a 79% share of voice in the former and 81% in the latter.
For the borrowing sub-sector specifically, Moneysupermarket.com achieved an 82% share of visibility in organic listings and 86% in the paid listings.
However, the 12-month retrospective in Greenlight's report for retail banking overall, shows July totals suffered a sharp decline on June's search volumes, when retail banking-related searches peaked at 4.4 million. It also reveals the most dramatic gains made were between February and March this year, when search volumes rose dramatically, from 2.5 million 4.3 million - a 72% increase.
*Natural /organic Search - Listings in search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms
**Paid Media - an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.
Greenlight's "Retail Banking - Issue 17" profiles consumer search behaviour in this sector. It assesses which brands, websites and advertisers are the most visible in natural, paid media results, and social media and hence have the greatest share of consideration when consumers go to Google UK to look for banking, savings & investments and borrowings products and services.
Greenlight is a leading independent digital marketing agency. With over 100 blue-chip clients including Santander, Sky and ghd, Greenlight is a leader in the digital marketing space, and is recognized worldwide for its commitment to delivering record ROI for its clients and investing in the future.
Greenlight is considered the premier thought leader in the sector publishing widely read industry reports, original research and speaking at trade events. Founded in 2001, Greenlight is headquartered in London, with offices in New York.
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