World cup 2018 search trends and opportunity

It’s finally here. Production in offices all over the world is way down, and TV screens are suddenly appearing on once empty desks. Yes, the FIFA World Cup is back on the box and football has once again taken over public consciousness.

The way we enjoy football has changed in recent years, and the World Cup is no exception. Whilst we’re watching on the big screen, we’re also checking our mobile devices to keep up to date with the score and news surrounding the games.

With this in mind, using Google trends and Pi’s Marketing Intelligence platform, we’ve taken a look at how the World Cup is affecting search trends - which game is the most searched? Which player is the most popular worldwide? Who’s set to benefit from this online traffic?

World Cup 2018 search trends: What was the most searched match?

The highest searched match, of all played so far, was the Germany v. Mexico game. With Germany being the defending winners, we expected this game to be an easy win for them. However, in their first World Cup match Mexico triumphed with a surprising score of 0-1. The shock of this prompted fans worldwide to take to the web.

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World Cup 2018 search trends: Who was the most searched player?

According to Google trends, the most searched player globally (on 19th June) is Romelu Lakaku - the Belgian may be seeing traction online after some recent news coverage surrounding his career.

Harry Kane is the second most searched worldwide, following on from his dazzling debut in the England v. Tunisia game.

World Cup 2018 search trends: Who has been winning in search?

What does all of this mean for publishers and brands online?

Data taken from Pi's SEO Platform

The Competitor Discover chart above shows the top search positions across Google Mobile in the UK, for the most searched players in the World Cup. Out of the top 10 search results, there are three social media sites ranking: YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

From this, we know that you're now using mobile devices to discuss the World Cup socially online, and not just down the pub with yer mates (wheeeeeeeeeeey lads).

World Cup 2018 search trends: What is the opportunity online?

Brands, such as Coca Cola and Adidas who are sponsoring the event, can use the above search insight to inform their placement of social ads on platform like Instagram and Twitter, during this time of high opportunity.

Wikipedia ranks first, followed by five football information sites and two sports publishers. There is opportunity here for news publishers to steal some share of voice, with traffic driving content ideas such as top player profiles and user generated content (i.e. discussion boards).

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