Google reveals the most searched for English Premier League team
There is no doubt that the English Premier League’s popularity has soared with a huge injection of television and sponsorship revenue, but what does this look like online? The above graph shows data from Google Trends that puts into perspective just how huge online search interest has been over the last 10 years. So far April 2016 holds the highest peak in search interest from the search engine giant – Google.
With over $52 billion (net) generated in revenue by Google in 2015, the search marketplace presents a huge opportunity for football clubs and sponsors alike. There are clearly millions of sports fans using Google every month to search for their favourite teams and rivals, but which football club commands the greatest search volume? We’ve utilised data taken from Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to calculate the average monthly search volume for football team’s brand terms.
Who tops the Google Search Volume table?
| Keyword / Team | Avg. Monthly Searches (exact match only) |
| Manchester United | 3,424,000 |
| Arsenal FC | 2,927,200 |
| Liverpool FC | 1,301,000 |
| Chelsea FC | 1,124,000 |
| Manchester City | 838,000 |
| Everton FC | 817,900 |
| Leicester City | 648,700 |
| Crystal Palace | 300,000 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 225,500 |
| Southampton FC | 165,000 |
| Swansea City | 153,100 |
| West Ham United | 151,000 |
| Middlesbrough FC | 135,000 |
| Stoke City FC | 133,800 |
| Burnley FC | 110,000 |
| Watford FC | 110,000 |
| Sunderland AFC | 102,600 |
| AFC Bournemouth | 101,880 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 93,120 |
| Hull City FC | 13,400 |
Unsurprisingly, Manchester United top the table for the most average monthly searches (in August), but Arsenal aren’t far behind with 2.9 million searches every month. Meanwhile, near the bottom, Hull City FC or perhaps Hull City Tigers, have had just 13,400 average monthly searches – even despite matches against Manchester United and Leicester City in August.
Are clubs capitalising on Google Search volume?
A brief look at Manchester United around “manchester united tickets” shows significant Google Adwords advertising on this keyword. The likes of Thomas Cook – who as an official ticket partner – are bidding on this term, along with a number of other online ticket sites. However, the official ticket office has not PPC adverts running and could be missing out on driving their own revenue stream.
However, when it comes to official merchandise such as shirts – specifically a keyword like “manchester united shirt”, the official club megastore is bidding on the term and has a PPC strategy in place. Interestingly, the official club site faces stiff competition in somewhat of a bidding war against it’s own official partners – namely adidas and KitBag. It’s not just in the paid search arena that the United marketing team face a challenge. Mike Ashley’s SportsDirect actually occupies the Organic search #1 spot ahead of the official store, which suggests they may need to be some work done on United’s Search Engine Optimisation.
So, whilst the former Champions may remain one of the world’s largest sporting brands and most Googled football team in the Premier League, there may be still some work to do to absolutely maximise their marketing strategy.
