Car rental search volumes in August saw a 28% uplift on May levels and queries for vehicle hire in short-haul destinations saw the biggest increase,  reveals the latest research from leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight.

According to the agency’s latest “Car Hire Sector Report – Issue 10”, 1.2 million searches were made on Google UK for car rental services in domestic, short-haul and long-haul destinations, up from 838,873 in May and the highest for the year thus far.

Queries pertaining to car hire in short-haul destinations saw the biggest rise. The sector enjoyed a dramatic 53% upswing, with searches totalling 452,580 in August compared to 295,996 three months earlier.

Of these, six of the ten most searched for terms related to car rental in Spain, with Malaga, followed by Alicante then Majorca proving most popular.

‘Car hire spain’ was the most frequently used term to source car hire services in short-haul destinations, online. Queried 27,100 times, it accounted for 6% of searches. Others included ‘car hire italy’, ‘car hire portugal’ and ‘car hire france’.

League tables in the report by Greenlight charted the most visible sites for car rentals overall and by sector, in both the organic* and Paid Media listings**.

The most prominent site for short-haul car hire-related searches in natural search was travelsupermarket.com. Being visible to a volume of 65,266 searches saw it garner a 14% share of visibility.

Rentalcars.com was the most visible advertiser in the paid listings, achieving a 50% share of voice.

However, across all sectors, avis.co.uk was the most prominent site to car hire queries in the organic listings. Being visible to 191,957 queries, it just pipped travelsupermarket.com to the post, in attaining a 16% share of visibility overall. Rentalcars.com was the most visible in the paid listings, achieving a 66% share of voice.