Situated on the banks of the river Dee, the beloved city of Chester is home to a dynamic tapestry of history, culture, amenities, architecture and attractions. Decorated in cobbled streets, black and white Tudor buildings and countless remnants of its Roman heritage, it’s little wonder that the beauty of Chester has seeped through to the virtual world, with people searching in their thousands for its hidden gems and historical wonders.
In this article, we will take a look into the search trends of our visitors in an effort to determine what is capturing the attention of Chester’s online community. From family-friendly attractions to historic landmarks, we’ll discover the most popular Chester-related searches that were made on Google’s search engine throughout 2023 to attract the most impressions* to Chester.com.
By doing this, we can explore the topics that both the residents and tourists of Chester are most interested in, be it news, events or local attractions. With this information, we can make sure that the content on our website is relevant to what our local community is searching for, serving as a useful resource for information, right in the heart of our vibrant city.
What were people searching for in Chester in 2023?
Throughout 2023, Chester.com received a total of 21.4 million impressions from Google’s search engine results page. If we work that out, Chester.com appeared in the search results around 59,000 times a day. According to a recent census, there are 92,742 people living in the city of Chester. Chester.com was listed daily in the search results nearly half as frequently.
The most popular search query during the period of January 1 – December 31 2023 was ‘Chester Races’. This query generated 367,835 impressions from users to Chester.com from the search engine results page. The average daily attendance of racegoers at ‘Chester Races’ is around 25,000. This staggering number of impressions is almost fifteen times that amount.
Given that Chester Racecourse is the oldest racecourse in the world still in operation, it should come as no surprise that so many people were searching for ‘Chester Races’ on Google last year. Users in the United Kingdom accounted for the majority of these impressions, however, many came from users in the United States, Spain, the Isle of Man and France. Anyone up for an international race day?
Local attractions were a popular search query in 2023, with The Blue Planet Aquarium, The Crocky Trail and The Storyhouse Chester each generating a high volume of impressions for Chester.com. With hours of fun to be had at each of these, it is no surprise they are so popular.
The Blue Planet Aquarium, situated on the outskirts of Chester, generated 261,904 impressions, with users looking to dive into an underwater world of adventure. The Blue Planet Aquarium is home to an exciting array of marine life from all over the world, including sand tiger sharks, giant Pacific octopus, and Xingu River stingray.
If you’re brave enough, you can even don your wet suit and enjoy a scuba session among Europe’s largest collection of sharks, or marvel at the aquatic animals from the safety of dry land with a walk through the underwater tunnel.
Google searches for The Blue Planet Aquarium were closely followed by searches for The Crocky Trail, an all-weather outdoor adventure trail, with 251,913 impressions.
The Storyhouse Chester proved to be popular among internet users last year, generating 194,678 impressions throughout 2023. A landmark in the heart of the city, The Storyhouse in Chester serves as a theatre, cinema, restaurant, bar, library, community centre and arts hub. Attracting over a million visitors in its first year of operation back in 2017, it’s hardly surprising that nearly 200,000 searches were made in this last year alone.
Following these popular local attractions, Chester.com appeared in search results for ‘Christmas Market Chester’ 137,841 times. An absolute must if you’re visiting Chester during the festive season, Chester’s Christmas Market takes place annually between mid-November and late-December.
The Christmas Market sees Chester’s Town Hall Square transformed into a Winter wonderland, home to more than 70 unique traders. Think German-inspired wooden huts adorned with twinkly lights, handmade goods, mulled wine and a whole lot of Christmas cheer.
It’s amazing that an event that takes place for a few short weeks during the festive season was among the most popular search terms directing impressions to Chester.com. Chester’s Christmas Market is, however, one of the busiest events in the city, drawing in over 400,000 visitors in 2022.
Online users were interested in searching for ‘Things to do in Chester’ in 2023, with a staggering 133,847 impressions. With so many wonderful things to do in Chester, it’s little wonder that this search query made it to the top ten.
Whether you’re looking for family days out, animal attractions, sightseeing tours, shopping opportunities or vibrant nightlife, Chester has everything you could possibly want. To make things even better, Chester.com can provide you with all the information you could need to get you started.
Next on our list of the top Chester-related searches is the query ‘Chester restaurants’. Chester.com appeared in search results for ‘Chester restaurants’ 91,201 times. With a section dedicated on our site to Food & Drink in Chester, we have a lot of information to feed all those hungry Cestrians!
In fact, our most popular listing last year was for a local restaurant, achieving 5,187 views between January 1st and December 31st. A haven for foodies, the cobbled streets of Chester are littered with a wonderful array of independent and chain restaurants, ranging from fine dining to fast food.
Among Chester’s restaurants is The Forge, located on Grosvenor Park Road. This top-rated Chester restaurant been awarded two AA Rosettes for culinary excellence and has even received the seal of approval from Hollywood actors and Wrexham AFC co-owners, Ryan Reynolds, and Rob McElhenney, who visited following their team’s promotion to the Football League.
Chester Zoo captured the attention of internet users between the January 1 and December 31, with Chester.com appearing in search results for ‘Chester Zoo’ 79,379 times. The interest surrounding one of the biggest zoos in the UK has landed this attraction in our top ten list.
Since the production of the Channel 4 documentary “The Secret Life of the Zoo”, following the lives of over 21,000 resident animals and their zookeepers, the popularity of this Chester attraction has only increased.
An iconic landmark in the heart of our historic city, searches for ‘Chester Cathedral’ produced a healthy 76,379 impressions in 2023.
A must-visit for tourists and residents alike, Chester Cathedral was founded in 1092, and comprises of monastic buildings, a Georgian square, Roman barracks and vast green spaces. In addition to functioning as a working church and hosting regular weekly services, the cathedral also plays hosts to a variety of exhibitions, tours, performances and events.
Chester Cathedrals “By Candlelight” performances are among the most popular events held here, featuring the greatest hits of musicians such as David Bowie, Queen, and Celine Dion, all performed by a live band against a backdrop of thousands of flickering candles.
Bolesworth Castle takes the tenth spot on our list of what people searched for in Chester in 2023, with the query generating 67,343 impressions for Chester.com on Googles search engine results page.
Nestled in the Cheshire village of Tattenhall, a short distance from Chester, Bolesworth Castle is a Grade II* listed building known locally for hosting regular world-class events, including the Equestrian Summer Festival and the Cheshire Balloon Fiesta. One of the venues most popular events, Christmas at Bolesworth, which sees the sprawling castle grounds illuminated into a winter wonderland, appeared in the top 100 Chester search queries, generating 16,061 impressions.
How does the performance of this search query data compare to the year before?
If we compare the data we’ve collected for the top search queries entered by user’s on Google between January 1–December 31 2023 to the data from the same period in 2022 (January 1 –December 31 2022), we are able to identify a trend in the searches that are consistently generating the most impressions.
Chester.com received a total of 5.7 million impressions from searches made on Google throughout 2022, which is a stark contrast to the staggering 21.4 million impressions achieved this year.
In contrast to 2023, however, ‘Chester Races’ did not appear among the top Chester-related search queries. Instead, with 213,523 impressions for Chester.com, ‘Christmas Market Chester’ took its place as the most searched term. In light of Covid restrictions of previous years, people were naturally looking for Christmas markets in 2022, and Chester’s Christmas markets saw record-breaking attendance, welcoming over 400,000 visitors.
With 7,040 impressions to Chester.com in 2022, ‘Hotels in Chester’ ranked among the top ten searches made about Chester. The popularity of this search term declined in 2023 and it dropped out on the top ten. This helped us determine that our efforts would be better focused on providing visitors with useful information on Chester’s attractions and activities, as that is what was being searched for.
Chester Zoo proved to be popular among animal lovers in both 2022 and 2023. However, in 2022, internet users looked for the term ‘Chester Zoo Lanterns’. Held every year between the middle of November and the end of December, it is only reasonable to assume that the exceptionally warm weather in 2023 encouraged more visitors to search for ‘Chester Zoo’ instead of ‘Chester Zoo Lanterns’.
Much like 2023, local attractions were among the most popular search queries in 2022, with ‘The Storyhouse Chester, ‘Things to do in Chester’, ‘Chester restaurants’ and ‘Bolesworth Castle’ generating the highest number of impressions for Chester.com.
The Storyhouse Chester has become more and more popular in recent years. In 2022, there were 59,353 impressions, compared with 194,678 in 2023 – that’s almost four times as many searches! Similarly, Google searches for ‘Things to do in Chester’ saw a rise in impressions year on year, from 34,297 in 2022 to 133,847 impressions in 2023.
There is an impressive array of wonderful things to see and do in Chester, and our helpful guide makes it easy to decide how to spend your time. From museums to escape rooms, wine tasting, live music, and spa afternoons, you’re truly spoilt for choice.
Who knows what people could be searching for in Chester in 2024? Will we be looking at a year of culinary experts, a crowd of zoo-goers, race fanatics or perhaps avid historians?
There you have it, a in-depth explanation and analysis of the search habits of Chester’s online community and its visitors. In this article, we have revealed the search queries that have captured the interest of online users eager to learn more Chester.
From local businesses to events and attractions, Chester.com has received an abundance of impressions from the search queries that allow our site to appear on Google’s search engine results page. This has provided us with valuable information about what internet users are looking for. With this, we can be sure that we keep producing relevant and engaging content that will inspire visitors to come to our city for years to come.
More than just a website, Chester.com serves as a hub for all things local and beloved in the wonderful city of Chester.
*Throughout this article we will use the term impressions to refer to the number of times our website appeared on the search engine results page (SERPS) in response to a user’s search query. For example, when we refer to ‘Chester Races’ generating 367,835 impressions, this means Chester.com appeared in Google’s search results 367,835 times when a user searched ‘Chester Races’.
Where have we obtained this data?
To retrieve data for this article, we have used Google’s website performance analysis tool, Google Search Console. Google Search Console provides valuable insights into a websites presence in the Google search results. We have analysed this data to identify the search queries that generated the most impressions to Chester.com between January 1 and December 31 2023.
