Five of the ten most sought search terms from UK consumers looking for personal finance products were loan related, research has found.

Quarterly research by search marketing firm Greenlight found that in January, 2.7 million retail finance-related searches conducted online were made, an increase of 700,000 compared to findings from the previous research in October 2010.

33% of all searches were made for loans, with terms ‘loans’, ‘Payday loans’, ‘Loan calculator’, ‘Student loans’ and ‘Personal loans’ accounting for five out of ten of the most searched terms by UK consumers searching for personal finance products.

The most popular subsector was mortgages, with 35% of searches (951,000), an increase of 71% on October 2011, while ‘Mortgage calculator’ was the most queried, with 13% of all retail finance related searches (368,000) made – nearly double the total of those in October.

Meanwhile, of the 60 most visible website in natural and paid search, MoneySupermarket was found to be the most visible website with 68% visibility in natural search, followed by Halifax, with a 38% share of voice, increasing by 11% on the previous quarter.

MoneySupermarket was also the most visible advertiser in paid search with a 51% share of voice, a fall of 7% on the previous quarter, while Santander, whose visibility increased by 19%, replaced FirstDirect in second place, with 33% share of voice.

With the growth of social media, it was found that LloydsTSB replaced MoneySupermarket as the most followed brand having gained more than 59,000 Facebook fans since October. Meanwhile uSwitch was the most interactive having posted 280 posts and tweets in that time.