• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 12, 2015

U.S. consumers will spend $2.1 billion on flowers this Valentine's Day. They also will give retailers and brands information about themselves through searches and clicks. Aside from flowers, what will brands and retailers give consumers in exchange?

Hopefully, at the very least, retailers and brands will give consumers fresh flowers. U.S. consumers will certainly give more than their share. Retailers selling flowers remain the top search on engines and social media sites this Valentine's Day. Ftd.com ranks the most visible of ten top U.S. online flower delivery companies in organic searches on Google.com with a score of 50,831 points. Content from proflowers.com tops the list on social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. 

The findings, from an analysis of search and social media performance of U.S. flower delivery companies by Searchmetrics, shows how consumers will research information about the beautiful buds. With 37.8% of Americans expected to buy flowers for Valentine's Day this year, there's a lot of research happening on search engines and social sites to find the best deals and quality.

The study analyzes how Web sites in the top ten online flower delivery companies rank in Google's organic and paid-search results against a database of millions of search terms.

In organic search results, the flower ordering Web site 1800flowers.com with 41,022 points came in at No. 2. Teleflora.com and proflowers.com followed at No. 3 and No. 4 with 29,383 points and 29,271 points, respectively.

In paid search, ftd.com also took the No. 1 spot for the best-performing site, with a Paid Visibility score of 7,949 points. 1800flowers.com closely followed at No. 2 with 7,628 points, and proflowers.com came in at No. 3 with 7,473 points.

Some sites ranked poorly in organic search and high in paid search advertising. organicbouquet.com came in with an organic visibility score of 488, but a social visibility score of 37,425. The company ranked zero in terms of paid search.

To measure visibility on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and other social networks, Searchmetrics used a Social Visibility score based on how often content from a Web site is shared, liked, pinned, and tweeted on the social sites. The analysis indicates that in social media, proflowers.com scored 56,240741, followed by 1800flowers.com with 8,363977.

Social media has become a gifting trigger, per a study released earlier this month. In social, Facebook gains insight into site members wanting a reminder of specific holidays. Nearly 1 in 5, 19%, consumers report social media reminders, such as Facebook birthday notifications, have played a role in their decision to give a gift in the past year. Of those, 52% report that notifications influenced a decision to gift someone they didn't originally plan, per a study from eGifter. 

Since the social graph contains data that drive gifting activity, it gives retailers and brands insight into what to suggest as gifts, reminds when to give gift, and identifies recipients who may not have otherwise come to mind, creating opportunities to grow gifting as a category.

The eGifter study also suggests 48% of consumers participating in the survey said they are most likely to shop for a gift online in some form, including on mobile devices and via social media, making online the number one way consumers gift. About 41% of consumers say that they are most likely to shop for gifts in-person at a retail store.