The UK government's car scrappage scheme has had a positive effect on both new car sales and internet searches related to the scheme, according to Hitwise.

For the 12 weeks ending August 15 2009, it monitored nearly 12,000 distinct search terms containing the word, and the results show some interesting contrasts between surfers’ use of paid and organic search results.

Hitwise produced this chart which illustrates the volume of searches for three of the most popular generic search variations: ‘scrappage scheme’, ‘car scrappage scheme’ and ‘government scrappage scheme’.

“Searches peaked when scheme was launched back in the spring, then declined, but have maintained a pretty consistent level during the summer months,” said Hitwise UK analyst Robin Goad.

The biggest recipient of traffic from the term is UK Car Scrappage Scheme, an affiliate site that has clearly done a good SEO job, as the vast majority of its traffic comes via organic search.

Also featuring in the table is another affiliate site, as well as Directgov, the main UK government online portal, and other content driven sites such as Telegraph Motoring, Google News UK and BBC News.

In total, Automotive sites currently pick up over 70% of traffic from the search term ‘scrappage scheme’. However, this category also includes the likes of UK Car Scrappage Scheme, so a more accurate picture is provided by looking at the automotive sub-categories that are having success with the term.

For the 12 weeks ending August 15 2009, the Automotive Manufacturers category was the biggest recipient of traffic from the term, picking up 39.5 per cent of clicks. It was followed by Automotive Classifieds (1.9 per cent) and Automotive Dealerships (0.9 per cent). The Dealerships category is much smaller than the other two, but it has received the biggest boost in traffic as a result of the scheme. UK Internet visits to Automotive Dealerships websites increased by 3.8 per cent between July 2008 and July 2009, whereas traffic to Automotive Classifieds and Automotive Manufacturers declined by 7.4 per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively over the same period.

Some manufacturers have even managed to buck the catastrophic downward trend brought about by the recession, and have actually experienced an increase in UK traffic to their sites over the last 12 months, Hitwise also reports.

Looking at the top 10 Automotive Manufacturer websites, both Fiat and Toyota have experienced increases in traffic to their homepages over the period, while Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Renault have all improved their market share within the category.