Google have released search figures that show queries for “Black Friday” rose by more than 20% compared to last year. Furthermore, searches for “black Friday sales” and “black Friday ads” also showed impressive growth, rising 50% compared to 2008. Black Friday (the Friday after thanksgiving) typically marks the start of the holiday shopping season for consumers in the U.S.

The figures show that more consumers are taking advantage of the black Friday deals offered by various retailers on this day. The Google retail blog also shared some of the fastest rising search terms on the day, which included:

• “Walmart Black Friday”
• “Kohls Black Friday Ad”
• “Sears Black Friday Sales”
• “Target Black Friday Deals Online”

Hitwise also published their own stats about black Friday, which shows that big retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Apple saw a surge in traffic on the day.

The top visited Retail Website on Black Friday 2009 was Amazon receiving 13.55 % of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites.

Walmart was the second most visited with 11.18 % of visits followed by Target.com with 5.65%, BestBuy.com with 4.62%. followed by Sears with 2.95%.

Among the top 20 sites visited on Black Friday 2009, The Apple Store saw the largest increase in visits compared to Thanksgiving day 2009 with a 110% increase, Staples saw a 47% increase YoY and Dell saw a 40% increase. Amazon had a 9% increase.

If you’re looking for advice to boost your holiday sales, check out our post on Cyber Monday.

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