The winner of most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or “weather” for short. Amazingly, many people prefer to search for popular brands than type them in direct. That’s how pervasive Google has become for us as a day to day tool. With the help of the great data research tool Ahrefs, we were able to surface the 100 most searched global keywords as of November 29th, 2021. To keep things PG-13, we removed all porn-related keywords. Although this is a great list of keywords, you could almost re-title the list “the most popular brands in the world” instead. The brands are so well-known they end up searched more than many common terms — such as how we don’t even look up a “search engine” these days, we “Google” instead. Thanks to Ahrefs for making this data easily available. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on how these trends change year over year, most likely as an index of the year’s most well-loved brands as we see above. Ross is the founder and CEO of Siege Media. He is a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and has a background helping startups and building visibility for businesses through content marketing. Siege Media has made the Inc. 5000 list five years in a row.
Ranking
Keyword
Global volume
1
youtube
1225900000
2
facebook
1102800000
3
whatsapp web
607900000
4
google
548200000
5
gmail
438800000
6
amazon
381600000
7
translate
371100000
8
google translate
314600000
9
traductor
287300000
10
hotmail
243500000
11
instagram
230700000
12
weather
156600000
13
netflix
152500000
14
yahoo
133100000
15
twitter
131800000
16
yahoo mail
130600000
17
google maps
107200000
18
whatsapp
105600000
19
fb
102200000
20
roblox
100200000
21
ebay
95710000
22
outlook
89090000
23
google classroom
74170000
24
walmart
73980000
25
maps
72110000
26
yt
71600000
27
pinterest
66510000
28
speed test
65420000
29
nba
64530000
30
bbc news
63020000
31
ikea
57590000
32
omegle
56690000
33
news
55580000
34
classroom
55000000
35
twitch
52960000
36
home depot
51740000
37
amazon prime
51370000
38
g
46310000
39
weather tomorrow
46150000
40
facebook login
46100000
41
discord
45250000
42
paypal
44350000
43
linkedin
44170000
44
tiempo
42120000
45
y
41190000
46
cnn
39000000
47
calculator
37550000
48
shein
37420000
49
fox news
37240000
50
google drive
36550000
51
target
35140000
52
eresults
34970000
53
aliexpress
34290000
54
daily mail
32900000
55
you tube
32830000
56
msn
31850000
57
indeed
31500000
58
premier league
31460000
59
gmail login
31400000
60
canva
31260000
61
office 365
31180000
62
ps5
31070000
63
f
30810000
64
zoom
29060000
65
december global holidays
28620000
66
best buy
28400000
67
spotify
28220000
68
zara
28050000
69
costco
27670000
70
google docs
27090000
71
youtube to mp3
26590000
72
trump
26510000
73
google scholar
26500000
74
food near me
26400000
75
onlyfans
26360000
76
iphone 12
26300000
77
usps tracking
25830000
78
kahoot
25810000
79
airbnb
25240000
80
restaurants near me
25150000
81
bitcoin
24660000
82
nfl
23820000
83
tiempo mañana
23720000
84
craigslist
23500000
85
apple
23430000
86
ltarget
23320000
87
nike
23270000
88
election results
23150000
89
restaurants
23130000
90
minecraft
23010000
91
dominos
22910000
92
espn
22850000
93
etsy
22410000
94
clima
22170000
95
starbucks
22040000
96
tiktok
21160000
97
lowes
21100000
98
craiglist
20890000
99
disney plus
20820000
100
champions league
20,590,000
Google’s annual recap of the year’s top trending searches offers dozens of ideas for content publishers looking to capitalize on long-tail keyword opportunities.
Data on the top trending searches is published every year, which is interesting on its own, but you may find yourself asking “What can I do with this information?”
At first glance the data doesn’t have much to offer beyond satisfying general curiosity around what people are searching for in Google.
Take the overall top 10 trending searches in 2021, for example:
- NBA
- DMX
- Gabby Petito
- Kyle Rittenhouse
- Brian Laundrie
- Mega Millions
- AMC Stock
- Stimulus Check
- Georgia Senate Race
- Squid Game
There’s arguably not much you can do with that as a search marketer or content publisher.
Those are all huge topics, and the chances of ranking for any of them are slim at this point.
If you dig deeper, however, you’ll find the long-tail keywords people were searching for most this year.
You’ll find the questions people were asking — the things that searchers genuinely needed help with — and therein lies the opportunity.
Let’s go over some of those, and perhaps you’ll find a few ideas for your next pieces of content.
Note that these are all top “trending” searches, which means the keywords with the largest increases in search volume from 2020 to 2021. These are not necessarily the top searches across all of Google.
Google’s Top Trending Long-Tail Keywords Of 2021
Top ‘How To’ Searches Of 2021
Answering peoples’ questions is the cornerstone of content publishing, so we’ll start off with some inspiration for your next “how to” articles.
If you can provide the most holistic answer to one of these questions you may see an influx of traffic coming your way.
How to help others
- How to help Afghan refugees
- How to help Texas
- How to help India COVID
- How to help toddler with cough
- How to help foster kids
How to be
- How to be eligible for stimulus check
- How to be more attractive
- How to be happy alone
- How to be a baddie
- How to be a good boyfriend
How to style
- How to style straight leg jeans
- How to style a wolf haircut
- How to style a corset
- How to style rings
- How to style a sweater vest
Top Recipe Searches Of 2021
Food bloggers looking for some out-of-the-ordinary recipes to write about can find inspiration in the following list of top searches:
- TikTok pasta
- Bacon jam
- Birria tacos
- Crockpot chicken
- Hamantaschen
- Squid Game cookie
- Baked oats
- Cicada
- Gigi Hadid pasta
- Smashed potatoes
Top ‘This Or That’ Searches Of 2021
An often overlooked type of query is the ‘this or that’ search.
Whether it’s how to use a word correctly, or what’s the difference between two things, the ‘this or that’ search is a versatile keyword type that offers many opportunities for new content.
Here’s what searchers needed more clarity on this year:
- Effect or affect
- Barbie, Bratz or Fairy
- Allergies or COVID
- Bones or no bones
- Bougie or boujee
- Pfizer or Moderna
- Sinus infection or COVID
- Choose Bidoof or Bidoof
- Cold or COVID
- Capitol or capital
More Top Searches Of 2021
This is just a selection of the year’s top searches, which I picked out as I felt they were the most useful for publishers.
There’s many more to discover in Google’s Year In Search mini site.
Google has also put together a video recap of the year in search, which you can see below:
Featured Image: Screenshot from blog.google/product/search, December 2021.