The Most-Asked Questions on Google

When you don’t know the answer to something, what do you do? Google it.

That is one question you, me, and even your old Aunt Jayne and Bob next door can all answer without the need to tap it into our phones.

In fact, around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions. Founded back in 1998, everyone’s favorite search engine has answered its fair share of questions over time, but what we wanna know is: what questions were we asking Google?

Let’s check it out with the top 100 most-searched questions in 2024 worldwide. Similarweb has that data. ✅

Summarize with ChatGPT | Google AI | Perplexity | Grok

What were the most Googled questions, worldwide?

Here’s a sneak peek of the top 100 most-searched questions on Google around the world. You can download the full list of the top 1000 below.

Stats on the most-asked questions on Google globally

A list is a list, but what interesting facts and stats can we draw out from the top 100 most-asked questions on Google in 2023-2024? Answer: loads.

1) Looking into search intent

What do we want? ANSWERS. When do we want them? NOW.

We all say Google has the answer to everything, and the questions you ask it are answered at a rapid rate, too. Especially when SERP features get involved.

Whatever search terms are plugged into search engines like Google, there will be some form of search intent. When it comes to question queries in particular, people are looking for answers, meaning the search intent is – almost always – informational.

In the most-asked questions in 2023, you’ll find most of them are ‘How to’ questions. In fact, ‘How to’ questions take up 52% of the top 100.

You’ll find ‘how to tie a tie’ at #5, which is always quite high-up. The global traffic leader for this search term is (predictably) YouTube – because who wants to read a step-by-step of how you tie a tie?

A lot of the other ‘How to’s are tech-related; something for tech brands to consider in their content strategy to win more traffic and improve the customer experience.

‘What is’ questions also take up a mighty 19% of the top 100 most-asked questions on Google last year, including:

• what is (4)
• what is chatgpt (12) 
• what is temu (13) 
• what is chat gpt (17)
• what is a cover letter (25)
• what is hamas (32)
• what is api (35)
• what is the weather today (37) 
• what is threads (46)
• what is discord (49)
• what is sql (52)
• what is the weather (53)
• what is devops (58) 
• what is github (63)
• what is telegram (64)
• what is cloud computing (65)
• what is sap (71)
• what is aws (94)

Again, ‘what is’ implies an informational search intent. It might be a trend you’ve never heard of, it might be another acronym mentioned in a meeting, it might be reassurance you’re doing something right, and it might be something complicated and totally unrelated to your day-to-day. Whatever it is, these people want quick answers, quickly.

That’s why SERP features are so sought-after. By optimizing your website and your content, you can win more SERP features to be top of the search results, and highlighted as the top information provider. That’s great for your search visibility and engagement, as well as your brand awareness.

Learn all about the most popular SERP features and how to find those opportunities

2) Costs in a cost-conscious world

Speaking of informational intent via question queries, some questions are a lot more product or service-specific. And if they’re mentioning your product or even your field of expertise, who better to provide that information than you?

In the top 100 most-asked questions, you’ll find 6% of them start with “how much”.

This leads us nicely onto the importance of pricing pages, or at least providing price brackets, for all kinds of businesses.

Much like the recruitment movement of including salary bands in job ads, you should be providing pricing for your product or service on your website, where it’s easy to find. Why?

1. Attracting the right customers for your business
2. Improving customer experience all-round

That’s right; it goes two ways. You don’t waste your time by casting your net too wide, including audiences that aren’t able to afford your business, and you don’t waste your prospects’ or customers’ time either.

This creates a level of trust, and while the prospect might not be able to pay now, they’ll know the ballpark that they need to work to, and could come back to you at a later date.

Salespeople, having a base pricing can give you leverage when it comes to deals and discounts to convert those clients (if needed).

3) A new era of privacy

We’ve all been preparing ourselves for a cookieless future, and saying goodbye to the days of using third-party cookies to track user behavior and enable targeted advertising (and hello to the art of collecting first-party data).

But here’s a question: Are we also looking at a social media-less future?

Judging by the most-asked questions on Google in 2023, yes. Here’s what you can find in the top 100 questions alone:

• how to delete instagram account (3) 
• how to deactivate instagram (6) 
• how to deactivate facebook (7)
• how to delete facebook account (8)
• how to deactivate instagram account (14)
• how to change name on facebook (20) 
• how to delete twitter account (22) 
• how to deactivate facebook account (45) 
• how to disable instagram account (55)
• how to delete facebook page (76)
• how to delete a facebook page (80)

Also in the mix was ‘how to change name on facebook’ (20) – these searchers might be changing their name after marriage, or they might be making themselves and their personal information harder to find.

Looking at our keyword analysis tool, we can see that the search term “how to delete facebook” had a huge surge in summer this year.

The benefits of quitting social media have been talked about for many years, and it looks like those benefits are being heard and acted on now. While ‘how to delete linkedin account’ is in the list (118), it appears that the main focus is the more personal social media accounts, with Twitter’s traffic decline regularly reported throughout 2023.

In swooped Threads in July 2023 to save the day of those who just had to write down their streams of consciousness for the world to see.

Threads was initially well-received, reaching 100 million users in just five days. Within a month, usage was down 79%. This steep decline complements the fact that Threads only has one mention in the most-searched-for questions in 2023 – that question being: ‘what is threads’ (46).

The traffic distribution of the phrase “threads meta”, showing its short-lived success.

Nice try, Zuckerberg. Maybe next time.

What were the most Googled questions in the US?

Again, we’re letting you in on the top 100 most-searched questions on Google – this time, in the US. Get the full list of the top 1000 most-asked questions in the US below.

Stats on most-asked questions on Google in the US

1) Signs of the seasons

By taking a look at the whole year of 2023, we’re seeing four seasons worth of question queries.

Within four seasons, there are a lot of calendar dates you (as a business) want to keep in mind year on year. Sometimes, dates change or our memories get the better of us, and that shows in the most-searched questions for 2023:

• when is daylight savings (4) 
• when is black friday (11) 
• when are taxes due (13) 
• when are taxes due 2023 (16) 
• when is mother’s day 2023 (19) 
• when is prime day (34)
• when does daylight savings end (46)
• when does spotify wrapped come out (65) 
• when is passover 2023 (88)
• when is amazon prime day (98)

Seasonal and annual events should be a consideration for your content strategy, especially if they directly relate to your business or your target audience. Or perhaps, it competes with your marketing strategy (eyes on you, Amazon Prime day, stealing all the July ecommerce traffic).

The best thing about seasonal and annual events is that, even if it’s not on the exact same day every year (as the top question queries show) – they happen around the same time every year, so you can prepare for each of them.

Have a calendar of marketing events, seasonal events, and other relevant events for the year ahead so you can prep your marketing campaigns accordingly.

2) Big news and big trends

As the world goes round, things happen – some mighty predictable, some mighty unpredictable.

Day by day, our phones get pinged with breaking news stories and new trends emerge from TikTok or the likes. These are things you also want to keep on top of, along with the more seasonal events.

Throughout 2023, a lot of things happened around the world – here are the top 3 question queries that were sparked by world news in 2023, from the US specifically:

• how did matthew perry die (18) 
• what happened to damar hamlin (68)
• what is hamas (74)

Now, these three question queries might not slot into your content strategy very easily, but it’s important to be aware of what’s happening in the world and what your target audience are talking about when it happens.

While the search term “matthew perry” saw steady traffic from January to September in 2023, his death in October saw a huge rise in traffic, with many users heading to News sites.

There are a number of benefits to including fresh keyword data and trending search terms in your marketing strategy, including:

1. Fresh data means a fresh, up-to-date strategy
2. Gain visibility on search and social media
3. Beat your competition to it
4. Keep your brand relevant
5. Improved forecasting and reporting

To make your lives easier, we update our “Top trending search terms on Google” article every month, so you know what topics are being searched for, and and how.

3) On our screens…

The question ‘what to watch’ was the #1 most-asked question on Google for the US, sending most searchers through to YouTube.

In fact, YouTube is the US website traffic leader for 3 of the top 10 question queries.

The US’s love for watching ‘stuff’ is cemented by a few more of their top question queries for 2023, including:

• how much is netflix a month (57) 
• where to watch harry potter (59)
• where to watch the super bowl (62) 
• what to watch on netflix (63)
• where to watch everything everywhere all at once (71) 
• where to watch heavenly delusion (77)
• where to watch yellowjackets (93) 
• how to watch the super bowl (97)
• where to watch the office (100) 

… And those search terms are just in the top 100. The full list is littered with must-watches and what-to-watches.

This just shows the popularity of film and video content in general – and video is something you can easily apply to your marketing strategy.

Don’t know what kind of video content would work for you? Well, 66% of consumers have actively searched for video content to find out more about a brand – hello, Asana request for a brand video.

On top of that, you can be inspired by top search terms, the most-asked questions, and trending keywords. One of the most popular forms of video content is tutorials or how-to videos.

Some top tips for branded video? Quickfire round:

Make sure the content is engaging and valuable

Keep it as short, sharp and succinct as possible

Know your target audience and work your tone of voice

▶️ Ensure the title is in line with the content in the video

Don’t forget the call to action

What were the most Googled questions in the UK?

Check out the top 100 out of the top 1000 most-searched questions on Google in the UK in the whole of 2023. Full list available for download below.

 

Stats on most-asked questions on Google in the UK

1) Waiting impatiently for Black Friday

When you think you got the deal of a century in last year’s Black Friday sale, but the next Black Friday sale tops it.

It seems to happen every single year, so it comes as no surprise that the excitement for the occasion shows up very clearly in the top 100 most-asked questions for 2023 – particularly in the UK.

To tell you the truth, “when is black friday” is #1 by a longshot, seeing over double the average monthly search volume that #2 has. That being “how much water should you drink a day”.

It also comes ahead of annual events for the UK, like the clocks going forward and backward. Although this theme does take up 4 search terms in the top 20.

The desperation for one of the, or potentially the, biggest sales of the year is shown in 3 of the top 100 question queries in 2023:

• when is black friday (1)
• when is black friday 2023 (11)
• when is black friday 2023 uk (43)

Online catalog Argos.com is the traffic leader for 2 of them, showing some favoritism amongst the British internet-surfing public.

But what’s to say that traffic can’t be yours? And considering we’re just looking at question queries in 2023, you can imagine how many search terms (long-tail and short-tail) you could go after.

The ups and downs of traffic (and interest) around the search term “black friday”, which – unsurprisingly – peaks in November each year.

Make sure your website is fully optimized for the occasion, with these 9 Black Friday marketing strategies and trends.

2) Money on the mind

A very common theme that’s threaded throughout the UK’s most-asked questions in 2023 is money or money-related queries.

You could say the impatience for Black Friday’s return is one of them, but also:

• when is my mot due (23)
• how much tax will I pay (24)
• how to make money online (25)
• how much is my house worth (27) 
• how much can I borrow mortgage (29) 
• when is the next cost of living payment (36)
• how much is my car worth (37) 
• what is minimum wage (54) 
• how much can I borrow (63) 
• how much is spotify premium (92) 

While some of these question terms solidify the previously mentioned importance of pricing pages, the repetitive theme also gives us a really good idea into the UK market as a whole.

Knowing your target audience is one thing, but you also want to know more about each of the markets you’re selling into if you want to get, not only your marketing strategy, but your pricing strategy right too.

As a business, it’s only natural that you want to grow and become more profitable, and that often means expanding into new markets across the world. But, to go global, you’ve got to think local.

By that, we mean you should have a deep understanding of the markets you’re targeting and apply that understanding to your business. You should adapt your company’s content to suit each market – specifically in terms of your language, currency, and pricing.

It’s called true localization. Don’t you forget it.

This is something to consider across all your brand’s content, whether that be landing pages, ads, social media or downloadable assets.

Doing keyword research can give you intel that you won’t spot elsewhere, helping you get more granular with your research. For example, these money-related question queries could inspire your next discount campaign for your UK market, or perhaps a cash/car/house-prize competition could be in order. (Yes, please).

3) The seafood diet: We’re seeing food and eating it

If you’ve glanced through the most-asked questions for the UK in 2023, chances are you’re hungry now. Why? Because there are so many food-related question queries in the mix:

• how long to boil an egg (14)
• how to make pancakes (17)
• how to make scrambled eggs (18)
• how to cook rice (31)
• how to make an omelette (42)
• how to make egg fried rice (61)
• how to boil an egg (69) 
• how to make mashed potatoes (73)
• how to make yorkshire puddings (75) 
• how to make pizza dough (86) 
• how long to cook chicken breast in oven (87)
• how to make scones (95)

Whether we’re looking at first-time cooks, first dates where we don’t want things going wrong (please see “how long does food poisoning last” at #39), or neither of those excuses, there’s no denying the need for ‘how to’ recipes or videos.

For these kind of searches, Google usually provides you a page that looks like this:

Scroll down this page and you’ll find even more SERP features, including People also ask, Videos, and Related searches.

This is just one great example of why you need to be optimizing your online content for SERP features. There are big benefits when it comes to winning SERP features, including:

1. It’s easier and quicker for users to find your website
2. It increases engagement and interaction with your content
3. It improves your website’s authority and brand awareness

What’s not to love? Find out all about it in our Smart Guide to SERP Features.

How to find the most-asked questions on Google

Our Digital Marketing Intelligence helps you discover the questions people are asking (you can filter by industry or country, too). Our data covers over 40 billion keywords worldwide – and that keyword list is constantly growing as we analyze over 2 terabytes of data each day.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to find the top 100 most Googled questions (and beyond):

• Head to our Keyword by Industry feature in the Keyword Research Tool
• Apply the Question Queries filter (without this, we’d get a list of the most searched things on Google in general)
• Pick your date range and region
• Play around with the other filters here too – here, we went for All Industries
• Organize the data by search volume to see the most searched questions on Google

It really is that simple. Here’s what that will look like:

Keep your keyword strategy on track with Similarweb

By using our Keyword Research tools, you take the guesswork out of your keyword strategy. We’ll help ensure you identify and target keywords that make a difference.

Have a go and get started:

• Keyword Generator: Find relevant keywords that are related to a seed word or phrase, or filter by question to see a website’s top keywords and questions queries
• Keyword Gap Tool: Use a competitor-focused approach to analyze keyword gaps and identify keywords sending traffic to your competitors.
• Seasonal Keywords: View seasonal keywords by industry and see top trending keywords to get ahead of the curve.
• Keywords by Industry: Uncover the top keywords for any industry and peak under the hood to see the distributions of paid vs. organic traffic, search traffic by channel and by source, and many insights on volume, leaders, and trends for the top keywords in the industry.

FAQs

What was the most-searched question on Google for 2023, worldwide? 
The most Googled question in 2023 around the world was, quite simply, “what” which takes most traffic through to Whatsapp Web. This is followed by “what to watch”, the second most-searched question on Google this year.

What were the top questions searched on Google in the United States in 2023? 
The top questions searched on Google in the US were “what to watch”, “what time is it”, “how to tie a tie”, “when is daylight savings” and “how to screenshot on windows”.

What were the top questions searched on Google in the UK in 2023?
The top 5 most-searched questions on Google in the UK were “when is black friday”, “how much water should you drink a day”, “how to deactivate facebook”, “what football is on today” and “when do the clocks change”.

Are there any seasonal or event-related spikes in the most-searched questions on Google? 
Yes, absolutely! Google search trends often experience fluctuations based on seasons, holidays, major events, and other news. Monitoring these trends will help marketers and content creators tailor their strategies to meet the current demands of their target audience, and stay relevant (and ranking).