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What are the real intentions of users on Google? Research by Rand Fishkin highlights that 148 keywords predominate in 15% of queries, among other essential information.
With over 332 million searches examined over a 21-month period, Rand Fishkin’s study, conducted by SparkToro with Datos, reveals concrete Google usage behaviors. From the dominance of a small set of keywords to the underlying motivations that drive searches, these findings provide valuable insights for digital marketing and SEO experts.
When 148 keywords concentrate approximately 15 % of Google searches
One of the most notable findings of the study is that nearly 15% of Google searches are concentrated around just 148 keywords. These terms are largely dominated by large digital platforms, such as “YouTube,” “Facebook,” “Amazon,” as well as familiar services like “speed test,” “calculator,” and “weather.” This finding highlights the frequent use of Google as an address bar, where users use the search engine to navigate directly to specific sites. This trend is reinforced by the growing use of mobile devices. These types of queries, primarily related to navigation, are ones that many of us make dozens of times a month, Fishkin points out.
The top 10,000 most searched words, for their part, represent almost half (46,%) of the demand for total searches recorded during the 21 months of the study. In addition, SparkToro and Datos ranked user queries according to their frequency in September 2024. We then see that the most common queries, made more than 10,000 times, constitute 13,% of total interactions on Google. Meanwhile, unique queries, that is, those made only once, only account for 2.2,% of the total.
What are users searching for on Google?
Rand Fishkin also looked at classifying Internet users' search intentions, grouping these intentions into four broad categories:
- Navigational searches: These terms typed into Google are intended to explore the web. This could be the name of a platform (“TikTok”) or even more direct queries (“Gmail login”).
- Informational research: this research aims to find information about a person, a news story, an event, or even a synonym.
- Commercial searches: Those that are associated with products or services, such as “Italian restaurant near me” or “Nike jacket.” These types of searches do not necessarily imply purchase intent, as “product comparison searches also fall into this category,” according to the study.
- Transactional searches: These reveal a “likely intent to purchase something, sign up for a service, or engage a business for services,” says Fishkin.
The hierarchy of search intentions is as follows: informational searches are in first position with nearly 53 % of the total, followed by navigational searches (32 %), commercial searches (14.5 %), and finally transactional searches, which remain largely in the minority (0.69 %).
Google users are primarily looking for information. However, this volume varies between queries entered by Internet users and online keywords. The volume associated with information keywords is significantly higher (nearly 69 %); commercial volume is also increasing (more than 18 %), as is transactional (1.1 %), while navigation queries are falling by three times (less than 12 %).
Generic queries versus brands: what behaviors?
Another interesting point of this study is the one that concerns the types of searches that users perform on Google. The question raised is: "Is Google primarily a place where people search for websites, brands, companies, people and products that are already known? Or are the majority of searches formulated without brands?" Although Rand Fishkin's analysis is limited to the United States, the results can be extrapolated to more global practices.
It is revealed that 44 % of the searches are associated with brands, while 56 % are generic. Rand Fishkin notes that this ratio is “probably much higher than many marketing and SEO experts would assume.” To illustrate this trend in the United States during the study period, Internet users searched for the term “Yahoo Fantasy Football” more frequently than “Fantasy Football,” highlighting the brand awareness of Yahoo’s platform in this area as well as a desire for direct access to this particular service.
The association of a brand with a query is therefore a very widespread practice. Finally, this study examines the contrast between user queries and the keywords positioned. It then appears that "the volume of brand keywords is considerably lower" compared to that of the searches carried out (31 % against 44 %). However, given that a large proportion of searches are focused on information, "the brand predominates over the generic", concludes Rand Fishkin.
