In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for April 2022.
Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month.
Top Trending Keywords – April 2022 Overview
Last month, we only had one phrase that was queried over 10 million times, according to Google Trends. We’re not sure if “April Showers brings less Unified Search Interest” is the new hip saying but you’ve read it first, for sure.We did see queries across the typical topics: Entertainment, Holidays, Politics. We’ll delve into all of those phrases. Oh yeah, and a billionaire decided to buy a social network so we’ll examine the timeline of that topic.
Finally, since there were so many and they were spread over five distinct subcategories, we are doing a deep dive into the keywords related to sports. Those live events certainly capture the attention of Google users.
Climate Change Awareness
In coordination with Earth Day, Google changed their logo with a Doodle that linked to search results for the following phrase:
- Climate Change – 4/21/2022 – 10,000,000+ queries
SInce the inception of Google Trends, the search interest for this phrase has never been as high as it was last month.
Google has used its Doodle program to bring attention to other topics in the past. We wonder if search interest in this topic will continue to increase in future months and years.
No One Was Slapped At The Grammys
After we reported that Will Smith broke Google Trends in March 2022, the AMP team thought there may be a spike in interest in other awards shows. Check out the phrases attached to the Grammys:
- Grammys 2022 – 4/2/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Olivia Rodrigo – 4/3/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
The awards show received a respectable number of queries and congrats to Olivia Rodrigo on her wins. Let’s look at the historical data for this awards show:
Looking at the past five years, the search interest in this year’s Grammys was a part of a downward trend. There appears to be no effect from the Oscars. We do like the small spike in the chart that is connected to when nominees are announced.
Top Movie Queries Last Month
What films drove people to search in April 2022? Here’s the list we collected:
- Doctor Strange 2 – 4/6/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Sonic 2 – 4/7/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Thor: Love and Thunder – 4/18/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Don’t Worry Darling – 4/27/2022 – 500,000+ queries
The only phrase that is attached to a movie that premiered in theaters from this list is “Sonic 2”. The rest are associated with a trailer that was made available online. If interest in a trailer is high, we feel that it’s a good indication that anticipation for the film is high.
Bonus query – the final episodes of the Netflix series Ozark were made available on the 29th:
- Ozark – 4/29/2022 – 500,000+ queries
Holidays And Natural Occurrences
Interest in holidays is strong and we typically see the most popular holidays get queried on the day they occur or when the celebration starts. Here are the phrases that we collected last month:
- Passover – 4/14/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Happy Easter! – 4/17/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Earth Day – 4/21/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
It’s clear that the Google Doodle related to climate change dwarfed the search interest in Earth Day. In this five year view, the interest is in a bit of a down trend.
The spike in the middle of the chart shows that search interest was at its highest in April 2020.
Some people may not think it’s a great holiday but Tax Day in the US was on the 18th this year and here was the phrase associated with that day:
- TurboTax – 4/18/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
Procrastinators unite! Or not. Or whenever you get to it.
We saw that the full moon in April drove people to search and another weather related query made the daily top 3:
- Full moon April 2022 – 4/14/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Severe thunderstorm warning – 4/11/2022 – 200,000+ queries
Winter is officially over – we did not see any Winter Storm Warning queries in April!
Politics As Usual
We had a few queries related to politics, both domestically and abroad, that made our collection from last month:
- Senator Dianne Feinstein – 4/14/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Rudy Giuliani – 4/20/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Madison Cawthorn – 4/22/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- French election – 4/23/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
Sen. Dianne Feinstein made the list because of news stories that she is no longer mentally fit for Congress. Rudy Giuliani made an appearance on The Masked Singer TV show, which was spoiled back in February. The North Carolina congressman made headlines on the 22nd and the presidential election in France captured enough attention of the US audience that it was queried over a million times on the 23rd.
Elon Musk
Not sure if you’ve heard but Elon Musk announced that he was going to buy Twitter and then had his offer accepted – all in the month of April 2022.
- Elon Musk – 4/4/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Elon Musk – 4/25/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
At the time of this writing, the deal has not been finalized but all of AMP is watching closely to see what changes may come to this social media platform and its ads policies.
Just a Month About Sports
Since people have been allowed to watch events in stadiums and arenas, sports-related searches are back with a vengeance. We did see a dip in the number of phrases that had sports intent between April 2020 through the summer of 2021. Last month, we saw a good number of phrases that could be grouped to tell a few stories.
Check out the timeline of the NCAA Basketball Tournaments:
- Final Four – 4/1/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- UConn women’s basketball – 4/1/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Duke – 4/2/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Duke vs UNC – 4/2/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- UConn women’s basketball – 4/3/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- NCAA basketball – 4/4/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
The Masters were back in a big way thanks to Tiger Woods and newcomer Scottie Scheffler. See how people searched over six days in April:
- Tiger Woods – 4/5/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Masters leaderboard – 4/6/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Tiger Woods – 4/7/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Scottie Scheffler – 4/8/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Scottie Scheffler – 4/9/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Scottie Scheffler – 4/10/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
Did you know European Football is popular in the US, at least from a search perspective?
Check out this list of league and team names:
- Champions League – 4/5/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Real Madrid – 4/6/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Europa League – 4/7/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Liverpool – 4/10/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Read Madrid – 4/12/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Man City – 4/13/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Liverpool vs. Man United – 4/19/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Liverpool – 4/24/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Champions League – 4/26/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Real Madrid – 4/26/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Real Madrid – 4/30/2022 – 200,000+ queries
NBA playoffs kicked off in April 2022 and the queries related to it rolled from the 13th through the 29th:
- Pelicans – 4/13/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Hornets – 4/13/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Clippers – 4/15/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Hawks – 4/15/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Warriors – 4/16/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Timberwolves – 4/16/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Bulls – 4/17/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Suns – 4/17/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Warriors – 4/18/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Bulls – 4/20/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- 76ers – 4/20/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Miami Heat – 4/22/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Celtics – 4/23/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Bulls – 4/23/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Pelicans – 4/24/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Jimmy Butler – 4/24/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Celtics – 4/25/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Warriors – 4/27/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Joel Embiid – 4/28/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Memphis Grizzlies – 4/29/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
Lastly, American Gridiron Football made some appearances in the daily top 3. The first phrase being a new league and the NFL draft.
- USFL – 4/16/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- NFL Draft – 4/27/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- 2022 NFL Draft – 4/28/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
Phew – that was a lot but each subsection had its own little journey. You could see how the NBA playoffs are unfolding by just reading through the top queries. Go Celtics!
Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.
Until next month.
