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 March 2024.
Every day, we collect the top three keyword phrases regarding search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The reported totals peak at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 100,000+. After the conclusion of the month, we looked at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to understand what drove queries for the month.
March Search Trends: Familiar Favorites & New Surprises
We reviewed all the search queries from last month and found that March 2024 had familiar themes and some new ones. The Academy Awards were popular in terms of driving search volume. We also saw several keywords related to “special” days in our collection, including Super Tuesday. The NCAA basketball tournaments were quite present in our top-queried phrases list. This year’s big difference is that the women’s tournament drove more search volume than the men’s. In other sports topics, we saw queries related to the NFL and Major League Baseball. Finally, we saw a few queries related to tech stocks and social media platforms. Let’s get into it.
Bridge Collapse
According to Google’s Daily Trends report, the most queried keyword phrase from March 2024 was related to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
- Baltimore Bridge – 3/26/2024 – 10,000,000+ queries
The dramatic collapse video drove users to get more details about the accident.
Spring Holidays
The first day of the Iranian New Year on the vernal equinox made our list for the first time.
- Nowruz – 3/18/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
This query search volume was supported by a Google Doodle celebrating this holiday.
Nowruz wasn’t the only holiday to make the list. Here are the other special days in March 2024 that drove search interest.
- International Women’s Day – 3/7/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Daylight savings – 3/9/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Pi – 3/13/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Ides of March – 3/14/2024 – 100,000+ queries
- St. Patrick’s Day – 3/16/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- First day of spring 2024 – 3/18/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Holi – 3/24/2024 – 100,000+ queries
- Transgender Day of Visibility – 3/30/2024 – 200,000+ queries
The special days that show engagement in search trends are ripe for brands to own. Since we started this blog series, we have found that search interest is only increasing for holidays and special days of celebration.
The 96th Academy Awards
It was a solid year for movies, and the search interest for the Academy Awards proved it. Here are the queries that made the Daily top 3 during the weekend of the awards.
- Oscars 2024 – 3/9/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Poor Things – 3/10/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Oscar winners 2024 – 3/10/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
Looking at Google Trends’ graph, the Oscars were more popular this year than last.
Of course, the Oscars had their peak search interest year in 2022 with the infamous Wil Smith slap during the ceremony.
What Else We Were Watching
Beyond the Academy Awards, there was other video content that people wanted to know more about via Google search.
- Love Lies Bleeding – 3/6/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Love Is Blind reunion – 3/13/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Beetlejuice – 3/20/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Bachelor finale – 3/25/2024 – 200,000+ queries
There are a couple of films on this list, with Love Lies Bleeding being released and the trailer for the Beetlejuice sequel being published on the 20th. Our team, as were other Google searchers, was fired up for the Love Is Blind reunion and the Bachelor finale.
Kids Show Documentary
Over three days in March, people wanted to know more about people featured in the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
- Dan Schneider – 3/17/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Brian Peck – 3/18/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Drake Bell – 3/19/2024 – 200,000+ queries
Exploring the accusations of sexism, exploitation, and misconduct behind the scenes of popular kids’ shows, these queries show that this documentary captivated the audience.
More 2024 Presidential Primary Elections
Fifteen states and a U.S. territory held their 2024 nominating contests on Super Tuesday this year.
- Super Tuesday – 3/4/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Super Tuesday – 3/5/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Donald Trump – 3/6/2024 – 100,000+ queries
After the elections, Donald Trump is the presumed Republican nominee for president. The current president gave his State of the Union address before Congress.
- State of the Union address – 3/7/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
We predict the next presidential election queries that will make our list during the time of each party’s conventions.
British Royal Family News
- King Charles – 3/17/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Kate Middleton news – 3/22/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
There was a rumor that King Charles III died on St. Patrick’s Day in 2024, which drove search queries. The real news about Kate Middleton being diagnosed with cancer and receiving treatment. Since Queen Elizabeth died, the British Royal family has been a popular search topic for the US audience.
March Madness 2024
Every March, the NCAA basketball tournament kicks off and is a perennial top-search topic for the year. In 2024, we saw a dramatic increase in interest in the women’s tournament. Take a look at the timeline of search queries related to women’s college basketball.
- March Madness – 3/17/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- March Madness – 3/21/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Caitlin Clark – 3/3/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- LSU women’s basketball – 3/8/2024 – 100,000+ queries
- Iowa women’s basketball – 3/8/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Iowa women’s basketball – 3/22/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Kim Mulkey – 3/23/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Iowa women’s basketball – 3/24/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Iowa vs LSU – 3/31/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- LSU vs Iowa – 3/31/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
The men’s college teams also saw a jump in search queries, but fewer of those phrases made the daily top three.
- Kentucky basketball – 3/21/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Purdue basketball – 3/23/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- NC State basketball – 3/29/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Duke basketball – 3/30/2024 – 200,000+ queries
Is There An NFL Offseason?
The NFL season may have ended in February, but plenty of league news happened last month. Our list consists of players that got traded or retired.
- Jason Kelce press conference – 3/4/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- NFL – 3/10/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Aaron Jones – 3/11/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Saquon Barkley – 3/11/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Aaron Rodgers – 3/12/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Bears – 3/14/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Aaron Donald – 3/15/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Kenny Pickett – 3/15/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Justin Fields – 3/16/2024 – 500,000+ queries
With the draft occurring in April, we anticipate seeing more queries related to the National Football League next month. The NFL doesn’t have much of an offseason.
MLB
Baseball’s season started at the end of March, and here is the list of phrases that received enough query volume to make our list.
- Shohei Ohtani – 3/20/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- MLB – 3/28/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Phillies – 3/28/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Dodgers – 3/29/2024 – 100,000+ queries
The league star player is entangled in a betting controversy, but we also saw some of the top teams get their name into our collection. Sadly, we won’t see many MLB-related search queries until October.
Top Finance Queries
In the world of cryptocurrency and the stock market, three phrases made the daily top three:
- Bitcoin Price – 3/4/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Reddit stock – 3/20/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- DJT stock – 3/25/2024 – 500,000+ queries
Bitcoin continues to increase in value and hit new highs in March 2024. There were two stocks of note last month, and both had big IPOs. Only time will tell if their value continues to grow.
Social Media Woes
Finally, a couple of social media platforms were newsworthy, and we present the phrase here:
- Instagram – 3/5/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- TikTok ban – 3/12/2024 – 500,000+ queries
Instagram had an outage on the 5th, and on the 12th, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban TikTok if the platform wasn’t sold to a US-based business. We will watch Google Trends to see any movement in TikTok’s sale.
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