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 July 2021.
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+. 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.
The One and Only
For most months, there are multiple keyword phrases that are searched over ten million times. In July 2021, there was only one:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo – 7/20/2021 – 10,000,000+ queries
We still have a hard time pronouncing his last name but “The Greek Freak” had his moment not only in his sport but also in Google search when he helped his Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA championship for the first time in 50 years and earned himself the Finals MVP award.
The fact that an NBA player's name was the only phrase that made the 10 million plus club should be seen as foreshadowing. There will be more to come on the topic of sports.
Independence and Ice Cream
We love seeing search query data related to holidays. Here are the top ones related to the Fourth of July:
- Independence Day – 7/3/2021 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Fourth of July – 7/4/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Joey Chestnut – 7/4/2021 – 500,000+ queries
The 4th just wouldn't be the 4th without Joey Chestnut making the top 3 most queried phrases, as we discussed last year.
Another “holiday” that we thought would drive a lot of queries in 2021 was National Ice Cream Day.
- National Ice Cream Day 2021 – 7/18/2021 – 200,000+ queries
We were excited to see it make the top 3 on July 18th. We'll write up the companion piece to our original food and beverage holiday post in the coming weeks.
July Movie and TV Show Premieres
If you want to answer the question of, “What are the most popular movies or TV shows?” at any given time, look at Google Trends data. It will show you what people are searching for, which you can translate into what people are interested in watching.
- Black Widow – 7/8/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Never Have I Ever – 7/15/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Space Jam – 7/16/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Money in the Bank 2021 – 7/18/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Jungle Cruise – 7/30/2021 – 500,000+ queries
It looks like people really wanted to see the Space Jam sequel during its opening weekend even if it didn't get the best reviews from critics.
Billionaires In Space
July 2021 will be remembered as the month when two guys with extremely large net worths got into rocket ships and blasted off into space.
- Richard Branson – 7/10/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Jeff Bezos – 7/19/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
Even though Richard Branson could note a ‘win' by beating his rival Jeff Bezos' launch date by 9 days, there was no win in search interest. It was about the same for each launch.
Gaming News
There's always one topic that gets a few phrases into the daily top 3 that we bring forth in these posts. For much of 2021, it's been the meme stock phenomena. In July, we were happy to see two keyword phrases related to gaming as it is one of the industries in which we have expertise:
- Steam Deck – 7/15/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Pokemon Unite – 7/20/2021 – 200,000+ queries
Sports – The Most Searched Topic
Of the 93 keywords collected each day in July 2021 (the daily top 3 most queried phrases) 58% of them were sports-related. That's one percentage point better than in June. With the combination of the NBA Finals, International Soccer, MLB All Star Game and trade deadline, and the Olympics, search interest in sports was at an all-time high. In this section, we don't present all of the phrase but key moments during the month (there were a lot of them).
Since Giannis took the 10 million plus queries award, we'll list all of the NBA related phrases:
- Bucks – 7/1/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Bucks – 7/3/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- NBA Finals – 7/8/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Suns vs. Bucks – 7/14/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- NBA Finals – 7/17/2021 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Giannis Antetokounmpo – 7/20/2021 – 10,000,000+ queries
- NBA Draft 2021 – 7/29/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Russell Westbrook – 7/29/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
The championship matches of two international soccer tournaments occured in July 2021 and the growing US interest for what the rest of the world calls Football continued:
- Euro 2021 – 7/2/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Copa America – 7/2/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- England vs Denmark – 7/6/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Italy vs Spain – 7/6/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Argentina vs Brazil – 7/9/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Italy vs England – 7/10/2021 – 5,000,000+ queries
- England vs Italy – 7/11/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
With fans back in stands, interest in Major League Baseball is back up this July:
- Home Run Derby 2021 – 7/12/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- All-Star Game – 7/13/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Washington Nationals – 7/17/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Yermin Mercedes – 7/21/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Anthony Rizzo – 7/28/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Anthony Rizzo – 7/29/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Javier Baez – 7/30/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Nick Madrigal – 7/30/2021 – 200,000+ queries
Even the NHL, with its Stanley Cup Finals ending on July 7th, had a few phrases make the daily top 3:
- Tampa Bay Lightning – 7/7/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Seattle Kraken – 7/21/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Evander Kane – 7/31/2021 – 200,000+ queries
Although it was reported the TV ratings of this year's Summer Olympics were poor, the search interest spanned across more than a week. Here are the top queried terms related to the games:
- USWNT – 7/21/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – 7/22/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Olympics 2021 schedule – 7/22/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Olympics schedule – 7/23/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Michael Phelps – 7/23/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- United States Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – 7/24/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- USA Basketball – 7/24/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Olympic medal count – 7/24/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Simone Biles – 7/25/2021 – 2,000,000+ queries
- ROC Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – 7/25/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Simone Biles Olympics – 7/25/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Katie Ledecky – 7/26/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Tom Daley – 7/26/2021 – 200,000+ queries
- Simone Biles – 7/27/2021 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Suni Lee – 7/28/2021 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Katie Ledecky – 7/31/2021 – 500,000+ queries
- Melissa Gonzalez – 7/31/2021 – 200,000+ queries
The team at AMP doesn't think that this monopoly on search interest can be maintained by the world of sports. There were a few factors that led to the large number of sports-related queries making the daily top 3. The sheer number of interesting sporting events happening during the month was one factor. For example, the Olympics don't happen every month. Also, with people returning to stadiums to watch games, the level of search interest in professional sports has increased. We think that we shouldn't underestimate the importance of fan-attended games to drive interest.
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.
