Top 10 most asked questions on Google (2023)

Here are the questions that just won't go away.

One of my favorite things about SEO is that it helps us understand people through data. And what better way to do that than to uncover their most asked questions.

In this short post, I want to show you a number of the most asked questions on Google, explain how I discovered them, and dive into a little of what they might tell us about each other.

But first, let’s begin with the reason you’re here.

What is the most asked question on Google?

Answer: What to watch?

The number one most popular question in terms of search volume, meaning the greatest number of people search for this phrase each month, is related to entertainment. After reading it, I wasn’t too surprised.

When you look at how the majority of people spend their free time, it makes sense that whatever question ranked #1 would reflect our priorities (i.e., entertainment). Plus, with the ever-growing list of options available — it is difficult to figure out what to watch! So, the question also solves a real human problem.

As we continue to dive into more of the most asked questions below, this framework will continue. The more likely a person is to face a situation or problem in real life, the more likely that question will end up on Google’s radar.

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I can't stress that last point enough. Search isn't a made-up data set. It's a reflection of real life. Which is why SEO is an excellent way to understand people better.

Methodology for finding the most popular questions

I want to show you more interesting questions below, including:

The top 10 most asked questions
The most asked “why” question
And more popular questions by type, along with what they mean.

But first, here's a quick resource for continuing this search. If you're interested in how keyword research works, I recommend watching the video below. You'll learn the basics of this powerful skillset.

When it came to researching these questions, the process was simple. I treated each interrogative, or question word, as a keyword. Those are:

What
When
Where
Who
Whose
Which
Why
How.

From there, I needed to filter and sort the results to find what we needed. It’s worth noting that these results are temporary. The popularity of questions changes all the time. This ongoing work of tracking, adjusting, and updating is what separates great SEOs from good ones.

Now, let’s get back to the questions at hand.

What are the 10 most Googled questions?

What to watch?
What time is it?
How many ounces in a cup?
Where am I?
Where my refund?
How many ounces in a gallon?
How many weeks in a year?
When is Easter?
How to screenshot mac?
How many days until Christmas?

This list represents the top ten most asked questions on Google. As mentioned above, I did a small amount of filtering to create this list. A few guidelines I used include: the keyword had to be a complete question, and none of the top results could repeat.

These were based on the last 12 months of data available. If you were to only look at questions in monthly or quarterly batches, the top 10 would vary widely.

What is the most asked “why” question on Google?

I chose to present two answers for this one.

The most asked why question over the last year was, "Why is Russia invading Ukraine?” As I mentioned above, important world events will almost certainly outrank other questions because they are atop everyone’s mind.

If we dive into the results a little more, you'll find that the most asked why question, regardless of timeframe, is "Why is the sky blue?"

What is the most asked “what” question on Google?

The most asked what question is our #1 overall question, "What to watch?"

Like most of the questions on our list, they're rarely written with perfect grammar. In fact, the different grammatical versions will usually have entirely different rankings, even though Google does its best to combine semantically related searches.

Additional questions like “what should I watch” and “what is there to watch tonight” may return similar results but are, in themselves, different questions.

What is the most asked “how” question on Google?

The answer to the most asked how question is, "How many ounces in a cup?”

The how questions are a powerful group to go after if you’re building a content strategy. There are literally millions of how many questions waiting to be captured in interesting ways. And how to questions are perfect for tutorial content that can be a gateway to building deep trust with your audience or customer base.

What is the most asked “where” question on Google?

The most asked where question is, "Where am I?”

This question would have been impossible even just a decade before. But thanks to the power of location services, people can use this answer to navigate their way from and to almost any destination on earth.

This is a perfect example of how technology influences how people engage with search.

What is the most asked “when” question on Google?

The most asked when question is, "When is Easter?"

Easter is one of those tricky holidays that move in the calendar depending on external factors (i.e., the spring equinox and the moon cycle).

If a subject is complex, there'll be search demand for it.

What is the most asked “which” question on Google?

For this question, I also chose two responses to help clarify the results.

First, the most asked type of which question is, "Which of the following statements is true?" A huge volume of question searches on Google are homework related. I did the same thing when I was a student. You'd be surprised (or terrified) by how many answers are readily available online if you know what to search for.

Second, the most popular generic which question is, "Which finger does a wedding ring go on?" Congratulations to all those people donning theirs for the first time!

What is the most asked “who” question on Google?

Last but not least, the most asked who questions are at a near tie, and they are:

Who won the super bowl?
Who is the richest person in the world?

The super bowl question is almost always followed by the most recent year. If you're curious what year most people ask about apart from the latest one, it's 2017.

Thanks for reading this roundup! If you’d like to learn more about how I turn this information into income, subscribe to my weekly newsletter.