How Many Words Do People Use When Searching Online?

Recent research from Semrush has revealed that most online searches consist of one or two words. Out of 160 million popular search keywords, 51% were one or two words long, 43% were 3-5 words long, 6% were 6-9 words long, and less than 1% were over 10 words long. Unique queries showed that 67% of searches were 3-5 words long.

Most of the popular keywords were found to be informational in nature, with 60% of searches related to finding things out. Navigational keywords, such as "Bank of America login," only represented 10% of the popular keywords, but drove 22% of search volume.

The research was based on data from an analysis of 160 million of the most popular search keywords and their rankings. These findings can help marketers optimize for the types of search queries that are used most often.