The role of YouTube in digital marketing cannot be denied. Not only is it one of the most popular social media platforms, but it’s also the second-most-used search engine, after Google. This makes it an effective and important channel for brands to reach buyers and grow sales.

To understand what’s trending on YouTube, we need to look at what sort of queries users are carrying out on the platform—in other words, the top YouTube searches. This will give you a better idea of what’s popular, which you can then incorporate into your video marketing strategy on YouTube.

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Top YouTube searches in 2022

According to the latest data, in 2022, the query “song” topped the list of the most popular searches on YouTube. This is followed by “movie,” which has a search index of 55 against an index of 100 for “song.”

The data does not classify the top YouTube searches by the absolute search volume each keyword receives on the video-sharing platform. Instead, it ranks them according to the search volume of a keyword relative to the top-performing query. This means that, with an index of 55, the search term “movie” received 55% of the total search volume received by the top-ranking keyword on YouTube, “song.”

“Video” and “songs” are the third- and fourth-most popular searches on YouTube. With an index of 38 and 37, respectively, these two search terms received just over one-third of the search volume received by “song.” This is followed by the search term “DJ,” which has an index of 22. 

Number six and seven on the list of the top searches on YouTube in 2022 are “film” and “status,” both of which have indexes of 17. The search term “music” follows, with an index of 16. The queries “cartoon” and “cartoon cartoon” round out the list of the 10 most popular searches on YouTube in 2022. Both have indexes of 15.

As a video-sharing platform, it’s no wonder most of the top searches on YouTube pertain to music, shows, and movies. Specifically, there are four keywords that are related to songs and music and five that are related to shows and movies. In fact, the only query that does not directly relate to music or movies is “status.”

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