Google’s just dropped their Year in Search for 2025, and if you thought people were searching for your carefully crafted thought leadership content, we’ve got some news that’ll sting a bit.
Turns out we were all Googling Liam Payne (sob), the US election, and how to play some viral board game while pretending we had our lives together. The gap between what we think people care about and what they’re actually typing into Google at 3am is roughly the size of the Atlantic – which, coincidentally, is probably where half of us wished we were during election season.
Here’s what dominated Google search in 2025 and how you can nick the best bits:
The US Election Dominated Searches (Even Though Half of Us Aren’t American)
The US election was the second biggest search globally. Not our elections – theirs. We’re apparently more invested in American political drama than our own, which tells you everything about how global content consumption works now.
But here’s the thing: people weren’t searching “US election results” – they were searching variations of “what does this mean for me”, “how will this affect [thing I care about]”, and probably “can I emigrate to Canada” for the 24th time this decade.
How to Use It
International businesses: Your customers are consuming global content and making local decisions. Stop creating content in a vacuum. Write about how [big global thing] affects [your specific local audience].
B2B companies: Your clients are distracted by the same news cycle you are. Create content that connects industry changes to the bigger picture. “How [legislation/trend/disaster] affects [your service]” is always going to rank.
Any business selling expertise: People don’t want more information – they want translation. They need someone to explain what the news actually means for their specific situation. Be that person.
We’re Still Googling “How to Play” Everything
“How to play Connections” was massive globally. Connections – the New York Times word game that’s apparently caused more workplace procrastination than 24 months of Teams meetings combined – and we’re all pretending we’re good at it while secretly Googling strategies.
The search isn’t “Connections game” – it’s “how to play”. We’re not looking for new entertainment, we’re looking for instructions on the entertainment everyone else seems to understand already. Nobody wants to be the one who doesn’t get it.
How to Use It
Every industry with jargon: Your potential customers are Googling “how does [your industry thing] work” because they’re embarrassed to admit they don’t know. Write the explainer content that assumes zero knowledge and zero judgment.
Tech and software businesses: Stop writing documentation for people who already understand. Write for the person who’s just discovered your tool exists and hasn’t got a clue where to start.
Complex service businesses: Create “absolute beginner” guides that don’t patronise. “Here’s how [your service] works if you’ve never done this before” – that’s the search intent you’re missing.
We Googled Death More Than Life
Liam Payne’s death was the top global search. Not “how to live your best life” or “productivity hacks for 2025” – just straight-up tragedy. Add in a sobering list of public figures we lost, and the pattern’s clear: humans still love tragedy.
Our brains are disaster-detection machines that evolved to spot threats, not opportunities. For 200,000 years, the humans who noticed danger survived, while the optimists thinking happy thoughts got eaten by something with bigger teeth. That negativity bias isn’t a character flaw – it’s the reason your ancestors didn’t become lunch, and it’s why “what went wrong” content will always outperform “how to do it perfectly” by massive margins.
The internet’s awash with toxic positivity and aspirational tips, but in reality, we’re Googling grief, confusion, and “what actually happened”.
How to Use It
Every business: Stop avoiding the difficult topics in your industry. Your customers are Googling “what to do when [thing goes wrong]” at 2am, not “best practices for [thing going perfectly]”. Write for the crisis moment, not the Instagram highlight.
Service businesses: Create content around failure points. “What to do when your website crashes before launch” beats “website launch checklist” every single time. People google problems, not prevention.
Professional services: The uncomfortable questions your clients are too embarrassed to ask in person? Those are your content goldmine. Write the “here’s what happens if you’ve already messed this up” guides, not just the “do it properly from the start” ones.
Kate Middleton and Celine Dion Were Top Searches (For Very Different Reasons)
Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis and Celine Dion’s Stiff Person Syndrome had people searching not just for updates, but for understanding of conditions most of us had never heard of. We’re using public figures as entry points to educate ourselves about health issues we’re too scared to Google directly.
“Stiff Person Syndrome” searches spiked because of Celine Dion, not because of public health campaigns. Celebrity gives us permission to learn about things that feel too personal or too frightening to search for on their own.
How to Use It
Health and wellness businesses: People are Googling medical conditions through celebrity news, not through symptoms. Create content that connects current events to health information – without being exploitative about it.
Every business: Cultural moments are your permission structure to talk about difficult topics. Use them. “What [celebrity news] teaches us about [your expertise]” isn’t clickbait if it’s genuinely informative.
Professional services: People need entry points to complex topics. Use relatable examples and current events to make your expertise accessible. Just don’t be weird about it.
Spotify Wrapped Dominated Socials (Because We’re All Narcissists Now)
Spotify Wrapped absolutely destroyed social media in 2025 – not because the format was revolutionary, but because it gave us personalised content about ourselves that we could share without looking like complete egomaniacs. Genius, really.
The format’s been nicked by everyone from dating apps to project management tools, and it works for one simple reason: people will engage with content about themselves 24 times more than content about your brand. Every time.
How to Use It
SaaS and tech businesses: Create year-end recaps for your users. Show them their data, their progress, their patterns. Make it shareable. Spotify didn’t invent this – they just perfected it.
Service businesses: Send clients a “year with us” breakdown. Not an invoice recap (nobody’s sharing that) – an impact report. “You published 24 pieces of content with us” hits different than “here’s your renewal notice”.
Content creators: Personalisation at scale is the holy grail. Even if you can’t automate it, the principle stands – make your audience the hero of the story, not your brand.
The Takeaway
Google’s Year in Search 2025 shows we’re searching for three things: clarity when something goes wrong, instructions for things we’re supposed to already know, and content about ourselves that makes us look interesting.
The businesses that’ll rank in 2026 are the ones writing for actual human search behaviour – messy, embarrassing, self-interested, and usually happening at stupid o’clock when nobody’s watching. Stop creating content for the person you wish your audience was. Start creating it for the person they actually are, Googling desperately at 2am because something’s gone wrong and they need help now.
Google’s algorithm is finally smart enough to reward that honesty. Your content calendar needs to catch up.
