South Africa’s Top Google Searches for 2018

Google has revealed its annual review of a Year in Search, this annual summary gives us a glimpse into what countries search trends look like. This year they've given us a small peek into the top searches made by South Africa in 2018. 

This is a snapshot of the most popular search trends and the most popular search categories and shows us how South African’s like to use Google. The 2018 data release includes the top ten ‘sports searches' and ‘local personalities’ queries for the year, which has grown in popularity as South Africans were fixated on sporting events while local drama and issues become more prominent online.

Some search topics have changed over the past 12 months if we compare the top dogs dominating last year. However, a few have stayed strong over the 2 year period with Oxtail recipes still being a the top recipe Googled for 2 years in a row.

To view last years search trends and see how they compare, check out our previous post - South Africa’s Top Google Searches for 2017 

So what did South African's look for in 2018?

If I had to summarise, I'd say the FIFA Soccer World Cup, The Royal Wedding, the listeriosis outbreak really captured South Africans interests and were the big winners in 2018.

Top trending overall searches South Africa

1. World Cup Fixtures
2. Load Shedding
3. Global Citizen
4. Zuma
5. Winnie Mandela
6. HHP
7. Listeriosis
8. Black Panther
9. Meghan Markle
10. Mac Miller

Top trending South African "Near Me" searches

1. Jobs near me
2. Nando's near me
3. Dischem near me
4. McDonald's near me
5. Guest house near me
6. Postnet near me
7. Steers near me
8. Spar near me
9. Debonairs new me
10. Spur near me

Top trending South African searches for local personalities 

1. Zuma
2. Cyril Ramaphosa
3. Sbahle Mpisane
4. Kevin Anderson
5. Malusi Gigaba
6. Ashwin Willemse
7. Patrice Motsepe
8. Cheryl Zondi
9. Shamila Batohi
10. Mlindo the Vocalist

Top trending South African recipe searches

1. Oxtail recipes
2. Cake recipes
3. Cocktail recipes
4. Butternut recipes
5. Salad recipes
6. Stir fry recipes
7. Biscuit recipes
8. Easy dessert recipes
9. Sweet potato recipes
10. Chicken breast recipes

Top trending South African searches for sport

1. World Cup fixtures
2. PSL log
3. Kevin Anderson
4. Ashwin Willemse
5. SA vs Australia
6. Sundowns vs Barcelona
7. SA vis India
8. Alexis Sanchez
9. Commonwealth Games
10. Winder Olympics

Top trending questions South Africans ask Google

1. How did Avicii die?
2. How old is Pharrell Williams
3. What is listeriosis?
4. What is black data?
5. How old is Prince Harry?
6. How much are global citizen tickets?
7. How to get pregnant?
8. What time is the royal wedding?
9. What happened to HHP?
10. How old is Meghan Markle?

Information sourced from Google trends

Have your say

What did you think of South Africa's top searches for 2018? Any surprises? Let us know in the comments below.

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View previous years results

1. South Africa's Top Google Searches for 2016
2. South Africa’s Top Google Searches for 2017

Tags: content marketing, SEO , South Africa