LGBTQ+ Search Trends Report: A Community in Flux | 2023

Authors: Alex English (They/Them) & Travis Tallent (He/Him)

The month of June sees the LGBTQ+ community across the globe celebrating Pride. The month represents an opportunity for community members to express the joy they experience being queer. It is a chance to recognize and thank the community members who protested for our right to exist.

But Pride-related searches don’t stop in June, nor does LGBTQ+ pride itself. 

Being SEO professionals (and proud, queer SEO nerds), Alex and I wanted to understand what LGBTQ+ search trends and landscape looked like and what and how this has changed over time.

We found a fascinating output of shifting search trends reflecting an ever-evolving community and a search landscape dominated by non-queer-centric websites. It begs the question, who is writing LGBTQ+ history? 

LGBTQ+ trends are shifting, as most search trends have in the last few years

Google provides a robust information engine, which is especially helpful for those seeking answers. In the LGBTQ+ community, where many cannot find representation or information easily in mass media or their communities, Google provides an outlet for the community. Many community members turn to Google for questioning, event information, and transactional pride searches. Below we delve into the queer search landscape and evaluate what community members are searching for the most.

Gay-centric searches still dominate identity, but segmentation is increasing in the community

Globally, search volume shows “Gay” is the most popular search term, with “LGBTQ” and “Trans” even eclipsing “Lesbian.”

For the US and UK, most LGBTQ community groups are on the rise in search, including gay, nonbinary, trans, and bisexual. Lesbian didn’t see the same surge in this date snapshot, but it’s not declining significantly either. There are also apparent spikes in interest in all communities during Pride Month in June.

There is little competition among the most searched locations for Pride Month

London and New York tower over the competition, with Brighton, considered the “gay capital” of Europe, taking the 3rd position. Smaller cities throughout the US and UK tail off with lower search volume. These locations also correlate with modern LGBTQ+ hubs, which many in the community call home. This search data indicates where community members may feel it is safe to travel and find meaningful communities during Pride Month and beyond.

We can split people searching for queer-related terms into distinct audiences

Two highly searched topics relating to LGBTQ+ identities are those around people questioning their sexuality or gender identity, e.g., terms such as, “Am I gay,” or those relating to people seeking to understand a particular identity, e.g., terms such as “what is non binary.”

These reflect two slightly different audiences: potentially new community members; and those seeking to understand more about the community (although looking to learn what an identity is could be the first step along a user’s queer journey).

Those searching to question their identity increasingly search for specific communities

Generally speaking, Pride Month has no significant impact on users searching for terms relating to questioning their sexuality/gender identity. The notable exception is users in the US questioning their complete heterosexuality during the month of pride, with searches around “Am I bisexual” peaking each June in the US.

Perhaps the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month engenders a response in potentially queer-leaning people — they may feel a stronger pull/attraction to the community during that time, leading to an uptick in Google searches around bisexuality.

You may be looking at these graphs and wondering why there is a massive spike in gay questioning terms in both countries in May 2022…

Having looked back at the cultural landscape during this period, it was just after the “Don’t Say Gay” bill went through in Florida. This leaves us with two theories: an SEO theory and a social behavior theory.

An SEO theory: With this garnering a lot of news coverage on both sides of the Atlantic and regular Pride Month coverage ramping up, it could have sparked an increase in Google's autocomplete results for "am I gay" whenever someone searched for "am I" terms. We know that Google uses trends to determine what they call "predictive" autocomplete (Google).

Interestingly, this screenshot was taken in Google’s incognito mode just after Wayne Brady came out as pansexual (People). This feature seems heavily influenced by trending topics. 

A social behavior theory: alternatively, the political rhetoric could have sparked additional questioning of gay identity.

While gay identity questioning is the strongest in search demand, there is an increase in more people searching for segmented identities. 

Most searches related to “questioning” include the word “Gay,” accounting for 85% of such searches in both the UK and the US. However, this trend has shifted from 90% in 2022. There's an increasing interest in terms that include "Lesbian" in both countries, moving away from the more general term "Gay." In 2023, there's also a rise in searches with "Bisexual" and "Non-binary" compared to 2022, though they form a minor part of the trend. "Lesbian" terms represent half of this shift in both areas.

Those searching to understand LGBTQ+ identities increasingly look to understand gender rather than sexuality

Search demand for people seeking to understand LGBTQ+ identities has increased by ~50% in the UK and the US since the pandemic (comparing Jul 19 - Sept 19 vs Jul 22 - Sept 22).

This increase could result from various factors, including more LGBTQ+ representation in the media in all forms for traditional media (e.g., TV & film) and social media (e.g., the rise of queer influencers on platforms such as Instagram & TikTok). A study by Glaad analyzing queer representation on TV from 2021-2022 found 2022 to be a record-high year for LGBTQ+ series regulars on broadcast television.

Exposure to LGBTQ+ experiences & identities became more mainstream post-pandemic, likely sparking more Google searches around people looking to understand these experiences.

In both the UK and the US, the identity encountering the most growth since the pandemic for “understanding” terms is “non-binary,” experiencing 97% growth in the UK and a massive 287% growth in the US.

The term “non binary meaning” in both countries has grown exponentially since the pandemic, more than tripling in the UK, with search demand in the US 8x higher for the term in 2022 than in 2019.

In 2021, public discourse around non binary identities ignited, with several notable celebrities sharing that they identify outside of the gender binary (e.g., Demi Lovato & Emma Corrin), TV shows with huge audiences introducing non binary characters (e.g., Grey’s Anatomy’s Kai), and sporting heroes such as Canada’s Quinn publicizing their use of they/them pronouns.

What followed was many companies advocating for including pronouns in email signatures in a move to support their non-binary and trans colleagues. 

All these cultural changes/movements will have contributed to an increase in visibility for non binary people, and therefore an increase in people otherwise unfamiliar with the term searching to understand its meaning.

LGBTQ+ pride is more pronounced in specific communities

While less well-known communities have fewer searches on Google, the less-searched communities over-index on “flag” related searches showing a strong interest in proudly representing the community through more transactional search trends. For example, “Lesbian flag” searches are the most searched term among “LGBTQ+ community + flag” search terms even though “Lesbian” search terms, in general, are far less searched than other identities.

Queer-first sites do not own the space as much as we might think / hope

Beyond search demand, it’s important to understand the visibility for these terms so we can assess who owns the LGBTQ+ community’s story. 

Wikipedia is a ranking behemoth in the space, showing an opportunity to niche down 

Looking at the most visible sites by LGBTQ identity, we see a trend that Wikipedia performs exceptionally well. This data isn’t a surprise, given Wikipedia ranks for many definitions and information-related terms. However, when a site niches down—in the instance of transequality.org in the US—there is a chance to outrank Wikipedia (and likely provide a better resource to the community).

Non-queer-focused sites are the most visible sources for users questioning their identity

As mentioned, overall, Wikipedia outperforms sites exclusively focused on the LGBTQ+ niche. However, if we drill down into more specific topics, we see other sites taking share from Wikipedia (or Wikipedia-owned sites, e.g., Wikihow) and vying for visibility.

For example, if we take the “Questioning” terms analyzed above, the difference in visibility between Wikipedia and other sites isn’t as stark as the overall numbers. However, queer-first sites still do not own the US or UK SERP.

The most visible, fairly queer-focused site in the US is the 9th most visible source across questioning terms and is the only ostensibly queer site in the top 10. The UK fairs slightly better, with three queer-leaning or exclusively queer-oriented sites in the top 10.

This data raises the question of topical authority vs. traditional domain authority and whether the former plays as large a role as we might have thought in ranking in a specific niche. 

Despite whole sites dedicated to queer identities, the SERPs presented to users questioning their sexuality or gender identity skew towards traditionally authoritative sites, e.g., Wikihow or the NY Times, which do not focus exclusively on queer lives. 

Therefore, there is an opportunity for Google to reevaluate its algorithm here to give more credence to topical authority to surface resources more tailored to the queer community.

Site visibility across the entire dataset

Source: ahrefs & proprietary search demand analysis

However, sites visible for “understanding” terms are slightly more LGBTQ+ focused

When looking at the visibility across “Understanding” terms (e.g., “what is a lesbian”), we see a similar phenomenon: Wikipedia’s stronghold is not as strong, and this time, generally speaking, in favor of more queer-first sites.

In the US, we see transequality.org taking the top spot from Wikipedia, and 40% of the most visible sites being LGBTQ+ focused. While Wikipedia still holds the top position in the UK, 60% of the most visible sites cater almost exclusively to an LGBTQ+ audience.

There is, therefore, a glimmer of hope that queer-oriented sites can break through the noise of traditionally authoritative sites. Interestingly, however, they do this in the “understanding” identities topic, as this is potentially one of the only topics that members of the queer community don’t exclusively search for.

Site visibility across “understanding” keywords

Source: ahrefs & proprietary search demand analysis

A real-world example of an LGBTQ+ article dominating the SERPs

When discussing niche content creation, it's worth mentioning that Google has identified a blog post from Volvo Group as a highly reliable source for almost 12,500 LGBTQ+ keywords, with 1,400 appearing on Page 1. This page successfully ranks for terms like "gay flag" and "lgbtq flag" among 12,500 others. Volvo has done an excellent job with this post, providing valuable insights into various LGBTQ flag types and their history.

Below, the organic performance of LGBTQ+ Pride Flags and What They Stand For by Volvo shows strong performance. As can be seen, this one page, owned by a non-queer site, brings in an estimated 150K per month in organic traffic. 

In any case, it's essential to recognize the opportunity the LGBTQ+ community has to represent their own story. This situation highlights the vulnerability that the community experiences when algorithms—that ultimately may not understand the community—determine who should represent them.

This analysis shows fascinating evolution and opportunity for the community to own its story

Our analysis has uncovered the changing queer search landscape that reflects the ever-evolving nature of the LGBTQ+ community. The queer search landscape is increasingly segmented into specific identities; as the world’s understanding of those identities grows and expands, the search landscape grows.

We have also identified an opportunity for Google to surface more queer-focused sites in the SERPs for these queries to provide better resources to a community searching for answers. What we, as LGBTQ+ members, would like to see in the top positions owned by queer-focused sites that offer queer perspectives on the questions people are asking, which at the moment is unfortunately not the case. 

With the launch of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Perspectives, perhaps the 2024 LGBTQ+ search trends report can tell a different story. In the meantime, if you want to connect with SEOs within the LGBTQ+ community, follow Travis & Alex on LinkedIn. 

Methodology & Limitations

This data is limited to Google Search data pulled from various sources, including ahrefs, Google Trends & Google Keyword Planner. LGBTQ+ Identities included in the seed terms were “Gay,” “Lesbian,” “Trans,” “Transgender,” “Bisexual,” “Non Binary,” and “Queer.” Terms related to pornographic intent and content were not included in this data set. As with any search analysis, there are gaps in the data—for example, we have to imply intent behind search queries, which is easier for some than others. One significant gap is the industry’s inability to track autocomplete trends over time, leaving us to infer how Google’s search algorithm works. 

Nevertheless, even beyond these limitations, there are plenty of insights from the search and SERP analysis of LGBTQ+ terms that we could build a 2500-word report. 

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