Serpstat’s Research: The War in Ukraine and Search

In 2022, Ukraine faced Russian aggression. Serpstat is a Ukrainian company and most of our colleagues are living here. Thus, this research was essential and now, is significant for people like you to read.

Our team, as a team of Ukrainian SEO tool, wanted to investigate the search engine and understand how keyword trends were changing during the war between Russia and Ukraine. We checked what people from different countries searched before the war and now.

Besides a bajillion quantities of information, the Internet is a real World Judge. It helps us see the real world, get and tell the truth. Since Feb 24, Ukrainians and millions of people all over the world have struggled with Russian propaganda. It’s the other destiny for the Internet. Influencers, celebrities, and politicians do their best, to tell the truth, to open the propagandists’ eyes to the real war, but the “military operation”!

The websites and news are full of facts and data, and since the 1st war day, people are willing to know more. And there are no doubts, just check search queries in the USA SE:

Thanks to Serpstat’s Keyword trends tool, we researched the search engine and have got data. For example, we checked what Russian people were looking for before and while the war:

Before the war there were keywords like "the movie Fire”, “fireworks in Moscow”, “the skier Aleksandr Ivshin”, “Blinken canceled a meeting”; after the war started — “bmw and volkswagen stopped making cars in Russia”, “refugees from Mariupol”, “putin society cleansing”, “RUB-USD rate”, “news Ukraine war”.

The queries in Ukraine: before the war — “daylight saving time”, “uncharted movie”, “yuval noah harari”, “normandy four meets”; after the war started — “shelling of an orphanage in Vorzel”, “firing of rockets in Kyiv”, “shelters”, “shelling of Kyiv 25 Feb”.

The queries in the USA before and after the war started:

Let’s compare data in Australia before the war and when the war started:

In Germany before the war people searched "football championship" or "crypto news", now — "war in Ukraine".

In Belarus people were interested in "pension" or "TV serials", when the war started — "petition against the war", "Ukraine air defense", "putin started the war", etc.

Search engine trend queries reflect accurate public interest. It’s a precious info source for CMI and journalists since it lets us be in touch with people all over the country and highlights themes outside the governments’. Investigating the SE’s trends, in our example, we observe the interest in the situation in Ukraine in different countries. It impacted people’s awareness – thousands of people went to rallies to support Ukraine, what we’re thankful for.

For a journalist, content marketer, editor who works for a news or niche publication, trending search terms are an endless stream of ideas for content that is trending at the moment. Collect trends and create "burning" content for your audience: articles, video reviews, or analytical materials on topics that your competitors have not yet covered.

The search engine reacts to events immediately and sets things straight. There is no way to conceal people’s concern – search queries transform to new search suggestions, special elements, featured snippets; all these absorb any information and the truth field thrives.

Let’s see what featured snippets appeared when searching “Ukraine”:

Due to the interest growth of the war between Russia and Ukraine, many special elements appeared for the word “Ukraine”. We analyzed this word in the “Related keywords” report and noticed that all of the keyword’s variations have their own special element in the search. Hundreds of videos, photos, articles, interviews, etc. – approving the war situation facts.

While the WWW is full of facts, celebrities from all parts of the world also share the truth for people with a clouded mind.

For example, the winners of the Eurovision 2021, rock group Måneskin postponed their tour in Europe while the ongoing conflict in Ukraine continues. The group announced the following:

Now the SE shows the war news when searching a celebrities’ name too. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Elon Musk:

As you see, it’s impossible to hide information in the 21st century, since search engines immediately respond to current news.

By the way, we talked about how our team is now working in a war, as well as about our volunteer initiatives that help fight against Russian aggression.