Ask HN: What phrase is a search query most likley to begin with

4 pointswturner4 comments

Hi, How can I gauge and contrast the number of internet search queries that start with "How to" vs "How do I" vs "How do you". I am curious to find out what phrase people are most likely to preface a question when typing into a search engine. Thanks as always.

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According to the Google keyword suggestion tool, the global search volumes for those phrases are:

"How to" - 226m "How do I" - 9.14m "How do you" - 11.1m

Thanks. I should have thought of using that.

We also have a bunch of internal data from our q&a search engine. I wouldn't want to publish that publicly, but feel free to email me (address in my profile) and I'd be glad to share.

You could start with the Google Adwords keyword tool or traffic estimator. They will give you a gauge to work with, but you have to take their numbers with a little hesitation. You can also check out Wordtracker or Keyword Country to gauge search terms.

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