With many of us now carrying out a multitude of tasks/activities online, one of the biggest problems we consistently experience is correctly remembering the password for our respective online accounts/applications such as email and social media.
Interested in password management, Reboot Online Marketing utilised online analytics tool Ahrefs to establish which online accounts/applications people most forget the password for.
Most forgotten passwords from the following platforms:
| Rank | Online Account/Application | Average Global Monthly Online Searches for ‘Forgot Password’ |
| 1. | Gmail (Google Mail) | 454,100 |
| 2. | Apple ID | 308,250 |
| 3. | 118,000 | |
| 4. | Microsoft Windows 10 | 86,300 |
| 5. | 78,500 | |
| 6. | Steam | 70,440 |
| 7. | Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) | 59,080 |
| 8. | iCloud | 49,440 |
| 9. | Discord | 44,170 |
| 10. | Amazon | 32,900 |
Reboot Online Marketing found that Gmail (i.e., Google’s email service) is the online account/application people most forget the password for with an astonishing average of 454,100 global online searches per month for ‘forgot Gmail password’ – the equivalent of 14,648 online searches a day.
In second position is Apple ID with 308,250 global online searches each month for ‘forgot Apple ID’.
Instagram is in third place as there is an average of 118,000 global online searches every month from those struggling to remember their password (‘forgot Instagram password’) for the popular photo and video sharing networking service.
In the fourth spot is Windows 10, which has an average of 86,300 global monthly online searches from users unable to correctly recall their password (‘forgot Windows 10 password’) for the Microsoft developed operating system.
Facebook (‘forgot Facebook password’ – 78,500) and Steam (‘forgot Steam password’ – 70,440) are among the other online accounts/applications which receive more than 70,000 global online searches from those who have forgotten their password for the respective social media platform and digital video game provider, respectively ranking fifth and sixth.
At the other end in 10th position is Amazon, as there are an average 32,900 global online searches a month for ‘forgot Amazon password’ from consumers who cannot adequately remember their password for the e-commerce giant.
Reboot Online Marketing’s Top Tips to Create Strong and Memorable Passwords
- Think of memorable sentences/song lyrics
We are more likely to remember something that has some personal value to us and often some sentences/song lyrics we have a strong sentiment towards. So, with that in mind, take the first letter of every word in a sentence or song lyric that is very memorable to you and add a few numbers and/or special characters to the end of it to create a password that is complex yet unique to you.
- Utilise your keyboard for inspiration
Use your imagination to create meaningful patterns across your keyboard to enable you to come up with a robust password. Try to make it a geometrical shape and make sure to include letters alongside numbers when envisioning your geometrical shape on the keyboard.
- Consider a reputable password manager
With so many well-developed password managers now available, why not take the hassle of having to remember the login credentials of each of your online accounts/applications and entrust them to a password manager. Password managers store your login information for all your online accounts/applications in one place and help you log into them automatically. They encrypt your password database with a secure master password (the only password you will have to remember).
Methodology for the Research
- Reboot Online Marketing analysed online data from analytics tool Ahrefs to discover which online accounts/applications internet users most forget the password for.
- To do so, Reboot Online Marketing identified three key online search terms/phrases internet users most use when they cannot remember a password for a certain online account/application – they are ‘forgot password’, ‘change password’ and ‘reset password’.
- Thereafter, each of the three key online search terms/phrases were inserted into the Ahrefs database, which in turn presented the specific online account/application brands/companies being the most searched online under each of the three key terms/phrases.
- For instance: there are an average 80,800 global monthly online searches for ‘forgot Gmail password’, there are an average 335,500 global monthly online searches for ‘change Gmail password’ and there are an average 37,800 global monthly online searches for ‘reset Gmail password’ – to get an overall overview the three figures were added together so show the average global online searches for people forgetting their Gmail password each month.
- The process from stage four was repeated for all the other popular online account/application brands/companies that kept recurring for each of the three key online search terms/phrases – they included the likes of Apple ID, Facebook, Discord and many more.
- Once the search volumes for each of the three key terms/phrases were added together for each specific online account/application brand/company – they were ranked from highest to lowest based on the variable ‘average global monthly online searches for forgot password’ and then the online account/application brands/companies where this was most the case were presented in the final results table as the top 10.
- Reboot Online Marketing did take into account the variations in which people search for the same thing online but in different ways e.g. ‘Gmail’ and ‘Google Mail’, and ‘PSN’ and ‘PlayStation Network’.
- All results were correct at the time of analysis and are subject to change based on fluctuations in global online searches.
- When analysing the data, each of the three key online search terms/phrases related to forgetting passwords were assessed in English as well as each country’s respective primary language (where applicable) to increase the reliability of results.