How to Get Google Keyword Ideas Using Google Autocomplete SERP API
Overview
Google Autocomplete is a feature within Google Search that makes it faster to start a search session when a user starts to type, enhancing the search experience. Google’s automated systems generate predictions that save people’s time by allowing them to quickly start the search they already had in mind. Google shows common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered – if many people have recently searched for the same specific term, then that term will probably be suggested as popular.
DataForSEO SERP API Google Autocomplete endpoint returns all suggestions Google offers in its search box for a certain keyword, search client, and cursor pointer position.
Google Autocomplete endpoint is available in Standard and Live modes. In the first case, you make a POST and GET request to retrieve the result by task ID, while Live mode works instantly, and doesn’t require a separate GET request.
New Parameters
DataForSEO used to have the Autocomplete search in the previous API version. This time, we have rolled out this feature improved, among others, with two new optional parameters – the cursor_pointer, and the client.
The cursor_pointer defines the cursor’s horizontal numeric position within the seed keyword entered in the search bar. Position starts from 0, which means the cursor is placed before the provided query. If the value is not specified, it means the cursor is placed at the end of the provided query. For example:
|burning man – "cursor_pointer": 0
burning man| – "cursor_pointer": 11
burning| man – "cursor_pointer": 7
By changing the position of the cursor pointer, and moving it along the seed keyword, you will receive different autocomplete suggestions for the same seed keyword. This is a smart way to get insights into what your potential customer is searching for.
The client defines the search client for autocomplete input. With different search clients, autocomplete results may also differ. This parameter adds personalization and accuracy to your suggestions search. Note that you also should specify your client in order to receive certain fields in the response, which we point out below.
DataForSEO Autocomplete SERP API supports the following clients:
chrome– used when Google Search is opened in Google Chrome;chrome-omni– used in the address bar in Chrome;suggestion_typeandrelevancefields are available only for this client;gws-wiz– used in Google Search home page;highlightedfield is available for this client;safari– used when Google Search is opened in Safari browser;firefox– used when Google Search is opened in Firefox browser;psy-ab– may be used when Google Search is opened in Chrome browser;highlightedfield is available for this client;toolbar– returns XML;youtube– returns JSONP;gws-wiz-local– used in Google Local;highlightedfield is available for this client.
Number of Returned Ideas
DataForSEO API allows receiving top ideas for a search query, considering the following factors:
- The language of the query (specified in the DataForSEO API request)
- The location a query is coming from (specified in the DataForSEO API request)
- Trending interest in a query (determined by Google)
- Client – indirectly impacts the result. The format of results and their number may vary depending on the browser and search platform
- Cursor pointer – impacts the quantity and content of results.
Depending on those five factors, the number of Autocomplete results in the response for each individual key will vary, typically it is up to 15 keyword suggestions. This way, for a word of six letters you can get up to 90 suggestions by changing the cursor pointer value, but with each next position, there will be fewer unique suggestions.
Workflow
To find auto-suggestions for your keyword, you have to authorize in DataForSEO Dashboard and select Google Autocomplete in the SERP API section.
To set a task, you should specify keyword, location, and language for which you wish to get suggestions for your seed keyword. You can enter up to 700 symbols in a keyword field.
As we mentioned, you may also add cursor pointer and client parameters to sort the results accordingly.
Example of setting a task:
POST: https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/serp/google/autocomplete/task_post
Example of the request:
[
{
"language_code": "en",
"location_code": 2840,
"keyword": "bowling",
"cursor_pointer": 3,
"client": "chrome-omni"
}
]
}
You can verify the result data is entirely relevant by accessing the link returned in the check_url in the Incognito mode. Our system ignores user preferences, search history, and other personalized factors, therefore they do not impact the returned SERP results.
Here are the endpoint-specific fields you will get in the API response:
keywordspecified in the request;relevance– relevance of a keyword from the search_query field. The range is between 500 and 2000; the higher the value is, the more relevant is the keyword from the result array. This field is available for thechrome-omniclient;search_query_url– link to the search results relevant to the Google Autocomplete suggestion;suggestion_type– Google Autocomplete suggestion type. This field is available for thechrome-omniclient;highlighted– indicates whether Google Autocomplete suggestion is highlighted in the search bar. This field is available forgws-wiz,psy-ab, andgws-wiz-localclients.Example of the result:
{ "version": "0.1.20231117", "status_code": 20000, "status_message": "Ok.", "time": "1.1245 sec.", "cost": 0.002, "tasks_count": 1, "tasks_error": 0, "tasks": [ { "id": "11301816-1535-0139-0000-af3e8184d81d", "status_code": 20000, "status_message": "Ok.", "time": "1.0365 sec.", "cost": 0.002, "result_count": 1, "path": [ "v3", "serp", "google", "autocomplete", "live", "advanced" ], "data": { "api": "serp", "function": "live", "se": "google", "se_type": "autocomplete", "language_code": "en", "location_code": 2840, "keyword": "bowling", "cursor_pointer": 3, "client": "chrome-omni", "device": "desktop", "os": "windows" }, "result": [ { "keyword": "bowling", "type": "autocomplete", "se_domain": "google.com", "location_code": 2840, "language_code": "en", "check_url": "https://google.com/search? q=bowling&hl=en&gl=US&uule=w+CAIQIFISCQs2MuSEtepUEUK33kOSuTsc", "datetime": "2023-11-30 16:16:56 +00:00", "spell": null, "item_types": [ "autocomplete" ], "se_results_count": 0, "items_count": 6, "items": [ { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 1, "rank_absolute": 1, "relevance": 601, "suggestion": "bowling green", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+green", "highlighted": null }, { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 2, "rank_absolute": 2, "relevance": 600, "suggestion": "bowling near me", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+near+me", "highlighted": null }, { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 3, "rank_absolute": 3, "relevance": 557, "suggestion": "bowling nyc", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+nyc", "highlighted": null }, { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 4, "rank_absolute": 4, "relevance": 555, "suggestion": "bowling ball", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+ball", "highlighted": null }, { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 5, "rank_absolute": 5, "relevance": 554, "suggestion": "bowling shoes", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+shoes", "highlighted": null }, { "type": "autocomplete", "rank_group": 6, "rank_absolute": 6, "relevance": 553, "suggestion": "bowling alley", "suggestion_type": "QUERY", "search_query_url": "https://www.google.com/search? q=bowling+alley", "highlighted": null } ] } ] } ] } }