Why You Should Stop Using Language Settings in Search Volume Endpoints?
Did you notice that Google disavowed “language” settings in its Keyword Planner for certain keywords?
If it wasn’t enough, its Ads API also stopped returning data for some tasks. This unfortunate situation may have affected the data you get through the Search Volume endpoints.
For example, if you try obtaining data for the “netflix” keyword and specify the “Netherlands” as the location name along with the “nl” as language code, you will get “null” values in all data-related fields of the response.
Request Sample
POST: https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/keywords_data/google/search_volume/live
[
{
"location_name": "Netherlands",
"language_code": "nl",
"keywords": [
"netflix"
]
}
]
Response Sample
{
"version": "0.1.20200220",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "5.5614 sec.",
"cost": 0.075,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "02211440-1535-0093-0000-a251517f9bd9",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "5.4593 sec.",
"cost": 0.075,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"keywords_data",
"google",
"search_volume",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "keywords_data",
"function": "search_volume",
"se": "google",
"location_name": "Netherlands",
"language_code": "nl",
"keywords": [
"netflix"
]
},
"result": [
{
"keyword": "netflix",
"location_code": 2528,
"language_code": "nl",
"competition": null,
"cpc": null,
"search_volume": null,
"categories": null,
"monthly_searches": null
}
]
}
]
}
Solution
The only quick workaround we’ve found so far requires eliminating the “language_name”/”language_code” field:
Request Sample
POST: https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/keywords_data/google/search_volume/live
[
{
"location_name": "Netherlands",
"keywords": [
"netflix"
]
}
]
Response Sample
{
"version": "0.1.20200220",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "3.4211 sec.",
"cost": 0.075,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "02211442-1535-0093-0000-f14ba633e4eb",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "3.3116 sec.",
"cost": 0.075,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"keywords_data",
"google",
"search_volume",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "keywords_data",
"function": "search_volume",
"se": "google",
"location_name": "Netherlands",
"keywords": [
"netflix"
]
},
"result": [
{
"keyword": "netflix",
"location_code": 2528,
"language_code": null,
"competition": 0.00579500089021322,
"cpc": 1.436528,
"search_volume": 1220000,
"categories": [
10013,
10103,
10562,
13417,
13575,
13824,
13842
],
"monthly_searches": [
{
"year": 2020,
"month": 1,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 12,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 11,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 10,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 9,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 8,
"search_volume": 1220000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 7,
"search_volume": 1500000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 6,
"search_volume": 1220000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 5,
"search_volume": 1220000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 4,
"search_volume": 1220000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 3,
"search_volume": 1220000
},
{
"year": 2019,
"month": 2,
"search_volume": 1220000
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
We can’t say for sure if this is a temporary issue, or Google decided to disavow language settings in its API. In this regard, we recommend eliminating the “language_name”/”language_code” parameters from all your future requests to Search Volume Endpoints.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and will keep you posted on any further updates regarding this issue.
