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I came across many SaaS products or Chrome extensions, which could show estimated search volume given a keyword.

Then I start thinking how they are built and work, but not sure exactly, hope people could give me some help.

Also here is what I could think of how they might work,

  1. They are built based on some user search history data bought from network service providers? Or from Google?
  2. Google provide some paid tools (e.g. adWords KeywordPlan), and given a huge list of keywords, people could look up each of them on paid tools to get search volume?
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    Everything I've seen indicates that these are based on adWords and that IMO the search engine companies don't readily reveal the search volume. Other vendors may also use custom toolbars (ie. Alexa) to track what users are searching for.
    – Trebor
    Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 15:58
  • @Trebor Interesting! So if these are based on adWords, the they should have paid much money to Google for using adWords in their own SaaS product, right?
    – avocado
    Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 22:10
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    Not sure how 3rd parties are getting the data. Maybe just the number of times people search for the item within the 3rd party products. I.e., if you have an SEO service, then how many times users research a particular term and extrapolate from that? I know that the estimates that some of these sites give about my sites is nothing more than a wild guesstimation.
    – Trebor
    Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 23:20

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Keyword Tools (at least the better ones) use data from several sources.

There are sources like clickstream data (which is collected through e.g. browser extensions), platforms selling traffic data, etc. There is Google (e.g. keyword planner), which gives data for free (if you are using Google Ads).

And finally there are some big data processors who are using all of those sources, calculating statistical "correct" data - which then gets through an API into your favourite keyword tool.

At the end.. who knows (besides Google) if this is legit data or not - but this is how it is.

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  • Hey Alex, thanks for dropping an answer!
    – avocado
    Commented Jul 18, 2020 at 12:44

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