Google Trends Universal Ranker

Rank multiple keywords on one comparable Google Trends scale.

Google Trends normally compares a maximum of five keywords on one shared 0–100 scale. Separate groups are normalized independently, so their scores cannot be compared directly.

This Actor uses search-volume ordering, rolling bridge keywords, and overlapping Google Trends requests to place larger keyword lists on one common scale.

What the Actor does

1. Retrieves Google Ads search-volume estimates.
2. Sorts the keywords from high to low volume.
3. Selects two rolling bridge keywords for each adjacent group.
4. Requests Google Trends data in overlapping groups.
5. Calibrates every group through the rolling bridge chain.
6. Returns one ranked dataset.

Input

keywords

A list containing between 2 and 1,000 keywords.

locationCode

A DataForSEO location code.

Default: 2840 — United States.

languageCode

The language used for Google Trends and Google Ads data.

Default: en.

Example input

{
  "keywords": [
    "chatgpt",
    "canva",
    "notion",
    "shopify",
    "air fryer",
    "walking pad"
  ],
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "languageCode": "en"
}

Output

Every keyword produces one dataset item containing:

• rank
• keyword
• universalTrendScore
• averageInterest
• searchVolume
• dataPoints
• nonZeroDataPoints
• dataCoveragePercent
• locationCode
• languageCode
• dateFrom
• dateTo

Understanding the results

universalTrendScore is normalized so that the highest keyword in the submitted list receives a score of 100.

The remaining scores are relative to that winner. A score of 25 means that the calibrated average interest was approximately 25% of the highest keyword.

dataCoveragePercent shows how many returned timeline points were above zero. Very low-volume keywords can have low coverage and may therefore be less stable.

How rolling bridges work

The first five keywords are compared on one Google Trends scale.

After that, every new group contains:

• two bridge keywords from the previous group;
• up to three new keywords.

The bridge keywords connect the new group to the existing universal scale. After calibration, two suitable keywords from the new group become the bridges for the following group.

This creates a gradual path from high-volume keywords to low-volume keywords and prevents smaller terms from being rounded down to zero when compared directly with extremely large terms.

Required environment variables

This Actor requires your own DataForSEO API credentials:

• DATAFORSEO_LOGIN
• DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD

Store both values as secret environment variables in Apify.

Costs

Each run uses:

• one DataForSEO Google Ads search-volume request;
• one Google Trends request for the first five keywords;
• approximately one additional Trends request for every three remaining keywords;
• normal Apify compute and storage.

Check current DataForSEO pricing before processing large lists.

Current MVP limitations

• Results depend on Google Trends and DataForSEO availability.
• Very low-volume keywords may still be less stable than popular terms.
• Search-volume estimates and Trends values can fluctuate between runs.
• Rolling bridge calibration can accumulate small measurement differences across long keyword lists.
• This MVP does not yet calculate statistical confidence intervals.
• Lists approaching 1,000 keywords require further validation before production use.

Privacy

API credentials are read only from secret environment variables. They are not written to the output dataset.

Validation status

MVP validation completed with successful 8-keyword, 20-keyword, and 32-keyword cross-batch tests.

The 32-keyword test used ten overlapping Trends groups. Every transition contained 108 valid bridge data points, and all 32 keywords returned 100% data coverage.