How We Calculate Our Metrics
Transparency is core to KeywordVelocity. Here's exactly how every number on our dashboard is derived.
Data source
All trending keywords and 24-hour volume figures come from the public Google Trends RSS feed (trends.google.com/trending/rss), fetched every minute via our server cron job. We track four regions: United Kingdom (GB), United States (US), Canada (CA), and Australia (AU).
24-hour volume
The "24h volume" figure (e.g. "200K+") is taken directly from Google's approx_traffic field in the RSS feed. This is Google's own estimate of approximate search volume over a rolling period — not a precise count.
Est. searches / hour
Google does not publish a live "searches per hour" figure. We calculate an estimate using this method:
- Parse the 24h volume into a numeric baseline (e.g. "200K+" → 200,000)
- Divide by 24 to get an average hourly baseline
- Apply a regional peak-hour multiplier (higher during local daytime 9am–10pm, lower overnight)
- Apply a small deterministic variance factor so the rate reflects typical intra-hour fluctuation
The live counter on the dashboard animates within ±3% of this server-calculated base to reflect natural fluctuation. It is refreshed from the server every 60 seconds.
Important: This is an estimate for informational purposes. It is not a real-time count of individual people searching.
Momentum score
Each minute, we compare the current 24h volume parse against the previous fetch:
- Breakout — volume up 25%+ since last sync
- Rising — volume up 8–25%
- Stable — volume within ±8%
- Cooling — volume down 15%+
- New — topic just appeared in the feed
Commercial intent & typical CPC bands
We assign a tier (Low / Medium / High) based on keyword category pattern matching — for example, finance-related terms typically indicate higher commercial search intent.
Alongside each tier we show a typical CPC band — a converted range from published industry averages for that topic category (e.g. finance, tech, news). These are not quotes for the exact keyword on screen, and they do not predict your AdSense or ad earnings. Actual Google Ads CPC varies by geography, device, placement, season, and auction dynamics.
Currency conversion uses approximate static rates for display only (GBP, USD, EUR). See our insights article on why honest category benchmarks beat fake per-keyword CPC numbers.
Cross-border detection
When the same keyword appears in the trending feeds of two or more regions simultaneously, we flag it as a cross-border trend — often indicating a globally significant event.
Time range views
The dashboard lets you explore trends across different windows:
- Live — current Google Trends RSS feed, updated every minute
- 1 hour / 12 hours / 24 hours — aggregated from our minute-by-minute history snapshots (built by your cron job). Topics ranking highest combine peak volume with how often they appeared in the window.
- 7 days / 30 days / 1 year — aggregated from Google's daily trends API. Google typically provides a rolling window of recent daily charts; longer ranges use all available daily data within that period.
Short-range history (1–24h) improves automatically the longer your cron job runs. Longer ranges depend on Google's daily trends data availability.
Related news
Where available, we extract news headline links bundled in the Google Trends RSS feed. These link to third-party publishers and are not authored by KeywordVelocity.