Search Volume

Get real search demand via Bing Webmaster API — free, with weekly trend data.

How it works

Autocomplete tells you what people search. Volume tells you how much. ZensInk uses the Bing Webmaster Tools API (free) to pull ~25 weeks of weekly impression data per keyword.

You get average weekly volume, latest week, trend direction (up/down/flat), and a demand level (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW / MINIMAL).

Setup

Get a free Bing Webmaster API key:

  1. Sign in at bing.com/webmasters
  2. Go to Preferences → API Key
  3. Copy your key

Create a .env file in the project root:

BING_API_KEY=your_key_here

Basic usage

Pass keywords directly (comma-separated OK):

python3 -m zens_ink.keyword_volume "ai tools,seo software,keyword research"

Or read from a file (one keyword per line):

python3 -m zens_ink.keyword_volume --file my_keywords.txt

Country and language

Defaults are cn / zh-CN. Switch for English markets:

python3 -m zens_ink.keyword_volume "seo tools" --country us --lang en-US

Export to CSV

python3 -m zens_ink.keyword_volume --file keywords.txt --csv results.csv

The CSV includes: keyword, avg_weekly, latest_weekly, quarterly total, trend, weeks, country, language.

JSON output

python3 -m zens_ink.keyword_volume "seo" --json

Output format

  ai tools                             avg/wk=  4200  qtr=  52000  up 15%  [HIGH     ]
  seo software                         avg/wk=   890  qtr=  11000  flat 2%  [MEDIUM   ]
  keyword research                     avg/wk=   120  qtr=   1600  down 8%  [LOW      ]

Bing vs Google volume. Bing numbers are lower in absolute terms (Bing has ~10% search market share), but the relative demand between keywords is highly correlated with Google. Use it for comparison, not for exact counts.

Tips

  • Batch queries. Each keyword takes 0.3s delay. 100 keywords ≈ 30 seconds.
  • Some keywords return no data. This is normal — Bing may not have enough impressions for very niche or new terms.
  • Trend needs ≥8 weeks. If a keyword has fewer than 8 weeks of data, the trend shows “insufficient”.