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SerpApi Official

Get live Google Search data and more from SerpApi's official node

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Overview

The "SerpApi Official" node provides access to live Google Search data and other search engine results through the SerpApi service. Specifically, for the Search > Google Trends operation, it allows users to query Google Trends data programmatically. This includes retrieving interest over time, interest by region, related topics, related queries, and compared breakdowns by region.

This node is beneficial in scenarios such as:

  • Market research to analyze trends and consumer interests.
  • SEO and content strategy planning based on trending topics.
  • Competitive analysis by monitoring related queries and topics.
  • Geographic analysis of search interest for targeted marketing.

Example use case:
A marketer wants to track how interest in "Coffee" changes over time globally or within a specific country, or wants to find related queries and topics to optimize content creation.

Properties

Name Meaning
Search Query (q) The main search query or queries to analyze in Google Trends. Example: "Coffee".
Additional Fields A collection of optional parameters to refine the Google Trends search:
- Language (hl) Language code for the search interface (e.g., English "en", Spanish "es", French "fr", etc.).
- Location (geo) Geographic location code to specify where the search originates from. Defaults to Worldwide if empty. Includes country codes, regions, states, cities, etc.
- Region (region) Level of geographic granularity for certain data types: Country, Subregion, Metro, City. Only applicable for some chart types.
- Data type (data_type) Type of Google Trends data to retrieve: Interest over time, Compared breakdown by region, Interest by region, Related topics, Related queries.
- Time Zone (tz) Time zone offset for the search results. Default is 420 (Pacific Day Time).
- Category (cat) Search category filter to narrow down results (e.g., Arts & Entertainment, Business, Health, Sports, Technology, etc.). Defaults to "All categories".
- Property (gprop) Property filter to sort results by Google property: Google Shopping, Image Search, News Search, Web Search, YouTube Search.
- Date (date) Date range for the search data. Examples include "today 12-m" (last 12 months), "now 7-d" (last 7 days), or custom date ranges.
- Show CSV (csv) Boolean flag to request results in CSV format instead of JSON.
- Include Low Search Volume Regions (include_low_search_volume) Boolean flag to include regions with low search volume in results. Only applicable for certain data types.
- Disable Caching (no_cache) Boolean flag to force fetching fresh results instead of cached ones. Cache expires after 1 hour. Cannot be used together with async.
- Async (async) Boolean flag to perform the search asynchronously. Requires separate retrieval of results later. Cannot be used with no_cache. Not recommended for accounts with Ludicrous Speed enabled.
- ZeroTrace Mode (zero_trace) Boolean flag to enable ZeroTrace mode (Enterprise only), which skips storing search parameters and metadata on SerpApi servers for privacy.
- Output (output) Format of the output: JSON (default) or raw HTML.
- JSON Restrictor (json_restrictor) String to restrict fields returned in the JSON response, e.g., "organic_results[0:3].{title,snippet}".

Output

The node outputs the search results in the json field of the output data. For the Google Trends operation, this JSON contains structured data corresponding to the selected data_type, such as:

  • Interest over time: Time series data showing search interest levels over the specified period.
  • Compared breakdown by region: Comparative interest data across different regions.
  • Interest by region: Interest values broken down by geographic regions.
  • Related topics: Topics related to the search query.
  • Related queries: Queries related to the search query.

If the "Show CSV" option is enabled, the output will contain CSV-formatted data instead.

The node does not output binary data.

Dependencies

  • Requires an active API key credential for SerpApi to authenticate requests.
  • Internet access to reach the SerpApi endpoint at https://serpapi.com/search.json.
  • Proper configuration of the API key credential in n8n.

Troubleshooting

  • Invalid API Key or Authentication Errors:
    Ensure that the API key credential is correctly configured and valid.

  • No Results or Empty Responses:
    Check that the search query (q) is properly set and that the combination of parameters (e.g., geo, data_type, region) is supported and returns data.

  • Conflicting Parameters:
    The no_cache and async options cannot be used together. Using both will cause errors.

  • Unsupported Parameter Combinations:
    Some data_type values only accept single or multiple queries; ensure compliance with these restrictions.

  • Rate Limits or Quotas Exceeded:
    SerpApi enforces usage limits; exceeding them will result in errors. Monitor your usage accordingly.

  • ZeroTrace Mode Limitations:
    Enabling ZeroTrace may make debugging difficult due to lack of stored metadata.

Links and References

Discussion