| Keyword | Volume | CPC | Competition | 12-month trend |
|---|
How it works
The Yahoo Keyword Tool harvests real autocomplete suggestions from Yahoo's public suggest endpoint. That is the same engine that powers the dropdown on the yahoo.com search box, so every suggestion is something real Yahoo users have searched for. We then enrich every keyword with monthly Google search volume, CPC, competition and a 12-month trend from the Keywords Everywhere API.
How the harvest works. The harvest runs in your browser, so the requests come from your IP address, not ours. It calls Yahoo's search.yahoo.com/sugg/gossip/gossip-en-ura/ endpoint (the region segment changes for other countries). Your seed term is combined with every letter and digit, plus about 70 modifier words covering questions, comparisons, prepositions, buying phrases and tutorials. Yahoo returns up to 10 suggestions per prefix, and we keep every unique one. A typical 5-seed harvest produces 200 to 500 or more keywords.
Volume enrichment. As keywords arrive, we send them to the Keywords Everywhere API in batches of 100 for Google volume, CPC, competition and the 12-month trend. Yahoo does not publish per-keyword volume, so we use Google's data as a stand-in. In practice it tracks Yahoo demand well.
Country targeting. The Country dropdown sets both Yahoo's region segment and the country for the volume lookup. Volume and CPC are specific to that country's Google data. Your last-picked country is remembered for next time.
Careful pacing. The harvest sends about one request every 1.5 seconds to stay under Yahoo's per-IP rate limit. A full 5-seed harvest takes about 15 minutes. You can stop at any time and keep the keywords found so far.
Plan caps. On the Free plan you can run 500 keyword lookups per day across all our keyword tools combined.
What the columns mean
- Keyword
- The exact suggestion Yahoo's autosuggest returned for one prefix of your seed term. Click the link icon to open the keyword in SERP Checker for a live look at the results page.
- Volume
- Google's average monthly searches over the past 12 months, from Google Keyword Planner via the Keywords Everywhere API. Yahoo does not publish per-keyword volume, so Google's number stands in for it. In practice the two track each other well.
- CPC
- The average cost per click advertisers pay in Google Ads for that keyword, in the country's currency. A high CPC usually marks a keyword with buying intent, where advertisers compete hard.
- Competition
- Google Ads' competition score: Low, Medium or High. It shows how many advertisers bid on the keyword. Since Yahoo's organic results come from Bing, organic competition on Yahoo is usually lower than on Google for the same term.
- 12-Month Trend
- A small chart of monthly Google search volume over the past year. Use it to spot seasonal patterns or rising and falling interest. Hover over any point for that month's exact value.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Yahoo Keyword Tool?
A free keyword research tool with no signup. It runs in your browser and asks Yahoo's public autosuggest for real suggestions around your seed term. Every keyword it finds is then enriched with monthly Google search volume, cost per click (CPC), competition and a 12-month trend from the Keywords Everywhere API.
Doesn't Yahoo just use Bing results?
Yahoo's organic results do come from Bing, through the Yahoo-Bing search alliance that began in 2009. But Yahoo's autosuggest is a separate endpoint (search.yahoo.com/sugg/gossip/) and reflects what Yahoo's own users search for. Yahoo users skew older and more US-based, and many arrive through Yahoo Mail, Finance and News. So the two suggestion streams differ in practice.
Why should I do keyword research for Yahoo?
Two reasons. First, Yahoo still has around 50 to 100 million monthly users in the US, mostly aged 50 and over. They reach it through Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports and the Yahoo homepage. If your audience matches that group, in areas such as financial services, retirement, traditional retail, news or sports, Yahoo traffic punches above its market share. Second, Yahoo's results come from Bing, so ranking on Bing improves your Yahoo visibility at the same time.
How does Yahoo's autosuggest work?
Yahoo exposes autosuggest through the public search.yahoo.com/sugg/gossip/ endpoint, the same engine behind the dropdown on the yahoo.com search box. The URL carries a region segment (gossip-en-ura for the US) and returns up to 10 suggestions per prefix. We combine your seed term with every letter and digit, plus about 70 modifier words, and keep every unique suggestion. A typical 5-seed harvest produces 200 to 500 or more keywords.
How is Yahoo different from Google for keyword research?
Yahoo's users are older and lean toward the topics on its homepage: financial news, sports scores, celebrity news, weather, horoscopes and traditional shopping. For seeds in those areas, Yahoo's suggestions use different phrasing than Google's. They are more formal, with less mobile shorthand and more "how do I" than "how to". For tech trends or younger audiences, Google captures more of the long tail.
Are the volume numbers Yahoo-specific?
No. The Volume column shows Google search volume for the phrase, from Google Keyword Planner via the Keywords Everywhere API. Yahoo does not publish per-keyword volume. In practice Google volume tracks Yahoo demand well. Read the number as a relative popularity signal, not a Yahoo query count.
Why does the harvest take about 15 minutes?
To stay under Yahoo's per-IP rate limit, we send about one request every 1.5 seconds. A 5-seed harvest makes about 530 calls (5 seeds times 106 prefixes), so it takes about 15 minutes. Any faster and Yahoo would throttle your IP. Leave the tab open. Results stream into the table as they arrive, and you can stop early and keep what has been found so far.
How do I make my content rank on Yahoo?
Yahoo's organic results are Bing's organic results, so optimize for Bing. Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools. Keep the technical basics clean: valid HTML, fast loading and a mobile-friendly layout. Write clear page titles and meta descriptions, and earn links from good sites. Bing also gives more weight to social signals than Google does, so real engagement on Facebook, LinkedIn and X helps. Whatever helps Bing helps Yahoo.