DataForSEO Brain

Labs Market Analysis (Capability)

4 min read

Labs Market Analysis (Capability)

The DataForSEO Labs market-analysis endpoints map demand by Google product/service category: which categories a domain ranks in, which categories a keyword belongs to, the top searches in a market, and the keywords inside any category. Sits under DataForSEO Brain → Concepts.

Overview

This Labs family shifts the unit of analysis from one keyword or domain to a whole market segment, expressed through Google’s product and service category taxonomy. It answers “what categories does this domain compete in”, “what is this keyword about”, “what are the highest-volume searches in this market”, and “give me every keyword in this category”. It is the demand-mapping layer beneath content strategy and total-addressable-market sizing. All endpoints are Live POST calls under /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/{function}/live, except the free categories metadata endpoint.

What it covers

  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/categories_for_domain/live - the categories a domain ranks for, with ranking distribution and estimated traffic per category.
  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/categories_for_keywords/live - the categories associated with each of up to 1000 keywords.
  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/top_searches/live - access to 7B+ keywords from the DataForSEO Keyword Database for a location/language, with Google Ads metrics and product categories.
  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/keywords_for_categories/live - keywords relevant to specified categories, with volume, trends, CPC, and competition.
  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/google/domain_metrics_by_categories/live - the change in a domain’s category metrics between two dates (historical SERP ranking distribution and current ETV/counts).
  • /v3/dataforseo_labs/categories (GET, free) - the complete Google-based category taxonomy.

Key parameters / inputs

fieldnotes
category_codes / categoriescategory ids from the categories reference; max 20 (keywords_for_categories), max 5 (domain_metrics_by_categories)
keywordsup to 1000 keywords (categories_for_keywords)
targetdomain or subdomain (categories_for_domain), without https:// or www.
location_code / location_name, language_code / language_namelocation and language identifiers
first_date / second_dateyyyy-mm-dd; minimum 2020-10-01 (domain_metrics_by_categories)
category_intersectiontrue = keywords in ALL categories, false = ANY; default true
include_clickstream_datadoubles cost; default false
filters / order_by / limit / offset_tokenmax 8 filters, max 3 sort rules, limit up to 1000

Response / what you get back

Category results carry categories (arrays of integer category ids) and the metrics.<type>.* block where <type> is organic, paid, featured_snippet, or local_pack, including metrics.organic.count and metrics.organic.etv. Keyword-bearing endpoints (top_searches, keywords_for_categories) add keyword, keyword_info.search_volume, keyword_info.competition, and keyword_info.cpc. Standard envelope fields total_count, items_count, location_code, and language_code accompany every result. The categories reference returns category_code, category_name, and category_code_parent for a roughly 3000-node hierarchy.

Cost & method notes

  • All analysis endpoints are Live; per-request billing. The cost log shows categories_for_domain at $0.02 per request; the categories reference endpoint is free.
  • include_clickstream_data: true doubles the request cost where supported.
  • Pre-indexed Labs data is cheaper than live cap-keywords-data-api or cap-serp-api calls; see dec-labs-vs-live-apis.

When to use / how it fits

Use this family to size a niche before committing to content. It feeds play-content-strategy-brief (market sizing + keyword pool) and complements cap-labs-keyword-research (term-level expansion) and cap-labs-competitor-research (who already owns the category). Route jobs through dec-which-api-for-which-job. The underlying taxonomy mirrors the categories used in cap-content-analysis-api.

Gotchas / limits

  • The category taxonomy is Google product/service categories only; there is no Amazon, Google Play, or App Store category set here.
  • domain_metrics_by_categories dates must be on or after 2020-10-01 and not in the future; it caps at 5 category codes.
  • 2000 API calls/min, max 30 simultaneous requests; data updates weekly and is pre-indexed, so treat category traffic as estimates.
  • offset is valid only under 10000 results; use offset_token beyond that.
  • The categories reference is also published as a downloadable CSV with category_code, category_name, and category_code_parent columns, so you can resolve the parent-child hierarchy offline before issuing calls.
  • keywords_for_categories uses category_intersection to switch between AND (keywords in every listed category) and OR (any listed category) matching; the default is AND, which can return far fewer keywords than expected.

Sources

Graph View

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