Click to enlarge. Source: Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Did you ever want to know the monthly search volume for a particular term? The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is extremely useful for webmasters, but also shows monthly and annual trends in searches. In general, Google searches for African internet subjects are on the rise. The greatest number of searches related to ‘online africa’ was in June/July, which corresponds with the arrival of the undersea SEACOM cable. Regardless, the general monthly search volume trend confirms an increased interest in Africa’s online future. More specific areas of interest include the telecom sector and broadband.

For reference, ‘online australia’ gets 246,000 monthly searches, ‘online europe’ receives 91,000 queries, and ‘online asia’ attracts 74,000 per month. The term ‘online africa’ is searched 40,500 times per month, but ‘online south africa’ gets 33,100 searches and ‘online nigeria’ (probably due to the large population) sees a respectable 90,500 monthly searches. Based on these findings, searches are more often focused on the country instead of the continent as a whole. This makes sense considering how ICT policy, infrastructure, and funding vary among the African nations.

The table below shows exact numbers for terms relating to ‘africa online’.