Keyword Search Volume: Are People Searching For Your Keywords?
Keyword Volume is an estimation of the number of searches per month for a certain keyword or key-phrase.
Higher search volume means more potential traffic to your website, but really high volume keywords can often be more competitive as well as more broadly targeted.
You may think that you should always pick the highest volume keyword possible, but that’s not always the case!
Here are some important considerations for keyword volume:
High Volume Keywords
High volume keywords are often very competitive and broadly targeted.
Although ranking for such keywords can send a lot of traffic to your website, it may not be worth the effort because they are too competitive and will require too much time and money to rank.
For example, let’s take the keyword “computers”.
You can see that although the search volume is high, the keyword difficulty is “high” according to this tool from ahrefs.
High volume keywords might also not be worth it because the keyword phrase is too broad and often won’t lead to conversions on your website.
In this case, the search intent isn’t explicitly clear.
Some people searching for that keyword might be looking for information about computers, while others might be shopping for a new computer.
People searching for this keyword are less likely to actually buy a computer than someone searching for a specific brand or type of computer.
High-volume keywords might be worth targeting if you have the resources to outperform the competition.
Such keyword phrases can take longer to rank for, but they can drive a lot of traffic to your website.
Medium Volume Keywords (Medium-Tail Keywords)
Medium tail keywords can drive a significant amount of traffic to your web pages and can also be specific enough to drive targeted traffic and conversions.
Although there is no strict definition, medium tail keywords generally contain 2-3 words.
For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer like business laptops, then ranking for “business laptops” might be more worthwhile than trying to rank for “computers”.
Although the search volume is lower, the phrase is more targeted towards someone likely to buy what you are selling.
The keyword phrase is still competitive, but probably not as competitive as “computers”.
Long-Tail Keywords
Keywords that have 3+ words are often referred to as long-tail keywords.
Although these keyword phrases can be lower in volume in comparison to short-tail keywords, they often send highly targeted traffic that is more interested in what you have to offer.
For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer, like a Dynabook Toshiba Terca, then you might be better off targeting the phrase “Dynabook Toshiba Terca” instead of “computers” or even “laptop computers”.
You will receive less traffic for that search term, but the traffic you do receive will be much more likely to buy and you will also have less difficulty ranking for that lower volume keyword phrase.
When creating informational content like blog articles, sometimes you can get traffic for long-tail keywords by simply including them on the page.
Some long-tail keywords have very low search volume, but the cumulative traffic from lots of long-tail keywords can add up. In fact, an estimated 70% of all search traffic comes from long-tail searches!
Conclusion
Keyword search volume is an important factor in keyword research, but you won’t always want to pick the highest volume keyword possible.
Finding the right match between search volume and user intent is vital when selecting your keywords!
The good news is that you don’t need to get hung up on picking the “perfect keyword.”
By writing long-form content, web pages tend to rank for multiple keywords, even keywords that you are not intentionally targeting. Ranking for multiple keywords can result in additional traffic to your web page.
