Keyword Search Volume: A Marketer’s Guide
Whether you are a digital marketer, an SEO specialist, or a dedicated online writer or blogger, then you must already know how important it is to create quality content containing the key components to truly maximise the reach of your website.
From click-through rates to pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-click (CPC) data, there are many metrics that you can use to measure the success of your website. However, one of the most important metrics is keyword search volume.
In this article, we help break things down for you. What is keyword search volume? How do you start leveraging it? Why do you really need it?
Keyword Search Volume: A Marketer’s Guide
Keyword search volume helps estimate a website’s traffic potential. Technically speaking, it is the average number of searches for a certain keyword in a specific timeframe, often used monthly, and it is widely used in Google Keyword Planner and other keyword research tools.
It gives marketers and users a general idea of a search term’s competitiveness and how well it drives website traffic over time.
When checking keyword search volume, you must remember that the time of year and country or region plays a massive role. “Halloween costumes” can indeed be searched all year round, but its volume increases as October approaches. It can even increase more in places that really get into the spirit of the season.
How to examine keyword search volume data for your SEO
To really know what is keyword search volume and how you can use the data effectively, you must first find and analyse it as accurately as possible. You cannot do this by simply eyeballing it.
Here are a few great tools that you can use to get started:
Google Trends
One of the most common tools to assess your keyword search volume data is Google Trends. It allows you to see the increase and decrease of certain terms, as well as the geographic popularity. It displays data for specific regions and countries.
Although it can give a detailed explanation of your keyword search volume data, Google Trends only allows you to see a few features. Unfortunately, it does not show data, such as keyword competitiveness, which might be a problem for SEO specialists and digital marketers.
SEM Rush
Another popular tool you can use is SEM Rush. Aside from giving you detailed keyword search volume data, it also allows you to examine the competitiveness of a keyword, the CPC distribution, and even a live update on organic and paid searches—all using the free search feature.
For a certain fee, you can access a whole new slew of in-depth data, such as backlink analytics, semantic core collection, and even website audits.
Google Keyword Planner
If you are working on a tighter budget, the Google Keyword Planner is one good tool to use. It is part of the AdWords interface that allows you to do keyword research. It can give you the average monthly searches as well as the months when the keyword peaked or dropped. You can also find related keywords to the one you just searched for.
It is also possible to have a more detailed review of each graph from the Google Keyword Planner, but unfortunately, it is only possible to access some of the data if you have an active AdWords campaign. If you are simply conducting research, you will only be able to access a simplified version of the report.
Google Search Console
The data provided here may not be as detailed as the other tools, but it is definitely effective especially for smaller websites.
Moz Keyword Explorer
This the perfect tool if you need to find out a keyword’s volume, difficulty or competitiveness, opportunity, potential, or even a straight to the point SERP analysis. You can use Moz Keyword Explorer for free.
However, it requires a certain fee if you want to analyse more data, such as your website’s visitor breakdown, rankings, and other link opportunities.
Google Search Console
Previously known as the Google Webmaster Tools, the Google Search Console allows you to measure your website’s traffic and performance, fix minor issues, and highlight your website in Google Search results. It also lets you optimise your content with search analytics tools and understand how effective your URL is directly from the Google Index all for free.
The data provided here may not be as detailed as the other tools, but it is definitely effective especially for smaller websites.
What keyword search volume should you target
Now that we have answered what is keyword search volume, let’s move on to what keyword search volume you should target—and it is not just about the highest volume or the best competitiveness rate.
A keyword with a higher volume means that it is usually searched more and, therefore, can yield more exposure. Unfortunately, this also means that the competitiveness rating of the keyword is high.
If you really want to be able to target the best keyword search volume for your website and content, you must first know what kind of website you are handling and where it stands amongst other similar websites.
If you are just starting out with a new website, you might want to target low-volume and low-competition keywords. This way, your website won’t get lost in the search engines and can even have a good starting point to establish domain authority.
On the other hand, if you are a more-established website and have already maintained a relatively high domain authority, it is best to use high-volume and high-competition keywords. This way, you will be able to maintain your edge and continue building your domain’s credibility.
Choosing the right keywords for your blog is also important when you are writing posts. Make sure your articles are always keyword targeted, with a decent search volume!
Ranking keywords with high search volumes
Using high search volume keywords can bring in a lot of views and traffic to your website, especially if you already have a more established domain.
However, it cannot be denied that it is still challenging, especially since you know that there are a thousand other websites trying to compete with you who are also using the same keywords.
There is truly only one way to ensure that your website ranks high for difficult keywords with higher search volumes: include them in stellar content.
At the root of it all, the only way your website can really get noticed and known by regular internet users is providing your audience with content that is true and that they can rely on no matter what time of the year it is.
Search engines have algorithms that cannot be easily explained, but one thing that we all know is that the more relevant and exceptional content is, the more people will read it.
And, the higher the chances that you will achieve higher-than-average click-through rates. This will then increase your rankings in any search engine whether it be Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
These are just some of the basics when it comes to keyword search volume.
Unfortunately, this is one topic that has a lot of facets that cannot be easily discussed and digested just by reading a long-form article.
If you want to know more about this concept or know how to create excellent content, do not hesitate to reach out to the experts, such as Ardor SEO.
Or, if you would like to skip the headache of finding the right keywords, use our DFY White Label SEO service!
We have a team of experts in keyword research who are ready to help you with anything you might need.
