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Should you target a lower search volume keyword? SEO keyword research explained.

by | Jun 28, 2017 | blog | 0 comments

I recently hosted an SEO training, and at the end our client said “I would have gone after the highest volume term, but now I know to go after a keyword that is more relevant.” And it made me think back to when I first started doing keyword research years ago and how my strategy has evolved to be more well-rounded.

 

What do I mean by highest search volume?

 

Search volume is the average number of users searching on Google for a particular term or phrase in a month. Search volume numbers are rounded, so don’t get too attached to the exact number, but by using tools like Keyword Planner to pull search volume you can easily see if a keyword will have 100 searches a month, or 10,000.

 

Search volume is a great way to discover if people are searching for a keyword, or if that phrase is something no one is looking for. So, don’t get me wrong, it is super useful to look at when doing keyword research, but it is not the only thing you should be looking at.

 

By highest search volume, I mean the keyword with 10,000 searches. Maybe that term is getting a lot of searches per month, but maybe all of those users are looking for something completely different.

 

For example, if you sell high-end, reusable water bottles and “water bottle” has 110,000 searches a month, you might want to go after a term that is more relevant, like “reusable water bottle” that only has 5,400 searches a month instead.

 

And here is why:

  • Less competition, so you have a better chance at ranking
  • The longer phrase is more qualified and relevant for what you are selling
  • The phrase has search volume, people looking for what you are offering

 

By using a slightly lower search volume term, you have more qualified traffic and a better ability to rank to begin with.

 

Why shouldn’t you always target the keyword with the highest search volume?

 

It’s counter intuitive to not go after the highest search volume term, if you’re looking at keyword research from one angle—volume. But if you are looking at keyword research holistically, taking into account relevancy, competitors, current search results, then it is more apparent why the highest volume term is not always the best to target.

 

Also, I’ve seen keywords that have a huge search volume, but when you type that phrase into Google, users are looking for a completely different product, service, or website and it would not be a good keyword for us to target. So, knowing the user intent is key. And the easiest way to figure that out is to type the phrase into Google and see what is showing up.

 

By going the extra step beyond search volume, you can attract more qualified traffic to your website. Keyword research is still critical to SEO success, and your strategy will evolve the more you research what terms you want to rank for and how to use them on your website.

 

Assignment: Pick a keyword that you want to rank for. Type 3-4 variations of this term into Keyword Planner and pull search volume (play around with adding words around your main keyword that are relevant to your website). Type your 3-4 keyword that have search volume into Google and see which is most relevant to your website.

 

Now that you have your keywords, the next step is to optimize your pages/website to target those terms.

 

Monika Choudhary

Web Developer

Monika is competent professional with 10+ Years of Experience in the Website Design and Development. She is having a great expertise in developing responsive e-commerce, real estate, social networking, jobs portals, classified, corporate based websites & her expertise includes WordPress, Woocommerce, Magento, Shopify, Codeigniter, CakePHP, Laravel. She is detail oriented, driven worker who enjoys fixing code and creating something beautiful websites from scratch. Quality Work & On time delivery is always her aim. Always trying to achieve client satisfaction level, she will not only work with you to develop an amazing website with high coding standards, she will also ensure it engages with your potentials to drive more conversions and leads.

"What does karma mean to you?"

"To me, Karma is the result of a person's actions and I believe that what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions. Doing things with a good intention is what matters to me the most and that is what I always remember when working for my clients. I have realized that in this industry where there is a lot of competition around, I am working for my clients with a good heart and a positive vibe. That's what keeps me going."

"Who is your dream client and why?

"My dream client would be a company or an organization who passionately wants to build a strong online presence in the digital world. The one that’s easy to work with and that inspires you and makes work not feel like work is the dream client for me. I would love to guide them from the initial stage to build up their recognition through clean and advanced coding on the web."

Leighton Hendrick

Digital Marketing

+20 years of marketing, public relations, communications, advertising and internal and outside sales experience.

Extensive experience in developing and managing all levels of product and offering campaigns including marketing collateral, Web site content, SEO, paid media and social, inside sales call campaigns, sell sheets and management of campaign success metrics.

Demonstrated success in launching new products and corporate brands, developing demand generation programs, and creating internal and external communication pieces.

Exceptional collaborator with the ability to build relationships with trade media and manage large-scale corporate initiatives and events.

Proven ability to create and manage lead generation and call campaigns that result in the successful conversion of new and unique clients. Creator and Editor-In-Chief of IT Compliance Magazine, a quarterly publication with over 2,500 international C-Level readers.

Cassie Boca

Founder, CEO

Cassie taught herself SEO in 2006 when she was working at a small business that needed to increase visibility but didn’t have any budget. She understands the financial challenges startups and small business have in that they have to wear every hat and prioritize what they work on based on what will have the largest impact to the business. There are never enough hours in the day, but consistently Cassie found her time spent increasing rankings in organic search, ensuring locations and contact info was accurate online, building positive reviews, and spreading positive news about the companies she worked at.

In the last 10+ years, Cassie has seen it all, but always comes back to her passion for helping inspirational companies grow. As a consumer, she tries to limit her purchases to companies she believes in (ok, she still goes to Target… she’s a human) because as consumers we have the ability to help companies succeed. If we all purchased from companies that aligned with our personal beliefs, not only would companies step up but we’d see a shift in the brands that we interact with daily. She calls this being a “conscious consumer”… sometimes we think she made that phrase up, but the more time we spend with her the more we find ourselves buying only from companies we know the founders or love their mission.

Enough business talk, Cassie is passionate about connecting with like-minded people, traveling and is a pretty badass skier. She loves to chase winter seeking powder fields, and on a powder day you may even get a FaceTime call from a chairlift or the backcountry.

What does karma mean to you?

To me, karma is the intention behind our actions. Good karma, to me, means doing things with good intent, a pure heart, and positive energy. When starting a company, it was critical that I start it with good karma. In writing our mission statement you’ll see that our mission has the intent of helping consumers find companies they are proud to wear their logo or recommend to a friend…what I call being a conscious consumer. When I realized my intent behind starting this company was coming from a place of wanting to increase visibility of companies putting good into this world, I knew we had to include karma in the name.

Who is your dream client and why?

My dream client isn’t a company any of us have heard of. I’d love to hear from a young startup doing something inspirational, I mean, my passion is for increasing visibility so it’s not much of a challenge if a company comes to me and they are already hugely successful.

If I had to pick a company that already exists, it would be Charity Water. Their mission and vision inspire me so much, I had all of my wedding guests make a donation there instead of buying us gifts. But again, Charity Water has great visibility already so I’d love to find a company that isn’t there yet where I feel we can change the trajectory of their company through the work we do.