Various metrics like bounce rate and organic click-through rate (CTR) are crucial for search engine optimization (SE0) strategists and digital marketers to understand. But one particular metric stands out when building effective campaigns, and that’s keyword search volume. Utilizing keyword search volume helps you to understand what topics to cover on your blog and provides you with better insight into what your audience is searching for. In this guide, we discuss what keyword search volume is, why it’s vital to your SEO strategy, and how to use it.
What Is Keyword Search Volume?
Keyword search volume means the volume or number of times a given keyword is searched for during a specific period (usually monthly). This is one of the most important metrics for SEO analysts and marketers to use because it helps identify how popular a keyword is and determine which keywords should be targeted.
Often, seasonality must be factored in when checking keyword search volume. For instance, searches for “air conditioning” might pop up more frequently as summer approaches while searches for “holiday gift ideas” might come up more in November. However, some search terms are considered more evergreen and therefore their search volume might remain relatively stable over time.
Why Is It Important?
Keyword search volume is critical to incorporate in your SEO efforts because one of the best ways to increase traffic and attract new visitors to your site is through search engines. So placing keywords with significant search volume in your content is necessary for your brand’s growth. However, you don’t want to just stuff your website with keywords that have high search volume as you will then end up competing with much larger sites and publishers. It’s also important to keep in mind that while keyword search volume is a metric you need to track, it’s not the only strategy you should rely on in your SEO campaigns.
How To Check Keyword Search Volume
To check the keyword search volume, you can use various tools like keyword volume checker, which measures a keyword’s volume in Google Keyword Planner. The majority of keyword research tools used to only display data from Google Keyword Planner. But in 2016, that was changed when Google decided to stop showing the precise search volume to users who did not spend enough on Google Adwords. This element, along with keyword clustering (where Google groups similar keywords together), culminated in keyword search volume tools showing different sources of data.
How To Use Keyword Search Volume Effectively
Determining which keywords to target mostly depends on your marketing goals, the specific niche you are a part of, and your domain authority. Domain authority refers to the strength and reputation of your website in offering high-quality content. There is no direct keywords search volume strategy that works for everyone. Instead, how you use this method is unique to your business. If you are a smaller company just starting, you may want to target keywords with lower volumes that are less competitive to boost external links and build up your domain authority.
You will want to especially garner external links from respected sites with big followings as that will strengthen your domain authority. Whereas if you are a more established brand, you might consider using more competitive keywords with higher volume. No matter what level you are at in the SEO game, you want to make sure you are not just targeting popular keywords, but instead focusing on the keyword’s relevance to your desired market and brand. Keyword search volume is certainly a complex subject with many different factors at play. However, just like with any SEO technique, the primary item to consider is making sure you are producing high-quality content because Google favors premium content.
