Hii, if you are a blogger or a digital marketer, I'm sure you've heard about keyword search volume, haven't you? Sometimes we ignore this crucial metric compared to CTR, CPM and CPC, but this single metric plays an essential role in digital marketing specially for SEO.
In this article I'll explain everything about search volume from definition to structure anatomy. So, in this article I'll explain keyword search volume in the context of SEO and advertising campaigns with real-life applications and many more. Let's get started
What is keyword search volume?
Keyword search volume means the number of searches for a particular words in a given time frame. "Keyword volume refers to the average number of times a specific word is searched for in a given period". It’s a crucial metric in SEO and digital marketing because it helps marketers understand how popular a search term is—and whether it’s worth targeting.
But there’s more to it than just a number. Keyword volume affects your content strategy, ad spend, and even your chances of ranking on Google. Seasonality plays an essential role in keyword volume as it fluctuates due to new mood or trends. However, there is another search term known as “evergreen keywords” that doesn't fluctuate over time.
Why Keyword Volume Matters in SEO and digital marketing
Imagine you’re opening a bakery. You wouldn’t just guess what desserts people want—you’d research which ones sell best. The same logic applies to SEO. Without knowing the search volume you can't guess the new ideas for the SEO friendly articles. However, high search volume keywords have high competition and high domain authority but it gives clear ideas to work in the correct direction.
Keyword volume tells you:
How many people are searching that specific term on Google: High volume means more potential traffic. We just want an idea not the same keyword as we've told you that high keyword volume has high competition also.
How competitive a keyword is: Popular keywords often have fierce competition. Knowing our competitors in the same field is crucial. They help us improve our service.
Whether a keyword is worth targeting: Low-volume keywords might not bring enough visitors, while ultra-high-volume ones may be too hard to rank for. Just explore and take keyword ideas. That's it, if you create a professional article Google will bring traffic for this through Discover. It is applicable if you create the highest quality article for your readers.
For example, the keyword "best chocolate cake recipe" has a high search volume (let’s say 50,000 searches per month). That means a lot of people are looking for it, but it also means you’ll be competing with big food blogs. On the other hand, "gluten-free chocolate cake recipe without eggs" might have lower volume (say, 1,000 searches), but it’s easier to rank for and attracts a more specific audience.
How to get keyword search volume data?
There are numerous free and paid tools are available to get keyword volume data. So, if you are a complete beginner you should go with free tools and use some unique strategies to get real-time data. Here we've listed some free tools for you to get keyword search volume data;
Ahrefs
A powerful and free tool to get keyword search volume data easily. Every beginner's first choice because it offers pretty simple process and multiple keyword ideas. Best part of this tool is it can show you the relevant searches, plus keyword difficulty and top ranking sites with domain authority.
WordStream
It is absolutely free tool to get keyword search volume data. You can add keywords or even URLs, WordStream provides the search volume data. It allows you filter by industry and location to increase your relevance.
SEM Rush
Every pro digital marketer's choice is sem rush, because of its easy process of using and broad data. It provides you relevant searches, plus search volume and keyword difficulty. Check the screenshot we've taken from SemRush's absolutely free version.
This is the best tool.
Moz keyword explorer
It offers many useful insights for digital marketers and make their life easier. Moz Keyword Explorer is a user-friendly keyword research tool designed to help marketers uncover high-potential search terms. It offers deep insights into keyword performance, competition, and ranking opportunities.
Benefits
Keyword Suggestions: Generates thousands of related keywords based on a seed term. It helps digital marketers work in the right direction.
- Difficulty Score: Measures how hard it is to rank for a keyword on a 0–100 scale.
- Opportunity Score: Shows potential CTR if you rank on the first page.
- SERP Analysis: Reveals top-ranking pages and their metrics.
- Monthly Volume: Estimates search traffic for each keyword. This is the best part of this tool. Volume is important in Keywords.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free analytics tool that shows how frequently specific search terms are entered into Google over time. It helps marketers, content creators, and researchers understand public interest, identify trending topics, and plan campaigns effectively. Users can explore keyword popularity by region, time frame, and category, making it ideal for seasonal marketing and competitor analysis. It also allows comparisons between multiple terms and displays data visually through graphs. With insights on related topics and rising queries, Google Trends turns search behavior into valuable, real-time data for smarter content and business decisions.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool offered by Google Ads that helps users discover relevant keywords for their websites or ad campaigns. It provides data on search volume, competition level, and estimated cost-per-click (CPC) for each keyword. Marketers can enter a product, service, or URL to generate keyword ideas. It also allows filtering by location, language, and date range. With accurate data straight from Google, it’s ideal for SEO and PPC planning. Whether you're launching a blog or running paid ads, Google Keyword Planner helps you target the right audience with the right keywords.
What Is Domain Authority?
In this article, above we've talked about Domain authority, what is meaning of it?
Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Scored from 1 to 100, higher scores indicate stronger authority. DA is calculated using factors like high quality backlinks, site age, and content quality. It helps compare websites or track ranking strength over time but doesn’t directly affect Google rankings.
For example, A well-established site like bbc.com may have a DA of 95, while a new blog may start at 10. Building quality backlinks and publishing valuable content can improve your DA. Hope you've got the point!
How to Rank for Keywords with High Search Volumes
To be honest, if you are a beginner and recently created a website and now you want to post content on high search volume keywords, it's hard to rank because your site's domain authority is very low. Then what should you do?
Write High quality article
See, if you have a pro-level writing skills then you can beat all the barriers of ranking. If you want to grow your site's visibility, create high user-centric quality content. Offer valuable content to readers with proper guidance and extra insights.
Quality backlinks
Build quality backlinks, it helps you grow your site faster than usual. How do you get quality backlinks? Answer: if you have high quality detailed articles on your blog and ranking good, you will get backlinks automatically whenever someone take insights from your site, that user definately use your site URL on his site. Other way of getting quality backlinks is you can directly contact top ranking websites for Backlinks, just offer them that you can write a quality article for their blog, if they are agree then convince them to add your site URL to their website.
High Volume vs. Low Volume Keywords: Which Should You Target?
Now let's discuss which keywords should you be targeting?
Answer is; it depends
It depends on your website type, domain authority and quality content.
Conclusion
In this article we've discussed about keyword search volume. We explained how important this term is. Instead of obsessing over huge numbers, focus on keywords that align with your audience’s needs. Sometimes, a 500-search-per-month keyword brings more sales than a 50,000-search one.
That's it for today guys.
