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Keyword search volume: what the number means

Keyword search volume is the number of times a phrase is searched in a month, shown as a monthly average. It tells you how large a topic is, not how many of those people will buy, how many visits you will get, or who they are. Read it as the size of a pool, never as a promise.

This page is part of search demand, the full picture of what a market searches for.

What search volume is

Search volume, also called monthly search volume or keyword volume, counts searches for one phrase over a period, normally per month and per country. If a phrase has 480 US searches a month, people in the US typed it about 480 times in an average month.

Three details change what the number means:

• The country. A US number and a worldwide number for the same phrase can differ widely.
• The period. A figure is often an average over many months. A phrase that peaks in summer looks flat in an average.
• The wording. Different spellings of one need are one need, so do not add their counts.

One need, many phrases

People ask for the same thing in different words, and each wording has its own count. Take the topic of this page. These are real US monthly searches.

These overlap. The same person may use two of them in a week, so the honest number for the need is one group figure, not a sum of phrases.

The table also shows that wording matters. "What is search volume" asks for a definition. The other rows ask for a number to use. Same topic, different searchers. That is why volume needs search intent beside it.

Search volume in SEO and in paid search

The same number does two jobs.

In SEO, volume sets a ceiling. Even the best page for a phrase earns only a share of its monthly searches, so a phrase with 70 searches is a small prize and one with 880 is a larger one. Volume helps you decide which pages to build first.

In paid search, volume sets the reach of a bid. It also sets the size of a leak: the more searches a phrase gets, the more money flows through it when the wrong people type it. A big phrase with a wasted audience is an expensive one.

Low search volume keywords can still pay

A low number is not a weak phrase. Low is relative to what a customer is worth.

Take the phrase "[trade] leads" in the US. Garage door leads has about 70 searches a month. Real estate leads has about 2,900. Next to the second, the first looks tiny. A phrase that names exactly what someone sells can still be worth more than a broad phrase with many more searches. The search demand by trade page lists the other trades counted.

Say a customer is worth $2,000 and 1 in 10 enquiries becomes a customer. Each enquiry is worth up to about $200. At that value, a few dozen searches a month from the right people can pay for a page. At $40 a customer, they would not.

The rule is simple: judge a keyword with low search volume by value per customer and by who searches, not by the count alone.

Here is how that looks side by side. The needs, counts and values are invented for illustration.

The biggest count sits on the row that earns the least. Sorting a list by volume alone would put it first.

What a count does not tell you

A volume figure is a size. It is easy to read more into it than it holds.

• It is not a visit count. A phrase with 880 searches a month does not send 880 visits to anyone.
• It is not a buyer count. The same phrase is typed by people with different goals. Volume cannot tell them apart.
• It is not a group total. One phrase is one wording of a need. The need has more wordings, and each has its own count.
• It is not a forecast. A monthly figure is an average, so season and news can move any single month.

Use a count for what it is good at: comparing one need against another under the same conditions. A phrase with 880 searches a month is a bigger pool than one with 70 when both are counted for the same country and period. That comparison is safe. Reading either number as a visit total is not.

Ask any provider of volume figures which country and which period a number covers.

What to do with it

• Drop empties, then group. Use volume to set aside phrases with almost no searches. Then group what remains by need before you total anything.
• Add intent. Put buyers' groups first. See buyer intent keywords for what separates them.
• Cross-check with competitors. A group with solid volume that no leading competitor covers is a gap. Competitor gaps shows how to read it.
• Clean the ad spend. Volume counts every searcher. Before you bid, add the wrong-audience searches as negative keywords in your ad account.
• Go local when you serve a place. A national count overstates a service area. See local keyword research.

Questions people ask

What is a good search volume for a keyword?

There is no universal answer. Compare the monthly searches with what one customer is worth. A service worth thousands of dollars can live on dozens of searches a month. A low-value product needs thousands.

Is a free keyword search volume tool accurate?

Treat any single figure, from any provider, as a size, not an exact count. A figure for one phrase also says nothing about the group of phrases around the same need.

How often does search volume change?

It can move slowly for steady needs and quickly for seasonal ones. Check the period behind a number before you plan around it.

Can I get search volume for a whole market at once?

A market is not one phrase. The useful figure is the group of phrases around each need, with a count for each group. That is the first thing a demand map gives you.

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See what a counted market looks like in the free samples: each row carries its US monthly searches and the competitor page behind it.

Checked by a person and delivered within 24 hours, with a link and a search number behind every row.