Whenever you start keyword research, the first metric you usually look at is monthly keyword search volume because it indicates the popularity of keywords. While this is not a bad practice, it's not always the correct approach.
For starters, keyword search tools don't always get the volume right, and there are many cases where going after low-search volume or no-volume keywords is a better SEO strategy.
The short answer: for most websites, a keyword with 100 to 1,000 monthly searches is a good target, and a new or small site will often do better with keywords under 200 that it can actually rank for. There is no single number that is good for everyone, because what makes a keyword worth targeting is the searcher's intent, the competition, and whether you can rank, not the volume alone.
In this guide, you'll learn what keyword search volume is, what is considered a good search volume for your situation, how to check it with free tools, and when not to choose keywords for your SEO and PPC campaigns based on monthly search volume.
What Is Keyword Search Volume?
Keyword search volume is the average number of monthly searches performed in Google (or other search engines) for a particular keyword. Most keyword research tools calculate this metric based on the average number of searches made in the last 12 months. You can also view the search volume of a keyword per country and device.
It should be noted that the search volume reported by tools is the total number of times a given keyword was searched for in the particular search engine, location, and device, not the number of people who searched for it.
This means that if 100 people search for a keyword 5 times daily, the total search volume for that keyword will be 15,000 (100X5X30), but in essence, only 100 people search for it monthly.
That's one reason why when you rank in position #1 of Google for a keyword, the traffic you get is not the same as the recorded search volume.
Another reason is that not all searches result in clicks. Search engines answer many questions directly on the results page, through featured snippets, rich results, and AI Overviews, and as a result, people may not click to visit a website after performing a search. This is especially true for definition questions like "what is search volume", where the answer is shown before any website.
Is Search Volume Monthly or Daily?
Search volume is reported as a monthly figure. When a tool says a keyword has 1,000 searches, it means about 1,000 searches per month, averaged over the last 12 months.
Because it is an average, the monthly number can hide big swings. A keyword that gets 12,000 searches in December and almost none the rest of the year will still show an average of about 1,000. We'll look at how to spot this below.
Why Is Search Volume Important For SEO?
Despite the above issues, search volume is still an important SEO metric. It indicates how popular a niche is (combining the search volume of many keywords) and can help you understand the potential traffic your website could gain if you rank well for those keywords.
Moreover, search volume helps you identify seasonal and evergreen keywords, allowing you to adjust your content strategy accordingly. For example, knowing that certain terms peak during specific times of the year (like Black Friday) enables you to create content or ad campaigns to align with these peaks.
Additionally, search volume can help assess how competitive a keyword is, as higher volumes usually attract more competition. Knowing this information can influence your SEO strategy and help you target long-tail keywords with less competition but enough search interest to be valuable.
Head, Mid-Tail and Long-Tail Keywords
Before examining how to find and evaluate a keyword's search volume, we should differentiate between high and low-search-volume keywords.
Head terms (high volume) are searched more often than others. They are usually phrases made up of one or two words, they are broad, and they are very competitive.
Mid-tail keywords (medium volume) are more specific, with two or three words and a moderate number of searches.
Long-tail keywords (low volume) are searched for less often and usually consist of three or more words, but they are very specific and the searcher's intent is clear.
If we were to plot all the searches on a search demand curve, this is how it would look.
For example, according to Google Keyword Planner (US), "keyword research tools" has 4,400 monthly searches and is a mid-tail keyword, "free keyword research tools" has 2,900, and "how to do keyword research for SEO" has just 320, making it a long-tail keyword. The head term "keyword research" shows 90,500.
As we'll see below, search volume is not always important. For many businesses, it makes more sense to target medium and low-volume keywords to fulfill their business objectives.
What Is Considered A Good Monthly Keyword Search Volume?
So, if tools are inaccurate, how do you determine if a keyword's monthly search volume is good or bad? As a rule of thumb, 100 to 1,000 monthly searches is a good range for most websites. Keywords in that range usually have enough demand to bring steady traffic, without the competition of head terms.
What counts as good depends mostly on your website and your goal. Use this table as a starting point:
| Your situation | Good monthly search volume | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New or small website | 10 to 200 | Low-volume, long-tail keywords are the ones a new site can realistically rank for |
| Established website with authority | 200 to 5,000+ | You can compete for mid-tail and some head terms |
| Local business | 10 to 100 | Searches that include your city or area are few but very likely to convert |
| B2B or high-ticket products | 10 or more | One customer can be worth thousands, so a handful of buyer searches is enough |
| Google Ads (PPC) | Any volume with buying intent | You pay per click, so relevance matters more than size |
The numbers are a guide, not a rule. A keyword with 50 searches from people ready to buy can be worth more than one with 5,000 searches from people looking for a definition. To decide, you need to examine other factors, which we cover next.
Good Search Volume for SEO vs PPC
A good search volume means different things for SEO and for paid ads.
For SEO, higher volume means more potential traffic, but also more competition and more time to rank. You don't pay per visit, so the question is whether you can rank on the first page and whether the traffic is worth the effort of creating the content.
For PPC, you pay for every click, so very high-volume keywords can spend your budget quickly on visitors who are not ready to buy. Smaller, specific keywords with commercial intent usually convert better. There is also a lower limit: Google Ads gives keywords with very little or no search history a "Low search volume" status, and they won't trigger your ads often until searches increase.
Factors to Consider Besides Search Volume
Let's examine these in more detail to help you understand how to choose a keyword without using search volume as the only factor.
1. Search Intent: Try to understand what the user is searching for when typing a particular keyword on Google. Can you satisfy their intent with good content? If you get clicks for that keyword, will it help you gain new customers or repeat visitors?
2. SERPs Analysis: Analyzing the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) can reveal the nature of content that ranks well for a keyword. This analysis helps you avoid keywords dominated by results that don't align with your content types, such as videos, free tools, or forum threads, when your focus is on articles.
It will also help avoid no-click keywords in cases where Google directly answers a question via a featured snippet or an AI Overview.
Check the desktop and mobile results; they often differ regarding top results and presentation.
3. Competition: Assessing the competition involves checking who currently ranks for a keyword and determining if you can realistically compete. You can do an SEO competitor analysis to determine if it's possible to outrank your competitors and how much time and effort it will take.
4. Your Website's Authority: While not always the case, a website with more quality backlinks and a longer track record in its niche has a better chance of ranking for competitive keywords. Third-party scores like Domain Authority (DA) estimate this, although Google does not use them. If your site is new, it is more strategic to target less competitive, niche keywords where ranking is more attainable.
5. Business Objectives: Keywords should align with your business goals. Choosing keywords that are likely to attract visitors with a high intent to purchase your products or services can lead to better conversion rates.
For example, a keyword like "affordable organic coffee beans" might attract more targeted traffic for a coffee shop specializing in organic products than a broad term like "coffee."
6. Cost-Per-Click: Reviewing a keyword's cost-per-click (CPC) using Google Keyword Planner can also indicate keyword value and competition. A high CPC suggests that the keyword drives valuable conversions, making it potentially lucrative to target if it aligns with your content and offerings. It also means more competition, but at the end of the day, you want to rank for keywords that can generate positive results for your business.
7. Relevancy to Your Website's Content: Select keywords highly relevant to your site's content. This not only aids in building topical authority but also matches what Google's core ranking systems reward: content that is helpful and written for the people who search for it. Relevant keywords ensure your content is seen as valuable and helpful to users, which is crucial for user experience and SEO.
For more information on picking the right keywords for your projects, read our guide on performing keyword research for SEO.
Check the 12-Month Trend, Not the Average
The average monthly search volume that tools show can be misleading, so always look at the monthly breakdown before deciding.
For example, Google Keyword Planner shows an average of 90,500 monthly searches in the US for "keyword research". The monthly numbers behind that average range from 1,900 to 450,000 searches, so a few unusual months are pulling the average far above a typical month.
When you review the trend, look for:
- Seasonality: Regular peaks at the same time every year (holidays, back to school, tax season).
- Spikes: One or two months far above the rest, which inflate the average.
- Direction: Whether interest is growing or declining over the year. A keyword going from 1,000 to 200 searches is a different proposition from one going from 200 to 1,000.
How To Find The Search Volume of a Keyword?
You need to use a keyword research tool to find the search volume of keywords. There are many free and paid options available. Let's see how to use the most popular ones.
1. Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner is a free tool by Google and is considered the most reliable source since the data comes directly from Google.
To use it, you need a Google Ads account. Google asks you to complete the account setup, including your billing information, before you can use the keyword features, but you don't have to run any ads, and using the tool is free.
Then open the Tools menu and select KEYWORD PLANNER.
Click DISCOVER NEW KEYWORDS to find keyword ideas, or GET SEARCH VOLUME AND FORECASTS if you already have a list of keywords. Choose your language and location.
Enter the keywords you want to analyze and click GET RESULTS.
The keyword search volume is what you see in the "Avg. monthly searches" column.
Besides the search volume, you can use monthly trends, competition levels, and how much it costs (on average) to get a click from Google Ads for a particular keyword.
Keep in mind that the competition column shows how competitive ad placement is for a keyword, not how easy or hard it is to rank for that keyword in Google organic results.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is free and shows real data for your own website. In the Performance report, the Impressions column tells you how many times your pages appeared in Google for each query.
It only covers keywords you already rank for, so it can't tell you the volume of a keyword you are not visible for. But for the keywords you do rank for, it is the most accurate number you can get. If you rank in the top three positions for a keyword, your impressions give you a good indication of its real search volume.
It's also the best way to understand the true impact of search volume on your traffic. Looking at a keyword's ranking position with the actual impressions and clicks will help you determine its potential for your SEO strategy.
You can also use it to check your keyword rankings for free.
3. Google Trends
Google Trends doesn't show search volume numbers. It shows interest over time on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the peak.
It's useful for two things: comparing up to five keywords to see which one people search for more, and checking whether a topic is seasonal, growing, or fading.
4. Ahrefs
Another tool for finding the search volume of keywords is the Ahrefs Keyword Generator. This popular tool allows you to search Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon and do a more detailed analysis than Google Keyword Planner. To access all features, you need to register for a monthly subscription, but you can also use it for free to get some basic information.
It shows each keyword's keyword difficulty score (KD), monthly search volume, and when it was last updated. In this case, KD refers to how easy or difficult it is to rank organically for a particular keyword.
5. Semrush
Another popular option is the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool. It's a paid tool, but you can use it for free for 14 days using this link.
Similar to Ahrefs, you can use many filters to analyze keywords, find related questions people ask for, and much more.
The keyword search volume is shown in the "Volume" column. Similar to the Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs, the volume is the average number of monthly searches for a listed keyword over 12 months.
To see these and other options side by side, check our list of free keyword tools.
How to Check Keyword Search Volume for YouTube
Google Keyword Planner only shows Google Search data, so it can't tell you how often a keyword is searched on YouTube.
For YouTube, set Google Trends to "YouTube Search" to compare the interest in different topics, or use a tool that reports YouTube volume, such as the Ahrefs Keyword Generator (select YouTube as the search engine). Our guide to YouTube keyword research explains the full process.
Why Are Search Volumes Different Across SEO Tools?
If you look at the screenshots above, you will see that the tools show different monthly search volumes for the same keywords. We added a few keywords in the table below to see how they compare.
Does this mean that you should not trust keyword research tools? The answer is both yes and no. Keyword research tools use different sources and formulas to estimate the search volume of a keyword, and it's normal to see different values. Some use Google Keyword Planner data as their basis and merge it with their data to create a monthly average.
Sometimes, they combine the search volumes of similar keywords to form an average, which creates different results.
In general, you should NOT trust the keyword search volume of tools in terms of the actual numbers given.
From experience, if you rank in the top position of Google for a head term (like digital marketing agency), you'll get traffic from many other related keywords, not just the 40,500 monthly searches Keyword Planner shows for it, since a top-ranking page tends to rank for many terms and not just a single keyword.
You should trust tools to determine the size of a topic, i.e., the total search volume of a group of keywords and the popularity of a keyword. Keywords with a higher search volume (even if they're not 100% accurate) are searched for by more people than low-volume keywords.
The most accurate way to see the traffic a keyword generates is to look at your Performance report in Google Search Console, provided that you rank in the top organic positions.
Is It Worth Targeting Low Volume (or No Volume) Keywords?
The short answer is yes. Your keyword strategy should include high and low-volume keywords, provided they meet the criteria explained above.
A keyword relevant to your business goals may not have a high search volume because it's new and the tools are not updated yet, because it's too specific, or because the search levels are low and the tools do not calculate the volume correctly.
For example, Keyword Planner shows 12,100 monthly searches for "organic coffee beans" and a high level of competition, but returns no data at all for "affordable organic coffee beans". That doesn't mean nobody searches for it. It means the searches are too few for the tool to report, and the people who do search for it know exactly what they want.
Nevertheless, if it's considered important for your website, you should use it in your content strategy.
A good way to determine if a low-volume (or no-volume) keyword has potential is to look at the search results on Google and Bing. If the websites appearing on the top are not answering or providing good content, it might be a good opportunity for you to easily grab the top position, even if the search volume is low.
Additionally, targeting low-volume keywords can be a strategic move for small businesses where specific terms may not be widely searched but are highly relevant to a small, targeted audience. These keywords can lead to highly targeted traffic with a greater likelihood of conversion.
One advantage of targeting "no-volume keywords" is that they can indicate emerging trends or products before they become mainstream. By capitalizing on these terms early, you can position your website as a leader in that niche as it grows. For example, if a new technology or product is introduced and you start creating content around it before it becomes widely recognized, you'll have a head start when search volumes increase.
