Why Low Search Volume Keywords are Still Highly Valuable for SEO

As a business owner or SEO, you are salivating for better rankings on Google. 

And I can’t blame you. 

When SEO strategy is done right and you rank for high search volume keywords, leads come knocking on your door (instead of the other way round) and sales go through the roof.  

That is every SEO’s wildest dream — over 200,000 targeted organic traffic per month (and far beyond). 

The problem is that everyone is working on beating the other guy for the top keywords in their industry. Eventually you may outrank your competitors for those coveted high search volume keywords, but it takes time, money, and consistent effort - which I know is tough to offer upfront.  

But what if I told you that there is a secret sauce you can use to drive targeted traffic to your website with high ranking keywords?

It’s called: low search volume keywords. 

No, it’s not a hack. 

It’s actually just really clever SEO.

What is a low search volume keyword?

Low search volume keywords are keywords associated with limited monthly search traffic on Google. 

There are a few reasons for this: 

• You are using branded terms as keywords
• Your keywords are very specific or long-tail
• Your keywords are seasonal and you are using them during the wrong season 
• Your keywords are associated with a niche/industry/product/service that isn’t fully developed online yet

You may look at this low search volume, and go “well...then SEO isn’t worth it” and simply throw in the towel.

But that might not be the greatest idea...

Why Low Search Volume Keywords Don't Mean SEO Isn’t Worth It

The keyword selection criteria for most SEO Specialists are usually centered around a quantifiable metric such as search volume or traffic potential. They choose keywords with positive metrics and obvious relevance to their industry. The problem with this kind of approach is that everyone has the same idea and so the competition is intense. The only way to rank is to out-create and out-link everyone else.

And as the use of SEO grows, your competitors become increasingly tough to beat. 

So instead, let’s flip the concept of search volume on its head. By using highly targeted keywords with low search volume, you can avoid this competition, grow organic traffic, and still land customers for your business.

Low competition

Because everyone is aiming for high search volume keywords in order to get the most traffic, low search volum keywords are often overlooked. This means there is not only less competition to rank for them, it’s also easier to be shown in those highly coveted featured snippets.

Often BOFU searches

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) searches are those made by prospects that relate to the end stages of your sales funnel. It’s often the case that low volume search terms are BOFU searches, meaning that when someone clicks on your content for those keywords, they’re likely searching for something closely related to your particular industry or product/service. Instead of focusing on tons of TOFU (Top of Funnel) traffic that isn’t as likely to convert, here is the precise method you can use to use SEO to boost conversions with low search volume keywords.

Builds traffic that you wouldn’t otherwise have

In the end, your goal is to bring as many “qualified” leads to your website as possible by providing information. So, you can use low search volume keywords to bring in targeted traffic that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Stated simply: when you're faced with low search volume, BOFU keywords, that’s an actually easy win-win situation.

How to Use Low Search Volume Keywords to Improve Your SEO

While many SEOs ignore low search volume keywords, you can (and should) use them to increase your organic traffic and improve conversion rates in your website. Here are my suggestions on how to do this.

Use Intercept keywords to steal customers from your competitors

“Intercept keywords” refer to keywords that match the searches made by prospects in the decision stage of the sales funnel. At this stage, hesitant prospects may look for alternatives to the product they already have in mind and compare their features to make the final decision. By using these intercept keywords in your content, you can steal your competitors’ prospects.

For example, when you are in the pet industry and your competitor is company X, you can create content around the keyword: X alternative. So when hesitant prospects will be looking to compare company X with other products, your article will rank first.

I know, it’s cheeky. But it works. 

Build up branded content searches, then focus on lower volume keywords

A branded content strategy often involves increasing searches for your actual brand name, so people visit your home page directly (which basically becomes a quantifiable metric for brand awareness). Then once you have more organic traffic for your brand, use the low search volume keywords that are most aligned with your sales funnel to entice them to become leads.

You can increase brand searches in many ways. For example, use competitor branded keywords where you do comparisons such as “your product vs company product: which is better?” You can also create reviews about your products so that buyers looking for alternatives can find your product when they use keywords such as “your product review”.

Then once you’ve built up traffic surrounding branded keywords, you can begin to stretch out a bit further for your particular industry/product/service. As your brand awareness grows, search volumes for those topics will increase, too.

This is how you increase the search volume for keywords surrounding your product/service.

Btw...the best SEOs don’t follow trends, they create them. And this is how it’s done.

Use content themes to align your product/services with high search volume keywords 

Once you’ve developed content for low search volume keywords, you can also consider how you might rank for higher search volume keywords using content themes. Basically what this means is how your product/service helps another industry/product/service/lifestyle element. 

For example, let’s say you want to do SEO for a complex parts manufacturing system for the B2B construction industry (here’s an industry that’s not fully online yet so it’s a good example). You could use a title like “Why xx product is one of the top construction tools,” where your focus keyword is “construction tools” (search volume 6.6k). 

For this technique, it will be harder to rank if you’re just starting out. But once you’re to the point where you’re ramping up content production, have a decent backlink strategy in place, and are looking to boost TOFU traffic, you can give this method a try.

So, still convinced that low search volume keywords mean that SEO isn’t worth it? It’s time to reconsider that. 

P.S. If you got this far in the article, you’re probably pretty interested in SEO, which is what I specialize in. Feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn if you need help or have any questions.