Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Keywords with no search volume
-
Hi there!
What are your thoughts on optimizing pages for keywords that have no search volume (using the Keyword Planner)? I'm not sure it should be done, since optimizing for keywords that no one searches for is kind of useless, right? Or should I do it hoping that sometime in the future the keyword will have a surge on searches?
Thanks!
-
Yes, you should/can, especially for longtail, which may have almost no volume in AdPlanner. I worked for an e-commerce site that had a few people hitting for a certain longtail term, but those customers knew what they wanted, converted at a higher rate, and spent the big bucks.
It's also worth noting that Google gets 3.5 billion searches per day (and trending up) and 16-20% of those searches are brand-new, never been searched for before.
-
Then you'll need to go off the data you have. The keyword planner is still a good tool to use, it just can't be 100% trusted. You can also play with the Google auto-suggest (waterfall) that pops up as you type things in. The suggestions are based on search volume.
There are also keyword research tools out there that can help. SEMRush, SpyFu, etc.
Also look at competitor sites that already sell the product. See what they are targeting in their title tags and H1s.
-
Hey there sararufo,
Instead of focusing on keyword search volume, I'd recommend thinking through the process a person might go through to research and purchase the product, then ensuring that you A) have the content they're likely to want to see in the research process and B) are using the language that they might use to conduct research--shifting the focus on the searcher's intent more than the keyword itself.
A good place to start your research would be to look at the brands/publishers ranking for the head terms in your space to get a sense of how they, and likely customers, are talking about a type of product. You can then put the ranking page into Keyword Planner in the 'Landing Page' field to see what keywords Google associates the page with.
You can also put your head terms into a tool like Ubersuggest or Keywordtool.io to find long tail queries related to your topic and use that data to make your page even better for users.
Hope that helps you get started!
-Trung
-
Thanks for your answer!
Let's say we're developing a new product that we've never sold before. We're setting up a new page for the product and doing some keyword research for the optimization. In this case, Analytics is not setup (an issue we can't currently solve), we only have Webmaster Tools. But since we've never sold the product we don't really have useful data that we can use...
-
It's important to look at webmaster and analytics data for this. The keyword planner isn't exactly accurate. I see traffic coming from keywords all the time that don't have a search volume in keyword planner, or have a vastly different number in keyword planner when compared to the data I get other places.
I think it takes a bit more digging than that, and you also need to consider the long-tail effect from the keywords you're optimizing for.
Asking some of the clients of the business how they search or look for your products can be very helpful.
With that being said, keywords with high volume in the keyword planner do usually offer much more traffic, but also much more competition.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I do keyword research when search volume is unknown
Hi Mozzers! I do a lot of work in niche areas, and one issue I often confront in keyword research is unknown search volume. That is, I'll be doing keyword research in Keyword Explorer or Gooogle Search Console, and for the most relevant keywords, I find either very low search volumes, null search volumes, or "Data not available." How do I make good keyword planning decisions when I can't find good data for search volume? Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Andy
Keyword Research | | AndyKubrin0 -
Multilingual keyword research
Does anyone have any experience in multilingual SEO? We are looking for software that conducts research for GEO Locations such as UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & India. Writing content for each of these countries is difficult unless we speak their language, we could look at outsourcing the translation but conducting keyword research for each location is almost impossible.
Keyword Research | | Jseddon920 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
Keyword Research | | Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
The same keyword on multiple pages, but not all (combined with other relevant keywords) for products.
Hi Guys, I want to get an opinion/advice on this. My client has a site that have all their products (I am working on expanding the product descriptions, benefits and how they differ from each other) listed and I just want to know if I can use the term 'gear oil' for example on multiple pages as one of the keywords. The product range (among others like transmission fluid and anti-freeze) is gear oil (with the different types of gear oils available described) and I can't really change what the product is. I do have different variations (such as gear lubricant, automotive gear lubricant, car gear oil etc.) but will it do damage if I use the same keyword (like gear oil) on multiple pages (along with another relevant keyword that does not involve the words gear oil)? Any help on this will be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | annabel.schoeman0 -
How to finalize the keywords for SEO?
Hi, I use the following method for keyword research: Create a long raw list of keywords. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches. Find raw competition. Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator) Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index) Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list? Thanks & Regards
Keyword Research | | IM_Learner0 -
Global Search Count
If I ranked top on google for a keyword for Exact Local Search Count say 2000.How much of the Exact Global Search Count of 4000 contribute to Exact Local Search Count
Keyword Research | | Frost0 -
Search Terms with Apostrophes
In doing keyword research I discovered that the Google Adwords Tools returns results with a space in search terms where an apostrophe should be. For example: Searching for 'mens fashion' or 'men's fashion' will return keyword ideas like 'men s fashion trends', 'men s fashion styles'. Same thing happens if yous search for '50s fashion' or 'mens suits'. Not only that but if you search for 'men s fashion' in the adwords tool you get 14,800 exact matches! Who would you use that term? And if you do search for it in Google, it will auto correct to 'men's fashion'. If you know the answer to what a term like 'men s fashion' signifies, you can skip the rest of this post and answer my question (thanks!). If not, here's what I did to try and figure it out - but I'm stuck and I need your help. First off, I did a search for all 3 terms: (mens fashion, men's fashion and men s fashion) in the adwords tool. The tool responded with different numbers for each, with 'men s fashion' far exceeding 'men's fashion'. See image 1 I did a search for each of the three terms in Google. The top 10 results for each were different. See image 2 Google reads 'men s fashion' as 'men's fashion'. I know that because: Google says 'showing result's for men's fashion' (obvious!) Google instant lists terms beginning with 'men's fashion...' See image 3 Related searches are identical for those two but not for 'mens fashion'. But it's not completely the same since as I mentioned you get different results, and the number of results found are different as well. So that brings me back to my question: When the tool says that 28 people search for [men's fashion] and 14,800 search for [men s fashion]. What on earth does it mean? bknQU tNKo7 C0P7S
Keyword Research | | 5225Marketing2 -
Keyword Difficulty Score Assesment
What is a good keyword difficulty score to pursue when deciding which keywords to try and rank on? I'm in a very competitive field and I am currently in the process of doing keyword research to look for the low hanging fruit.
Keyword Research | | 13375auc30