Learn more about whether you should target keywords with no search volume if you want to boost traffic and conversions.
In Mouna’s Ask an SEO, she queries:
In the absence of keyword difficulty or volume data, should we still use the keyword? At times, specific keywords on [tool name redacted] lack information.
Excellent query, Mouna!
It would help to concentrate on keywords with no search volume when it makes sense for your business.
If asked, “Why would we focus on questions nobody is searching for?” here are four examples to help you make the business case.
- You create the site’s framework.
- Potential clients may have questions, and this answers those questions for current and potential clients.
- Remarketing to an existing customer is less expensive than covering all acquisition touchpoints.
- Although there may be little search volume for the question, results are found for the primary phrase, which has a lot of searches.
Let’s examine each of these instances in more detail.
1. Creating Your Website Structure
For e-commerce and branding-oriented websites, the number of core pages and content is usually limited.
By incorporating topics relevant to your company or organization, you can leverage zero-search volume keywords and entities to develop content that aligns with those themes.
This content serves dual purposes: educating search engines and potential customers about your offerings and guiding them to the pages that address their needs. As you discuss or showcase products/services, linking them to conversion pages internally naturally shapes your site’s SEO-friendly structure, benefiting visitors in the process.
Moreover, if the page earns quality backlinks, it has the potential to amplify the SEO performance of your other pages.
Pro Tip: Zero search volume doesn’t equate to zero searches. A well-crafted experience could position your site as a go-to resource, garnering mentions from journalists and bloggers seeking valuable references.
2. Responding to Customer Queries
SEO tools may not grasp your customers’ specific inquiries; they generate assumptions based on question variations and search volume estimates. To bridge this gap, tap into your customer support team’s knowledge by accessing live chat databases.
When these queries align with what appears in SEO tools, they signify actual search volume, often indicating high-intent searches. A high-intent keyword with minimal monthly searches might outperform a low-intent phrase with higher search numbers due to its conversion-focused nature.
Pro Tip: Leveraging your support team’s insights grants a data-driven edge over those reliant solely on online research, enabling targeted responses aligned with customer needs.
Consider crafting dedicated blog posts or integrating how-to elements, such as video demonstrations for platforms like YouTube and Google Videos. Incorporating customer queries into product/service page content or FAQs could also boost conversion rates by addressing the concerns of potential customers, affirming their decision to engage with your brand.
This approach reduces the workload on customer support and arms social media and PPC teams with valuable assets to engage potential customers effectively.
3. Remarketing Costs Vs. Acquisition Expenses
Utilizing SEO to attract visitors allows for the implementation of remarketing pixels, enabling the tagging of these individuals for future engagement.
Rather than investing heavily in competitive keywords, tagging visitors earlier in the buying process enables cost-effective re-engagement. Trust and credibility can be established by providing informative content instead of a hard sales pitch, leading to a positive perception.
As remarketing ads display to these tagged visitors, the groundwork of trust facilitates their return for more relevant content or potential conversions. However, the effectiveness of this strategy depends on the topic and the individual’s position within your sales funnel.
4. Your Content’s Visibility Beyond Specific Phrases
Even when a long-tail phrase lacks search volume, input the shorter variant into an incognito search. You might discover your content appears in various sections like “People Also Ask,” related searches, videos, knowledge panels, or other areas offering potential traffic sources.
Enhancing your content to provide a more pertinent and improved user experience becomes advantageous if these titles or responses align with your topic. Despite your phrase having zero search volume, its appearance under a term with 20,000 monthly searches is feasible—a strategy particularly useful for newer sites not yet focusing on link building.
Identify what’s missing but essential for addressing the topic and create content that fills that gap. For instance, if top-ranking sites offer buried solutions, prioritize content that promptly delivers the answer first, followed by additional insights.
Pro Tip: This strategy extends to YouTube, where analyzing top-ranked videos and their succeeding content reveals missing elements and commonalities. Crafting superior content focusing on viewers without targeting the primary phrase becomes successful.
In summary
Pursuing keywords with no search volume is worthwhile, but only if they are pertinent to your line of work.
Various channels can use them, boost user conversions in your funnel, and drive traffic that SEO tools miss.
If you still need help understanding everything, look at our monthly SEO packages and let the professionals assist you.
