Imagine you’re doing keyword research. You’re analysing a list of keywords with their volume and SEO difficulty. Suddenly, you come across a batch of 0-volume keywords.
What will you do: Skip them or consider them?
Most people choose the first option. And if you do the same, you’re missing out on a gold mine of traffic, leads, customers, and money.
Why write on 0-volume keywords when they lack demand?
It’s true that in SEO, we have to work on keywords that have demand. And how do we check the demand? Through keyword research tools. But how sure are you these tools show you the right data?
Keyword research tools don’t have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information. They’re a third-party tool that uses their own algorithms to fetch data. They’re not getting it from Google.
For example, when ChatGPT was just released, I knew AI writing would become a thing. I searched for it, and the tool showed 0-10 volume. Because the trend hadn’t happened yet. The demand wasn’t there at the time. And even when it blew up, these keyword tools took weeks and months to show the data.
Now, if I had waited for the tools to show some volume, I would be too late to write about AI. I would have lost the first-mover advantage.
So one thing is clear: Keyword research tools don’t show accurate data. Little to 0-volume keywords might have a decent amount of searches.
Analyze 0-volume keywords
The above doesn’t mean we should start offering writing packages on all 0-volume keywords. We’ll need to analyze them. How? With the help of our mighty brain.
Ask yourself if that keyword is something your audience would be asking. If it is, then go for it.
Here are 2 examples of 0-volume keywords from the baking niche that would make good articles:
Traffic, genuine customers, and sales
The potential these low search volume keywords hold is vast. This is what they offer besides traffic
Low competition: Everyone ignores them. So they’re an easy win.
Customer relations: Often, the genuine questions people ask are 0-volume. But hey, that’s what people are asking, and your competitors aren’t answering them. So who do you think your readers will trust more? You, who answer their genuine questions and solve their actual problems, or your competitors who are writing on general how-tos?
Sales and money: We all know that trust leads to sales. And when your audience trusts you, they won’t even think about your competitors.
SEO: 0-volume keywords help you build topical authority. And they can even serve as supporting articles for your pillar topics: link-building opportunity here!
What industry experts say about 0-volume keywords
Usman Akram is the head of SEO growth strategy at Flying Cat Marketing. He shared an interesting analysis on his LinkedIn, which shows the actual traffic a site was getting was 6 times what the SEO tool was showing for the targeted keyword.
In another post, Akram mentioned that we get more traffic not just for low but for any other keyword than search volume suggests, because of topical relevancy.
You might target 1 keyword, but you don’t rank for that 1 keyword only. Google ranks you for relevant keywords as well, which increases your traffic.
Benjamin Pages, former marketing manager at Feature Upvote, also talked about the same phenomenon in The SEO Growth Podcast:
“One post never ranks for one keyword. So even though the search volume is 500 and you’re like, ‘Ah, that’s a very sad keyword for me’. You might rank for another 30 keywords that you didn’t anticipate. And that’s gonna make the traffic you’re gonna get a lot different.”
While talking about keyword research tools, he said:
“They’re not pulling data directly from Google. Those are estimates. Especially with low-volume keywords. They’re just not gonna have the data. So they’re just gonna tell you, ‘Oh, this [keyword]is 0-10 searches a month’, and that may be completely inaccurate. It’s just that this keyword isn’t on their radar yet. And so they haven’t really aggregated the data.”
So don’t underestimate 0 or low-volume keywords. Most are usually audience-centric, like questions and problems your audience is facing and SEO, in this day and age, is more user-focused than ever.
It’s an open ground to make Google happy while acquiring an audience and customers.
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