Content MarketingPaid and Organic Search Marketing

Should You Market to Keywords with No Search Volume?

Keywords are the common language between your prospect, your website and the search engine results you’re found in. They’re important because of their relevance and ability to convert. For a site like Martech, broad keywords may be important to drive visits. But that’s only because visits and overall popularity are the goal of this blog.

For your business, visits shouldn’t be the primary performance indicator of your site, it should be your conversions. Many times, the keywords that convert are different than those that drive traffic. Analysis by many optimization companies have found that, while a great ranking on a high search volume, single keyword can drive thousands of visits… a long-tail phrase of 3 to 4 words can drive many more conversions.

What about keywords with no search volume? Before we answer that, we should state that no search volume as reported by Google. Virtually every relevant keyword or phrase has some kind of volume… even if it’s only a handful of searches each month.

One of our clients is Right On Interactive – a marketing automation company that works with companies to not just capture leads but to drive up the value of each customer. When they were explaining their business to prospects, the phrase customer lifecycle marketing explained it easier than any other in the industry. While it was a perfect phrase for their business, customer lifecycle marketing had no search volume when we began working with them a year ago.

roiWe didn’t advise Right On to stop marketing to that keyword, though. It was a compelling enough phrase that it was relevant to their brand and could be a term that was more widely adopted in the future. That’s exactly what has happened. Customer lifecycle marketing is a term that’s growing in both popularity and in search volume. There are now over 30 searches a month for that term. And guess who ranks for it?

Don’t limit the conversation on your site to just the popular keywords and phrases that have the most search volume! Use any phrase that is relevant to your business, even if it drives a single visit! The likelihood that a keyword or phrase will drive a conversion increases with its relevance… not it’s volume. Best of all, if search volumes are low… you’re probably not going to compete as much for that traffic!

Appreciate this content?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter, which delivers our latest posts every Monday morning.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer specializing in SaaS and AI companies, where he helps scale marketing operations, drive demand generation, and implement AI-powered strategies. He is the founder and publisher of Martech Zone, a leading publication in marketing technology, and a trusted advisor to startups and enterprises alike. With a track record spanning more than $5 billion in MarTech acquisitions and investments, Douglas has led go-to-market strategy, brand positioning, and digital transformation initiatives for companies ranging from early-stage startups to global tech leaders like Dell, GoDaddy, Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe. A published author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies and contributor to The Better Business Book, Douglas is also a recognized speaker, curriculum developer, and Forbes contributor. A U.S. Navy veteran, he combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution to help organizations achieve measurable growth.

Related Articles

Back to top button
Close

Adblock Detected

We rely on ads and sponsorships to keep Martech Zone free. Please consider disabling your ad blocker—or support us with an affordable, ad-free annual membership ($10 US):

Sign Up For An Annual Membership