Rankfill

Check Keyword Volume Before Deciding What Content to Build

You spend two weeks writing a guide. You publish it, wait three months, and it gets four clicks. You go back and check the keyword you targeted — and the search volume is 10 per month. You built something nobody was searching for.

That mistake is common enough that it has a name in SEO circles: writing for yourself instead of for demand. Volume data doesn't guarantee traffic, but skipping it almost guarantees you'll waste effort on content that can never pay back the time you put in.

Here's how to check keyword volume properly, what the numbers actually mean, and how to use them to make better decisions before you commit to building anything.

What Keyword Volume Actually Tells You

Monthly search volume is an estimate of how many times a keyword is searched in a given month, averaged over the past 12 months. It is not a real-time count. It's a smoothed approximation based on clickstream data and search engine APIs.

That matters for two reasons:

  1. Seasonal spikes get flattened. A keyword that gets 2,000 searches in December and 200 in February will show roughly 350/month in most tools. If you're building seasonal content, you need to look at the month-by-month trend, not just the average.

  2. Low-volume keywords are often imprecise. When a tool shows 10–30 monthly searches, the true range could be anywhere from 0 to 100. The confidence interval widens at low volumes. Don't over-optimise for a number that's essentially a guess.

For a deeper explanation of what the metric covers, Keyword Search Volume: What It Means and How to Use It breaks down how it's calculated and where the estimates come from.

Where to Check Keyword Volume

Google Keyword Planner

Free, and the data comes directly from Google. The catch: it's designed for advertisers, not SEOs. It groups keywords into volume brackets (100–1K, 1K–10K) rather than giving you a specific number — unless you're running an active paid campaign, in which case exact numbers unlock.

Good for: confirming a keyword has real volume, checking broad ranges.
Not good for: precision, competitive research, long-tail discovery.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Shows monthly volume, keyword difficulty, clicks-per-search (how many searches result in a click vs. a featured snippet answer), and a SERP overview. The SERP overview is the part most people skip — it tells you what's already ranking, which is as important as the volume number itself.

Cost: starts around $99/month. Worth it if you're doing this regularly.

Semrush

Similar to Ahrefs in data depth. Volume numbers sometimes differ between the two tools because they use different clickstream data providers. Neither is definitively right — they're both estimates. If a keyword shows 500/month in one and 800 in the other, the truth is probably somewhere in that range.

Keywords Everywhere

A browser extension that shows volume inline as you search Google, YouTube, Amazon, and other platforms. Useful for quick lookups without switching tools. If you're evaluating whether it's sufficient for gap analysis work, the Keywords Everywhere Review: Is It Enough for Gap Analysis? covers where it helps and where it falls short.

Google Search Console

This one only shows data for keywords your site already ranks for. It's not useful for finding new opportunities, but it's the most accurate source you have for actual impressions and clicks on existing content. Use it to audit what you've already built, not to plan new content.

How to Interpret the Number You Find

Raw volume is one input. Here's what to do with it.

Check Difficulty at the Same Time

A keyword with 5,000 monthly searches and a difficulty score of 85 is not the same opportunity as a keyword with 800 searches and a difficulty of 28. The second one is more likely to produce actual traffic, especially for a site that doesn't have dominant authority.

Difficulty scores measure how hard it is to rank in the top 10. They're calculated differently across tools (Ahrefs uses referring domains to ranking pages; Semrush uses a combination of factors), but directionally they're useful. Treat anything above 70 as a long fight — and only start that fight if the keyword is central to your business, not peripheral.

Look at What's Ranking

Before you commit to a keyword, open the SERP and look at the first three results. Ask:

If the top three results are all from domain-authority-90+ publications and the content is recent, your chances of cracking page one in the next six months are close to zero regardless of how good your article is. That's not defeatism — it's resource management.

Check Click-Through Rate

Some keywords have high volume but low clicks because Google answers them in the search results directly. "What year was the Eiffel Tower built" gets millions of searches; almost none of those result in a website visit. In Ahrefs, the "clicks" metric shows you how many searches actually result in someone clicking through to a website. A keyword with 2,000 searches and 400 clicks is less valuable than it looks.

A Practical Workflow Before You Build Content

  1. Start with a list of topics, not keywords. What problems does your product or service solve? What questions do your customers ask before they find you? Write down 10–20 topics in plain language.

  2. Expand each topic into keyword variations. Use a tool to find related queries, questions, and modifiers. Look for the long-tail variations — they're often lower difficulty and still accumulate meaningful traffic.

  3. Record volume and difficulty side by side. A simple spreadsheet works. Volume in one column, difficulty in another. Sort by the ratio.

  4. Filter for realistic ranking potential. If your site is relatively new or has limited backlinks, focus on keywords under difficulty 40. If you have established authority, you can compete higher.

  5. Check the SERP for each shortlisted keyword. This is the step most people skip because it's slow. Don't skip it. Ten minutes per keyword at this stage saves months of wasted effort.

  6. Track what you publish. Volume and difficulty are planning metrics. After you publish, keyword reporting shows you whether the content is actually gaining traction — and when to update it if it isn't.

If you're finding this process slow when done keyword by keyword, services like alternatives to Keywords Everywhere can speed up the research phase significantly.

One Mistake Worth Calling Out

Chasing high-volume keywords when your site is new is the most common volume-related mistake. A site with 20 indexed pages and modest authority competing for a keyword with 50,000 monthly searches will sit on page 8 indefinitely. The math doesn't work.

Better: build a cluster of lower-volume, lower-competition content that collectively accumulates traffic and builds topical authority. Then, once you've established relevance in a space, you can challenge harder keywords. This is why organic keywords sometimes take months to rank even when the content is good — the domain hasn't earned the authority yet.

Pulling It All Together

If you want a more systematic view of which keywords you're missing relative to competitors — not just individual lookups but a mapped picture of the whole gap — Rankfill does exactly that: it identifies every keyword opportunity your competitors are capturing that your site isn't, and pairs that with a content plan to close the gap.

But for most people starting out, the tools above and the workflow in this article are enough to make smarter decisions than most content creators are making. Check the volume. Check the difficulty. Look at the SERP. Then build.

FAQ

What's a good monthly search volume to target?
There's no universal number. For a new site, 100–500/month at low difficulty is more valuable than 5,000/month at high difficulty. Focus on volume relative to competition, not volume in isolation.

Why do different tools show different volume numbers?
They use different data sources — primarily different clickstream panel providers and different sampling methodologies. Neither Ahrefs nor Semrush has access to Google's exact data. Treat both as approximations and look for directional agreement rather than exact match.

Can I rely on Google Keyword Planner alone?
For rough validation, yes. For precise planning or gap analysis, no. The bracket groupings (100–1K) aren't granular enough to prioritise one keyword over another within the same range.

How often does keyword volume change?
Most tools update monthly. Seasonal trends are real — a keyword might spike 4x in its peak month. Always look at trend graphs for any keyword you're planning major content around.

Is zero volume always a reason to skip a keyword?
Not necessarily. Some very specific long-tail queries show 0 in tools but get searched consistently. If a query perfectly matches a real customer question and the intent is high-value, a short page targeting it can still produce leads. Use judgment alongside the data.

What if I rank but get no traffic?
Check Search Console for impressions vs. clicks. Low click-through rate usually means the title or meta description isn't compelling, or a featured snippet is capturing the clicks before users reach your listing. That's a different problem than volume — and a solvable one.