Can Zero Search Volume Keywords Get Traffic

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Updated on

April 26, 2023

The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be tricky to navigate when starting out your business. If you are wondering whether you should use zero search volume keywords in your text to increase website traffic, the short answer is yes. Want the long answer? We’ll get into that in this article.

But first, let’s take a bit of time to understand what zero search volume keywords are, and why they are important.

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Understanding Zero Search Volume Keywords

Zero search volume keywords are highly specific long-tail queries that have, well, zero search volume. That means hardly anyone is perusing the web for those, at least, according to the existing SEO tools.

Keep in mind that a keyword might show low search volume also because there is not enough data on it, which is especially true for a new keyword.

For instance, the keyword “SEO strategy” has thousands and thousands of searches. On the other hand, the keyword “SEO strategy for Italian restaurant” has almost zero search volume. So, the more specific you get with your query, the lower competition there is.

Seems like a lucrative concept to invest in, right?

Traditionally, SEO specialists focus on high search volume keywords with a low keyword difficulty score. And why shouldn’t they? Why invest time and resources on zero volume keywords? However, low volume keywords might just help you hit your traffic target.

Zero Search Volume Keywords And Long Tail Keywords: How Are They Different?

Zero search volume keywords and long tail keywords are essentially the same thing. A long tail keyword is a keyword that usually has a minimum of four words. Because of their lengthiness and complexity, long tail keywords hardly receive any searches, meaning they are zero search volume keywords.

However, as is the magic of language, you can phrase the same long tail query in various different ways. Let’s just take this article topic as an example. The different ways you could have searched for “zero search volume keywords” are:

Do zero search volume keywords get more traffic
Can I use zero search volume keywords for more traffic
Using zero search volume keywords to gain more traffic

As you can see, it’s essentially the exact same thing being asked in different ways. Google search counts these as ‘phrase matches,’ and it knows these all have the same intent with the primary keyword ‘zero search volume keywords.’

Well, how can you use it to your advantage?

While a single keyword might have a low search volume, the combined and related words together might have quite a lot of search volume. This is how you can use zero volume keywords for more organic traffic.

Basically, if your content is optimized for even just one of the phrases, your website is going to show up on the Search Engine Results Page, or SERPs, for all the related searches. What you need to do is keep the searcher’s intent in mind while optimizing your website.

Are Keyword Research Tools Reliable?

Yes, obviously, they are. But they’re not without their vices. Every SEO specialist will tell you to focus on high-volume search queries with low competition. And while that’s not a bad plan, it fails to take into account the entire picture.

Keyword research tools provide search volume data for all kinds of keywords. But this data is not always reliable. All you have to do to break that reliability is to search for the same keyword using two different keyword tools. One might say 1000, while the other might say 10,000. Which one should you trust? You don’t know, and neither do we.

Moreover, many keyword research tools don’t include low volume keywords in their database at all. This is because they require a certain number of searches before they can count it in their database.

Use these keyword research tools as guides rather than gospel truth. Use the keyword research tool to find new keywords. But also make sure to do your own research on what keywords would work the best for your commercial intent.

Benefits Of Targeting Zero Search Volume Keywords

1. Next To No Competition

Zero search volume keywords have exactly zero search volume. This means you are facing almost zero competition. Instead of targeting keywords with low competition, you are targeting low volume keywords with NO competition.

Big-name companies tend to focus on high-search volume keywords. So, zero search volume keywords are a lucrative option to invest in.

2. Targeting Specific Audiences

Since zero search keywords conceptually are highly specific and hyper-focused, you will attract the exact right audience to your website. While you may not get a huge number of new customers, the customers that do visit your website through these search queries will be easy to convert.

3. Generate organic traffic

About 16-20% of all searches on Google each day are brand new. If you are just focusing on the keywords blurted out by your keyword research tool, you are missing out on this potentially untapped pool of customers.

Hence, targeting low search volume keywords would help generate more organic traffic since the users who come to your page will likely be coming through long tail search queries, that other companies don’t focus on.

How To Discover The Perfect Zero Volume Keywords

Since you are going to spend precious time and effort on these keywords, it is only imperative that you discover the perfect zero volume keywords that will help drive traffic.

1. Do Your Own Keyword Research

You can do this by looking at the ‘people also ask’ section of the SERPs or using Google autocomplete.

2. Focus On Related Keywords

Using long tail related keywords will help drive hyper-focused customers to your website. Different variations of the same phrase are taken as a phrase match by Google. So, the more related keywords you cover, the more search traffic you will receive.

3. Relevance

You know your target audience better than anyone. So, you know which keywords may be relevant to your audience and which may not. Look for keywords in social media platforms where people are talking about your topic. This way, you will know which keyword phrase will attract the targeted traffic.

4. Using The Keyword Golden Ratio Method

The keyword golden ratio method will help greatly in increasing your chances of ranking. It is calculated by dividing the number of Google results that consist of a particular keyword by the search volume per month, with the search volume being below 250.

The Bottom Line

We don’t mean to say that you should only focus on using low search volume keywords everywhere. There is a reason why keywords having much search volume are profitable.

But you should try to include specific zero volume keywords, according to the relevance to your topic, to attract the traffic. With proper research and methods, zero volume keywords can greatly help improve your SEO efforts.

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