What if a keyword research tool says there is no search volume for a keyword, should you target it anyway? Ebere Jonathan joins the SEO Rant Podcast to talk about zero search volume keywords:
When you should or should not target zero search volume keywords
Why zero search volume keywords should be part of your larger content strategy
Why zero search volume keywords can be important for newer sites
Search Volume and Your Content and SEO Strategy: Episode Synopsis
Should your SEO strategy include zero search volume keywords?
To answer this clearly. Very often, yes your SEO strategy should include a focus on zero search volume keywords. Zero search volume keywords are a great way for a newer site to start creating site identity, topical relevance, and authority so that you can eventually rank for more competitive keywords. Even for sites that are well-established zero search volume keywords often represent highly targeted pain points that reflect the needs of your users. As such, even if this content doesn't bring in search traffic it does meet the needs of your users and improve the overall quality of your site (with the overarching quality of your site being a part of Google's analysis when looking to rank pages from your site).
To elaborate, you can't expect Google to think you're a highly relevant quality authority on a topic in one day. Meaning, you should not expect to rank for short-tail highly competitive keywords in a short period of time. Think of it like a career. You're not getting a job as a CEO out of college. First, you intern somewhere, then you spend a few years as a junior, then you maybe take a managerial role, and eventually, after years of experience, you become the CEO. It's the same with Google. First, you write about some niche topics to highlight your expertise, then you go after slightly broader more competitive topics, then finally you go after that money keyword that the big sites have been dominating for years.
Your site is a corpus of content. Content that doesn't get clicks from search is a part of that. It's all one song. So the idea that content that doesn't rank on the SERP as not having an impact on your site overall, especially because quality is a domain-level analysis, is nonsensical to me.
Lastly, the tools are not 100% accurate. When SEO tools say a keyword has no search volume, that's very often not true. It might mean the keyword has MINIMAL search volume. Minimal is fine. Minimal might be what you want. Minimal search volume might be the very target audience for the very keyword that will bring conversions. Minimal is not zero and the data from the tool providers needs to be taken with a grain of salt. (For the record, that's on SEOs, not on tool providers. The expectation that a tool can scrape the entire web and understand the full scope of user behavior is.... unreasonable).
Resources:
For more of the SEO Rant Podcast check out our previous episode on why every digital marketer should create their own personal website.