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Search Volume

Search volume indicates how often a term is searched for on Google.

What does search volume mean?

Search volume indicates how often a specific term is searched for in a search engine over a specified period of time.

Search volume is usually expressed as the average number of searches per month, based on a specific country or region. A term with a search volume of 20,000 is therefore entered into the search bar significantly more often than a term with a search volume of 90. These figures are relevant in tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner or other specialized SEO tools. They are approximate or estimated values and not exact measurements. Many search terms also fluctuate, for example, seasonally. For instance, “heating maintenance” is searched for more often in the fall than in the summer.

Search volume therefore provides insight into demand, but it says nothing about how willing a searcher is to make a purchase.

Where does search volume come from?

Search volume became a useful metric with keyword tools that became available to advertisers in the 2000s. It quickly became clear that search volume was also of great value for SEO efforts, particularly for planning a website’s content. Since then, search volume has been one of the most fundamental metrics in any keyword research.

Why is search volume important?

Resources such as time and money are limited, and not every topic is worth the effort. Search volume provides an indication of which topics or terms have potential. It makes demand visible and comparable, allowing you to focus your efforts on terms that people are actually searching for.

It helps ensure you don’t waste effort on terms that no one is searching for. At the same time, it prevents the opposite mistake: focusing solely on a few highly competitive terms and overlooking the many more specific, easier-to-target search queries.

Advantages

  • Search volume makes demand measurable and comparable.
  • It helps direct limited resources toward worthwhile topics.
  • It supports a realistic assessment of a page’s potential.
  • Combined with keyword research, it helps uncover overlooked and specific search terms with interesting potential.

Challenges

The figures are estimates and may vary depending on the keyword tool used. A high search volume does not necessarily mean the keyword is easy to rank for or that searchers are ready to buy. Search volume should therefore never be evaluated in isolation but always in the context of relevance, search intent, and competition.

Example

A manufacturer of packaging machines wants to write a guide and is torn between two titles.

Keyword research provides clarity: One term has about 40 searches per month, while the other has a search volume of 900. Since both terms are similarly well-suited in terms of topic and search intent, the company chooses the term with the higher search volume as its main focus and covers the other one within the guide.

Without considering search volume, the manufacturer might have put a lot of work into a text that hardly anyone would have searched for.

Related terms

Keyword A keyword is a search term that users enter into a search engine to find something. Keyword Research Keyword research identifies which terms the target audience actually uses when searching. Long-tail keyword A long-tail keyword is a search query that is searched for relatively rarely and is often very specific. Visibility Index The visibility index measures the presence of an entire website in search results, summarized in a single metric.