It's 2025 and you shouldn't be worrying about search volume

simon • 29 April 2025

High-volume keywords don't necessarily help increase your online visibility. Find out why in our guide.



Person holding red flowers beneath a glowing magnifying glass in a dark store aisle

It's 2025. Every small business knows the importance of a strong digital presence. A smaller number know that SEO is essential to achieve this. And an even smaller number know how to do it well.
The basic concept of on-site SEO is simple to understand. You want your website to be scattered with relevant keywords. These are words or phrases that people search for online. When someone searches for "flowers in manchester", your flower shop in Manchester turns up near the top of the search result.
But does it? The thing is that there's a popular misconception going around – one that could make your keyword strategy more shot in the dark than shot in the arm. It's the belief that your key aim with keywords is to use words and phrases with a high search volume.
Well, we're here to tell you that, in the words of the song, it ain't necessarily so. Sometimes, opting for high-volume keywords means you're in direct competition with big players. This dramatically weakens the positive effect they can have on your site traffic.
So, how do you do it? At My Digital Hero, we provide fine-tuned keyword research and SEO for a wide range of small businesses. But we're not interested in keeping our secrets to ourselves.
Sure, we believe we can do a better job than most. But we'd rather you understand the issues at hand and make up your own minds. That way, you're not handing the reins over blindly. Instead, you're coming to us with concrete goals and expectations.
In this article, we break down six ways to ensure your keywords are working for you – six ways that don't see search volume as the be-all and end-all. We hope it helps you build your brand.
1. Achievability
The fundamental difficulty faced by small businesses online is that they're in direct competition with the big hitters. You haven't set your stall up in a local market. Instead, you've set up your premises next door to every household name in the book.

Freshway Market and Urban Basket storefronts with a striped awning and a person standing outside

This means high-ranking keywords are in high demand. If you're selling bikes in Burnley and go for a high-ranking keyword, you're going toe to toe with Amazon, eBay and other eCommerce giants.
Much better, we think, to go for a low-volume keyword with achievability on its side. Go for an 8,000-volume keyword and you'll probably find yourself in the back pages of Google's search results. But choose a 150-volume keyword with care and you stand a chance of standing out.
Those choice low-volume keywords aren't always easy to find, however. SEO tools can help. But nine times out of 10, a digital marketing agency can help you find them in half the time – and when time is money, that means half the price.
2. Relevance
High-volume keywords aren't just in high demand. They're also low on specifics.
Search for "hot chocolate" and you could be searching for a product, a picture or a 1970s soul band. Search for "organic hot chocolate recipe", however, and you're narrowing down the search results.
Going for narrower parameters may seem like self-sabotage. But done well, it can bring in traffic that's relevant – and in the context of eCommerce, relevance means you're giving people what they want.
3. Search intent
People use search engines for many things. They turn to Google for pictures, recipes and guides, information, even emotional advice. You need to keep this in mind when choosing your keywords.
Google serves up sites according to search intent. If you search for "where to buy hot chocolate", you'll be given a list of stores. But search for "how to make hot chocolate" and it's recipe city.
In other words, you should always tailor your keywords to the specific service you're providing – not just the top-line keywords that pit you against the world's biggest chocolatiers and online retailers.
4. Traffic quality
"How to make hot chocolate" is a high-volume keyword phrase. But you're a grocery store – not a recipe blog. Targeting this keyword means that even if it does drive traffic to your site, it's likely to be from people who are looking for something else.

Man in red sweater holding a folded map and looking thoughtfully at it

Everyone has had the experience of struggling to find what they're looking for on Google and ending up on an irrelevant site. This is because people use broad-brush keywords for the single purpose of increasing web traffic.
There's no point in doing that unless it leads to conversions. And the best way to do that is to choose relevant low-volume keywords that put you in touch with potential customers.
Otherwise, you're promising a good or service that you can't provide – and it's highly unlikely the search engine user is going to stick around to check out what you do provide.
It all relates to what's known in the world of eCommerce as a "buyer journey". These journeys, like all good journeys, have a beginning, middle and end. If you search for "trainers", you probably don't know what kind of trainers you want to buy. But if you search for "air zoom albis 16 bamboo", you're probably ready to buy.
Choosing "trainers" as a keyword could – if you get lucky – increase your traffic. But it's likely to bring in people at the beginning of their buyer journey. Going for the more niche option means you can give people what they're looking for straight away.
5. Contextual SEO
By this point, you might wonder if we're rejecting the idea of high-volume keywords altogether. The answer is a resounding no.
High-volume keywords can help give your visibility a boost – but only if they're mixed in with synonyms and what are known as "long-tail keywords". These are longer, more specific keywords used by people who are ready to buy. 
At the end of the day, you want Google to understand your page and show it to the right people. By far the best way to do this is through the use of judicious low-volume keywords mixed in with the more generic.
Looking for bespoke, affordable search engine optimisation services ? Let our heroes swoop in and save the day. Get in touch with My Digital Hero to book a free SEO health audit.

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