Why You’ll Want to Look At Search Volume When Marketing Your Business

Google receives 63,000 searches per second. That’s a lot of searches!

With all that searching how can you make your property management business stand out? This helpful article will show you how taking a look at search volume and using it in your marketing campaign can boost your business. 

What is Search Volume? 

Keyword search volume is the total number of searches that are conducted for organic keywords during a time frame. This number will tell you the total amount of traffic that the search term has seen. 

The number is usually averaged over a time frame to provide marketers with an idea of how competitive the term is and how many people search using that term. This allows marketers to use SEO and PPC to drive traffic to their websites. 

The more people that are searching for your keywords the higher the chances your PPC ad will be shown to lots of people. Other metrics like click-through-rate and cost-per-click are also important factors in your campaign that word hand in hand with search volume. 

SEO can bring organic traffic to your site by using keywords that people frequently search for. 

Why Search Volume Matters

Search volume matters because search engines are one of the key ways that website visitors will learn about your site. Search engines bring your website organic traffic. 

A property manager who markets rentals online can benefit from knowing search keyword volume and optimizing their website or advertising strategies for particular keywords. 

Take a look at the number of visitors your website receives each day because of organic search. It is crucial to have target keywords in your content that have a high search volume.

If no one is searching for the keywords that you are using it can be difficult to get your content to rank high in search engines and compete with other property management companies. 

Keywords that have a higher search volume tend to be more expensive and competitive to use in a PPC campaign. Knowing the search volume of your keywords can help your PPC bidding strategy. 

How to Find Search Volume

To find search volume data you need to use a research tool. There are numerous free and paid tools available. Here is a breakdown of some of the popular tools. 

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a popular free tool used by many in marketing to optimize their SEO and PPC campaigns. This tool will give you an average search volume for your keyword or phrase. If you spend money on their PPC campaigns it will show you the exact numbers. 

Google keyword planner allows you to search for words or phrases that are related to your business. It will suggest other keywords that you haven’t considered before. 

It will give you insight into how often those words are used and how their volume has changed over time. 

KWFinder

KWFinder is a popular tool for property managers who are serious about keyword search and optimization. It displays the search volume as well as other important metrics such as keyword difficulty and CPC and PPC values. 

You can upload a list of your keywords or manually enter them and the tool will tell you metrics for each of your terms side by side. This can be helpful when deciding which search terms you want to use in your campaign. 

Where Does the Data Come From?

There are two sources for search volume data that are used in the tools above. 

• Google – Google’s database of search volume data is one of the most reliable sources available to marketers. Google tends to cluster similar search terms and show metrics for the group as a whole instead of focusing on single terms. 
• Clickstream – Clickstream data is collected via browser extensions, apps, and other plugins that are installed on computers. This data is collected and sold to tools such as Ahrefd and Moz. 

Both sources of data have their pros and cons. One of the cons of Google data is no one knows how it is collected. By far Google has the largest database of search volume data available. 

Clickstream data may only offer a small fragment of data when compared to Google. Search volume is estimated from a smaller sample size and it could be prone to errors. 

What Search Volume Should I Target? 

The easy answer to this question is keywords with higher search volumes are usually better. A keyword or phrase with a high number of searches means more people are searching for it and you are likely to receive more traffic to your website. 

But there are a few other things you should consider. Take a look at the relevancy of the keyword to your business and how difficult it can be to play in that space before you decide to use the keyword in your campaign. 

Broader keyword terms will always have a higher search volume than more specific phrases. Sometimes it is helpful to use keywords with more specific phrases and a lower overall search volume because you know people who are searching more specifically are looking for your exact business. 

Seasonality and Trends

Seasonality and trends play a role in keyword search volume too. For example, bargain shoppers may search for “Christmas gift ideas” in July. Other shoppers will wait until the fall to begin searching for gifts. 

Knowing what time your target customer is searching for your business or product is important information for your marketing strategy. It can also tell you when is the best time to run a PPC campaign or put up new SEO content. 

Some search terms are considered to be “evergreen” meaning people will search for them all the time. These terms have a steady volume of searches throughout the year. Using evergreen terms along with seasonal search keywords can give your site a boost in traffic year-round. 

Give Your Marketing a Boost

Looking at search volume can help when you are marketing your business. Check out some of the tools we listed above and explore the data for yourself. Be careful, it can get addictive!

Surf Results Marketing is an SEO team specifically for Property Managers. We can help take your organic SEO to the next level. 

You’ll be surprised by the big results our small team can achieve for your property management business. Contact us today for a free ranking analysis.