Content is to marketing as what fuel is to fire.

Content helps educate audiences and builds loyalty with existing customers. And as 67 percent of marketers report, using content in your marketing helps generate business leads.

To drive relevant traffic to your website, it’s essential to target topics that your target customers are searching for in Google. You have to optimize your content around keywords with verifiable search volume.

And for that, you need a keyword research tool that provides accurate keyword search volume data.

This post is a deep dive into the mechanics of keyword search volume. Particularly, we’ll discuss why it’s important to be certain of the accuracy of the search volume of keywords you target in your content.

With that, we’ll answer the question of which keyword research tool provides the most accurate keyword search volume data.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

Looking for Content?

Creating lots of great content — and scaling your content marketing — has never been easier.

With Content at Scale, you can add 1, 20, 50, or even 100 keywords that you want to rank for. Then, within minutes, CAS will write high-quality long-form blog posts for each keyword — from start to finish!

That means everything: title, meta description, introduction, all the way to the conclusion, with minor human intervention. Just like THIS post! That means you can get content published daily to your blog for as low as $0.01/word.

Ready to try it out? Check out how simple it is to scale your content marketing.

What is Keyword Search Volume?

Keyword search volume is the average number of times a keyword is searched per month. It is an important metric that SEO professionals track to measure the success of their SEO and content marketing campaigns. 

The most frequently used metric in SEO, keyword volume is a reliable indicator of consumer interest in a topic. It’s especially useful for creating marketing plans and identifying target audiences. 

When it’s accurate, keyword search volume data helps marketers make better decisions about where to invest their resources for maximum ROI. And that’s the challenge SEO professionals face – determining the accuracy of keyword search volume data. We will get to that in a moment, but first:

How is Keyword Search Volume Calculated?

Keyword search volume is calculated by dividing the number of times a keyword was searched in search engines over the preceding 12 months by 12. This means keyword search volume is usually expressed as a monthly average, though this can change depending on the tool you’re using.

The data that SEO tools use to calculate search volume is provided by third parties and sorted using machine learning algorithms. Many SEO tools also pull their search volume data from Google Search Console and Google Keyword Planner.

To ensure accuracy and account for changing search trends, SEO tools update their search volume data monthly. However, that still may not adequately address the accuracy question, especially for seasonal queries and trending topics.

Which SEO Tool Has the Most Accurate Keyword Search Volume? 

Google Keyword Planner has the most accurate keyword search volume data. Since it is a Google property, GKP pulls search volume data directly from the Google search engine. This is real-time data that tells you what your target audience is searching Google for right now.

While keyword data from Google Keyword Planner is primarily intended to help advertisers on Google Search plan their campaigns, you can use the same data for standard website SEO and content strategy. 

The biggest advantage of using Google Keyword Planner for finding search volume data, especially if you’re just starting out and have a limited budget, is that it’s a free tool. No other free tool offers you the same level of access to keyword search volume data.

The one downside to Google Keyword Planner is its limited functionality. So if you are looking for more advanced features and filtering capabilities, you’ll have to look into the premium tools on the market.

If you have the budget for a premium keyword research tool, Semrush has the most recommendations for accurate keyword search volume data. Ahrefs and KWFinder are other tools that have received good reviews for accurate data.

Why is Keyword Search Volume Important?

Accurate keyword search volume is powerful for understanding the potential of your content and optimizing it to reach its full potential. By relying on precise volume data, you can create successful SEO plans likely to result in more website visits and exposure for your business.

Accurate Prediction of Traffic Potential

Accurate keyword search volume data helps to identify the keywords that are most likely to bring in organic traffic from searches. This allows you to optimize your content accordingly, ensuring that it ranks for keywords with business value. 

When you rank in Google for high-volume keywords you also increase your visibility online, which leads to greater exposure for your products and brand. That has the bigger benefit of driving more qualified leads to your business. 

Access to accurate keyword search volume also saves you from wasting time optimizing for keywords with low traffic potential.

Pro tip: Use keyword data from the Content At Scale app’s optimization tab to identify topically related keywords you can use to further optimize your article and widen its traffic sources. The AI pulls these keywords from articles ranking high in Google for your target keyword. Essentially, this is done-for-you secondary keyword research.

How to Select the Right Keyword Research Tool for Your Needs

When deciding on an SEO tool, there’s a lot to consider. As you are rightly researching right now, you want to make sure the tool has accurate keyword search volume data. 

Many tools offer estimates of search volume based on past trends or similar keywords, but these tools can be inaccurate and therefore unreliable. A dependable SEO tool should give you up-to-date data so you can accurately predict how much traffic you are likely to get.

Look for Advanced Filtering Capabilities

It’s important that the tool you choose allows you to filter keyword data according to factors most relevant to your business and audience. For example, you may want the ability to narrow down your results by region or language.

Generally, you want a tool that allows you to gain as many insights as possible into the keywords you are considering targeting. For example, it’s helpful for your keyword analysis if a keyword research tool provides data on keyword difficulty and related searches.

Check for More Helpful Features

In an attempt to sell their software as feature-rich, SEO tools often fall into the trap of stuffing them with nonessential features. Thus, to ensure you’re not wasting money, analyze a keyword research tool by the usefulness of its features. 

Compare a tool’s features against your needs to decide whether it offers enough value. A feature that tells you how a keyword has trended over time, for example, may be invaluable for planning your content. 

Bottom line:: Accurate keyword search volume data is a must-have for any SEO strategy. It helps to maximize organic rankings, drive more qualified leads and visibility, and give brands the edge in user experience. Leveraging this information correctly will ensure that businesses don’t miss out on golden opportunities due to inaccurate targeting decisions – it’s time to hit the ground running.

FAQs: Accurate Keyword Search Volume

What is a good search volume for keywords?

The ideal search volume for keywords depends on your specific content marketing goals and SEO strategy. Generally, the higher the search volume the better. 

A high-volume keyword is likely to pull more traffic to your website, but that only depends on whether you can rank for that keyword. Such keywords attract competition from high DR websites and may be tough to rank for. If your site has a low DR, you may achieve better results by targeting keywords that are not searched for as much.

Which SEO tool has the most accurate keyword search volume?

Google Keyword Planner is widely regarded as the tool with the most accurate keyword search volume data. Though it has limited functionality, GKP measures some helpful search factors, such as competition level and suggested bid amounts for paid campaigns. This makes it a great resource for any SEO professional looking to gain insight into their target audience’s interests and behaviors.

Is Semrush search volume accurate?

Semrush is among the premium tools most trusted for the accuracy of its keyword search volume data. Semrush gets its data from such reliable sources as Google Ads and Google Search Console. The keyword research tool regularly updates its database with new information to ensure its data remains as accurate as possible for users.

Why is keyword search volume important?

Keyword search volume helps you make informed decisions about your SEO strategy and content marketing. By understanding the frequency with which specific terms are searched, you can recognize which topics offer the highest traffic potential. That allows you to create content that resonates with your audience.

Conclusion

Creating content on random topics whose search popularity you are not sure of is a waste of your marketing dollars. Because such content does not directly target traffic relevant to your business, that traffic seldom leads to an increase in demand for your products.

Using accurate keyword search volume will help you accurately gauge the potential of your content and optimize it to reach its full potential. Without a reliable SEO tool that provides accurate keyword search volume data, you risk targeting irrelevant keywords in your content. Traffic from these searches is unlikely to convert into profitable leads for your business.

Looking for Content?

Creating lots of great content — and scaling your content marketing — has never been easier.

With Content at Scale, you can add 1, 20, 50, or even 100 keywords that you want to rank for. Then, within minutes, CAS will write high-quality long-form blog posts for each keyword — from start to finish!

That means everything: title, meta description, introduction, all the way to the conclusion, with minor human intervention. Just like THIS post! That means you can get content published daily to your blog for as low as $0.01/word.

Ready to try it out? Check out how simple it is to scale your content marketing.