I get half of the world traffic for the term “dirtbagging,” on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can’t ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider, though. Here are some others.
1. Demand/supply ratio. There were 289,000 searches for “fishing” last month, but could you compete against the 35,000,000 results on a Google search? “Bass fishing tips,” with 3,700 searches, and 31,000 results is a more likely winner.
2. Total supply. For “dirtbagging,” Google shows 240 results, and there may be 20 searches monthly for the term. It was easy to get on the first page of results. On the other hand, a keyword with a demand of a million, and a million search results has a better ratio, but can you really get in the first few pages of results? Whatever the ratio, you have to be able to compete against the supply. If you are on the tenth page of results, virtually nobody will find you.
3. Type of keyword. Getting good search engine placement is one thing, but what type of visitor are you getting? Who is more likely to...