How Do You Choose Keywords with Traffic Potential?

Choosing keywords with traffic potential takes more than sorting them by search volume from highest to lowest. First, confirm that there is search demand in your target market. Then examine the total organic traffic that top-ranking pages receive from related queries. Finally, use keyword difficulty and search intent to assess whether your website has a chance to attract that traffic. Prioritize topics that offer relevant traffic and a reasonable chance of ranking—not simply the terms with the most searches.

Start with search demand, but do not mistake search volume for visitor numbers

Search volume describes how often a term is searched, not how much traffic your website can attract. Semrush’s article on comparing keywords recommends checking both search volume and difficulty: even if a term has high search volume, it may not be a suitable target if your website is unlikely to rank for it.

Comparisons also need to account for the market and time period. For content targeting a specific region, examine search data for that region; include global search volume in your assessment only if your business serves an international market. Search interest also changes, so an average over a particular period should not be treated as fixed future demand.

Look at the total traffic to ranking pages, not just a single term

A page may rank for multiple related queries. When assessing a topic, examine the organic search traffic to top-ranking pages and the other keywords they rank for. Semrush notes that a page’s traffic may come from all its ranking keywords, rather than entirely from the term you entered.

In a 2017 article, Ahrefs used “I’m sorry flowers” as an example: its monthly search volume at the time was only 250, but the top five pages also ranked for more than 50 related terms, each attracting around 100 highly relevant visitors per month. This was a historical example, not a forecast of current traffic; it illustrates how a low-volume primary keyword can still represent a topic worth evaluating.

• Review traffic estimates for top-ranking pages to understand how much traffic a topic might attract.
• Check whether related queries fit the content you plan to create, rather than merely comparing keyword counts.
• Before adding up search volumes for variants, check whether the tool already groups those queries together. This helps avoid double-counting and overestimating demand.

Use difficulty and search intent to identify opportunities you can realistically pursue

High traffic potential does not mean your website can attract the same amount of traffic. Keyword difficulty can help you compare how hard it may be to rank; beginners can start with relevant, less competitive terms rather than immediately pursuing those with the highest search volume. Low difficulty is only a screening signal, not a guarantee of ranking.

Next, check the types of content in the search results. Using a yoga mat query as an example, a 2023 Ahrefs article noted that the top organic results for “best yoga mat” at the time were recommendation articles, not product pages. If you are preparing a product sales page, you should not target that term solely because it has traffic potential.

Your initial keyword shortlist should therefore record search demand, traffic to top-ranking pages, related queries, difficulty, and content type. Before investing in content, select terms with clear demand, relevant topics, and a realistic chance for your website to compete. This gives you a stronger basis for decisions than search volume alone.

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