Stop Obsessing Over Search Volume: How I Learned to Pick Keywords That Actually Pay Off

I’ve been there—you spend hours combing through SEO courses, plugging terms into expensive tools, and handpicking a list of “perfect” keywords. You pour your heart into an article you think is a masterpiece… and nothing happens. Crickets.

For the longest time, I thought I was doing something wrong. But here’s the truth: most of us aren’t failing because our execution is bad—we’re failing because we’re playing the same game as everyone else. The majority stick to the basics: volume and difficulty. The top 10%? They go one layer deeper.

In this piece, I’ll share two advanced ways I evaluate keywords, plus a simple framework I use to decide what to publish first. To make it real, I’ll use the same example from my side project: “Huayan,” a creative online flower shop built on Google Sites.

---

Step 1: Go Beyond Tools—Find Hidden Demand

The problem with keyword tools is that by the time a query shows up there, competition has already heated up. Real opportunities live earlier in the cycle—when people are asking questions but before the data looks “big.”

So instead of opening Ahrefs or Semrush, I go hunting like a detective.

Where I Look

• Communities like Reddit and Quora
  Don’t search for products. Search for scenarios. Instead of typing rose, I’ll type meeting his parents, get well soon gift, or new job promotion. In r/relationships, I once saw a popular thread: “I’m visiting a sick colleague next week—should I bring flowers?” The comments exploded:
  • Don’t bring lilies—they’re too fragrant.
  • Pick low-allergy flowers.
  • Bring a vase, hospitals don’t have them.
  That’s gold. Instead of chasing “get well flowers,” I now have a sharper angle:
  appropriate flowers for a sick colleague.
  It’s specific, practical, and rooted in real concerns.
• Amazon and Etsy reviews
  I skip the five-star reviews and dive straight into the complaints. That’s where the truth lives. On one best-selling bouquet, review after review said: “The flowers were tiny—nothing like the photo.” The pain point wasn’t the flowers—it was expectation management. That inspired me to plan an article: What does a $50 bouquet actually look like? No filters, just honest photos with clear breakdowns of size, stems, and costs. For customers burned by misleading sellers, that type of honesty builds instant trust.

---

Step 2: Judge Keywords Like an Investor

Once you’ve collected ideas, the real question is: which ones are worth your time? This is where most people default to search volume. But search volume alone is a terrible predictor of results.

Here are the two checks that changed everything for me:

1. Traffic Potential (Not Just Keyword Volume)

People don’t just type one exact phrase. If your content is strong, it will pull in dozens—or hundreds—of related searches.

Example from “Huayan”:

• rose color meanings → Monthly search volume: 2,000.
• best office plants → Monthly search volume: 500.

Looks like roses win, right? Not so fast.

When I plugged the top-ranking URLs into Semrush, here’s what I found:

• The #1 “rose color meanings” page got ~2,500 monthly visits.
• The #1 “best office plants” guide got ~8,000.

Why? Because it also ranked for low-light office plants, easy-care desk plants, air purifying office plants, and dozens more. One keyword turned into an ecosystem.

2. Value from Clicks

Even if traffic is there, you need to ask: will people actually click?

Take rose color meanings. Google often answers this right in the SERP with a snippet: red = love, yellow = friendship, etc. Many users never bother clicking.

But best office plants? That query demands detail. Guides, lists, visuals—you have to click to get an answer.

So while “roses” looked attractive at first, it’s a leaky bucket. Office plants, on the other hand, capture almost every click.

---

Step 3: Use a Priority Matrix

At this point, you might have 10+ solid keyword ideas. But resources are limited. Which do you prioritize?

I use a simple 2x2 matrix:

• Vertical axis: Value (traffic potential + commercial intent)
• Horizontal axis: Difficulty (competition + content cost)

Here’s how some real topics from “Huayan” landed:

1. What to write on a sympathy flower card
   • High value, low difficulty.
   • Clear intent, easy to rank.
     → Quick win. Do this first.
2. Best office plants
   • High value, high difficulty.
   • Competitive but worth the investment.
     → Strategic project. Plan as a quarterly goal.
3. Do delivered flowers come with a vase?
   • Low value, low difficulty.
   • Useful FAQ, but not a growth driver.
     → Filler. Write when you have downtime.
4. The history of ikebana
   • Low value, high difficulty.
   • Wrong audience, wrong battlefield (competing with Wikipedia).
     → Time sink. Skip.

---

My Takeaway

Once I started filtering keywords with these two lenses—traffic potential and click value—my strategy shifted completely. Instead of chasing every shiny keyword, I knew exactly which ones deserved my time.

And the matrix kept me disciplined. Quick wins gave me momentum, while strategic projects built long-term growth. Everything else? Out of the backlog, no guilt.

This is what separates amateurs from pros. It’s not about writing more—it’s about writing what matters. Every article becomes an intentional bet, not a shot in the dark.