Except then they start looking at Google Analytics statistics and they find the number of actual visitors using the keyword they just spent tons of time (and their clients’ money) optimizing for is producing very few, or worse, zero visitors.

Why no visitors?

Many people are so focused on ranking well for a search phrase they forget the most basic factor of SEO: search volume. If no one is searching for the keyword you are optimizing for you can put in all the effort in the world, rank #1, but your efforts will be fruitless.

No Visitors = Bad SEO

You need to optimize for keywords that people are searching for. Even if you are going after long tail keywords, you should prioritize long tail keywords based on the number of people searching for those phrases.

Why do I bring up the importance of search volume to SEO success?

In the next release of new features for Essio Studio, our set of web-based integrated SEO tools, we will be releasing a new feature to track the search volume of the keywords you are optimizing for over time. This means you’ll be able to see if the volume of searches is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. Armed with this information you can determine which keywords to focus on the most and get the most visitors for you client’s buck.