Benefit of Targeting Low/No Volume Keyword Phrases

[PurpleGriffon]

Hi Folks,

I was having a discussion with a friend and colleague of mine yesterday about the pros and cons of targeting keyword phrases that have very little if any search volume.

I was of the opinion that if the keyword phrases (whether they were local or not) did not have any search volume as indicated by Google's Keyword Planner tool, then they had little if any value.

Would this be a correct assumption? Or is there merit to targeting these phrases in order to begin to build a picture of a sites overall subject matter and to help rank in local search? For example, say there is a phrase like 'second hand clothing slough' (just a random phrase) which has no search volume but 'second hand clothing' has 2400 visits a month, would it be worth targeting the search phrase with no volume to build a better local profile, so that if someone in Slough searches for 'second hand clothing' the site shows up for that keyword?

Thanks in advance guys!

Gareth

[EGOL]

Lots of people say that you should target low competition keywords because the competition there is less.   In a general way that is true.

However, I have found that it is a mistake to fear your competition and instead of targeting third- and fourth-class keywords go ahead and attack volume.  Why? Because where there is volume there is usually a lot of search and where there is a lot of search there is usually money to be made.... and if you attack with unique content you will automatically get your site in position for a lot of low-volume long-tail keywords that are easy to rank for.

So in my opinion, it is a mistake to target something that nobody is searching for... I mean that is a fantastic way to waste a lot of time.