I’ll be straight with you: figuring out how to find high volume low competition keywords is mostly about recalibrating what “high volume” means. If you’re picturing 10,000 monthly searches at a KD of 8, that keyword either doesn’t exist or was snapped up in 2021. What actually works is a systematic filtering method that surfaces keywords in the 300 to 2,000 range with KD under 30 - terms that won’t make you internet-famous overnight but will compound into serious organic traffic over six months.
Here’s the method I use, with specific numbers and niche examples instead of the usual hand-waving.
Set realistic expectations first
The relationship between volume and competition is roughly linear. More searches means more content creators chasing those searches. That’s just economics.
Where the correlation breaks down is in specificity. Broad terms (“email marketing,” “project management”) follow the pattern almost perfectly - high volume, high competition, no exceptions. But once you add a modifier - an audience, a constraint, a use case - the competition drops faster than the volume does.
“Email marketing” might have 100K volume and KD 85. “Email marketing for Etsy sellers” might have 800 volume and KD 14. You lost 99% of the volume but also 83% of the difficulty. And that 800/mo term converts better because the person searching it knows exactly what they need.
The sweet spot - genuinely achievable for most sites - is KD under 30 and volume above 300. That’s the zone where real opportunities live. Anything above 2,000/mo at KD under 30 exists, but you’ll need to verify it manually because the data is often wrong or the window is closing fast.
How to find high volume low competition keywords: the filter stack
This is the exact sequence. Order matters - each step reduces the list so you’re not wasting time manually checking thousands of terms.
Start with ten seed keywords
Pick seeds that describe your topic space at a medium level of specificity. Not too broad (“marketing”), not too narrow (“email drip sequences for B2B SaaS onboarding”). You want terms like “email automation,” “keyword research,” “inventory software,” “contract management.”
Export all keyword suggestions from your tool. You’re aiming for 5,000 to 15,000 raw keywords per seed. More is better at this stage.
Filter one: KD under 30
This is the ceiling. If your domain authority is under 20, drop this to KD under 20. If you’ve been publishing consistently for a year and have some backlinks, 30 is fine.
This single filter eliminates 60% to 75% of your list. Good. Those keywords weren’t for you anyway.
Filter two: volume 300 and above
Below 300 monthly searches, a standalone page rarely justifies the production cost. You’ll capture those micro-volume terms naturally through well-written content targeting their parent topic.
The 300 floor keeps your list focused on terms worth writing dedicated content for. If you’re in a narrow niche where 300/mo would be a top keyword, adjust down to 150.
Filter three: intent match
Remove anything that doesn’t match what your site can deliver. If you sell software and the keyword implies someone wants a free PDF template, that’s a mismatch. If you write B2B content and the keyword is clearly consumer-facing, skip it.
Also remove branded queries for other companies. “HubSpot email templates” isn’t your keyword unless you’re writing a comparison post.
Filter four: de-duplicate by intent
You’ll notice clusters of keywords that mean the same thing. “How to find easy keywords,” “find low difficulty keywords,” and “keyword research for easy rankings” are all the same search intent. Pick the highest-volume variant and mark the rest as secondary targets for the same page.
This is where a clustering tool saves hours. Absolute Cluster’s keyword research tool groups semantically related keywords automatically, so you can see which terms belong on the same page instead of eyeballing a spreadsheet.
After all four filters, a starting pool of 50,000 raw keywords typically leaves you with 150 to 500 candidates grouped into 40 to 100 topic clusters.
Validate with SERP analysis
Filters give you candidates. SERPs give you confirmation. For your top 30 clusters, actually search the primary keyword and look at page one.
Green lights - real opportunity:
- Reddit or Quora threads in the top five. Google is desperate for better content on this topic.
- Sites with DR under 30 ranking in positions one through three. If they got there, you can too.
- Top results published before 2024 on a topic that’s evolved. Outdated content is vulnerable.
- Thin results. If the number-one page is 500 words of generic advice with no examples, a thorough piece wins.
Red flags - move on:
- All top five results are DR 70+ sites with thorough, recent content. The KD score understated the difficulty.
- Featured snippet plus People Also Ask plus video carousel. Google is giving this SERP to rich features, leaving less room for organic clicks.
- The top result is a major brand’s product page. You’re not outranking Amazon’s category page with a blog post.
I typically discard 30% to 40% of candidates at this stage. That’s fine. Better to write ten articles you can rank than fifty you can’t.
Niche examples with specific numbers
Abstract advice is useless. Here’s what this looks like in three actual niches.
Home renovation SaaS. Seeds: “renovation planning,” “home remodel budget,” “contractor management.” After filtering to KD under 30, volume 300+, you surface terms like “renovation budget spreadsheet template” (KD 18, 720/mo), “how to manage multiple contractors on a remodel” (KD 11, 410/mo), and “home renovation project timeline example” (KD 22, 530/mo). The last one has two Reddit posts in the top five. That’s your first article.
Pet nutrition brand. Seeds: “dog food ingredients,” “pet nutrition,” “raw dog food.” Filtered results include “is chicken meal good for dogs” (KD 24, 1,100/mo), “dog food for sensitive stomach homemade” (KD 19, 680/mo), and “best protein source for senior dogs” (KD 16, 390/mo). The first keyword has real volume and the top results are thin listicles from 2023. Easy win.
HR software startup. Seeds: “employee onboarding,” “HR compliance,” “performance review.” You get “onboarding checklist for remote employees” (KD 21, 890/mo), “how to write a performance improvement plan template” (KD 26, 1,400/mo), and “HR compliance checklist for startups” (KD 13, 350/mo). The PIP template keyword is the highest volume and the top results are generic - nobody’s written the definitive version with downloadable examples.
Notice the pattern: audience-specific modifiers, how-to queries with constraints, and template/example requests. These structures reliably produce high volume easy keywords.
Prioritize by business value, not just volume
A 1,400/mo keyword where the searcher will never buy your product is worth less than a 350/mo keyword where every visitor is a potential customer.
Score each validated keyword on two axes: volume and business relevance (one to three, where three means the searcher has a problem your product solves). Multiply them together. Sort descending. Write the top ten first.
For the detailed low-competition filtering method from the ground up, see the guide on how to find low competition keywords. For a broader look at what these keywords are and where they tend to live, there’s a companion piece on high volume low competition keywords.
Refresh every quarter
The keywords you found today won’t stay low competition forever. Other people are running the same filters. New content gets published. Difficulty scores shift.
Reassess your target list every 90 days. Check which keywords you’ve ranked for, which ones have gotten harder, and run the filter stack again on fresh data to refill the pipeline. The sites that win at this aren’t the ones with the best one-time keyword list - they’re the ones that systematically repeat the process and publish faster than the competition catches up.
That’s the entire method. No secret database, no magic list. Just filters, SERP validation, and the discipline to actually do it every quarter instead of once.