Long tail keywords in Korean, and why volume is the last number to look at

✦Do not chase the big numbers

The description for the fourth episode of my podcast includes a line about why you should not target high volume keywords. It sounds backwards the first time you hear it. Surely more searches means more visitors.

In practice it goes the other way. That is how I pick, and Ikjun Cho of WPP Media said the same thing on the episode.

The reason is simple. Someone is already sitting on the high volume term, and whoever is defending it is bigger than you. On top of that, the bigger the term the vaguer the intent behind it. Even if you climb, the people arriving may not be your customers.

For a company entering Korea this matters more than it would at home, because you are starting from zero authority in a language where you cannot easily judge what a query implies.

✦What a long tail keyword is

Briefly, since this part is covered everywhere. A long tail keyword is a longer, more specific query with less volume. Not SEO but something closer to no traffic after our site relaunch.

Individually the volume is small. Two things come attached. Competition is lighter, and what the searcher wants is obvious. The longer the phrase, the more of their situation ends up inside it.

Every article says that much. The hard part is what comes next, which is deciding what to pick.

✦Four checks that come before volume

Open any keyword tool and volume is the biggest number on the screen, so that is where the eye goes. These are the four I look at alongside it.

• Difficulty first

  There is a difficulty score next to the volume. The same two hundred searches at difficulty ten and at difficulty forty five are completely different fights. For a site that is just starting, taking the low ones first is far quicker.

• Does the intent match what you sell

  The larger the volume the fuzzier the intent. Someone searching for what is SEO wants a definition, not a consultant. A smaller number with intent pointed at you is worth much more.

• Can you answer it better than anyone else

  A better answer comes from having been there. Picking a topic you have no experience with because it has traffic leaves you with nothing to do but summarize what already exists.

• Is there room for you on that results page

  Search it. If official documentation and large communities fill the screen, you cannot walk in with the same format. Change the angle or move to a different query.

✦Two questions Google flagged

Google Search Central's document on creating helpful, reliable, people first content includes a self assessment list. Answering yes to certain items is the warning. Two of them aim directly at how people pick keywords.

Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you'd write about them otherwise for your existing audience?

Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you'd get search traffic?

Put together, they read like this. The moment you choose a keyword on volume alone, the article is written for a search engine instead of a person. The same document repeats the instruction to create people first content rather than search engine first content.

So the order should be inverted. Rather than finding a topic with traffic and manufacturing an answer, find the topics you already have answers for and check which of those get searched.

✦How the notes on this site were chosen

Rather than leave it abstract, here are the numbers I looked at when choosing topics for the Korean notes on this site. These are Korean queries, measured in Korea.

Volume and difficulty were measured in Ubersuggest in August 2026 for Korea. Numbers differ between tools and move over time, so read them as relative sizes rather than absolute values.

You will notice they are all somewhere around two hundred, and all of them are subjects I have actually worked on. Finding where those two circles overlap is very nearly the whole of keyword selection.

✦When long tail is the wrong answer

The other side deserves saying. Collect only zero volume terms and the total is still zero. A tool reporting zero does not mean the query is meaningless, but a plan built entirely from those leaves you with no number to look at a few months later.

And if the brand is already large the calculus changes. The fourth episode has a stretch about brand power against technical optimization, and companies with recognized names do hold position on short, large keywords. If you are not in that position, the only move is to follow the order. Take the small ones first, and once they stack up the big ones come within reach.

Another segment title from that episode: SEO is a marathon. A single keyword rarely turns anything around.

✦The order that works

Summed up, volume is the last number you look at. First write down the topics you can answer. Then check which of those get searched. Then check difficulty and the shape of the results page. Then use volume to decide the sequence.

The closing segment of that episode is about realistic timelines for seeing results. Choosing keywords this way shortens them, because you are entering where you can win.

How I work is on the services page, and the rest of the conversations are in the episode list.

✦Common questions