Brand terms inflate category volume estimates

Brand terms inflate category volume estimates
Generic keyword volume often hides embedded brand demand you can't win. We decomposed reported volume for 500 category terms by query log.
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True generic intent ▇▇▇▇ 44% of volume
Brand-qualified searches ▇▇▇▇ 39%
Navigational / known-site ▇▇ 17%
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A category term reporting 6,000 a month may carry only 2,600 of contestable generic demand; the rest is people already heading to a named brand. Targeting the headline number sets a traffic expectation you structurally cannot meet.
So what: discount category volume by its brand share before forecasting. Pull the query's autocomplete and PAA to estimate how much demand is already spoken for.
Benchmark of the week: brand-qualified and navigational searches absorb 56% of reported category-term volume on average.