What the number actually means
Search volume is an average, usually taken over the last twelve months. "1,300 searches per month" means roughly that many searches happened in a typical month — not that 1,300 people will visit your page. It's also an estimate: tools round the numbers into buckets, so treat 880 vs 1,000 as "about the same," not a meaningful difference.
Volume is not traffic
Even the #1 result only gets a fraction of the searches — a large share of clicks go to ads, maps, or nothing at all, and the share shrinks fast further down the results page. A realistic expectation for a good ranking is a slice of the volume, not the whole number.
Averages hide seasonality
"Christmas gift ideas" and "tax deadline" both have healthy average volumes — and almost all of it lands in a few weeks of the year. That's why volume is best read next to a 12-month trend: a falling trend on a decent average is a keyword on its way out, and a rising one can be worth more than its current number suggests.
Low volume isn't a dealbreaker
Very specific keywords often show tiny or even zero volume, yet still bring visitors — tools undercount the long tail, and rare searches add up. If a keyword describes exactly what you sell, a low number shouldn't scare you off, especially when the difficulty is low too.