The number alone would not fit on this page, nor the next page, nor the next — there are way too many zeroes.

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, there are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language (171,476 to be exact). We took that number and used factorial mathematics to calculate the total number of possible keyword combinations.

The answer? Infinite.

=

Here’s the equation…

171,476! = 171,476 * 171,475 * 171,474 * 171,473…and so on, and so forth.

The problem with this method is that it includes searches with thousands of keywords — no one uses one search Google for a 1,000-word query. But let’s get to the point…

There’s still a vast number of 2, 3, and 4-keyword possibilities

As you can see, these numbers become unfathomable very quickly.

So what does this mean?

It means there are untapped markets (or keywords) on the internet. Big and small companies often focus heavily on their most searched keyword (e.g. “plumber” or “real estate”). If you can rank for these keywords, great! But for most businesses it’s not that easy.

Either way, single keyword searches have their limit. Content targeting multiple keywords enables you to collect valuable traffic at a lower competition.