I am looking to start using a new keyword. I found one and was looking at various versions of it. One keyword had around 2-3 thousand monthly searches. The second had 2-3 hundred. This payed around 30 percent more then the other one. Is that few searches a good idea?
This depends more on what you are trying to acheive with the keyword. What I mean by that is what your conversion goal is. Is your conversions, filling out forms, selling a product, clicking on ads, etc. Once you have that, then it becomes a matter of calculating whether lower volume with potentially higher return outmatches the higher volume with potentially lower return. These numbers would be based on your conversion goal and may deal some guesswork depending on what that goal is. Either way, this question is way to general how it is listed to answer it well.
No it's not a good idea for 30 percent Becuase with the 1st keyword you can get lets say you have a CPC of 1.00 You can get around 40 clicks being number one on google and having a CTR on adsense of %.05 so that'll be around $30 dollars as you don't really get the whole CPC that shows on adwords but with the 2nd keyword lets say it has $1.30 You'll get around $5 a month being number 1 on google
Totally depends on the domain, the nature of your business and what you are trying to do with it. What are the audience doing on the site and how long do they stay there, stuff like that.