Doing keyword research with Google: where do I start without paid tools?

A super simple rule for day one: Put yourself in a tourist's shoes, type "seville tour " with a space into the search bar, and hit space. Match the top 5 suggestions right away to the names of the categories or tour packages in your main navigation menu. That's the fastest and most foolproof starting point.

Don't stress out right away a spreadsheet and a cup of coffee are all you need for day one. Type questions like "what to do in Seville in 2 days" into the search bar and list them out line by line. like in the tourism space people mostly look for itineraries and pricing and Google puts that right in front of you anyway.

Google's free ad dashboard no longer shows exact search volumes for non-spending accounts; it gives wide ranges like "100 to 1,000". So don't make rigid plans based solely on those numbers. What you really need to focus on isn't the size of the number but how close the searcher is to actually booking a tour.

When we started out with our walking tours in Granada, we had zero tools. We just typed "granada walking routes" into search and turned every single question that popped up into a travel guide. Three months later, most of the domestic tourists booking our tours were people who had found us by reading those articles.

you know those 8 bold related searches at the very bottom of the results page? that's literally the cleanest place to start. it just straight up tells you what people are looking for.

Break your first day into three parts: 1) Spend two hours in the morning searching your core services in an incognito tab and grabbing autocomplete suggestions, 2) In the afternoon, list out the question formats from the "people also ask" box, 3) In the evening, color-code those keywords in your spreadsheet based on whether they should be blog posts or tour booking pages.

Make sure to get Search Console set up on day one. About two weeks after your site goes live, you'll start seeing what keywords you're getting impressions for. At first, you use the search bar to set your direction, but from month two onward, your site's actual Search Console data becomes your only real compass.

Here's how it went for us. Updating an existing page yields faster results than creating a new one.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

How did you solve this? tbh people defend habits, not processes. Resistance comes from there.

The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say. Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

I'd appreciate it if you shared the outcome.

Yes that's exactly how it is with keyword research. Map listings bring more business than blog posts for most local businesses.

Proven by experience.

I think it's hard to be that definitive about keyword research. When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand.

A page that answers one question works better than one touching on five topics. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I partly agree, partly disagree... Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

I feel the same way. Mistakes made on the keyword research side are usually reversible but expensive.

If you post the result here, it will help others too.

I'll try it. Everyone rushing into keyword research gets stuck at the same point.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

Let's separate the concepts, they're getting mixed up. Discussing numbers without verifying the measurement setup is a waste of time.

You're right.

Following.