Doing keyword research directly on Google: are search suggestions and Search Console enough to start?

Always search in an incognito window, otherwise your own history will skew the results. Also, in Search Console's "Queries" tab, use regex filters to surface terms with high impressions but low CTR—they're an absolute goldmine for content ideas.

We sell industrial bearings and didn't spend a single cent on SEO software for our first 9 months. We just exported Search Console impressions to Excel every week and wrote content around them. By month 9, we reached 4,200 monthly unique visitors. We only picked up a paid tool once competitor analysis became a hard requirement.

In B2B packaging, flying blind on search volume can easily lead to spending 3 days writing a guide for a technical term that gets searched once a month. Fine, don't pay 140 EUR a month, but at least grab a 7-day free trial somewhere and bulk-export all your volume data in one go.

If you're relying entirely on Google, don't overlook these three things: 1) Turn questions from the "People Also Ask" box straight into blog titles. 2) Layer in city names for local search intent. 3) In your category pages, target technical filter attributes like box thickness and micron gauge alongside basic search bar suggestions.

your decision makes total sense for starting out then you're in B2B; you don't need a keyword searched 100k times a month you need the searches of 50 plant managers who actually need what you offer. and Google's autocomplete suggestions give you exactly that, very clearly.

does the data show up right away when you add a new site to Search Console? i added mine two days ago but the queries tab is completely empty. did I do something wrong?

For the first 6 months Search Console and Google suggestions are more than enough; spend your budget on quality product photos and descriptions instead of software.

I went through the same thing two years ago. Ranking is the result, search intent is the input. Look at intent first.

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

I agree with this. People defend habits, not processes. Resistance comes from there.

Merge instead of deleting; deleted content doesn't come back. That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

I went through the same thing two years ago. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

A page that answers one question works better than one touching on five topics. If I were you, I'd go this route.

I've been dealing with this for a long time. If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

Let me share what happened to me; it might be useful. Mistakes made on the keyword research google side are usually reversible but expensive.

Hope this helps.

I'm curious too.

Thanks a lot, I'll try it today. If it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

Good luck with that.

I can't fully agree with this. Discussing numbers without verifying the measurement setup is a waste of time.

When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place. If I were you, I'd go this route.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. If it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot, I'll try it today. Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix.

I don't think this advice fits everyone. Discussing numbers without verifying the measurement setup is a waste of time.

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