Keyword research is the foundation of both SEO and PPC for tour operators – and the two disciplines require different approaches. In PPC, you’re looking for queries with clear booking intent and manageable CPCs; in SEO, you’re mapping content to the full spectrum of queries across the booking journey, from early inspiration through to high-intent destination searches. Here are the tools we use most regularly for travel keyword research, and how we apply them.
1. SEMrush
SEMrush is one of the most comprehensive keyword research platforms available and our most-used tool for travel SEO content strategy. The Keyword Gap tool is particularly valuable for tour operators – it lets you compare your keyword rankings against multiple competitors simultaneously, surfacing queries that your competitors rank for and you don’t. In travel, this often reveals destination or activity keywords that represent genuine content opportunities.
SEMrush provides us with the following data:
- Search volume and trend data for individual keywords
- Keyword difficulty scores to assess ranking competitiveness
- CPC estimates for PPC planning
- SERP features (featured snippets, people also ask, maps) that affect click distribution
- Related and variant keyword suggestions
What we’ve found most useful for travel accounts is using SEMrush to map keyword clusters around destination and trip type topics – building a full picture of what travellers search at each stage of the booking journey for a given destination, from inspiration queries through to high-intent booking searches.
2. Google Keyword Planner
Google’s own keyword planning tool is indispensable for PPC because it shows actual Google search volume and CPC estimates directly from the source. For tour operators planning campaigns for new destinations or seasonal products, Keyword Planner’s monthly breakdown is particularly useful – you can see exactly when search volume for a destination peaks and troughs, which directly informs budget allocation and campaign scheduling decisions.
3. Moz
Moz Keyword Explorer provides reliable keyword difficulty scoring and organic CTR estimates – useful for prioritising which keywords are worth investing content creation resource in. For tour operators with limited content budgets, understanding the likely effort required to rank for a keyword (and whether it’s achievable given your domain authority) helps focus efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
4. Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool generates keyword suggestions by pulling autocomplete data from Google, YouTube, Bing, and other platforms. It’s useful for expanding keyword lists with long-tail variations and for surfacing the specific question-format queries that travellers type into search – which are often underrepresented in standard keyword research but represent strong content opportunities for tour operators building destination guides and FAQ pages.
5. SpyFu
SpyFu is primarily a competitive intelligence tool for PPC. It shows you the keywords your competitors are bidding on, how much they’re estimated to be spending, and the ad copy they’ve been running. For tour operators, this is particularly useful for understanding which destination keywords OTAs and competitors are prioritising – and identifying the gaps where specialist operators can compete at lower CPCs with more specific, high-intent targeting.
6. KW Finder
KW Finder is a straightforward tool with clean visualisation of keyword difficulty, search volume trends, and SERP analysis. Its filtering capability is useful for building tightly scoped keyword lists for specific destination campaigns – filtering by difficulty range and volume threshold to identify the keywords worth targeting with a realistic expectation of ranking within a reasonable timeframe.
7. Google Analytics / Google Search Console
Both are free and often underused. Google Search Console shows you the actual queries your site is already appearing for in organic search – including queries with high impressions and low clicks where better title tags or meta descriptions could improve CTR without creating new content. For tour operators, this data reveals which destination and trip type queries are already generating organic visibility that could be reinforced with paid activity or strengthened with content improvements.
Get in touch
Keyword research done well is the foundation of both content strategy and PPC performance. If you’d like help identifying the highest-value keyword opportunities for your specific destinations and product types, get in touch.