The short answer
Start with a Google query tied to a problem your product solves. Inspect what ranks, make a page or tool that serves the searcher better, and use search clicks and product actions to decide what to improve. One directory founder reports around 30,000 organic monthly visitors within six months of building a directory for hard-to-find information.1 One operator reports around 1,530 October Google visits to a free tool that performs the first step of a paid product, versus 30 visits to 13 blog posts combined.2
What founders did
7 real examples, each linked to the moment in the source. Results are self-reported.
- Reddit
Strong_Teaching8548
Reports around 1,530 October Google visits to the tool versus 30 to 13 posts combined; four search visitors became paying customers in the second half of October, when tracking began.
Published posts, programmatic pages, and free tools, then built backlinks to a tool that performs the first step of the paid product.
- X
Axel Schapmann
Describes starting SEO with free tools and comparison pages and following visitors through signups to customers.
- YouTube
The Koerner Office Podcast
The guest reports around 30,000 organic monthly visitors within six months and around 90,000 organic monthly visitors at its peak.
An unnamed guest built a thrifting directory after finding an inaccurate competing resource and checking the difficulty of finding the information in Google Maps.
- YouTube
Starter Story, free-tools interview
The guest says this approach brought Google traffic, without a traffic figure in the supplied account.
A guest describes building dozens of free tools related to the main product.
- YouTube
Starter Story, comparison-pages interview
The guest reports that free tools bring roughly 20% of traffic and convert 15 to 20% of visitors into signups.
A guest describes publishing competitor comparisons and adjacent free tools while letting visitors use parts of the product without signup.
- YouTube
Starter Story, search-guides interview
A guest describes targeting specific high-intent keywords with in-depth guides and tracking rankings and click-through rates.
- YouTube
Kimberly Mitchell
Describes Budget Bytes adding cost-per-serving information to recipe pages.
Your playbook
Use this when
Use this playbook if people search Google for a task your startup helps complete and you can maintain a useful answer, tool, or listing.
You’ll leave with
Leave with a search-opportunity worksheet covering the query, page format, distinctive value, links, and signals for revision.
Find a query with a visible gap
- Do
List product-related queries and search each in Google. Note what ranks, what the searcher needs, and what the results fail to provide. Choose a query whose task your product can help with.
- Make
Add the target query, searcher task, competing results, and missing information to your worksheet.
- Check
Continue if you can describe a useful improvement over existing results; otherwise choose another query.
Why this step is in the plan
An unnamed guest in Chris Koerner’s video searched for a niche directory, found an existing resource with wrong information, and checked whether Google Maps made the information easy to find.1 A guest in a Starter Story video instead describes targeting low-competition, high-intent searches for specific product tasks.6
Choose a format that does the job
- Do
Choose a comparison page for a buying decision, a free tool for a small task, or a directory for hard-to-find information. Define what the visitor can accomplish and a relevant next action in your product.
- Make
Add the page format, promised utility, and product next action to the worksheet.
- Check
If the page cannot satisfy the query without prematurely pushing the product, change the format or query.
Why this step is in the plan
Publish a distinct answer
- Do
Build the page around the searcher’s task with working utility, original information, or maintained details. Make separate pages only for genuinely distinct needs. Include a relevant route to the product.
- Make
Add the live URL, its distinctive contribution, and its product link to the worksheet.
- Check
Complete the searcher’s task on the live page; revise it if the answer is missing or indistinguishable from competing results.
Why this step is in the plan
Nico diagnosed a service site by separating what it sold, where it sold it, and whom it served, rather than treating every need as one page.8 Kimberly Mitchell describes Budget Bytes adding cost-per-serving information to recipes, an example of a distinctive information layer rather than another standard recipe.7
Help Google and relevant sites find it
- Do
Link to the page from relevant pages on your site. Identify publications or resources that could use its information or utility, and offer it as a resource. Check whether Google has indexed it.
- Make
Add internal links, relevant link prospects, and indexing status to the worksheet.
- Check
If the page is not indexed, investigate that before expanding similar pages; if indexed, watch its queries and impressions.
Why this step is in the plan
Strong_Teaching8548 says a free tool rose in rankings during the same weeks a batch of backlinks arrived, while programmatic pages gained impressions but the tool drew the clicks. The account reports the timing, not a separate test of the links’ effect.2
Review clicks and product actions
- Do
Record indexing, impressions, queries, clicks, and product actions for the page. Compare queries earning impressions with the answer on the page; revise its title, content, or product link where you find a mismatch.
- Make
Add the review signals and a keep, revise, or stop decision to the worksheet.
- Check
Expand pages earning relevant clicks and product actions; revise a mismatch before making more pages of the same type.
Why this step is in the plan
Axel Schapmann describes following visitors through signups to customers, rather than treating traffic as the only signal.3 A guest in a Starter Story video describes tracking rankings with Google Search Console and adjusting click-through rates based on results.6
Choose and test a Google search opportunity
- What the searcher needs
A buyer is comparing solutions
What to publishSpecific comparison or feature page
What to checkCheck relevant search clicks and whether visitors take a product action.
- What the searcher needs
A searcher needs to complete a small task
What to publishFree tool connected to the product
What to checkCheck tool-page clicks and whether visitors continue to the product.
- What the searcher needs
Useful information is scattered or inaccurate
What to publishFocused, maintained directory
What to checkCheck whether entries answer the query and attract relevant organic visits.
- What the searcher needs
Searchers need genuinely different service information
What to publishDistinct pages for distinct needs
What to checkCheck indexing and query-level clicks before expanding the page set.
Choose the format
Match what the searcher needs, rather than turning every query into a blog post.
Expand or revise
Expand a format when it earns relevant clicks and product actions; otherwise investigate the query, page, or next action.
Make it yoursSearch-opportunity worksheet
A fill-in template for your own test
[target query] [searcher task] [current results and missing information] [page or tool format] [original information or utility] [next product action] [relevant internal and external link prospects] [indexing, impressions, clicks, product actions] [keep, revise, or stop]
When this works
- Favor Google SEO when you can meet a specific search need with utility or information that competing results lack.
When to avoid
- Deprioritize a query if you cannot satisfy its intent, maintain the answer, or offer a relevant route toward the product.
Related questions
Should my startup target broad, high-volume keywords?
Start with a specific query whose results reveal a task and a format you can execute. Surfer Academy contrasts a broad coffee query with over 650,000 monthly US searches and mixed results against a specific espresso-bean query with maybe a few hundred monthly searches and comparison-oriented results.9
Should I require signup before someone uses a free SEO tool?
Consider letting visitors complete a useful task before requesting signup. A guest in a Starter Story video describes making parts of the product accessible without an account or free-trial setup, including screenshot and tutorial creation.5
Can I run Google search ads alongside SEO?
Treat paid search as an optional query test, not a prerequisite for organic traffic. A guest in a Starter Story video describes bidding on commercial keywords the team was also trying to rank for organically and making landing pages tailored to each keyword’s intent.6
