Advice for client KW research in competitive niche

I have a client who has limited budget which means no room for PR or influencer/backlinking strategy. They still how ever would like us to do KW research/on page so they have a better strategy to their content development.

They have given me a few general topics they would like to write about, but unfortunately they are super competitive. Ive been trying to find a lay up for them, but its very hard (travel niche, large city).

• Do you: Give them a very high volume/medium competition keyword that is relevant to their niche/site and let them know they likely wont rank close for it. In future if they have budget to do PR and very good piece of content they could generate some traffic

OR

• Do you: Keep searching for a diamond in the rough and when do you call it quits and go with option A ?

Let me know your thoughts! Either way without PR or a back linking strategy i will give them a disclaimer.

You can consider doing both. As challenging as the first option may seem, it's not possible to rank high using a competitive keyword. The results will be worth it. However, it will take a while before you can nail this one. As for the other option, well, low effort can mean low ROI. But it would, of course, be easier and quicker to rank with such. It can depend on the amount of time you have on your hands. -Micah