How to use SEO data to improve your products and services
- Jennifer Long
- 6 hours ago
- 6 min read
Author: Jennifer Long
When you hear “SEO,” you probably think of websites. But SEOs need to position search data as the valuable metric it is: a real-time barometer of what people want—offline, too.
Search data can, of course, be used to improve websites. But its value doesn’t stop there. At its core, SEO reveals demand, intent, and unmet needs. Relegating it to just the web means missing out on some of the most valuable customer intelligence a company can access.
When used beyond marketing, search data can influence how products evolve, how features are named, and which audiences or use cases are worth pursuing.
I call this off-label SEO: using search data to inform products and services, not just marketing content. It requires experimentation, breaking down silos, close collaboration, and a strong relationship with product teams.
I've used this strategy myself as an SEO manager for companies like Zoom and SolarWinds, where I currently work as lead SEO manager. With this approach at Zoom, we saw a 53% increase in top-10 rankings for product pages, and 18 of the 35 feature gaps identified were addressed in a single year.
How to use SEO data to improve products and services
01. Learn everything about the products you’re supporting
In this initial step, you need to gather comprehensive information, both internally and externally, about your products and services. Start here:
Landing pages
Product reviews
Product specifications
Current offers
Service roadmap
Target audience
Regions where the product or services are sold
Languages offered
While I’m sure you’re already quite familiar with your or your client’s products or services, make sure you're aware of any planned additions or changes. I recommend starting with newer products or services, as they often have more flexibility for change than more established products. Talk to your marketing managers and sales teams; they often have valuable insights into what's missing with the current offerings. Most importantly, build a strong relationship with your product managers as soon as possible. More on that next.
02. Connect with product managers
While most product managers don’t have much experience with SEO or other aspects of digital marketing, it’s important to remember that you want the same things. You both want:
Customers to find your products
Customers to use your products
Customers to love using your products
Customers to recommend your products to other people
At the end of the day, product managers want to make sure they can offer the best product possible with the most efficient amount of effort put into developing it. So, if a certain capability would require extra work, but there’s 5x the interest in it, it’s worth the extra effort.
If you’re working at an agency, see if your contact would be willing to introduce you to a member of the product team, or at least pass along any questions you have so you can start building a relationship with them.
With that in mind, make sure you frame the organic search data and organic competitor research as insights into what the customer wants. This is a language product managers can understand. And when you’re recommending pushing up features or product changes on the roadmap, always back up your recommendations with data. Also, keep in mind that product teams may have a knowledge gap when it comes to SEO, so education is often necessary.
For example, show them how many Korean speakers are interested in your product as a reason to accommodate the language. Or, how many people in the education industry are interested in your services, so it makes sense to create capabilities that cater to that audience.
The product managers who get it will want to work with you in the future. And be sure to connect with them regularly to stay up-to-date on changes or plans for future releases.
03. Conduct a competitive analysis
Next, create an exhaustive list of your SEO competitors. As you identify them, begin to gather the same types of information about their products and services that you did for your own. (Current and planned features, target audience, regions, and so on.) This will serve as a crucial reference for comparison. Don’t just look at the ones with the biggest market share or the most well-known; look at any you can find.
Sign up for email lists so you can keep a running tab on new competitors.
Check sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra
04. Find the product gaps
Here, you'll cross-examine the information you've collected about your products and services with that of your competitors. These gaps could be all sorts of things, so get creative. Common gaps include:
Features
Compatible integrations
Regions sold to
Audiences & use cases
Languages offered
If possible, try your competitors' products to understand their functionality. I like to create a list of competitors with links to pages or assets that illustrate the gap. Something like:
Offers Swedish language in the app (Competitor 1) www.competitor1.com/example
Integrates with Amazon Echo and Google Home (Competitor 2) www.competitor2.com/example
Provides content specific to the education industry as an audience (Competitor 3) www.competitor3.com/example
05. Compile search volume data
With your identified product gaps, compile search volume data for them. Use your keyword research tools to find out how many people are searching for these missing features or solutions.
For example, a past product I worked on had a huge audience of podcast users, but the product lacked features tailored to podcasting, while their niche competitors were quickly innovating in these areas. We were even beginning to lose customers to these niche competitors. So, I noted that there were about 4.3k global searches behind “podcasts on ___” each month, in an industry with over 7 million monthly global searches that was growing 177% each quarter.
Also include search volume for competitor-branded queries related to the audiences or features you're proposing. For example, if you were suggesting a new feature for your calendar app, you would include searches for your competitor, like “Shared Google Calendar.” If one of your gaps is an untapped region in a different language, pull the data for search volume in that language and region.
I like Ahrefs for researching non-English keywords. And for comparing non-English use vs native language use, I like using BrightEdge’s Instant: Bulk Keyword Volume tool because you can compare multiple keywords across multiple countries at the same time. Here, I was looking at the French version and English version of a number of terms across French-speaking countries to see which version the native speakers searched for more often.
06. Share your findings
It's essential to identify the right team within your organization to present your findings to. Clearly demonstrate the volume potential of the identified gaps and help them prioritize addressing these areas.
Crucially, ensure they keep you informed about future changes or new product launches that stem from your research. Ask them: "Why wouldn't we offer something our customers are actively searching for?"
Find the right team (product managers, marketers, engineers, etc.) to present your findings to
Explain the volume potential of the gaps you’ve identified
Help prioritize adding new features, expanding to new regions, or targeting new audiences, based on your data
Make sure they keep you in the loop for future changes or new launches so you can do the same gap analysis. Show them your gap analysis so they understand the importance of including you in the future.
If you’re in-house, the easiest way to do this is to ask to be included in product update meetings and to have regular monthly syncs with the product managers. You could also set up a chat channel with them.
If you’re on the agency side, try to meet with someone on the product team regularly or get added to a chat or product board with them; that’s the dream scenario. The other option is to ask your client contact to relay information from the product team when they share updates. You could also create a short presentation to share with them.
It only takes one team to agree to pursue your strategy, then you’ll have data to back up the approach with other teams.
07. Measure your growth
Measuring success is key. Once the identified gap in a product or service has been addressed and relevant content has been added to your website about that new addition, you should begin tracking the target keywords you've identified. Provide regular updates, either monthly or quarterly, to the teams you collaborated with, reporting on both rankings and conversions.
Keep in mind that some implementations will naturally take longer than others; if you’re working with a physical product, it might take longer to address the gaps than it would for a software product.
With multiple variables at play, accurately measuring direct impact can be tricky. But if you've launched a new feature or service, and see organic traffic increase from content about this addition, that’s 100% the result of your work.
Ultimately, search interest is marketing gold, and it’s been underutilized for far too long. Use these insights to the fullest, and you’ll be able to showcase how essential SEO is—not just to the website—but to the business as a whole.
Jennifer has more than 11 years of SEO experience working in-house and in agencies. She's worked on SEO strategies in a variety of industries, including B2B SaaS, eCommerce, healthcare, and more. She's a firm believer that SEO touches most aspects of marketing and can be a valuable research tool for other teams. Linkedin
