Written by
Fabian van Til
POV: You’re scaling fast—but every extra sale still depends on Facebook or Google Ads. One algo tweak and you’re scrambling. Worse, the last “growth” agency handed you a bill, not results. Sound familiar? 😬 Two frustrations plague ambitious e‑commerce founders:
Ad dependency drains profit.
Opaque SEO promises feel like snake‑oil.
This guide fixes both. You’ll see exactly how to mine search data for complementary products your customers already want—using the same 3‑tool stack we deploy at EcomSEO. By the end, you’ll know how to:
spot early‑stage trends before competitors,
validate commercial intent in minutes,
turn ideas into revenue‑driving SKUs.
Dive in, reclaim control, and build an owned traffic engine that compounds.
Why Traditional Product Hunting Lets You Down
Paid‑ad dashboards scream “spend more,” while guru lists recycle yesterday’s fads. Neither approach shows real‑time buyer intent—Google’s search box does. Ignore it and you’ll guess, not grow.
The 3‑Tool Stack for Reliable Product Discovery
Exploding Topics: Spot Macro Trends Early
Brian Dean’s platform tracks rising queries across the web.
Set Industry → Pets (swap for your niche).
Export all pages (CSV).
Prompt ChatGPT: “Cluster dog‑health trends by supplement type, volume ≥1k.”
Watch for 99× growth curves—they signal unmet demand.
Pro Tip: Automate weekly exports to stay ahead.
Semrush Keyword Magic: Filter Intent Gaps
Go narrower—type “dog supplement liquid”.
Use Include → “liquid”, KD ≤ 35, Volume ≥ 500.
Drill into angles (joint pain, immunity, anxiety).
Liquid multivitamin for dogs popped? Check the trend line; rising searches hint real buyers.
Angle‑Based Querying
Paid ads test hooks; SEO can too. Swap prefixes: best, cheap, organic, vet‑approved to reveal micro‑niches.
Competitor Catalog Mining: Borrow, Don’t Swipe
Google site:competitor.com “supplement” to list every SKU. Cross‑reference with Semrush volumes. If they rank without dedicated pages, that’s your opening. You can also do a content gap in Semrush to quickly see missed opportunities in your catalog.
Quick SERP Sanity Check
Search the exact product idea in Incognito. If ads + Amazon dominate yet no DTC pages appear, you can outrank with focused content—Google craves a helpful result.
Turn Raw Ideas into Validated SKUs
Use LLMs to Expand & Vet Concepts
Example prompt for ChatGPT:
“Generate supplement formats, flavors, and key benefits for ‘dog liquid multivitamin.’”
You then want to figure out more idea's and feed them back into your research tools, like Semrush and Exploding topics!
Keep this loop going!
Commercial Intent & SERP Sweat‑Test
Look for shopping carousels, “People also ask,” and review snippets. These SERP features scream transactional queries. No features? Pivot.
Scaling Topical Authority Around New Products
Map Content Clusters
For dog joint supplements:
H2 Buying Guide
H3 Ingredients explained
H3 Dosage FAQ
H3 Vet endorsements
Link each piece to the product page—boost relevance and authority.
Technical Hygiene & UX Factors
Ensure one clean H1, fast Core Web Vitals, and schema (Product + FAQ). Tools like Screaming Frog & Semrush keep errors at bay.
From Idea to SEO Profit Flywheel
Start every potential SKU with a low‑risk, data‑rich sprint: run a seven‑day Google Shopping or Amazon ad at break‑even to prove real‑world demand while your SEO content warms up. Once a product clears at least three times its break‑even ROAS—remember, raw ROAS is meaningless if you haven’t calculated that threshold—it earns a full build‑out: dedicated content clusters, email automations and CRO tweaks. Meanwhile, retire any item stuck below profitability; the flywheel only turns when under‑performers don’t drag it down. Finally, obsess over profit‑per‑SKU, not vanity rankings—map each content asset to Shopify sales, refresh non‑converting posts or merge them into higher‑intent pages, and let bottom‑line data, not keyword trophies, steer every iteration.