Yeni bir tür bitki bazlı içerik sunan bir gıda teknolojisi girişimi için bir SEO stratejisi üzerinde çalışıyorum.
Asıl zorluk, ürünün mevcut bir kategoriye tam olarak uymaması ve içerik maddesiyle ilgili aramaların çoğunun ticari olmaktan ziyade bilgi amaçlı olmasıdır. Yani tarihsel olarak ürünün ana içeriğiyle ilgili sayfa makaleleri üst sıralarda yer aldı ancak çok az tıklama aldı.
Ürünle ilgilenebilecek ancak ürünün var olduğunu veya ne arayacağını bilmeyen potansiyel B2B ve B2C müşterilerinin ilgisini çekebilecek anahtar kelimeleri belirlemeye çalışıyorum. Bu durumda anahtar kelime araştırmasına nasıl yaklaşırsınız? Bitişik kategorilere, kullanım senaryolarına, müşterilerin sıkıntı yaşadığı noktalara veya başka bir şeye mi odaklanırsınız?
Başkalarının, mevcut arama talebi az olan ürünler için SEO’yu nasıl ele aldığını merak ediyorum.
We’d start with the problem the ingredient solves, rather than the ingredient itself. When people don’t know a product category exists, they can’t search for it by name. But they’re already searching for ways to solve the problems it addresses.
For example, if the ingredient helps food manufacturers replace eggs in baked goods, we’d research searches around egg alternatives in commercial baking, improving texture in vegan cakes, allergen-friendly formulations and reducing ingredient costs. For B2C, we’d explore the cooking problems and dietary needs it helps solve. The same ingredient can have completely different search journeys depending on the audience.
We’d also speak to potential buyers. Ask food manufacturers what they currently use, what frustrates them about existing ingredients and what would make them consider switching. Those conversations often reveal search language that keyword tools won’t show you, especially for an emerging category.
Then we’d build content around those use cases, connect it to a clear product page and test which topics attract relevant visitors and enquiries. For B2B, application guides, formulation comparisons and sample requests could be more valuable than chasing traffic. For B2C, recipes and practical demonstrations might work better.
We’d still target the ingredient’s informational searches, but we wouldn’t judge success by traffic alone. If an article attracts 2,000 curious readers but none are potential buyers, it may be less valuable than one that brings 50 food manufacturers who need the solution.
When search demand for the product doesn’t exist yet, the opportunity is to capture demand for the problem and help people discover a better solution.
Adjacent terms. Check our mail chimps glossary page for “text message marketing” where they effectively educate the user to eventually recognize what they want is “sms marketing.”
Also definitely track the keywords for the new product — especially since they have 0 SV.
SV becomes a KPI, so you can celebrate when platforms up SV to 10… 20… 30 etc.
BrandLoom’s problem-first framing is right, and for the B2B side there’s a quicker way to find the commercial terms than brainstorming them. Food manufacturers don’t search for a new ingredient, they search for the incumbent it replaces plus a buying modifier: “egg replacer for bakery”, “clean label binder supplier”, “methylcellulose alternative”, “[incumbent] price per kg”, bulk, spec sheet, sample. Put two or three suppliers of the incumbent into Keyword Planner’s “start with a website” option and you get the queries Google ties to their pages, with bid ranges. A high top-of-page bid on a low-volume term is the commercial signal; informational terms come back cheap.
Then go back to the articles that ranked but got no clicks and filter their Search Console queries for those same modifiers. A few usually hide in there, and those deserve a spec or application page linked from the article, not another article.
B2C I’d leave to recipes and the problem searches the other replies covered.
TLDR but I’d rethink the notion you have a new category unless your name is Steve Jobs. People are searching for your product. The problem is without audience research, it is impossible to understand their intent language. You have a new product in an existing market. That’s your starting point. The category exists. Your well-informed product development strategy leads the way. Start with assumed targets like vegetarians who are always looking for new market entrants and sweeten the deal for them and their referrals.
People won’t search for the product yet, but they will search for recipes that might use it. People will search for “sugar-free cookies” or “vegetarian meatloaf,” however. So think about posting some recipes that show how to use the product.
Let’s say it’s a new sugar-free sweetener. A series of sugar-free dessert recipes using the ingredient might catch significant search. As a plant-based product, perhaps it’s vegan, or at least vegetarian, and you can post vegan or vegetarian recipes using it, capturing search for the recipes.
Simultaneously, send the ingredient out to food bloggers, influencers, and cooks. Ask them to try it out and review it. If they mention it by name or post their own recipes using it, you can build the brand and create some volume for branded searches, and maybe attract some high DA/DR links to your site.
You have to get creative. I did a video about an example like this several years ago. I was working with a company that had an app to pay for road tolls on your phone. The problem was nobody knew something like this existed. One of their competitors had a creative idea. They created landing pages for all of the toll locations. Lots of people searched for how much certain tolls cost, if they needed cash, etc. Especially big tolls like over popular bridges. Things like that.
The landing pages would provide the information the searcher was looking for and also introduce them to the app.
So they were using SEO to create a market where one didn’t exist.
Start with the problem or question potential customers have. Expand ideas from there.
invent the vocabulary yourself, target problem-based queries (cost, texture, shelf life) and let adjacent ingredient searches pull you in before the category even has a name
Start from the problem, not the ingredient. Nobody searches for a thing they don’t know exists, but your buyers already search for the job it does.
What I’d do:
1. Split B2B and B2C, because they search completely differently. B2B food buyers search for spec problems: “egg replacer for baking”, “clean label emulsifier”, “replace methylcellulose”, “high protein plant based binder”. B2C search for outcomes and diets: “vegan substitute for X”, “how to make Y without dairy”.
2. List the 5-10 products or ingredients yours replaces, then mine “alternative to”, “substitute for”, “vs” and “without” queries for each. Those are the closest thing to commercial intent you’ll get in a new category.
3. Talk to sales or whoever handles inbound. The exact words prospects used before they knew your product name are your keyword list. Search volume tools will show 0 for half of them, and that’s fine.
4. Keep the informational ingredient articles, but give each one a clear next step: a use-case page, a spec sheet, a “request a sample” page. Those articles got impressions without clicks because they answer the question in the snippet. Their job is awareness, not leads.
5. Track your new category term from day one even at 0 volume, as someone said. If PR and trade press work, you’ll see it rise.
Also worth checking what ChatGPT and Perplexity say when you ask “what can I use instead of X in plant based products”. In new categories people increasingly ask an assistant before they search, and the sources it cites tell you which trade sites and directories you need to be on.