A Practical Look at Using Google Search Console for Competitor or Market Needs Analysis.
In today’s dynamic online environment, buyers are expected to be more than just price negotiators. In fact, they are increasingly becoming part of strategic decision-making processes.
As a result, the ability to anticipate what the market wants is more crucial than ever. This is where SEO for buyers comes into play — it serves as a powerful tool that helps uncover customer needs and behavior patterns, often even before those needs are expressed directly.
Table of contents
- Why is SEO important for buyers?
- How does Google Search Console help?
- Practical Use for Buyers
- How to get started with Google Search Console?
Why is SEO Important for Buyers?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not just for marketers or IT specialists. It´s a tool can:
- reveal real customer needs
- identify new trends and emerging demand
- support decision-making about products and assortment
- enable competitor tracking through search engine behavior
The reason why a buyer should care about SEO is that their decisions have a direct impact on the visibility and success of an online store or its products.
Buyers who understand search trends can better predict what will sell – and what won´t.
How Does Google Search Console help?
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website appears in search results. If you haven’t connected Google Search Console to your website yet, here is a short guide.
For buyers, it can be a valuable source of data about:
- what search terms people use to reach your website
- how many impresions and clicks individual keywords and pages receive
- where your website ranks in different search queries
- where gaps in your offering apper – meaning keywords that are searched for but not well addressed by your site
Practical Use for Buyers
- Identifying What Customers are Searching for
Check the PERFORMANCE section in GSC and filter the most frequently searched terms.
For example, if you run an e-commerce store for packaging and find the people often search for ´´eco gift wrapping´´ but you don´t offer this product – it´s a clear signal.
➡️ Action: Add this product to your range, or adjust product names to better match how customers are searching for them.
2. Evaluating the Success of a New Product
After launching a campaign for a new product, monitor whether the number of impressions and clicks for related terms has increased.
If not, people may not be searching for it – or you may not be using the right keywords.
➡️ Action: Adjust product names or descriptions based on what people are actually searching for.
3. Comparison with Competitors (Indirectly)
If you have access to multiple domains — such as partner or test websites — you can use this to your advantage by tracking which topics generate the highest demand.
For instance, if a competitor is gaining traffic from the term “natural cosmetics for men” and you are not, this may indicate a gap in your product range.
Therefore, it might be time to reassess your offering and consider what could be missing that your audience is actively searching for.
➡️ Action: Expand or optimize your offering based on what works for others.
How to Get Started with Google Search Console?
- Verify your website through GSC – the easiest way is through Google Analytics or DNS records.
- Visit the Performance section > Search Queries.
- Monitor:
- Terms with a high number of impressions but a low number of clicks (opportunity).
- Terms with a high position and increasing number of clicks (successful products).
- New terms that have recently appeared (trends).
A buyer who uses SEO tools like Google Search Console has an advantage.
They don’t wait for the sales team to tell them what to order – they have data directly from the market.
They can see what customers are searching for, what they need, and where the competition is falling behind.
Even a small analysis once a month can help make better decisions and buy what will truly sell.
