Fulfilling vs. creating demand
11th November, 2024
In SEO, just like in any other area of marketing, we’re focused on finding opportunities for growth. Typically, this means analysing search data, evaluating market gaps, assessing competitors, and identifying keywords or topics where our efforts can lead to higher rankings and increased traffic. Our goal is to capture as much search demand as possible. But what if we thought bigger? What if we didn’t just aim to fulfil existing demand, but actively worked to create it?
Most SEO strategies are built around capturing what’s already there. We’re great at meeting the needs of those already searching — but we rarely ask how to spark fresh interest that drives more people to search in the first place. This means we’re often limited by the number of searches already happening, and our growth can be constrained by the limits of monthly search volumes – especially in mature or competitive markets.
What if, instead of expanding into ever-more saturated keyword spaces, you could get more people to search for the terms you’re already ranking highly for? That’s hard to do within the confines of traditional SEO, but it’s exactly what advertisers and marketers do with other channels every day. Harnessing the power of paid ads, local media, billboards, TV, radio, or social media, can help you dial up your SEO success to new heights.
For example, a cleverly crafted local campaign not only gets people searching for your brand and services, the behaviour of that traffic sends positive signals to Google that you deserve to keep those top rankings that you’ve fought so hard for. Maintaining those positions and CTRs is going to have a much better ROI than fighting over other, more competitive, keywords.
Another way to create demand might be by building excitement around key topics in your industry. If you become the go-to source for unique insights or timely takes on emerging trends, you’re no longer just fulfilling search demand; you’re shaping it. Imagine publishing a piece that leads the industry conversation or creates buzz around a trend — people will search to read your perspective first, and over time, you become the brand associated with innovative ideas and solutions.
This approach isn’t just about increasing clicks; it’s a way of building search demand that directly benefits your brand in the long term. In an age where “zero-click searches” are common, and users often find answers without even clicking through, brand recognition and recall matter more than ever. Users may not always click, but by creating demand that brings them to our name, you’re making our brand memorable. This shift is critical to long-term success, especially as search evolves and brand preference becomes a powerful tool for capturing attention.
In SEO, it’s easy to think our job stops at capturing existing interest, but sometimes the biggest growth comes from the demand we create ourselves.
