Most content meets users exactly where they are. Someone searches “best MBA programs” and gets a roundup of MBA programs. But sometimes the highest-value content challenges the query’s premise. This introduces the concept of surfacing alternatives that users didn’t know to ask about.

Intentionally expanding a user’s awareness beyond their assumed path doesn’t always take center stage in SEO and content marketing strategies. However, when done correctly, it can help your services and products appear for more keywords while educating your audience about more solutions to their problems.

For example, when someone searches for a specific degree, medication, certification, or product, they’ve often locked in on a solution before fully evaluating the problem. Content that respectfully introduces alternatives (“apprenticeships vs. four-year degrees,” “herbal supplements vs. prescription options,” or “business bootcamps vs. MBA programs”) can capture high-intent traffic while delivering more value than a straight intent match.

Here’s a roadmap for making this strategy part of your ongoing editorial production.

LLMs are already doing this

LLMs and AI Overviews are already doing a version of this. After answering your query, they often ask a follow-up question, such as whether you’d like to learn about alternatives or explore the topic more deeply. Following an LLM down this path can lead users toward alternatives they didn’t know about.

For instance, in the supplements query below, I was looking for supplements to help with mood and stress. (Note: LLMs and AI aren’t a replacement for medical advice. Always speak with your medical professional before making changes to your diet, medications, supplements, or other health-related routines.)

I gave ChatGPT the stack of supplements I was already taking and asked whether I should remove any. Unprompted, it also asked the following question:

After we went back and forth with suggestions and questions, it gave me additional modifications I hadn’t asked about, including timing recommendations and suggestions tied to other details I’d mentioned previously, such as caffeine use.

In this case, ChatGPT went beyond telling me which supplements might help with stress, which is usually what happens in SERPs for a query like “mood supplements.” It helped me build a better supplement protocol.

This is what you can do for audiences searching for solutions. 

How to identify queries where users may benefit 

Let’s say you’re optimizing for “mood and stress supplements” for products designed for that purpose. 

To expand your keyword research beyond obvious queries, think about why someone may be searching for mood and stress supplements in the first place. They probably feel overwhelmed by work or personal life. They may be going through a temporarily stressful period and looking for ways to feel better.

With that line of thinking, you can expand your keyword research into related areas, uncover keywords about stress relief, and create articles and content that introduce other ways someone might relieve stress.

Often, this works the other way as well. A user may start their journey thinking they just need meditation, sound baths, or forest walks to calm stress and improve mood. While those things can help, they may not even be aware that mood supplements exist.

So while it’s a good idea for a supplement company to create content about mood and stress products, it’s also in its best interest to expand its content into other solutions for the problems users are facing. Then, in those articles, the company can include its products as another solution that users may not have considered.

For instance, in this article about sleep and stress, after including non-supplement solutions to help with stress, a product suggestion is included:

Structuring content around alternative solutions

When creating this type of content, focus on quality and valuable information above all else. When you provide high-value information, users stay on the page longer, click more internal links, and see your content as a resource they can trust.

Content should be structured so it ranks for the original intent while responsibly pivoting to the solutions you provide. Beyond written content, other ways to help users expand their horizons include:

• Free spreadsheet or PDF templates, even if you offer database or document software (like Smartsheet).
• User stories and testimonials about experiences with the problem, even if the solution wasn’t solely your offering.
• Webinars, online courses, or in-person workshops related to your offerings. For example, a stationery store offering junk journal nights, or a bag charm retailer hosting a bag charm styling class at a winery.

Your offering shouldn’t be front and center, or it’ll quickly be labeled promotional content and won’t be taken seriously. Include product mentions organically in an article, webinar, or video through on-screen mentions, links within paragraphs, or examples that illustrate how something works.

These types of mentions may shift a user’s one-track mindset and introduce solutions they hadn’t considered before.

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Keyword and SERP signals that signify openness

When might a user be open to these types of journey-disruption options? It’s important to identify keywords and signals that indicate a user is in the research and consideration stage, rather than fully committed to purchasing a specific solution.

Branded terms

For instance, a user searching [“brand name” buy] is more likely to purchase that specific brand than someone searching terms that signal ongoing research, such as [“brand name” pricing], [“brand name” competitors], or [“brand name” reviews].

Industry ‘widetail’ queries

A “widetail” query is a term I’m using to describe a wider net of queries that all fall within the same user journey. For instance, a user struggling to keep their lawn mowed may search terms like these within the same period, even though they represent different angles of the same problem:

• “Robot lawnmower price”
• “Lawn service near me”
• “How often to cut grass?”
• “Sprinkler watering schedule”
• “Price to pay teenager for cutting grass”
• “Grass cutting schedule”

Instead of solely optimizing for your landscaping company offering with terms like “lawn care in Kansas City,” interrupt earlier buyer journeys by creating content around terms your users are also searching for.

When ethical guardrails are needed

After using supplements as an example, it’s important to note that you have a responsibility to use this content strategy responsibly.

For industries that can negatively affect users, such as healthcare, careers, finance, or other YMYL verticals, exercise discretion to ensure you aren’t positioning your product as the solution to a serious problem that could affect users’ well-being.

It’s one thing to mention a supplement that may support stress response. It’s another to promise a “cure to stress.” FDA and FTC guidelines exist for a reason: to protect customers from misleading and potentially dangerous claims.

Interrupting buyer journeys at the right time

In the lawn care example above, we see several consideration funnels that all point to the same goal: making lawn care easier for someone who can’t keep up with it.

These queries represent the user’s attempts to figure out how to keep the grass mowed. Looking at each query as a standalone journey fails to account for the user as a whole customer.

Many customers don’t use varied queries. They may only search [“brand name” pricing] because they’re overwhelmed, their boss suggested that brand, or they don’t have time to explore other solutions.

By proactively expanding your content, you can appear during basic comparison searches and when tangential searches lead users to your site.

Getting in front of customers when they aren’t expecting you can be a powerful way to capture more search traffic, leads, and loyalty from an audience that’s glad to have found you.