The Lean Guide to Product Research

Ever had a brilliant product idea but felt stuck, unsure if anyone would actually buy it? You’re not alone. Many aspiring entrepreneurs believe that product research is a complex and expensive process reserved for big companies with huge budgets.

The good news is that’s no longer true.

Today, anyone with an internet connection can uncover really powerful market insights using affordable and even free tools. This guide will show you how.

Ahrefs. Ahrefs is like a search engine for search engines. It shows you what people are searching for, how often, and what’s growing in popularity.

How to use Ahrefs for finding trends

First, use your favorite AI model to brainstorm keywords related to your product idea.

Say, the product idea is “QuietHub” – a portable, noise-dampening desk divider for remote workers (I just made that up). Your prompt could look something like this:

“Give me a comma-separated list of informational search keywords related to the problems faced by remote workers trying to focus in noisy or shared workspaces. Avoid brand names or overly specific phrases. Keep the keywords broad enough to reflect common user intent and search behavior.”

Next, plug the keywords into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.

Hit “Search” and go to the “Matching terms” report to see related search queries.

Most of the keywords you’ll see here include a search volume graph and a forecast (the orange part). Use them to spot trends, like whether demand for your product is growing, if it’s seasonal, and what the outlook looks like based on past data.

Overview report showing search volume historical data.

Free alternative: Google Trends lets you see if interest in a topic is growing or shrinking over time.

How to find trending products on Amazon

If you’re doing product research to find trending products to sell online on marketplaces like Amazon, Ahrefs can help with that, too.

Start by running a blank search in the Keywords Explorer.

How to do an empty search in Keywords Explorer.

Then, enable the Ecommerce filter you can find in Presets, and set the target to “amazon.com ranks in top 10”.

Setting up filters to see high demand products.

Finally, sort the keywords by growth rate—over the past 3, 6, or 12 months—depending on how new the product is or how long the trend has been around.

You can further refine results with the Trending filter.

Linear growth: Demand increases steadily over time at a consistent rate.
Exponential growth: Demand starts off slow but then surges rapidly.
S-curve growth: Demand builds gradually, takes off quickly, then levels out as the market saturates.
Damped growth: Demand spikes early but quickly loses momentum and flattens.

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer can answer for you:

Which problems are screaming for a solution?

Look for organic keywords with strong volume and up to 30 Keyword Difficulty (KD). These are pain points lots of people have, yet few sites solve them well.

Where is real money already exchanging hands?

Sort your competitors’ paid keywords by descending CPC and set the Paid position filter to “Improved, no change”. A high CPC signals buyers are willing to pay; consistent ad spend means it converts (click on the position history button to see the bidding timeline).

What features do competitors double-down on?

Scroll down to the bottom of the Overview report to find keywords that a rival both ranks top-10 and keeps bidding on. That overlap could reveal mission-critical features or use-cases.