How to Do a SEO Content Gap Analysis (Beginner‘s Guide)

Doing a content gap analysis is one of the most effective ways to improve your website‘s SEO and steal your competitors‘ traffic. By finding the topics and keywords your target audience is searching for that your site doesn‘t already cover, you can create content that fills those gaps and ranks higher in search results.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll walk through the steps for performing a successful SEO content gap analysis, so you can gain an advantage over competitor sites in your niche.

What is a Content Gap Analysis?

A content gap analysis involves researching what content your target audience is searching for, then comparing it to the content you already have on your website.

The goal is to identify "gaps" where your site is missing content around topics that your audience cares about. These content gaps represent opportunities for you to create new, valuable content.

Here‘s a simple overview of how it works:

• First, you research the keywords and topics your target audience is searching for. This gives you insight into the types of content and information they are looking for.

• Next, you conduct an audit of all the content you currently have on your site. This includes blog posts, guides, videos, etc.

• Then you compare your existing content to the keywords and topics people are searching for. You look for "gaps" where your site doesn‘t have content matching those searches.

• Finally, you create new content to fill those gaps by covering the missing topics and keywords. This allows you to better match the searches and needs of your audience.

The end result is content that is more relevant to what your audience is looking for. This will increase your chances of ranking for those valuable keywords and capturing more organic traffic.

Why Perform a Content Gap Analysis?

There are a few key reasons why doing a content gap analysis should be part of your content marketing strategy:

Gain a Content Edge Over Competitors

A content gap analysis helps reveal areas where your competitors may be missing content opportunities. By spotting those gaps early, you can create content for keywords and topics that they aren‘t targeting yet. This allows you to attract visitors that your competitors are missing out on.

Create More Relevant Content For Your Audience

Understanding what your audience is searching for ensures the content you create matches their needs and interests as closely as possible. Content tailored to your audience‘s searches has a much better chance of ranking higher and keeping visitors engaged.

Find New Keyword Opportunities

A content gap analysis uncovers valuable keywords that you may not have previously considered targeting. Expanding into these new keywords can help increase your site‘s visibility and search traffic.

Prioritize Content More Effectively

Seeing all your current content matched up to keyword gaps makes it easy to spot areas that should be your top priority for new content. You can allocate your time and resources towards filling the biggest gaps first.

Refresh Existing Content

You may find areas where you already have content, but it is outdated or weaker than competitors. A content gap analysis identifies this content so you can update it to be more useful and competitive.

Step 1: Discover Your Competitors‘ Keywords

The first step is researching what keywords your competitors are ranking for. This allows you to discover potential gaps where they are targeting keywords that your content doesn‘t cover.

Here are two effective ways to research your competitors‘ keywords:

Use Keyword Research Tools

Powerful keyword research tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Keyword Surfer can analyze your competitors‘ sites to see their top ranking keywords.

For example, here‘s how to use SEMrush to find competitors‘ keywords:

1. Enter your main competitor‘s website domain.
2. Go to the "Organic Research" report.
3. Under "Competitors", view your competitor‘s top organic keywords.

You‘ll get a list of keywords your competitor ranks for, along with important stats like their position, traffic, and competitiveness.

Look through this list and make note of any keywords that your own site doesn‘t currently rank for. Those represent potential gaps in your content.

Analyze Google Results Yourself

Another easy way is to manually search Google for relevant keywords, then analyze the top ranking results yourself.

For example, if you run a yoga website you might search for terms like "yoga for beginners", "yoga poses", "yoga sequences", etc.

Look at the top 5-10 results for each search. Make a list of any sites that rank highly but aren‘t your own site. These sites are likely your competitors.

Next, visit each competitor site and browse their content. See what types of articles they have around those keywords. If they have content around a keyword your site is missing, that‘s a prospective content gap.

While this manual method takes more time, it lets you get first-hand insight into what content performs best for those keywords.

Step 2: Audit Your Existing Website Content

Now that you‘ve researched target keywords, it‘s time to audit all of your existing content. This allows you to see how your current content stacks up against those high-value keywords.

Here are some tips for effectively auditing your current website content:

Use a Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is an easy way to compile a large inventory of your content all in one place. Include important details like:

• URL
• Title
• Keywords/topics covered
• Date created
• Pageviews or traffic

This gives you an at-a-glance view of your content.

Audit Multiple Content Types

Make sure to include all types of content in your audit – blog posts, guides, videos, etc. The wider your content audit is, the more likely you‘ll spot gaps.

Look At Past Content Too

Don‘t just audit your newest content. Go back through your site archive and look at older content as well. Older pieces may be outdated or missing opportunities.

Use SEO Tools

SEO platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz can crawl your site and automatically compile an inventory of your pages and content for auditing. This saves time versus compiling everything manually.

Check Google Search Console

Search Console provides data on your pages indexed by Google and the keywords they rank for. This can supplement your manual audit.

With a thorough content audit complete, you now have a bird‘s-eye view of all the content across your site. Next you can start spotting the gaps versus the target keywords.

Step 3: Compare Your Content to Keywords

This is the core step where you directly compare your current website content to the high-value keywords you want to target. By aligning your content inventory to the keywords, you‘ll reveal gaps where potential content opportunities exist.

Match Keywords to Existing Pages

Go through your list of target keywords one-by-one and search your content spreadsheet for pages that already cover each keyword. Make note of which keywords have matching content vs which have no content.

For example, if "yoga for seniors" is one of your target keywords, search your spreadsheet to see if you have any relevant pages covering yoga for seniors. If not, it may represent a content gap to fill.

Highlight Missing Keywords

As you go through each keyword, highlight any that your current content does not cover at all. These missed keywords are likely gaps in your content.

Don‘t just look for exact keyword matches. Also look for relevant topics or searches. For example, if you don‘t have content for "yoga for seniors" exactly, do you still cover senior fitness or accessibility?

Compare Keyword Difficulty

Factor in keyword difficulty as well. Identify keywords you are missing that are easier for you to target and rank for. Beginner-level yoga poses may be quicker wins versus advanced yoga keywords.

Use keyword difficulty scores in SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to estimate difficulty.

Update Spreadsheet

Update your content spreadsheet to indicate which keywords have matching content and which are still gaps. This creates an actionable list of content gaps and opportunities.

Focus first on creating content for the highlighted keywords and topics that are missing from your current site content. This is where you have the biggest opportunity to improve your SEO and drive more organic traffic by filling those gaps.

Step 4: Produce New Content to Fill Gaps

Now for the fun part – creating compelling new content to fill those high-value gaps!

Use these tips to craft content tailored to ranking for your missing keywords:

Choose Keywords Wisely

Don‘t try to tackle too many new keywords at once. Pick a few gap keywords to focus on at a time. Start with ones that are a good match for your brand and are easier to rank for.

Study Competitors

Analyze competitors ranking for your target keywords. Look at what types of content or formats they use, like posts, guides, videos, etc. Emulate what works well.

Include Primary AND Secondary Keywords

Focus on optimizing for your primary keyword target, but also incorporate secondary keywords and related terms throughout your content as well.

Follow Keyword Best Practices

Follow on-page SEO best practices when integrating keywords into your new content. Include them naturally in titles, headers, URLs, meta descriptions, image names, and content.

Make it Detailed & Useful

Don‘t just target keywords – also make your content super useful! Include detailed information, tips, visuals, FAQs, and more around your topic. Provide real value to readers.

Promote Your Content

Publishing the content is just the first step. Also promote your new articles on social media, your email newsletter, link internally, and outreach to get backlinks. This will boost its search visibility.

By focusing your efforts on producing content that fills your most critical keyword and topic gaps, you ensure you‘re meeting the needs of your audience and improving your site‘s SEO at the same time.

Step-by-Step Content Gap Analysis Process

Let‘s walk through a full content gap analysis from start to finish, using a fictional yoga blog as an example:

1. Find Competitors‘ Keywords

We start by researching our main competitor‘s top keywords using SEMrush:

• We enter their domain name into SEMrush and go to Organic Research
• Under Competitors, we view our main competitor‘s top ranking keywords
• We find keywords like: yoga for flexibility, yoga for beginners, meditation techniques, yoga sequences, yoga asanas, etc.

2. Audit Our Existing Content

Next, we create a spreadsheet to catalog all of our existing website content:

• We add details like the URL, page title, topics covered, keywords targeted, and traffic for each piece of content
• We try to include all content – blog posts, guides, classes, images, videos, etc.
• We also go through past content, not just recent articles, to audit everything

3. Compare Content to Keywords

Now it‘s time for the gap analysis – comparing our current content to our target keywords:

• We go through each target keyword and search our spreadsheet to see if we have any matching content
• We highlight target keywords that our content doesn‘t currently cover
• We find gaps around things like meditation, flexibility, and some specific yoga poses

4. Create Content to Fill Gaps

Finally, we use those keyword gaps to create tailored content:

• We write a brand new guide to yoga for flexibility targeting that missed keyword
• We produce a new video tutorial on basic meditation techniques
• We update an old blog post to better incorporate missing keywords like cat cow pose

By refreshing old content and adding completely new content around our most important keyword gaps, we improve our site‘s SEO, become more discoverable in search, and provide more value to our visitors. Rinse and repeat this for ongoing success!

Content Gap Analysis Tips and Tricks

Here are some additional tips to help you master content gap analysis and create better content:

Use Multiple Keyword Research Sources

Pull keywords from multiple sources beyond just your competitors – Google Autocomplete, YouTube Search, related keywords tools, etc. This gives a broader range of possibilities.

Go Beyond Just Gaps in Your Own Site

Don‘t just look at gaps versus your own content. Also look for areas where ALL websites in your space are weak or missing content around popular searches. Be the first site to tackle that extensive guide or video around a keyword.

Expand on Existing Content Too

In addition to filling completely new gaps, also look for existing pages that can be expanded or improved. Turn a simple blog into a pillars page by expanding it with more sections, visuals, tools, etc.

Prioritize Gaps By Traffic Potential

Not all keyword gaps are equal. Focus first on filling ones with the most search volume and traffic potential. Sort your spreadsheet by search volume or keyword difficulty to identify bigger wins.

Update Content Over Time

Don‘t treat content gap analysis as a one-time project. Revisit your spreadsheet every 3-6 months to spot new gaps as searches evolve. Schedule regular content refreshes too.

Promote Your Personal Brand as an Expert

When writing posts around gaps, make sure to showcase your expertise! Include personal stories, lessons learned, tips from your experience etc. This builds trust and shows you‘re a thought leader.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

• Content gap analysis involves comparing your current site content against the keywords and topics your audience is searching for in order to reveal "gaps" in your content.

• Finding these gaps allows you to create tailored content around missing topics and keywords to boost your SEO and organic traffic.

• Use keyword research tools to identify your competitors‘ top keywords, audit your own website content, then compare the two to spot gaps to fill.

• Focus on producing fresh content around your most important keyword and topic gaps that your site is missing.

• Follow ongoing best practices like expanding current content, refreshing old posts, analyzing new keyword data, and promoting your expertise.

Now that you‘re armed with a proven content gap analysis process, it‘s time to put it into action! Start researching your competitors‘ keywords and take an in-depth inventory of your current website content.

Then begin the exciting process of creating remarkable new guides, blog posts, videos, and other content tailored exactly to your audience‘s needs. Filling those content gaps can set your website apart and take your organic search rankings to new heights.