How to do a Content Gap Analysis and Improve your SEO Experience

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How to do a Content Gap Analysis and Improve your SEO Experience

Table of Contents

What is Content Gap Analysis

Analyzing content gaps and determining if there are any opportunities for improvement is the purpose of Content Gap Analysis. 

You can determine a piece of content’s quality by looking at its search intent, whether it needs to be short and simple, long-form, or something in between. Identifying which gaps need to be filled is easy when you quantify the type of content.

How do you Identify a Content Gap

Using keyword rankings to identify content gaps

Consider your own keywords as a starting point. Even though the keywords rank, you may realize that they don’t drive traffic. It can take a while before content ranks, therefore recent articles about the topic, are irrelevant. You may want to revisit your content if your keywords consistently rank beyond the first few pages.

The content gaps provide more than just a blank canvas, so starting with them is easiest. Look for opportunities to improve the quality of your content and review your content to ensure you’re following SEO best practices. Add images, videos, or conduct more research to enhance your content.

Researching keywords to identify content gaps

By improving your existing content, you’ll be able to identify gaps in your content. As always, start with what you already know and what works for you. A great place to start for keyword research is to find keywords that drive traffic and conversions. These keywords can be entered into tools to find keywords, you can discover new content ideas.

You may be able to find new opportunities with long-tail keywords that are similar to those you’ve already found success with or even newly related topics to your keywords. 

With the help of keyword research tools, you will be able to increase your content’s distribution and reach an even larger audience.

Analyzing competitors to identify content gaps

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It is now time to take a look at areas where your competitors are succeeding. Once you analyze what works for your team, it is time to focus on how you can do the same. You can find new content opportunities for your company by conducting a competitor analysis and analyzing your competitors’ keywords. In addition to capturing traffic share from your competitors, this strategy is also beneficial.

A competitor gap analysis shows you which keywords they rank high for that you aren’t ranking for or are ranking very low for. 

You may find that learning from your competitors can be an effective way to create new content themes, but you should use discretion. You do not need to produce content for a keyword just because your competitors are having success with it. Before focusing your attention on competitor keywords, make sure that your search shows high intent.

How do you Perform a Content Gap Analysis

Analyzing Content Gaps: Four Steps

Analyzing your blog posts to discover what content you are missing out on isn’t all there is to content gap analysis.

Content strategy gaps can be found and filled in a very simple, step-by-step process.

1. Create an understanding of the buyer's journey

In order for your target audience to reach C, what steps do they have to take from A to B?

Draw or write out your audience’s main concerns, the options available to them, what they are seeking before making a purchase, and the calls to action that will convince them to reach out to you.

As an example:

  • A Small business owner who may be experiencing financial difficulties.
  • As a result, they search for “small business finance management.”
  • They click on an article titled “10 Tips to Get Your Small Business Finances Under Control.” and are directed to several articles talking about how to manage your small business finances.
  • One of the tips in this article is to use online accounting and bookkeeping software.
  • In search of the best online bookkeeping software, the business owner goes back to Google.
  • The website takes them to a post listing five of the best bookkeeping software.
  • A business owner compares the advantages and disadvantages of two of these companies.
  • They go to the signup page of the company and sign up for a free trial once they’ve decided which company is the best fit for them.
  • Within a week, the company sends out an email sequence promoting the company’s bookkeeping software.
  • They signed up for a paid subscription for this brand because they loved it.

Using the example above, it is possible to generate content for every stage along the buyer’s journey.

Using the various services and/or products you have to offer, you should map this out for your own business.

2. Carry out market research

Using your audience’s input as a starting point will lead you to great content ideas.

By conducting market research surveys, you will learn what your audience’s needs, goals, and most pressing concerns are.

Your website content strategy is then informed by this feedback.

Create an anonymous survey with Google Forms and send it to your target audience.

Your survey should include the following questions:

  • Is there anything you would like to know about [topic]?
  • When it comes to [topic], what is the most challenging part for you?
  • How have you dealt with past problems?
  • Are there any reasons you didn’t find these solutions useful?
  • The three most important features that you are looking for in a [service/product] are:
  • What are your favorite resources for finding/searching for solutions such as [service/product]?
  • When it comes to your choice between [Solution A] and [Solution B], what is the deciding factor?

Getting the results of your market research survey can provide you with a wealth of content ideas, all of which align with the real concerns and requirements of your target market.

3. Take a look at your website's content

Regardless of whether your brand publishes or shares content on multiple channels, you’ll want to make sure your website content, if possible, corresponds to the buyer’s journey and leaves no gaps where your customers could get lost.

Make sure all URLs on your website are aligned with each stage by crawling your site.

If you are missing content between stages, you can determine whether you need to add it.

You may be discouraging people who are not sure they need a lawyer if, for example, you are a law practice and your article is about “How to File for Divorce” and your first call-to-action is to “Hire a lawyer”.

As an alternative, you may want to link to articles like “10 Tips before finalizing your Divorce Lawyers” or “5 Things to Consider Before Hiring a Divorce Lawyer” prior to contacting them about your services.

Using SEO tools to see what keywords your site ranks for is another way to find gaps on your site.

You can also identify related keywords to your existing content by searching for these keywords.

Make the most of these opportunities to increase traffic and increase conversions.

4. Analyze the content of your competitors

There is no foolproof method for discovering what’s missing from your website, but comparing it against your competitors can give you a good idea of what else might need to be added.

Check out the content your competitors have created to lead users from one stage to the next if their funnel is similar to yours.

Where are their contact pages linked to their articles?

Can you provide users with additional content before they buy (such as comparison guides, FAQ pages, case studies, etc.)?

There are many reasons why what works for one site may not work for another.

Copying your competitor’s strategy isn’t a good idea. To come up with something better than what your competitors do, you want to find the cracks in your own strategy.

What is Content Gap in SEO

Why you should conduct content gap analysis

A content gap analysis is mainly conducted for two reasons;

  1. Communicate effectively through the customer journey with potential customers.

There is a tendency to associate content gap with a company’s competition, yet in the actual sense, it refers to the gap between the business and its target audience.

Content strategies should be aligned with customer needs throughout their journey.

Creating the go-to content for our prospects and customers is at the heart of any content strategy.

Prepare yourself – you will lose your customers if you don’t provide them with the complete information they’re looking for. By conducting a content gap analysis you ensure that you do not give your competitors such a chance and you fill in the gaps so that your site can be viewed by more potential buyers.

In addition to identifying gaps in content, you can also ascertain if it is effective at converting prospects into clients. While your prospects are transitioning from the awareness stage to the decision stage, you need to make sure that your content answers their questions.

In terms of blog posts and site pages, you can create amazing content. You can even achieve this goal by optimizing social media and email workflows.

  1. Taking advantage of SEO opportunities.

Developing content ideas and topics for good traffic is part of content gap analysis. In today’s industries, there are numerous players, so you’re likely to encounter overlap in terms of content.

This is why you have to rank better than the competition for specific keywords, and a content gap analysis is an effective way to optimize for specific keywords, and to target keywords, you are not currently ranking for.

By analyzing content gaps, you can see what your competitors are ranking for that you are not. As a result, you can:

The first thing you need to do is to determine which keywords you are ranking well on and your competitors are not. This gives you an edge over your competitors.

Furthermore, you discover which keywords you don’t rank for. Content marketing strategies will then help to fill in the gaps and rank for those keywords as well.

The gap between your company and its customers is not between you and your competitor.

It’s true that you’ll need to create similar content in terms of topic or keyword targeting to the content of your competitors, but that’s just the start. Avoid focusing solely on your competition.

Your company is not experiencing this gap between customers and competitors, but rather between customers and your company.

About the Author

My name’s Semil Shah, and I pride myself on being the last digital marketer that you’ll ever need. Having worked internationally across agile and disruptive teams from San Fransico to London, I can help you take what you are doing in digital to a whole next level.

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