Conducting a content gap analysis on a regular basis can be a good way to identify topics that are being covered by competitors… but not by your own website. These “gaps” highlight potential opportunities to create new and engaging content that could improve your website’s SEO. Let’s get into the “ins and outs” of content gap analysis: what it is, why it matters, and how you can use the results of an analysis to make your website really shine.
A content gap analysis is essentially an audit of your website that also includes an analysis of your competitors’ sites. Specifically, a content gap analysis compares the content of your webpages with those of your competitors’. During this analysis, you’ll discover keywords that have been optimized for on competing websites, but not your own. From those, you’ll identify any keywords that are directly related to your own business, and use them to develop new content to “fill the gaps” between your site and your competitors’!
Ahrefs has a Competitive Analysis tool that makes this process easy. You can enter your business domain and 1-3 competing domains to generate a list of keywords that your competitors rank for, while you do not.
A content gap analysis is an easy and effective way to identify new keyword opportunities that your competitors have already determined to be worth targeting. Businesses in the same industry often have very similar goals, and sometimes, they even have very similar customer funnels. So, seeing what works for a competitor can help your business optimize and improve.
Maybe you and a competitor are in the same industry, but you cater to different niches that, naturally, call for different content. If that’s the case, why does it matter if that competitor’s website talks about content that you don’t mention on your own site? The answer is that knowing and understanding what your competitors are doing can always lead to better ideas and better content. Even competitor content that isn’t applicable to your own site can act as a source of inspiration for a related topic that more closely aligns with your own business goals.
Once you have the results of a content gap analysis, how can you narrow the gap between your site and competitors’? Broadly, the answer is “create more content,” but, if you have a list of keywords a mile long, that can be a little overwhelming.
First things first, determine which keywords are applicable to your own website. That may narrow your list considerably. Then, group the remaining keywords into topics. Next, determine whether you need to optimize existing pages or create new ones. If you already have pages that cover those topics, consider updating them to include the related keywords and any additional information associated with those keywords. For any topics that don’t have a page, create a new one that centers the relevant keywords.
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Are you a business in need of a content gap analysis? Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors is here to help. Reach out today to learn more about our services.
