How to use a content gap analysis to boost SEO

Content is paramount in digital marketing, where search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords determine crucial performance metrics like organic traffic and conversions. Marketing teams often try to cover a broad range of topics to boost these metrics, but casting too wide of a net can lead to significant gaps in your content offering.

A content gap analysis helps you discover opportunities for improving your content strategy. You can use information like topics and content types you’re missing to expand your organic search footprint and increase SEO traffic

Content gap analysis and its uses

A content gap analysis is an audit of your current content inventory for any missed opportunities or underperforming areas. Typically, you’ll perform a gap analysis using an SEO tool, like Ahrefs or Semrush. These SEO tools compare your keyword search rankings against competitors’ to find keywords and content ideas they cover that you don’t. Through this process, you discover what to inject into your content strategy to create high-ranking pages.

Content gap analyses are useful for any company with a content marketing strategy. Whether you are a scaling startup or established Saas company, read on to learn how you can benefit from identifying and rectifying gaps in your content. 

The benefits of conducting a content gap analysis

Understanding content trends helps marketers stay on top of changes in the ever-evolving SEO landscape, like trending topics and keywords. When well executed, a gap analysis results in the following benefits.

Increased organic traffic

To analyze content gaps, start by looking at your competitors’ content inventory. Note what works and what doesn’t, and apply these lessons to your strategy. For example, competitors might use certain keywords more often or cover niche topics you don’t. If you can use that same strategy more effectively, you can outrank them in search results to increase your organic traffic and click-through rates (CTRs).

Better conversion rates

If potential customers find your content offering too thin on a subject they’re exploring, they might bounce to a site with a more robust offering. Filling in the gaps in your content strategy ensures you’re meeting customers’ needs, and every new page they open gives you another chance to convert them into paying customers.

Tailored messaging for different segments

As you fine-tune your content plan to incorporate new keywords and topics, you’ll discover niche subtopics to cover. For example, if you’re marketing a project management platform, your content is probably centered around keywords like “task tracker” or “project management software.” Performing a content gap analysis could highlight more granular keywords like “Agile,” “Gantt charts,” and “Kanban boards.” You can lean into these subtopics to target specific audiences, like project managers and team leads.

Content repurposing opportunities

If your site has underperforming content, you can refocus it on a different keyword or search intent. Because these projects involve editing rather than creating content, they’re faster and can be done in larger quantities.

Data-driven decision-making

A content gap analysis examines search volume, organic traffic, and search intent to amass a database of promising keywords. Analysis tools like Ahrefs can even measure each keyword’s success rate. These valuable insights are integral to making data-driven decisions about your SEO strategy. They clearly define which topics have the best chance of success and their expected search volume.

How to do a content gap analysis: 6 steps

The gap analysis process involves assessing your content portfolio and developing a data-driven strategy to improve it. Here’s a six-step process for performing a content gap analysis and acting on the results.

1. Perform a content audit

A content audit involves creating a database or spreadsheet that outlines your current content offering and search rankings. Here’s how to compile one:

• List every content piece you have, including blog articles, landing pages, and support articles. Note the search queries each piece targets. 
• Categorize every content piece by topic for streamlined organization. 
• Run a search to determine each page’s ranking for relevant search queries. Paid SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can do this for you, or you can use Google Search Console for free.
• Analyze each content piece’s general performance with a tool like Google Analytics, looking at key metrics like organic traffic, bounce rates, and engagement levels.
• Sort content within each topic according to its search ranking and other performance metrics, identifying under-performing pieces.

2. Identify target keywords

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush to find keyword gaps you ought to be ranking for based on your industry and audience. Prioritize researching long-tail keywords (longer and more detailed search queries), as these are often easier to rank for since they’re more specific. 

Take the keywords from your under-performing pieces and add these new untapped queries to this list.

3. Research your competitor’s content

Investigate your competitors’ content using tools like BuzzSumo to understand why certain pieces outperform yours. Here are a few crucial steps to take:

• Compare your low-performing content to competitors’ similar pieces, considering the quality, structure, depth, and keyword use to better understand why their content outranks yours.
• Use SEO and other website traffic tools to see which keywords and subtopics your competitors cover so you can better understand how their strategy differs from yours. 
• Note any content areas competitors don’t cover that you do (or could). Filling a neglected gap is a great way to win a high SERP ranking.

4. Check the SERP and research the audience

At this stage, you should have a list of underperforming keywords and a better understanding of why the content correlating with these keywords isn’t performing as well as competitors’. 

Now, input each keyword into Google and scour search results for new topic ideas. If you find a topic that’s ranking well that you could cover better (or write about for the first time), click on it and research the audience likely reading this material. Here are a few questions to consider:

• What age range might frequent this publication?
• What psychographics might be apparent in this audience?
• What problem does the reader hope to solve by reading this material?
• What’s the audience’s intent when searching for this query and clicking on this result?

5. Craft a strategy

You now have a list of underperforming keywords mapped to content you could optimize, as well as keywords you’re not targeting yet. These keywords have also led you to a list of new topics and a better understanding of the right audience for them.

Shape a content optimization strategy around this list of keywords. For each one, decide whether you’ll create new pages, write new content into existing pages, or make subtle copy edits to incorporate them into existing content. Then, prioritize each step so you’re handling the most impactful changes first. Review the best practices section below for guidance on how to decide.

6. Produce content

Begin creating and updating content based on your strategy:

• Create new content. Write articles that fill identified gaps, ensuring they’re well-researched and address the target reader’s needs. 
• Optimize existing content. Update old content to improve SEO, adding new keywords and enhancing readability with tools like Grammarly and Hemmingway. 
• Use SEO tools. Before publishing, analyze your content with tools like Semrush’s SEO Content Checker to maximize each piece’s potential. 
• Track progress. Publish new pieces and monitor their relevant search queries. After a few months, conduct another audit to assess improvements and refine your strategy as needed.

Best practices for conducting an advanced content gap analysis

Your content gap analysis will likely become a treasure trove of data. It might seem overwhelming initially, but try these best practices for an efficient approach.

Research many competitors

When researching possible content gaps, check different competitors to see what they’re doing. Don’t just analyze your biggest, direct competitors — smaller competitors in adjacent industries are probably trying to fill their own gaps so they can compete, too. Find out what they’re doing to ensure you’re casting a wide net and learning as much as possible early in the process.

Focus on audience intent

Search intent is a primary factor in determining search engine marketing scores and search rankings. It’s defined by operative keywords that indicate users’ goals when they search. Aligning your portfolio with these keywords can significantly impact your SEO, especially if you focus your cornerstone content on them. Here are a few examples:

• Buy. Create content that points users to where they can make purchases or recommends which products they should buy.
• Increase/Improve. Write lists of best practices and tips that help readers understand how to improve something they already have.
• How to. Publish guides that use the phrase “How to” in headings and subheadings and outline step-by-step processes to teach readers how to perform a task.

Prioritize high-impact opportunities

For new article topics, look for high-volume keywords where you have zero or very little presence. Filling these gaps should be your biggest priority so you can capture high demand. 

When adding content to existing articles, look for places where you’re in striking distance — either the second or third position of Google search results. You’ll gain much more traffic going from #3 to #1 than you will going from #7 to #5. And a 2024 First Page Sage study found that the first search result sees a 39.8% CTR compared to just 10.2% for the third.

Create content workflows

Over time, you’ll learn valuable information about what works for your audience (and content creation team). Use it to create templates and standardize processes that streamline content development. 

For example, you could create an outline for all “how to” articles that lists which headings those articles should feature, and write a standard process for drafting, editing, and publishing these articles.

Develop a style guide

Similarly, a style guide encourages consistency across content. It describes a tone, like conversational or friendly, that you want articles to convey. And it lays out numerous small rules, such as what case you use for headings, how to spell certain words, or whether you use the ever-divisive Oxford comma.

Host and grow your content with Webflow

As your content offering matures, you’ll need increasingly sophisticated tools to organize and optimize it. 

Webflow’s content management system (CMS) solution enables content teams to quickly add and edit content — without relying on code or developers. Plus, the suite of SEO tools in Webflow Enterprise — like auto-generated metadata and redirect management — empowers editors, marketers, and developers alike to optimize front-end and back-end SEO.