Introduction
Imagine you’ve just published a blog post on your website. You hit publish, and then sit back and wait for the links, shares, and comments to start rolling in. But they don’t.
You check your analytics and notice that your post only had a handful of visits.
What happened? Chances are, you didn’t target the right audience.
Thankfully, there’s a solution: content gap analysis. In this article, we’ll teach you what it is and how to use it to improve your SEO.
What Is Content Gap Analysis?
So you’ve been plugging away at your SEO, writing blog posts and optimizing your website, and you think you’re finally seeing some movement in your traffic numbers.
But then you take a step back and realize that your competitors are outpacing you by a mile. What gives?
Well, it could be that your competitors are doing something that you’re not.
And more likely than not, that something is content gap analysis.
It is the process of finding and filling the content gaps between your website and your competitors’.
It’s a great way to improve your SEO, because it helps you identify what keywords you’re not targeting (or aren’t targeting as well as your competitors) and gives you ideas for new blog posts, and articles.
Why Is Content Gap Analysis Important for SEO?
Think about it this way: if you’re targeting a certain keyword or phrase, and your competitor is ranking higher than you for that term, they’re doing something that you’re not.
And chances are, they’ve got a content gap that you can exploit to your advantage.
It is the process of identifying those gaps and filling them with content that’s better than anything your competition has published.
It’s a powerful way to improve your SEO and close the gap between you and the top spot in the search results.
But it’s not as simple as copying and pasting your competitor’s article.
You need to do your research, find the right keywords, and write article that’s better than anything they’ve put out there.
If you can do that, you’ll start to see results in no time.
How to Conduct a Content Gap Analysis
Now that you understand what content gap analysis is, it’s time to learn how to do it.
The first step is to compile a list of all of your website’s current article.
This should include your blog posts, landing pages, product pages and any other article you have on your website.
Once you have this list, you then need to determine which of these pieces are the highest ranking and generate the most traffic.
From there, you can begin to analyze the gap between your current content and the article of your competitors.
This will give you an idea of what sort of article you need to create in order to stay ahead of the competition.
You can also use this information to determine where you should focus your SEO efforts.
How to Use Your Content Gap Analysis Results to Improve Your SEO
The first step is to make a list of the keywords you want to rank for.
Once you have your list, take a look at the results of your content gap analysis and identify the topics that you don’t have any content for.
These are the topics you need to write about! By creating articles around these topics, you’ll be able to rank for the keywords you’re targeting and improve your SEO.
Not sure where to start? Check out our blog post on how to write SEO-friendly blog posts.
Content Gap Analysis Tools
There are a few tools available that you can use to improve your SEO.
Below are the popular one’s.
Google Search Console
This is a free tool from Google that lets you see how your website is performing in search results.
You can use it to find out which keywords you’re ranking for, and where you need to improve.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a paid tool that offers a lot of features, including content gap analysis.
It can show you which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you’re not, so you can create article to fill those gaps.
Moz
Moz is another paid tool that offers content gap analysis as well as other features like keyword research and site audits.
All of these tools can help you improve your SEO by finding the right keywords to target, and the right topics to write about.
FAQs
Q: How do I know if I need to do a content gap analysis?
A: If you’re not sure whether your website is ranking as high as it could be, or if you’re not getting the traffic you want, then a content gap analysis can help you figure out what’s missing.
Q: What does a content gap analysis involve?
A: It involves looking at your website and comparing it to your competitor’s websites to see what kind of article they have that you don’t.
This can help you figure out what topics you should be writing about to improve your SEO.
Q: How do I do a content gap analysis?
A: There are a few different ways to do a content gap analysis, but one of the simplest is to use a tool like Google Sheets.
Just create a sheet with two columns, one for your website and one for your competitor’s website.
Then, start going through each page and noting down the topics that are covered.
Once you’ve done that, you can see where the gaps are and start brainstorming some new ideas.
Conclusion
It is a great way to improve your SEO and organic traffic.
By analyzing your competitor’s content, you can identify gaps in your own article and create new article to fill those gaps.
Additionally, you can use content gap analysis to improve your marketing strategy and focus on topics that are important to your audience but are not being adequately covered by your competitors.