Content gap analysis (CGA) should be integral to your content marketing strategy. Why? It’s useful for spotting potential topics, keywords or even article layouts and headings that your content may be missing. This will help you to provide more helpful content for your website visitors, as well as help you get ahead of the competition.
In this article, we will be delving deeper into the world of content gap analysis so that you can use it to your advantage.
What is content gap analysis in SEO?
Content gap analysis does exactly what it says on the tin. This content marketing strategy involves comparing your content to similar well-performing articles or landing pages and analysing what’s missing. This is also a key component of competitor analysis (we discuss this in more detail here).
There are a whole host of tools you can use to carry out a content gap analysis, but one of the simplest ways to look at the pages that are ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs. You can compare factors such as:
- Content length
- Visuals
- Headings
- Topics
- Structured data
- Content detail
This technique also requires some self-reflection to help you see whether your content is the best.
The benefits
In terms of SEO, you can benefit from conducting a content gap analysis in many ways. However, it’s essential to remember that you’re always creating content for an end-user and a search engine. So providing more useful information on a topic will also help improve your user experience.
CGA can also offer the following benefits:
- Improving SERP rankings
- Increase conversions
- Identify less-competitive niches to target
- Gain a competitive advantage
Common content gaps to look out for
Content gaps can vary between industries, but there are some key areas where people fall short. This includes the following…
Outdated content
If your content is old or outdated, this could be harming your rankings. Generally, it’s good practice to refresh and update your content every so often to ensure it’s still relevant.
Content detail
Does your content effectively answer all of your website visitors’ questions? If the answer is no, likely, your web page isn’t detailed enough. Fortunately, keyword research and a CGA can help you to identify topics to include to make your landing pages and blog posts more detailed.
Usability
Usability and UX are key factors to consider when comparing content to competitors. Users rarely want to see a large block of text on a web page. Therefore, it’s vital to ensure your content is user-friendly and easy to read to improve your chances of SEO success.
This also ties in with Google’s page experience algorithm update. Sites that don’t provide a positive page experience will not rank as well as those that do.
What is the best strategy for content gap analysis?
In reality, no one set way to conduct a content gap analysis exists. However, you should cover some key areas to ensure your analysis hits all bases.
Analyse the buyer journey
Looking at your buyer journey can actually help you to create demand for your product or service. The buyer journey typically involves three stages:
- Awareness – Potential consumer has a problem but is unsure of what it’s called
- Consideration – Potential customer has found the name of their problem and is now researching solutions
- Purchase – Potential customer has found the solution to their problem and is now looking for the best available option
You can now create content to target people in different phases of the buyer journey. For example:
- Awareness content – Informative and solves problems, e.g. how-to’s and guides
- Consideration content – Persuasive and authoritative, e.g. whitepapers and reports
- Purchase content – Personalised and high-value, e.g. customer stories, reviews, demonstrations and free trials
Keyword research
The keyword research process will provide invaluable insights into your content. It will help you to identify terms users are searching for to find products or services like yours. Once you’ve found a selection of relevant, long-tailed and short-tailed keywords, this will form the basis of your content marketing strategy.
With tools like Ahrefs, you can find out which keywords your competitors are ranking for with the Site Explorer tool.
Review your existing content
It might sound simple, but one of the best ways to identify content gaps is taking a critical look at your own website content. You’ll need to ask yourself:
- Does the page/copy answer all of your potential customer’s questions?
- Is it too long/short?
- Does your content align with the customer journey?
- Are there any topics you haven’t covered yet? (Your keyword research will help you with this)
By taking a deep dive into your own content, you’ll easily be able to spot areas for improvement and create a priority list. Start with the least SEO-friendly pages first to see the biggest impact.
Review competitor content
Analysing competitor content can help you improve your copy significantly. It’s also an essential part of a successful content marketing strategy. There are many different ways to do this too. This includes:
- Looking at competitors that are ranking higher than you in the SERPs
- Using tools like Screaming Frog and Buzzsumo to get a full list of your competitor’s website pages
- Look at your main competitors’ website structure – are there any service or category pages missing your site?
- Review competitors’ blog post content to see if there are topics you have missed or you can improve on
You must sift through your competitors’ content to find the most useful and relevant pages. It’s important to remember that copying other peoples’ content directly can negatively impact your search engine rankings. Therefore, it’s best to take inspiration and improve on your competitors’ content to protect your site’s SEO. Take a look at our guide on this here.
Content gap analysis tools, tips & tricks to use
There are countless SEO tools out there for you to use for your content gap analysis. This includes a combination of free and paid-for tools that you can use to streamline this process.
Ahrefs Content Gap tool
The Ahrefs Content Gap feature eliminates all the hard work in analysing competitors’ keywords. The tool allows you to enter the URLs of your competitors and your own, and it will tell you which keywords they are targeting and ranking for, and you’re not.
Seobility’s TF*IDF tool
You can use the TF*IDF tool to find which keywords most websites use to describe a particular topic. You can then use this information:
- For competitor analysis
- To find out common keywords used in your sector
- To optimise website content
- To find ideas for new content
Whilst you only get 3 free searches per day, this can provide an in-depth insight into the keywords you may have missed and can use to improve your website copy.
How the Candidsky team can help
Confused by the concept of a content gap analysis? Don’t worry, leave the hard work to us! Here at CandidSky, our content marketing strategists will work closely with you to create a bespoke SEO campaign that generates valuable, targeted traffic to your site.
Get in touch with our Manchester SEO agency today to get started.