At a glance, the concept of a content gap analysis seems pretty straightforward: Find things your competitors are writing about that you aren’t. While this is true, it doesn’t embody the full extent of what those “things” are. Let’s break it down.
In short, it’s easiest to start your audit with a high-level, topic gap analysis. This will help you identify specific pages other similar sites have that yours does not.
Next, you’ll want to break those topics down into queries (keywords).
Finally, those keywords will help you identify even more specific opportunities to outdo your competitors and take up more real estate in SERPs via SERP features and other “content” mediums like video, images, podcasts, etc.
In simplest terms, the goal of a topic gap analysis is to find pages your competitors have that you don’t. For single or multi-location businesses, for example, this will probably include both blog topics and service pages.
- Blog Pages – Generally speaking, blogs are a great opportunity to target long-tail keywords and question-based queries.
- Service Pages – Service pages, on the other hand, are going to focus on the specific thing customers pay your business for (i.e. Legal representation or veterinary care).
Content analysis for an ecommerce site, on the other hand, might include product pages, shelf pages, etc. in addition to long-form resources such as blogs, how-tos, etc.
Let’s say you’re an SMB that offers both HVAC and plumbing services in Tampa, Florida. In this situation, you probably want to rank for terms like, “Tampa HVAC repair,” “plumber Tampa,” and so on, since that’s how people who need your services tend to search.
Check out competitor websites (3-5 competitors are usually enough) and review the specific subtopics and niche service pages their sites include. In this situation, you might end up with a comparison that looks like this:
