Content Gap Analysis

The typical process pulls a competitor's full ranking-keyword list from an SEO tool, filters out branded and clearly irrelevant terms, then cross-references it against a site's own ranking keywords to isolate the topics where the competitor ranks and the site has no page at all (a true gap) versus topics where both rank but the competitor ranks higher (a content or authority gap, not a coverage gap). Gaps found this way still need a second filter — search volume, keyword difficulty, and genuine relevance to the business — since not every topic a competitor covers is worth chasing, especially if it's tangential to the core product or has negligible search demand. Content gap analysis works best run against 3-5 relevant competitors rather than just one, since a single competitor's content strategy might itself have blind spots.

Example

Cross-referencing a competitor's ranking keywords against a site's own list surfaces 60 topics the competitor ranks for with zero corresponding page on the site — filtered down to 18 worth actually writing.

Related terms

• Keyword Gap
• Competitor Analysis
• Topical Authority
• Keyword Research
• Search Volume