Does your website’s content scratch every itch your target audience has?
If it doesn’t, you could be dealing with a content gap, which is more common than you might think.
A content gap occurs whenever there’s a difference between the type of content your audience wants and the content actually provided on your website.
In other words, your site isn’t delivering the goods for certain *** topics, so your audience will look elsewhere.
A quick example would be a user looking for a tutorial video on how to plant roses. If they can’t find one on your gardening site, they’ll look somewhere else until they find it.
Content gaps aren’t good for your business, as it’s likely that those views (and potential dollars) will flood your competitor’s websites to consume their content instead.
How can you find out if you have a content gap?
You can by conducting a content gap analysis, which is what we’re going to teach you how to do today.
Besides uncovering costly gaps in your content, a content gap analysis is also an excellent tool for generating hundreds of valuable content ideas.
This is enormously helpful due to the sheer amount of content most websites have to publish to maintain their brand’s reputation and SERP (search engine results pages) rankings. 90% of marketers now include content in their marketing strategies, and those ideas have to come from somewhere!
Stay tuned to learn how you can conduct a content gap analysis on your website and score tons of content ideas in the process.
What Is A Content Gap Analysis?
At its core, a content gap analysis is a way to identify missing topics (or gaps) in your current library of content.
The goal of using content to improve marketing and SEO is to consistently generate traffic from your target audience, and the only way to do that is to cover the topics that mean the most to them.
Ideally, your content should:
- Identify your audience’s primary pain points and problems
- Address and provide solutions for said issues (typically through the use of one of your products or services)
- Cover pressing news stories that matter to your audience
- Entertain and delight your audience
However, even with an airtight content strategy that ticks all the boxes presented above, content gaps can still occur.
This is because it’s next to impossible to stay on top of every trending topic and pain point that pops up for your target audience. Besides trending news stories, it can be difficult to predict what your audience will search for next, which is why regular content gap analyses are a good idea.
Whenever a content gap occurs, it means your audience members are searching for content topics on your site that aren’t there.
As a result, they’ll likely turn to your competitors to find the content they need.
However, conducting a content gap analysis will help you identify and eventually bridge these gaps.
Filling your content gaps will ensure your target audience always finds what they need on your site, negating the need to turn to your competitors.
A typical content gap analysis involves:
- Evaluating your current content by looking at what you already have and determining where it might be falling short for your audience.
- Investigate what your rivals are offering and where they might excel, all while highlighting potential areas for improvement or differentiation.
- Pinpointing the missing content pieces and keyword opportunities that could lead to increased traffic, engagement, and, ultimately, sales.
Why is a content gap analysis important?
A content gap analysis is a time investment and, depending on the tools you use, can also cost money.
For these reasons, it may take a little convincing before you’re 100% on board with the idea.
Here are the main reasons why a content gap analysis is worth the effort:
✅Guide your audience: You’ll be able to fill in the missing pieces of their buyer’s journey, seamlessly directing them towards making a purchase and becoming a loyal brand advocate.
✅Unlock new opportunities: During your gap analysis, you’ll likely come across new keyword opportunities that you can use to create new pieces of powerful content.
✅Outsmart the competition: Take what works for your competitors and re-engineer it to work in your favor.
✅Make your content count: Once you’ve cleared any content gaps, you’ll ensure that every piece of content you create serves a purpose for your audience and contributes to your overall goals.
How to Conduct a Content Gap Analysis in 6 Steps
To properly conduct a content gap analysis, you must find ways to learn about the type of content your audience wants but that you aren’t currently creating.
This can be a tall task, especially without a sense of direction.
That’s why we broke down the process into these 6 digestible steps.
Step 1: Understand your buyer’s journey
Every day online, qualified prospects from your target audience search for answers to questions related to your products or services.
However, people don’t usually just wake up and buy something on a whim.
Usually, a deliberation process takes place before buying a product or service. We call this the buyer’s journey, and it has several stages.
| Key point: B2B buyers spend up to 90% of their decision journey simply educating themselves on a service or product. |
Buyer’s Journey Stage #1: Awareness
The first stage occurs whenever a prospect becomes aware that they need a product or service.
It could be that they ran into a new problem that they aren’t equipped to solve or simply desire something new.
Whatever the cause may be, the first stage of the buyer’s journey begins the second a little lightbulb forms behind your prospects’ head (metaphorically, of course) as they realize they need to search online for a new product or service.
Content types for this stage include:
- Informative blogs that answer questions
- How-to’s and tutorials
- FAQs
- Educational blogs that dive deep into relevant topics
Buyer’s Journey Stage #2: Consideration
Next, the prospect begins considering their options regarding products and services that can potentially resolve their issue or fulfill their burning desires.
This means they’ll do targeted searches for content like:
- Comparison posts (pinning two products and services against each other)
- Buyer’s guides (breaking down the best available options on the market right now)
- ‘Best of’ posts (taking a look at the cream of the crop)
For this stage, your best bet is to create content that compares your products and services to those of your competitors. Of course, you want to position your brand as the best solution to your audience’s problem (unless you want to give your competitors the business).
Buyer’s Journey Stage #3: Decision
At this point, the prospect has weighed their options, and their wallet is about to come out.
Nobody waits around forever, and your prospect will eventually make a buying decision. Your job is to convince them to go with your business instead of a competitor, and your content is one of your strongest *******.
The decision stage is where most website’s ‘money’ pages show up. These are sales pages, product pages, and other landing pages that you optimize for conversions.
Put differently, these pages are the final checkpoint before the prospect buys something or reaches out for a consultation. As a result, these pages should drive the hardest to achieve conversions.
So far, you’ve built the prospects’ trust through targeted content at every stage of their buyer’s journey. This means you don’t have to beat around the bush anymore, so hit them with a clear and concise call-to-action (CTA) to get them to complete your desired action (i.e., making a purchase or booking a spot on your calendar).
Buyer’s Journey Stage #4: Success
The buyer’s journey doesn’t end once the prospect converts into a customer.
Instead, it kicks off the success/delight stage, which lasts into the immediate future. After all, ensuring your existing customers are happy is half the battle, so you don’t want to neglect your newly converted customers.
Something as simple as a Thank You page or as complex as a series of follow-up emails are both great ways to show your appreciation to new customers.
If you choose to send them follow-up emails, don’t forget to connect them with your customer support team or to ask for a review.
Why mapping your buyer’s journey matters
Here’s why it’s worth taking the time to map out your customer journey during a content gap analysis:
Targeted Content Creation
By understanding the buyer’s journey, you can create content that addresses your audience’s questions and concerns at each stage.
This is a terrific way to ensure your content is truly helpful to your audience, which will increase engagement and guide them toward becoming a customer.
Targeted Keyword Selection
Each stage of the buyer’s journey is associated with different keywords and search intent. For example, in the awareness stage, people might search for broad terms like ‘best running shoes.’
In the decision stage, they might use more specific terms like ‘Nike vs. Adidas running shoes.’ By understanding these distinctions, you can select the right keywords to target at each stage, increasing the chances that your content ranks higher in the search results.
Identifying Gaps
Mapping the buyer’s journey reveals where your current content may be lacking, which is the whole point of a gap analysis.
For example, you might discover that you have plenty of content for the awareness stage but very little for the consideration or decision stages.
That means you’ll need to even things out in order to appeal to users during the crucial consideration and decision stages (which matter most for landing sales).
Understanding your buyer’s journey gives you a roadmap for your content gap analysis. It ensures that your content is relevant, engaging, and strategically aligned with your goals.
Step 2: Conduct market research
While mapping the buyer’s journey is a crucial step, it’s not 100% effective at identifying all possible content gaps that may exist on your site.
That’s where conducting market research enters the picture.
After all, one of the best ways to come up with effective content ideas that resonate with your target audience is just to ask them what they want directly.
How do you do that?
The best way is to conduct a market research survey. It will uncover your audience’s burning questions, pain points, needs, desires, and goals.
Create a quick and easy anonymous survey using Google Forms or a similar tool, and ask your target audience questions like:
- What questions do you have about [topic]?
- What are your biggest challenges when it comes to [topic]?
- What solutions have you tried in the past?
- Why didn’t those solutions work for you?
- What are the top three things you look for in a [service/product]?
- Where do you usually search for solutions like [service/product]?
- What factors influence your choice between [Solution A] and [Solution B]?
These responses will fuel your strategy and guide you toward creating content that truly speaks to your audience.
Step 3: Audit your existing content
A content gap analysis isn’t just about generating ideas for new content; it’s also about auditing your existing library of content to see if anything’s missing.
Also, it’s normal for content to become outdated and irrelevant after a certain period of time, and a content audit is the best way to identify aging pieces that need a refresher.
Put simply, a content audit involves comprehensively evaluating all the content currently populating your website.
You can think of it like taking inventory of your digital assets, where you count, catalog, and analyze each piece to assess its quality, accuracy, and relevance.
Along the way, keep the market research that you gathered in step 2 in mind.
Take a look at your customers’ answers to your survey questions and compare them with your current content.
Does the content provide what your audience is looking for, or are your old pieces way off base?
Here’s a helpful chart for evaluating the effectiveness of your existing content:
| Criteria | Description |
| Relevance | Does the content still align with your target audience’s interests and needs? |
| Accuracy | Is the information up-to-**** and factually correct? |
| Quality | Is the content well-written, engaging, and visually appealing? |
| Performance | How is the content performing in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions? |
| SEO | Is the content optimized for search engines, using relevant keywords and metadata? |
| Content Freshness | Is the content regularly updated to reflect the latest trends and information? |
| Thoroughness | Does the content cover the topic comprehensively, addressing all relevant questions and concerns? |
| Usability | Is the content easy to read, navigate, and share? |
| Unanswered Questions | Are there any gaps in the information provided? Are there opportunities to expand on certain topics or answer additional questions? |
| Buyer’s Intent | Does the content align with the user’s intent at each stage of the buyer’s journey? |
By analyzing your existing content through this lens, you can identify underperforming pieces and uncover opportunities for improvement.
This could involve:
- Updating old content to re-optimize it for better rankings
- Creating new content to fill in gaps
- Removing irrelevant or outdated content that no longer serves your audience.
Remember, even content published a year ago might need a refresh to make it relevant and competitive in search rankings again.
In our case, we’re constantly refreshing and updating our blogs, which is due to the rapid pace of the digital marketing world.
Our team is constantly adding new algorithm updates, updating the names of old tools (like Google PageSpeed Insights getting included in Google Lighthouse), and making other tweaks to keep our content fresh.
Step 4: Take a look at your competitors
No content gap analysis would be complete without taking an in-depth look at what your competitors are doing.
There are two different types of competitors you should consider:
- Direct competitors: These are businesses that sell the same products and services as you do.
- Indirect competitors: Businesses that don’t sell exactly what you do but sell to the same audience.
The best place to find direct and indirect competitors is to search online.
Here’s how:
- Search for keywords and phrases related to your products or services on Google and other search engines.
- Identify the websites that consistently rank high in the search results, as these are your top competitors.
Besides Google, we have a free tool on our site that will quickly identify your top competitors on Google (it’s powered by Semrush’s data, so it’s incredibly reliable).
The Search Competition Tool works by entering your URL, and you’ll get to view a full competition report:
Once you find your competitors, another tool on our website comes in handy. With our free Keyword Gap Analysis Tool, you can look at the top-performing keywords of up to three competitors.
Make sure to use http:// or https:// before the URL:
Pro Tip: Feel free to change out the competitors to get the best results. Sometimes, if you have a competitor with a big site, they might rank for keywords that are not super relevant, so just switch them out with a smaller competitor. Additionally, you can use specific URLs instead of entire domains to narrow down the results.
Step 5: Identify keyword opportunities
When you run the tool, it will pull up many keyword ideas (usually 100+ if you use the right competitors).
These are all keywords that your competitors are ranking for, but you aren’t, so pay close attention!
Look for keywords or topics that make sense in your customer journey, and then prioritize them accordingly.
You should also consider the search volume and keyword difficulty for each term when selecting your targets.
Competitor keywords are great because:
- They can inform you of content gaps.
- You can generate ideas for new types of content.
- You may uncover interests you didn’t know your target audience had.
Ideally, the keywords you choose to use should have A) a high search volume and B) a relatively low keyword difficulty score.
Step 6: Create the content
Based on your analysis so far, prioritize filling any content gaps that align with your business goals and your audience’s needs.
From there, put together a content calendar that outlines all the topics, formats, and publication dates for your new content ideas. This will help you solidify your general ideas into concrete pieces of content that have deadlines – which will provide you with a tangible goal and a roadmap to success.
Remember, quality beats quantity in an age of oversaturated AI-generated content.
This means you should take your time creating truly valuable content that contains original insights, first-hand experiences, engaging visuals, and demonstrates your expertise.
Also, don’t forget about repurposing existing content to fill gaps or reach new audiences that you know are interested in what you do.
Final Thoughts
Performing a content gap analysis is the #1 way to uncover costly gaps in your content that could be feeding your competitors lots of business.
By mapping your customer’s buyer journey, analyzing your competitors, and conducting market research, you’ll gain an intimate understanding of the type of content your target audience wants to see.
This will give you an edge over competitors, so you have every incentive to dive into the minds of your customers to learn what makes them tick.
Do you still have lingering questions about content gaps or SEO in general?
If so, feel free to reach out and schedule a call with one of our experts today to learn more! Also, check out HOTH X, our fully managed service that provides hands-off SEO success!
Content Gap Analysis FAQs
What is a content gap analysis?
A content gap analysis identifies missing or underperforming content on your website compared to your competitors, industry standards, or the needs and interests of your target audience.
It involves evaluating your existing content, researching competitors and keywords, and identifying opportunities to create new content that fills those gaps.
Why is a content gap analysis crucial for SEO?
A content gap analysis is crucial for several reasons:
- Improved SEO: By filling content gaps with targeted keywords and topics, you increase the likelihood of your website ranking higher in search results, leading to more organic traffic.
- Enhanced UX: Understanding and addressing your audience’s needs through relevant content improves their overall experience on your website, increasing engagement and potentially leading to conversions.
- Competitive advantage: A thorough analysis allows you to uncover areas where you can outshine your competitors by providing unique and valuable content they might be missing.
How often should I conduct a content gap analysis?
Conducting a content gap analysis at least once a year or whenever you notice a significant change in your industry or target audience’s behavior is recommended. However, you can also perform more frequent analyses if you feel they’re necessary.
What are some common content gaps to look for?
Some common content gaps include:
- Missing topics: Important topics or keywords that your audience is searching for but you haven’t covered yet.
- Outdated content: Information that is no longer accurate or relevant.
- Underperforming content: Content that isn’t generating traffic, engagement, or conversions.
- Lack of content for specific buyer’s journey stages: Not having content that addresses the needs and concerns of your audience at each stage of their decision-making process.
How do I prioritize which content gaps to fill first?
Consider factors such as:
- Relevance: How relevant is the topic to your target audience’s needs and interests?
- Search volume: How many people are searching for information on this topic?
- Competition: How competitive is the keyword landscape for this topic?
- Potential impact: How much of an impact could filling this gap have on your overall goals?
