Every content marketing team knows this type of writer’s issues: you’ve already created a lot of content and now you’ve run out of new topics. But, if you find yourself or your blog in this situation, all you have to do is fulfill a content gap analysis.
A content gap analysis will give you information about how to improve your content strategy to get valuable traffic and achieve your marketing goals. In this post, we’ll talk about what is content gap analysis, why it’s important for the content that readers appreciate, and how to carry it out.
What Is Content Gap Analysis?
Content Gap Analysis is the process of estimating existing content on the articles you have and discovering “gaps” in that content to fill them in.
It covers finding missing content topics that could and should align with the interests of your target audience and some stages of the buyer’s journey.
Analyzing your existing content helps you find where you might be missing valuable assets that could guide prospects to the point of purchase.
A content gap audit is the best way to get insights into your website content. Once you finish this analysis, you will know which content you have at the different steps of the marketing funnel and how to improve it identifying what new content you should create and promote.
The purpose of Content Gap Analysis is to find the missing content, create the posts you missed, and drive more traffic to your website.
Why Do You Need to Find Content Gaps?
Now you know what a content gap analysis is and here is why it matters. Let’s see why you need to know about these gaps and fill them.
Here are a few important reasons you should find content gaps:
A content gap analysis gives opportunities
If there are topics or keywords out there that your competition hasn’t written about, it’s an opportunity for you to become valuable for readers. You can provide those articles before anyone else does, helping you get valuable traffic.
A content gap helps you earn a good reputation
If your blog is the only credible source ranking in content gap areas, you set yourself up as an authority. People will trust your business and information because they will see the expert in you on the subject.
A content gap helps you perform better
When you’re working to fill in content gaps, you improve your content’s overall performance by generating more traffic and leads. It’s a great way to increase your website’s performance in search engines and improve your search engine optimization (SEO).
By doing a content gap analysis to identify gap areas, you can get a lot of benefits from creating content within those gaps.
Steps to Conducting a Content Gap Analysis
Content gap analysis is more than simply estimating blog posts for the missing topics and juicy content ideas. You have to reestimate the keywords you’re working with and analyze the performance of the posts you already have.
1. Carry out competitor keyword research
The easiest way to find content gaps is to carry out competitor keyword research. You can use services like SEMrush, Buzzsumo, or Ahrefs to help you find the right content.
All you need to do is take a link to the page from a competitor’s website and put it into the tool to see what keywords they rank for in search results. From that point, you can search those keywords on Google and see what results it shows you.
Then if you look at the search results and don’t see many credible sites talking about those key terms, use this great opportunity to be the first with quality expertise.
2. Look at what’s already ranking for keywords
Now, let’s say you did your content gap analysis and found some strong competitors ranking for the keyword. The next step you have to take is to analyze those blogs that already rank for the keyword.
This step is important because it helps you identify where gaps lie within the content that already ranks.
You have to look at each page and analyze the following areas:
Thoroughness
How in-depth does the page cover the topic? Try to outperform competitors by covering the topic more in-depth.
Focus
Does the content stay focused on the topic and cover the subject completely? If there’s content that seems disorganized or described badly, you have an opportunity to provide better-planned content.
Freshness
When was this content created? If there are posts that are three or more years old ranking in the results, you have a great opportunity to create updated content. You can give fresh information to readers.
Readability
Is the content clear and easy to read? If it’s confusing, advantage of an opportunity to explain the topic clearly and concisely to readers.
Style
Is the content interesting and valuable? If other blogs aren’t creating engaging content, create a shareable piece that attracts leads and gets better reach.
When you do a content gap analysis for SEO, analyze these different areas to see if the pages already ranking fit those items. If there are one or two areas where they perform badly, you can deliver better content in those areas.
3. Identify what the content misses
The last step of your content gap analysis is to find what’s missing from the content that’s ranking. Analyzing the key points listed above is a starting point –– you need to find out what’s missing or not included in your page.
Find pieces that were done poorly in different areas. Work with missing pieces by writing and adding them to your own. By finding what competitor content lacks, you can find opportunities to fill those gaps, create better content, and make the best blog in your niche.
Next internal steps:
1. Audit your content
Now it’s your turn to work with the posts on your blog. When you analyze content for your website, you may find gaps within your content that you can fill. You may have overlooked some topics that would fit perfectly for your website or blog.
Conduct a thorough analysis of your currently published content to figure out missing areas of content you can use as opportunities to drive new traffic.
2. Continually look for content gaps
One of the biggest misconceptions about content gap analysis is that you only need to do it once. That’s not true. You should continually work on identifying content gaps because new ones are constantly appearing.
There may be posts that, today, have fresh information. But in six months, that information may change, and now the list of topics might be outdated. You must regularly analyze content and find content gaps as they appear.
In addition, you may discover new gaps you hadn’t thought about previously. You might find a new topic or discussion you didn’t know about earlier. Continuous content gap analyses will help you evolve your content strategy over time.
Top 5 tools for Content GAP Analysis
There is a wide variety of services to perform a Content GAP Analysis, these can be free or paid. Below you’ll find a compilation of the 5 most well-known tools :
1. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a content analysis platform that allows you to search for content related to your topics of interest and see those that are performing best on social networks or ranking better in search engines. You can also use Buzzsumo to compare the performance of your content with that of your competitors.
2. SEMrush
SEMrush is one of the most popular content marketing services. It offers a Content GAP function that allows you to compare your site with that of your competitors and find the keywords that you don’t use. Additionally, it also provides data on keyword performance metrics to help you discover the best opportunities.
3. Ahrefs
Ahrefs has similar features to SEMrush. This tool allows you to compare the content of your website with that of your competitors and discover keywords and topics that you miss. It also shows the keywords that competitors are ranking and you are not, which can help you find new gaps in the content.
4. Google Ads and Google Keyword Planner
Running a campaign with Google Adwords allows you to get information about keywords so that we can identify the gap between the words it provides us and our current list. Additionally, you can compare search results for different keywords and discover new content opportunities.
5. ContentKing
ContentKing allows you to carry out a content inventory, that is, carry out an SEO audit in real-time on the performance of the current and desired content. As a result, they show you the existing content gaps.
These are some of the tools that can be used to perform a Content GAP Analysis. It is important to choose the perfect tool for your project or the combination of them that best adapts to the needs and objectives you need.
To Sum Up
If you need help in creating valuable content for your business, our team at PRNEWS.IO can assist you. Our skilled team will create a customized content strategy based on your specific needs, and then distribute all the content you need to earn ideal customers. Let us take the most difficult and routine part of work off your shoulders so you can focus on running the rest of your business.
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