How To Do A Content Gap Analysis | Find Easy Wins

It’s a uniquely frustrating feeling. You’re pouring everything into your content, hitting that publish button on schedule, and following all the best practices. But your traffic chart remains stubbornly flat. Then you glance over at your competitors, and it seems like they’ve found a secret playbook. They’re everywhere, ranking for everything.

What’s their secret? I’ve been there. I’ve sat with that same cold cup of coffee, staring at my own flatlining analytics, wondering the exact same thing. The truth is, it’s rarely some complicated trick. They just understand what their audience wants to know. They’ve found the gaps in the conversation. This guide is going to show you exactly how to do a content gap analysis to find those same openings and turn them into your own easy wins.

This is the very process that flipped my content strategy on its head, swapping out pure guesswork for a data-driven roadmap that actually works.

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Key Takeaways

• A content gap analysis pinpoints topics and keywords your competition ranks for, but you don’t. It’s that simple.
• The real prize is uncovering “easy wins”—valuable topics your audience is already searching for that you can realistically claim without an impossible fight.
• The process is straightforward: map your content, analyze your competitors’ content, and use an SEO tool to see what you’re missing.
• Doing this helps you map out your customer’s journey and answer the questions they have before they even think to ask.
• This isn’t just about writing new articles. It’s also about finding older content that’s ripe for an update to fill these crucial gaps.

So, What Exactly Is a Content Gap Analysis Anyway?

Let’s cut through the marketing speak for a minute.

Picture yourself owning a local hardware store. One afternoon, you stroll into your competitor’s shop across town just to see what’s new. You immediately spot a whole aisle of specialty gardening tools—a product line you know is wildly popular but that you’ve never stocked. People are buzzing around it. That dusty, empty corner in your own store where those tools could be?

That’s a content gap.

A content gap analysis is just the digital version of that walkthrough. It’s about looking at the search results page as your town, seeing your competitors’ content as their inventory, and spotting the valuable “products” (keywords) they have on their shelves that you’re missing. It’s a methodical way to find the questions people are asking Google that your competition is answering, but you are not. It puts a giant spotlight on your blind spots.

Why Should I Even Bother With This? Isn’t It Just More Work?

I hear you. Your content calendar probably feels packed as it is. Adding another “analysis” to the to-do list can feel like the last thing you need. But this isn’t about creating more work. It’s about ensuring the work you’re already doing gets the impact it deserves. It’s about trading “busy” for “strategic.”

Are You Tired of Guessing What to Write Next?

My content planning used to be a glorified brainstorming session. We’d throw ideas on a whiteboard and run with whatever sounded good. It was a total crapshoot. Some articles would get a flicker of traffic; most would die a quiet death. There was no predictable pattern.

A content gap analysis kills the guesswork.

You stop asking, “What sounds like a good idea?” and start asking, “What proven topics are my competitors already winning with that we haven’t touched?” The data tells you what people want and what formats they prefer. Suddenly, you have a clear, validated list of ideas, and your content strategy shifts from a lottery ticket to a blueprint.

How Can You Ethically Steal Your Competitor’s Best Ideas?

Let’s be crystal clear: we’re not talking about plagiarism. We’re talking about competitive intelligence. Your competitors have already invested their time and budgets to figure out what your shared audience craves. Their success is a free research report for you.

When you analyze their wins, you get a cheat sheet. You can see which topics generate real traffic and which questions they’re answering effectively.

This gives you the chance to enter the conversation and do it better. Can you create a more in-depth guide? A clearer video? A fresh perspective they overlooked? You’re not just copying their work; you’re learning from it so you can outperform them. It’s the smartest, most ethical kind of market research there is.

Want to Find a Shortcut to More Traffic?

Here’s where it all clicks. A few years back, I was running a personal blog about collecting vintage watches. It was a passion project, but I was determined to grow it. After a year of solid work, my traffic hit a wall. I was stuck, convinced I had written about everything under the sun.

As a last-ditch effort, I ran a content gap analysis against two larger watch blogs. I plugged our three domains into an SEO tool and held my breath. The results were a wake-up call.

My competitors were sitting on page one for dozens of “how-to” and maintenance-focused keywords I had completely neglected. I saw terms like “how to clean a vintage watch dial,” “common problems with vintage Omega Seamasters,” and “safely replace a watch crystal.” I had been so focused on reviews that I missed what actual owners were struggling with.

I immediately got to work on a definitive, photo-rich guide to cleaning a watch dial. In less than three months, that single article was pulling in over a thousand organic visitors a week. It shot to the top of my analytics and unlocked a whole new content category that ended up doubling my blog’s traffic within the year.

That’s finding the gap.

What Tools Do I Need to Get Started?

You don’t need a massive, pricey tech subscription to make this happen. While professional tools make it faster, you only need a few key things to get going.

• A Solid SEO Tool: This is your one non-negotiable. It’s your compass and your map. The big names are Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz, and each one has a dedicated “Keyword Gap” or “Content Gap” tool. They let you pop in your domain and your competitors’ and they’ll generate the list of what you’re missing. Most offer a free trial, which is plenty to get your first analysis done.
• A Simple Spreadsheet: Never underestimate a clean spreadsheet. Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel is perfect for this. This is where you’ll organize the raw data from your SEO tool. A random list of keywords is just noise. An organized spreadsheet is a battle plan.
• Your Human Brain: This is your most critical asset. A tool will spit out data—keywords, search volumes, difficulty scores. But software doesn’t understand nuance. It can’t perfectly read search intent or tell you if a topic truly aligns with your business. Your brain is what turns that data into a winning strategy.

Ready to Dive In? Here’s How to Do a Content Gap Analysis, Step-by-Step

Alright, time to get our hands dirty. This is a simple, repeatable process. Follow these steps, and you’ll end up with a treasure map of new content ideas.

Step 1: Who Are You Really Competing Against?

First, you need to identify your true SEO competitors. People often get this wrong. Your main business rival isn’t always your main search competitor.

A local pizza shop competes with other pizzerias in town for sales. But in search results, they compete with Domino’s, Food & Wine magazine, and every food blogger with a “best pizza recipe.”

To find your actual search competitors, go to your SEO tool and type in a few of your most critical keywords. See which domains consistently appear on the first page. Those are your SEO competitors. Pick 2-4 of the most relevant ones to analyze.

Step 2: What Are You Already Ranking For?

You can’t find the gaps until you know the shape of your own territory. You need a baseline. Google Search Console will show you every query you’re ranking for under the “Performance” report. Even better, just type your own domain into Ahrefs or Semrush. The tool will generate a full list of your organic keywords. Export it.

Step 3: What Are Your Competitors Ranking For?

Time to do some recon. Repeat the exact same process from Step 2 for each of the competitors you identified. Enter their domains into your SEO tool one by one and export their complete lists of ranking keywords. Now you have a clear picture of what’s in their inventory.

Step 4: Where’s the Overlap (and Where Isn’t It)?

Here comes the “aha!” moment. Every major SEO tool has a feature built for this, whether it’s called “Content Gap,” “Keyword Gap,” or something similar.

You’ll see an interface where you can enter your domain and the competitor domains. Plug them in. Look for an option that says something like, “Show keywords that the targets rank for, but I don’t.” That’s the one you want.

Click go.

The tool will compare all the lists and generate a new, golden list: keywords that your competitors rank well for (usually top 10 or 20) but where your site is nowhere to be found.

This is your list of gaps.

I saw this firsthand with a SaaS client in the project management space. They were a small fish swimming with sharks like Asana and Trello. They felt completely boxed out. During our content gap analysis, one massive opportunity shone through: “Gantt chart alternatives.”

All the big players ranked for it, but usually as a throwaway line on a features page. No one truly owned the topic. My client’s software was the perfect modern alternative, but they’d never positioned it that way.

We built an entire content hub around that single idea, anchored by a pillar page on “The Best Gantt Chart Alternatives.” The results were insane. Their organic traffic for that topic cluster skyrocketed by over 300% in six months. It was a huge win hiding in plain sight.

I’ve Got a Huge List of Keywords… Now What?

Running the report is the easy part. You’re probably staring at a spreadsheet with hundreds, if not thousands, of keywords. The real work is filtering this down to find the true gems.

How Do You Separate the Gold from the Junk?

Not every keyword is a winner. You need a system to qualify them. I run every potential topic through a quick four-point check.

• Relevance: Is this topic actually related to my business? Does it connect to my products or services? If not, cross it off the list, no matter how high the search volume. It’s a distraction.
• Search Volume: How many people are actually searching for this? While big numbers are nice, don’t dismiss low-volume keywords. A hyper-specific term with 200 monthly searches might be far more valuable than a broad term with 20,000.
• Keyword Difficulty (KD): Your SEO tool will give you a score (usually 0-100) estimating how hard it is to rank for the term. Look for that sweet spot: decent search volume paired with a manageable KD. These are your easy wins.
• Search Intent: What does the person searching this really want? As Ahrefs explains, they usually want to know something, go somewhere, or buy something. Your content must match that intent, or it will fail.

Should I Create New Content or Update Old Pages?

Your prioritized list will point you in two directions. You have to decide which is the right path for each opportunity.

Creating new content is the obvious choice when you find a topic you haven’t covered at all. In my watch blog story, I had zero content about maintenance, so I had to build those articles from the ground up.

Updating existing content is a brilliant and efficient strategy when you find you’ve only partially covered a topic. For example, say you have a post on “5 Tips for Marathon Training” and the analysis uncovers “marathon training nutrition plan.” Instead of starting from scratch, you can go back and add a comprehensive 1,000-word section on nutrition to your existing article. This makes the page stronger, more helpful, and allows it to rank for a whole new set of keywords.

Can I See a Real-Life Example of This in Action?

Let’s make this crystal clear with a quick hypothetical.

Imagine you run sourdough-starter.com, a site for home bakers.

Step 1: Identify Competitors You know the-perfect-loaf.com and king-arthur-baking.com/blog are your main search rivals.

Step 2 & 3: Gather Keyword Data You export keyword lists for your site and for both competitors.

Step 4: Run the Gap Analysis You plug the three domains into your tool. It spits out a list of opportunities, including these gems:

• how to store sourdough starter (Volume: 5,400; KD: 18)
• sourdough discard recipes (Volume: 22,000; KD: 35)
• banneton basket alternative (Volume: 2,900; KD: 12)
• best flour for sourdough (Volume: 8,000; KD: 25)

Step 5: Analyze and Prioritize

• how to store sourdough starter: A home run. It’s a fundamental question with low difficulty. This is a perfect candidate for a new, dedicated blog post.
• sourdough discard recipes: The huge volume tells you this is a major pain point. Wasting discard feels bad! The KD is a little higher, but the traffic potential is massive. This is a new cornerstone article, like “10 Genius Sourdough Discard Recipes.”
• banneton basket alternative: Look at that! A super-specific question with low difficulty. This is an “easy win” you can answer in a new, quick-and-helpful post.
• best flour for sourdough: You realize your “Beginner’s Sourdough Recipe” post just says “use bread flour.” This is a golden update opportunity. You can expand that section into a detailed flour comparison, making the original post ten times more valuable.

And just like that, you have four data-backed content ideas—three new posts and one strategic update—that are practically guaranteed to hit the mark.

This Isn’t a One-Time Fix; It’s Your New Compass

A content gap analysis is more than just a task you do once. It’s a new way of thinking. It’s about letting your audience’s curiosity be your guide. This should become a regular part of your marketing rhythm—something you do every quarter to find fresh opportunities and stay ahead of the curve.

There’s a powerful confidence that comes from hitting “publish” when you know you’re answering a real, proven need. It replaces guesswork with growth.

So stop staring at that blank calendar.

Stop guessing.

Go find your easy wins.

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