Do you have missing pieces in your content strategy that are holding you back with SEO performance? Maybe you find yourself always the bridesmaid, never the bride when it comes to ranking number one in keyword search engine results. You may even be finding large sections of keywords that you aren’t even ranking for.
There is a strong chance you have heard the term “content gap” thrown around and you’re wondering what this magical phrase means. Well, that is exactly what we’re going to talk about today, so get ready to learn all about content gaps and how to confront them.
A “content gap” is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It is an area of topics or keywords that you are not ranking well for but would be beneficial for your SEO strategy. In other words, these gaps are where your competition is ranking and you are not. These are the areas where you need to focus your efforts and create more SEO content to win against your competition.
The first step in understanding your content gaps is establishing the keywords you wish to be ranking for. Then, you can evaluate how you are performing for these keywords. The first kind of content gap comes from the content that is ranking poorly for their target keywords.
The other kind of content gap comes from the keywords where you aren’t ranking at all because you have no content published.
Performing a content gap analysis can give you the strategic insight into which keywords are most important to target to close content gaps. This way, you know what to prioritize and what content you need to focus on creating.
Next, you can utilize Demandwell’s Keyword Lifecycle Maturity Model to better understand what your keyword rankings mean and the tactics that are going to help different keywords improve their rankings. Out of the five stages, a content gap will help you better understand the first two. Keyword Lifecycle Stage 1 involves any keyword that isn’t ranking, and stage 2 involves the keywords ranking on page two and beyond.
If you want to understand the Keywords Lifecycle Stages in more depth and the tactics involved with each stage, then we have a great blog post on the Keyword Lifecycle Maturity Model and how you can think of it like golf.
Even if you have not finished your keyword strategy, Demandwell has a tool that will perform a content gap analysis. This tool will create a Share of Search Report that uses the keyword rankings of your three largest competitors to identify content gaps instead of using a keyword list from your SEO strategy. This way, you can get a quick snapshot of what keywords your competitors are targeting as well as which keywords you have not published any content for. If you are looking for your own Share of Search Report, then you can fill out a form telling us your three biggest competitors and we will deliver a free Share of Search Report with a content gap analysis.
