Content Gap Analysis: How to Fix It?

If your industry is pretty wide, then there might be several topics that you still have not covered.

But what if your audience is not getting to read what they want to know?

You will know this soon if your site has a high bounce rate.

If they leave quickly and often, then there must be a loophole somewhere where the target audience despite being lured to your site with the right title and meta description is not getting what they want.

Not having the specific content is not the only issue.

In fact, it may also be the case that the content is just not engaging enough.

Or you are writing advanced techniques while your reader is only here to know basic knowledge which does not go over their head.

In order to keep the users engaged, the content the reader gets should be useful to them as well as current.

Why Should You Identify the Gaps?

Improves SEO and social shares

One of the biggest reasons to look at your content again is that it will make your content perform better.

This means that it will rank higher in terms of SEO and the content will also get more social hares.

In that case, you already know that your content is better among your competitors.

Usually searchers only visit the first page of the SERPs.

So if your content outranks the competitors in quality, it will do the same in ranking.

Can reduce bounce rate and increase conversions

As you improve the content at hand, the readers and visitors are more likely to stay.

Due to that, the on-site time increases and the bounce rate decreases.

Thus, the conversion rate and sales will also improve.

Connecting with Readers

When you fix your content and your readers get what they need, they will feel connected to your site.

You can build this relationship with your audience in order to form them to develop an emotional connection with the brand.

This is the connection that you will need in order to gain their trust as well as to keep them being a loyal customer of your brand.

If your content lacks depth then it will not impress the readers and keep them disconnected.

As  a result, your website and brand will soon lose value.

To keep it, you will have to maintain the readership and visitors.

Topic Gap

Topics are the obvious concern while analyzing gaps.

For instance, you need to ask if your site covers all the topics that your readers preferably want to read.

Is the content on topics that readers are interested in reading?

Moreover, does the site have comprehensive content for the readers present at all the levels?

If you answer negatively for even one of the answers, you know where your content needs improvement.

Through exploring the content gaps, you can add new content to your site, moreover, this is a way to discuss about new topics and problems in your specific niche.

Once you fill the gaps, you have quality content for your readers.

Keyword Gap

The CTR for head tail keyword queries is about 32.5 percent which is higher than long tail keywords at the position 1.

However, the reverse is true for position 2 where the long tail keywords have higher CTR for Google Search results.

Therefore, focusing on the long tail keywords can actually prove to be beneficial for your website.

You can make it to first page of SERPs without much competition and higher conversion rate.

In fact, you can outrank the generic content with overused phrases thus the traffic to your website increases.

Media Gaps

Over time, video has become a strong SEO requirement.

Lacking video content means you are not tapping into the vast video marketing category.

You will be surprised to know that 75 percent of consumers prefer watching videos than reading content to know about a product, service or some information.

It increases brand awareness, brings more traffic to the site and getting direct sales.

Plus, all you have to do is to convert your written content into video.

Check Competitors Using Google’s First Page

Your competitors are on the first page of Google, check what their content has that yours lacks.

You need to know what factors in the content are working for it.

• Thoroughness: Is the content detailed enough?
• Impressiveness: Is it good enough that it will be shared?
• Freshness of content: Is the content updated or when was it published?
• Usability: See if you can easily read or understand the content?

As you see these things in your competitors, make up for it in your own content.

You can also use other tools to facilitate the process for you.

Using SEO Tools

Tools such as SEMrush and Ubersuggest have a special feature for competitor analysis.

These allow you to to speed up the process by not manually analyzing each

Here you can see the top performing keywords of the competitors as well as the traffic they generate.

Some of these pages will have plenty of gaps, and you will also find out what keywords rank well.

Use these in your articles to write a good quality content.

Another use of tools is to not only check your competitors but also auditing your own content.

Check your keywords as well and analyze your content manually.

Look at it from a competitor’s eye and see where you are rambling, what keywords are missing and can the intro be shortened.

You may have to rework sentences and entire sections to produce a good quality content.

This way you will keep your content up to date without having  to rewrite it again.

Fixing Content Gap Analysis

Map the Customer’s Journey

Not all people visiting your site and looking at your content are here to purchase.

In fact, they may be collecting information or comparing prices in an e-commerce site.

If you have content that compels them to buy, it can be off-putting.

Thus, you have to map-out the buyer’s journey to make content in accordance.

This includes first analyzing what stages does your content cover.

This includes:

• Awareness
• Decision
• Consideration
• Success

The awareness pages will target keywords that address the problems of the buyer.

They can offer valuable information to the reader but will not necessarily convert them into a buyer.

The decision pages are the money pages where the user buys or contacts you.

This is where they take action so at this stage there is conversion.

Hence, these pages are more branded as they will attract a customer base.

In the consideration stage, the articles consist of round up posts, or comparison posts.

This is where people are comparing the solutions available to their problem.

Hence, they will read reviews, comparison guides and best of posts.

You can simply add your brand in a series of others.

The success stage is for buyers to know that they will receive their desired outcome.

It can be in the form of a follow-up email after the purchase or a simple Thank You message.

Now that you know about these stages, you should ideally make content for each of them.

Some customers may go on from one stage to another but some will remain in one stage.

Therefore, your content should address the queries and pain points of the customers.

Analyze how they use your website and make them aware of your products and services along the way.

Summing Up

A content gap analysis either manually or using tools will help you understand the shortcomings of your website.

This will further enable you to rework your content by looking at your competitors.

As you will be able to fill the gaps, your content can even rise above theirs in SERPs.

Therefore, regularly check your site for content gaps.

Keep it updated according to changing trends in order to appeal your audience.