How to Boost Your Content Strategy With Strategic Keyword Gap Analyses

Discovering unique content opportunities is a significant challenge for businesses in saturated markets. Take those in the supply chain; the seemingly obvious needs of a given freight broker for SEO can quickly become uncertain when you aren’t fully sure how to outpace your competitors. In these environments, standing out requires a strategic approach to content creation, and that means you must start with a strategic plan for search engine optimization (SEO). Why? 

The answer is simple. A robust SEO strategy is going to consider all aspects of how you’re ranking and what you can do to win. Ergo, you must have a clear understanding of what is and is not working for your competitors. But that will still leave much to be desired when you’re trying to figure out what is what. Let’s break down the overall issue and ensure you’re able to succeed in your keyword gap analyses without getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty.

Before the Gap: The Problem With Content Saturation

Many industries face an overabundance of similar content that makes it difficult for new material to gain traction, and the problem is only growing more prevalent in the age of generative AI. This saturation can significantly reduce visibility and engagement. The tech industry, for instance, is flooded with articles about the latest gadgets and software updates, creating redundancy. Similarly, the health sector is overwhelmed with wellness advice articles, making it hard for new contributions to gain notice. Even in finance, the proliferation of financial advice can overwhelm audiences, leaving little room for new voices. The sheer volume of content in these areas means that without a unique angle, your content may struggle to capture attention.

The Need for Differentiation

Standing out in a crowded market requires content that offers something different. This differentiation is key to attracting and retaining your audience’s attention. For example, in the fitness industry, if competitors focus solely on workout routines, creating content on diet plans and healthy eating can fill this gap. Travel blogs might cover popular destinations, but focusing on undiscovered locations or niche travel experiences can set your content apart. By identifying what competitors lack, you can create content that fills these gaps and meets the needs of your audience. Think strategically about how you can differentiate yourself from what your competitors are doing. In other words, try to focus on searches that your competitors cannot rank for and will not rank for based on their current content. 

That means, you need to look at the untapped opportunities, which is precisely what a keyword gap analysis does. But even with the plethora of tools on the market today, defining how to make that happen can feel almost impossible.  A competitor analysis is crucial to identifying these gaps and leveraging them to your advantage, but some gap analyses can have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of potential opportunities. Now, according to SEMrush, “Filtering for only keywords that have a relatively low keyword difficulty score is a good idea. You can do this by clicking the ‘KD’ drop-down menu, setting a manual range from 0 to 49, and selecting ‘Apply.'” You may also be new to the world of SEO tools, and each one definitely has a learning curve, so let’s go back a bit further. 

What Is a Keyword Gap Analysis?

A keyword gap analysis is a powerful tool for identifying content opportunities that your competitors have missed. This analysis compares the keywords your site ranks for against those of your competitors, revealing gaps you can target to drive organic traffic. For example, if all your competitors rank for “LTL freight in the US,” you can tap that potential keyword for your site. However, all competitors ranking for a specific term means the competition is very high, so it may be best to look at individual competitors to define where a few may rank that others don’t. But this is where it gets even more convoluted. Comparing two domains is far more data to analyze than a group comparison, so you’ll need the time and wherewithal to review every term. 

As a recent example, JCI Marketing conducted a keyword gap analysis for an AI-driven solutions provider in the B2B space. The initial reports contained a little over 110,000 potential keywords, and to the untrained eye, there’s too much data. However, our team was able to boil that information down to the most impactful opportunities across 7,000 potential keywords. In the end, it still meant our team had to review a rather extended list of keywords, but nowhere near the 110,000 found in the first scan. At end with the obvious choices as you need to update this data regularly and watch for new trends coming down the pipeline in your competitors’ social media channels. That’s where SEO and social media management become a bit symbiotic.

Benefits of Competitive Keyword Gap Analysis

Applying keyword gap analysis to content creation offers numerous advantages. It supports long-term content strategy and SEO goals, helping you stay competitive but additional benefits include:

Enhanced Content Relevance

Targeted content improves audience engagement and retention. Brands like HubSpot have successfully used keyword gap analysis to enhance content relevance. HubSpot identified a gap in content about “remote work tools” and created targeted articles, leading to increased engagement and higher keyword rankings. Creating content that addresses specific gaps ensures that your audience finds value in your offerings.

Improved SEO Performance

Filling keyword gaps can boost your search engine rankings. Continuous keyword research and analysis help maintain strong SEO performance. Targeting keywords that competitors miss can improve your organic keywords and search engine results. This leads to better visibility and higher traffic, ensuring your content remains relevant and competitive. Effective lead generation strategies can also benefit from this approach by ensuring your searchers can find you in line with or ahead of your competitors.

Additional Insights That Serve a Business Development Purpose

Running a keyword Gap Analysis also aids business development by showing what competitors exist on search engine results pages. Let’s be real. Every business possesses some novelty. Your competitors may offer similar services, however, the way a keyword gas works means reviewing all the terms your competitors have covered, As a result, it’s entirely possible for terms that appear to give rise to new ideas for your sales and business development teams. In freight, this could mean potential insights into what lanes competitors may cover or even inside information on their services. You will know their top services, but unless you’ve read EVERYTHING that they’ve published, your only quick option is to see what high-value search terms lie buried in their content, A keyword gap analysis can at least get you pointed in the right direction. 

Keyword Gap Analysis: Choosing a Keyword Research Tool

Now that you have a handle on what a keyword gap analysis is, let’s look at some of the tools that can help you find the information you need. 

Several tools can assist with competitive keyword gap analysis, providing features such as keyword comparison, keyword filters, and search volume insights. SEMrush offers a “Keyword Gap” tool that compares up to five domains, highlighting keyword opportunities. Ahrefs provides a “Content Gap” tool that identifies keywords your competitors rank for but you do not. 

Choosing the right tool depends on your specific needs and budget. Both SEMrush and Ahrefs offer comprehensive data to help you identify keyword gaps effectively.

Now, there are 1000s of keyword research tools on the market, and developers are releasing new ones every day, While JCI Marketing, a SEMrush and HubSpot certified agency, does use SEMrush, we are always open to new discussions or questions. If we haven’t encountered a specific tool in the past, we will tell you. And, we will research the fool to evaluate its use. 

Why?

Taking on the responsibility of learning new tools is how we grow, and it’s aligned with our core valves, It would be easy to say, “We don’t know. Good luck!?” But we don’t take the easy path when it suits us. We do what’s right. Paired with our embedded Consulting model, we will learn the tool and get you answers in our next scheduled meeting.

Conducting a Keyword Gap Analysis

Performing a keyword gap analysis involves several steps. Each step provides valuable insights that inform your content strategy and help you create impactful content.

Step 1: Identify Your Competitors

Begin by selecting relevant competitors for analysis. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find competitors based on shared keywords and search engine results. However, an unoptimized site will inherently lead to misaligned competitors on search. So, you’ll need to have a list of your top competitors based on your brand’s messaging and overall strategy. 

Manual research can also help identify key competitors. For instance, in the logistics industry, a freight broker that only manages LTL will likely compare to other LTL providers, but if that provider only operates in Florida, it wouldn’t make sense to compare your site to those that only operate in California. You have to consider the granularity of which you wish to target in tandem with selecting your top 10 competitors.

Why 10? 

Well, not every competitor is investing in SEO, so you’ll want to have backups to get the most information possible in your keyword gap analysis.

Step 2: Gather Keyword Data

Collect keyword data from your competitors’ websites. Focus on both high-performing and underutilized keywords to gain comprehensive insights. High-performing keywords indicate what topics resonate with audiences. For example, if “quick ways to lower freight costs” ranks high for a competitor, it signals a strong interest in reducing costs as the value-add for working with a broker. Underutilized keywords show opportunities for new content. This data can reveal keyword insights and highlight areas where your content can be improved upon or even outpace your competition. Pull that data down into a spreadsheet or use the associated tool filters to boil the information down to something meaningful.

Step 3: Analyze the Keyword Ranking of Every Competitor and Every Spot They Have on SERP 

Identify keyword gaps between your content and that of your competitors. Use techniques like keyword overlap analysis to find gaps and prioritize them based on potential impact and relevance. If your competitor ranks for “freight trucking” and you do not, creating content around freight trucking can attract a new audience segment. Additionally, you could delve into niche areas like freight trucking for perishable goods or freight trucking RFP processes. Focus on gaps that align with your overall content strategy. This is particularly important for industries like freight brokers, where specific content can make a significant difference.

Step 4: Generate Content Ideas

After you get your keyword list down to the most impactful terms, try to focus on those with the highest search volume that’s relevant to your industry. It’s important to ensure the keywords are relevant. For example, there was a time when JCI Marketing’s predecessor, Jason’s Creations Inc., ranked for “jewelry creations.” It’s one of the great mysteries of time as we didn’t mention jewelry at all on the site. However, a competitor may have seen that and jumped at the opportunity. But it would have been meaningless. 

Try to get the list down to fewer than 500 terms to start. 

Step 5: Ask Your Sales Team to Review Your Keyword List

Even if you are responsible for sales, try to get another person’s view from your company of what terms are going to align with your brand strategy. This is best achieved through a project management tool. For example, JCI Marketing puts these terms into our instance of Monday.com for review, and upon review, we move on to the next step of actual topic ideation for approved terms.

Step 6: Brainstorm Ideas for New Content on Approved Keywords 

Use the results of your analysis to brainstorm new content topics. Ensure that these topics align with your overall content strategy to create content that addresses identified gaps and attracts organic traffic. If your analysis reveals a gap in “sustainable shipping,” create topics around blog posts, videos, or guides on this topic. Do not try to write the content at this stage. Instead, get the overall SEO and marketing strategy in place.  Aligning new content with your strategy ensures consistency and effectiveness, and you’ll be on the road to success. So, now that you know what to do, let’s dig into some of the additional benefits of following this process.

Optimizing Keyword Gap Analysis and Data Collected for Maximum Impact

Refining your keyword gap analysis process can maximize its impact. Integrate keyword insights into your broader SEO strategy for better results. The JCI Marketing BI Dashboard also incorporates keyword gap data to identify areas of improvement that will help support approved keywords from your gap analyses, as well. 

Using Keyword Clusters Pillars

Grouping related keywords into clusters offers several benefits. Keyword clusters help create comprehensive content that covers multiple related topics. Clustering keywords like “digital marketing,” “SEO strategy,” and “content marketing” together allows you to create a detailed guide that covers all aspects of digital marketing. This approach improves your keyword performance and provides valuable content to your audience.

Monitoring Keyword Performance

Track the performance of keywords over time. Adjust your strategy based on keyword performance metrics to ensure your content remains effective and competitive. If a keyword like “social media trends” performs well, create more content around that topic. If a keyword underperforms, tweak your content or shift focus to more promising keywords.

Addressing Search Intent

Understanding search intent is crucial in keyword analysis. Aligning content with user search intent improves relevance and engagement. If users search for “how to start a blog,” they likely want a step-by-step guide. Creating content that addresses this intent directly will lead to higher engagement and better keyword rankings. This strategy ensures your content meets the needs of your audience.

Integrate competitive keyword gap analysis into your ongoing content strategy. Track key metrics to measure the success of your new content initiatives.

Setting Clear Goals and KPIs

Define specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for content based on keyword gap analysis. Examples of relevant KPIs include search engine rankings, organic traffic, and engagement metrics. If your goal is to increase organic traffic, a relevant KPI could be the number of new visitors from search engines. Setting clear goals helps you measure success and adjust your strategy as needed. In fact, the JCI Marketing BI Dashboard is built specifically to help you track the most impactful KPIs in an organic strategy. 

Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment

Regularly update your content strategy based on new analysis. Maintain an agile and responsive content strategy to adapt to changing trends and competitor actions. Quickly creating content around emerging keyword trends can give you a competitive advantage. Continuous monitoring ensures you stay ahead of competitors and meet your audience’s needs.

Boost Your Content Strategy With a Competitive Keyword Gap Analysis From JCI Marketing

Keyword gap analysis is essential for creating impactful content. Enhance your content strategy and stay ahead of competitors by leveraging these insights to discover new keyword opportunities, improve your SEO strategy, and achieve long-term success in your content efforts. Connect with JCI Marketing to get started.