How to Analyse Competitor Keywords and Content Gaps

If you’re serious about SEO and content strategy, you can’t ignore what your competitors are doing — analysing their keywords and uncovering the gaps in their content gives you the fastest route to outrank them. Below is a straightforward, beginner-friendly yet strategic guide with examples.

1. Identify Your True Competitors

Start by defining who shows up when your audience searches for your topics. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to enter your main keyword and note the domains that consistently rank. This includes companies you didn’t expect. For a deeper process, check SEOClarity’s competitor analysis guide.

Example: If you run a blog on “remote work tools”, you search that phrase and find three top-ranking sites. Those become your competitor list for keyword and content gap analysis.

2. Extract the Keywords They Rank For

Once you know your competitors, plug their domains into an SEO tool and pull out the keywords they rank for (organic + paid). Tools like SE Ranking or Ahrefs Keywords Explorer can help.

Example: Competitor A is ranking for “best remote collaboration tools 2025”, “remote team productivity apps”, “free remote work software list”. You note these down.

3. Compare With Your Own Keywords → Find the Gap

Now you compare: What keywords your competitors rank that you don’t. That’s your “keyword gap.” Many tools label it as “Missing,” “Untapped,” or “Content Gap.” See Ahrefs’ guide on Content Gap Analysis.

Example: You find you don’t yet target “remote team productivity apps” or “free remote work software list.” These become opportunities.

4. Drill Into Content Gaps (Not Just Keywords)

It’s not enough to pick keywords — you must analyse how your competitors are covering them, and how they’re not. That means looking at their content depth, freshness, and usability. Learn more from Backlinko’s content gap guide.

Example: Competitor B has a blog post titled “Top remote work tools” but it’s thin (500 words), last updated 2022, no user examples. You can create a more detailed piece (2000 words) with up-to-date tools, screenshots, and user testimonials.

5. Prioritise & Plan Your Content Around Gaps

Now you have lists of keywords + content opportunities. Prioritise by:

Search volume + relevance to your audience
Keyword difficulty (can you realistically rank?)
Your ability to create better content than competitors

Then map content: new posts for missing keywords, or refresh old posts to fill coverage gaps. See a full workflow at SEOClarity.

Example: You decide to create two new articles:
– “Free remote work software list 2025 – 25 tools you can start today”
– “How to improve remote team productivity using collaboration apps (with case studies)”
And update an old piece with better examples, current data, and stronger visuals.

6. Monitor Performance & Iterate

Once your content is live, track how you rank, whether you capture traffic for those gap keywords, and monitor competitor moves. Use Google Analytics and SEMrush Content Gap Tool to keep your strategy sharp.

Example: After 4 weeks you see your new article ranking at position 12 for “free remote work software list”. You optimise further by adding FAQs, schema markup, and internal links to improve it to top 5.

Quick Checklist

✅ List 3-5 top competitors for your niche
✅ Extract their keywords and ranking pages
✅ Compare with your own keyword list → highlight “they rank, you don’t”
✅ Examine their content for weaknesses (e.g., short, outdated, missing user intent)
✅ Select high-impact gaps you can fill
✅ Create or refresh content to fill those gaps
✅ Track performance and adjust as needed

Final Thought

By analysing competitor keywords and content gaps you’re not reinventing the wheel — you’re leveraging proven topics and building something better. It’s strategic, efficient, and powerful. Keep this analysis part of your regular workflow and your content will steadily improve in relevance and authority.

How to Analyse Competitor Keywords and Content Gaps