If you want to know how to do content gap analysis, the mechanics take an afternoon: pick competitors, run their keywords against yours, export the difference. The part that decides whether the afternoon was worth it comes before and after. Before, choosing competitors who actually compete with you in search. After, deciding which gaps deserve a page, because many of them do not.
What is content gap analysis?
Ahrefs’ guide, content gap analysis by Despina Gavoyannis, updated in February 2025, defines it plainly: “A content gap analysis is the process of finding topics your competitors have covered but you haven’t.” It is a comparison, and like any comparison, it depends on what you compare against.
Ahrefs distinguishes two kinds of gap, and they lead to different work.
| Gap | What it means | Usual fix |
|---|---|---|
| Domain-level | Competitors have content on topics you have not covered at all | A new page, if the topic fits your site |
| Page-level | You both have a page on the topic, but theirs ranks for more keywords | Expand or rewrite your existing page |
Page-level gaps are the ones most analyses miss, because a topic list shows you have “covered” the subject. You have, but not as thoroughly as the page outranking you. Those gaps are often cheaper to close than domain-level ones, since the page, its URL and its links already exist.
Choose the right competitors first
The received wisdom is to start with the companies you compete with commercially. For a content gap analysis, that is often the wrong list. Your business rivals may barely publish, while the sites taking your search traffic are publishers, forums and niche blogs you have never thought of as competitors. Run a gap against the wrong sites and you get a confident list of the wrong topics.
Find the sites that rank for the queries you care about, and use those. Our guide to finding your real SEO competitors walks through the method, and Similarweb alternatives covers tools that help when you need traffic context on the sites you find. You can also filter the database explorer by niche to see which sites are winning in your space before you choose who to compare against.
How to do content gap analysis in five steps
Ahrefs sets the process out in five steps.
- Find keyword gaps with a competitive analysis tool. Enter your domain and your chosen competitors, and list keywords where they rank and you do not.
- Refine and export. Filter out branded terms, irrelevant topics and keywords with no realistic value, then export what is left.
- Import into a template. A spreadsheet with one row per opportunity keeps the review consistent.
- Analyse each opportunity. Check intent, the ranking pages and whether the gap is domain-level or page-level.
- Implement. Create, expand or merge content based on what the analysis found.
To show what a single opportunity can look like, Ahrefs gives the example of a competitor page ranking for 120 keywords, worth about 2,187 estimated monthly visits that the site in question was not capturing. It is Ahrefs’ example and Ahrefs’ estimate, but it makes a useful point: one page can represent a whole family of missed queries, which is why the next step matters.
Group gaps before you brief them
A raw gap export lists keywords, not topics. Turn each keyword into a brief and you will write several pages that compete for the same intent. Group the list first, using the same test as keyword clustering: keywords that the same pages rank for belong together and need one page between them.
Grouping also reveals which gaps are page-level. If a cluster of missing keywords sits around a topic you already cover, the fix is adding the missing subtopics to that page, not a new article. Outline what the competitor’s page covers that yours does not, and work through it section by section.
Not every gap is worth filling
A competitor ranking for a topic tells you there is demand. It does not tell you the topic suits your site. Before committing to a page, ask three questions. Does the topic serve your readers and your business? Does the search intent match a page you can make better than what ranks now? And would the new page support the topics you already cover, or scatter your site across subjects you have no depth in?
Gaps that pass all three go on the plan. Gaps that fail are not failures of the analysis; they are the analysis working, by telling you where not to spend time. A short plan of well-chosen pages beats a long one built from every keyword the tool returned.
Order the plan by effort as well as value. Page-level gaps on pages that already rank usually come first, because the work is an expansion rather than a new page. Domain-level gaps follow, starting with topics closest to what you already cover well.
Check the result, then repeat
Before writing for any gap, search the main keyword yourself. The tool shows that a competitor ranks; the results page shows what kind of page wins, how recent the leading results are and whether the query is answered at the top of the page before anyone clicks. A gap that looked large in a spreadsheet can look much smaller once you see the results it would have to compete in.
The limitation is in the data itself. Gap tools can only compare keywords in their own databases, and the traffic attached to each is an estimate. A gap the tool does not see does not appear, and the visit figures give you an order of magnitude, not a forecast. Treat the output as a list of leads ranked by rough size.
Then repeat the exercise on a schedule. Competitors publish, results shift and your own pages change what you rank for. A gap analysis run once is a snapshot. Run every few months against the same competitors, it shows where the field is moving and whether the pages you added have closed the gaps you meant them to.
Frequently asked questions
What is content gap analysis?
The process of finding topics your competitors have covered but you have not, in Ahrefs’ definition. It includes topics you lack entirely and pages where a competitor ranks for more keywords than you.
What is the difference between a domain-level and a page-level gap?
A domain-level gap is a topic you have not covered at all. A page-level gap is a topic you both cover, where the competitor’s page ranks for more keywords than yours.
Which competitors should I use for a content gap analysis?
The sites that rank for the queries you care about, which are not always your commercial rivals. Publishers and niche blogs often take more of your search traffic.
Should I fill every content gap I find?
No. Fill gaps that fit your site, match an intent you can serve well and support your existing topics. The rest are useful mainly as a record of what to skip.
The takeaway Compare against your real search competitors, split domain-level from page-level gaps, group the keywords before briefing, and fill only the gaps that fit. The output is a list of leads, not a plan.
