Keyword Research – GAP Analysis

The internet has come a long way over the past 20 years. Now, Google
search users in countries all around the world can find answers to their
questions or products they need with a simple query. However, there are
still holes (or gaps, if you will).

These gaps are holes that need to be filled. They could be knowledge,
pages, or products (or all three) that the major competitors on the
internet aren’t providing. These gaps are also great places for smaller
competitors and niche sites to rank and gain some traction in the
industry.

Gap analysis is the process of finding these gaps. Whether it’s a gap
in keywords or a gap in content, by finding and filling these gaps with
your site, you’ll be able to significantly improve your ranking and
sales conversions.

Below, we’ll discuss the various phases of a successful SEO campaign,
how to conduct gap analysis and the different approaches to keyword and
content gap analysis. Let’s dive in!

Five Steps To A Successful SEO Campaign

Before we jump into the intricacies of gap analysis, let’s take a minute
to discuss the five steps to a successful, profitable SEO campaign. The
better you understand the basics of how SEO campaigns are structured,
the more you’ll be able to implement gap analysis tactics to create a
more effective SEO campaign for your site or client.

The “five phases” are:

Learning and analysis.
Improving.
Building and creating.
Promotion.
Evaluation.

Let’s take a quick look at all five of these steps so you can better
understand how to organize your upcoming SEO campaign.

Step 1: Learning and Analysis

Before jumping into any new project, you need to take the time to
analyze your site, your niche, and your competitors.
Using our Web Audit and SERP Checker is a great way to see how your site is
performing, what keywords it may be already ranking for, and what new
keywords you can start using.

Step 2: Identifying Improvements

Now that you understand your market a little bit better and have
performed a full audit of your existing website, it’s time to identify
some places where improvements can be made to your site. What are some
low-competition niche keywords you can rank for?
How can you improve your site’s content to help it rank better?

Step 3: Building and Creating

As you notice improvements, you’ll need to continuously update your
site’s content and build new content to ensure that it’s ranking for
your primary, secondary, and supporting keywords.

Step 4: Promotion

Once you’re satisfied with the overall performance and SEO of your site,
it’s time to start investing in some paid promotion. This could be
social media ads, Google Adwords campaigns, or creating an affiliate
program. This process will help your site scale and generate more leads
and sales.

Step 5: Evaluation

As your site grows over time, you’ll need to use analytical tools such
as Google Analytics or our Rank Tracker tool to check how your site
performs. Rank Tracker is a revolutionary tool that will allow you
to see how your site increases or decreases in Google SERPs ranking over
time. This, in turn, can show you where improvements can be made.

What Is Keyword Gap Analysis?

You probably already have an understanding of just how competitive the
internet can be. A site that ranked well last month can be overtaken by
a new competitor on the market who’s more dedicated to their SEO and has
better content or products. This happens every day and is the reason why
brands are investing more into their SEO than ever before.

One of the best ways to keep a large brand dominant or help a niche site
get its foot in the door is with keyword gap analysis. This is the
process of analyzing your industry and niche to identify where any
gaps might be. Keyword gap analysis specifically involves finding
underutilized keywords.

Many of these keywords are high-value, low-competition keywords. This
means there may not be a lot of competitors ranking for them, even
though there are high-value, motivated searchers looking for answers or
products.

Why Should I Do Keyword Gap Analysis?

If you’re conducting SEO for a newer site that’s trying to break into
the market and rank on the first few pages of Google SERPs results, it
can be a tough, uphill battle. Finding gap keywords can help you build
your client base, get more site traffic, and become a niche authority.

For example, a large shoe company might dominate for terms like “track
shoes” or “football shoes,” but might not rank for more niche keywords
like “trail running shoes” or “extra-wide tennis shoes.” These represent
gap keywords that you can implement to get your smaller site or brand
ranked.

Conversely, larger brands may want to conduct a gap analysis to ensure
that they dominate the market.

You could be doing SEO for the large shoe company (using our previous
example). They’ll want to make sure that they’re ranking just as well
for niche keywords as they are for major primary and secondary keywords.
This makes it harder for new competitors to take away their customers.

How Do You Do Keyword Gap Analysis?

To start with, you’ll need a good keyword tool. You can either use
Google Adwords’ keyword tool or you can try using our Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder tool.

Our patented Keyword Finder will provide you with more detailed,
in-depth knowledge that Google’s free keyword tool won’t. This, in turn,
allows you to find special, high-value, low-competition keywords that
your competitors aren’t using.

Once you have your keyword tool open, here’s a quick overview of the
main steps of keyword gap analysis.

1) Keep Track of Gap Keywords With A Sheet

As you research your keywords, dig deeper using our SERP Checker
tool. This will show you important metrics on the keyword, such as its
level of competition, monthly search volume, etc. Take note of all the
possible gap keywords and their metrics in a Microsoft Excel or Google
Sheets tracking page.

2) Identify Pillars and Clusters

Once you’ve got a long list, try to sort it into two groups:

Main pillars (primary gap keywords).
Clusters (secondary and supporting gap keywords).

3) Create Content

Lastly, you’ll need to create pillar content that utilizes secondary and
supporting gap keywords. These pieces of content will help your site
rank and will help to fill the “gaps” in Google search results,
bringing your site targeted, motivated traffic.

Keyword Gap Analysis With Ranktracker’s Tools

Above, we showed you a brief overview of how a keyword gap analysis is
performed. Overall, it’s fairly simple. However, it can take a bit of
time if you want to make sure it’s done correctly. In this section,
we’ll show you exactly how to run a gap analysis for your niche to
ensure that you’re able to rank for some of the best high-value,
low-competition keywords in your industry.

Create Your Keyword Data File

So, first things first, you’ll need to gather all of your data and do
your keyword research. Here’s how to create your keyword data file using
our Keyword Finder and SERP Checker tools.

The first thing you’ll do after performing your website audit and
identifying what keywords you’re already ranking for is going to be to
find new keywords for your site. This can be accomplished by using the
Keyword Finder tool.

Start by searching for a primary keyword or secondary keyword in your
niche. The tool will present you with a long list of related keywords as
well as some preliminary data on the competition level of those
keywords. Start making a list of primary and secondary keywords that
could be gap keywords to investigate further.

Once you have your list ready to go, open up the SERP Checker. This
will allow you to “see under the hood” of each keyword. You’ll be able
to check on detailed keyword information, such as:

Keyword difficulty.
Google SERP analysis.
...and most importantly, what sites are ranking for a keyword on
Google SERPs results.

Simply put, the SERP Checker is the final tool that will help you
double-check and verify whether or not a keyword on your list is a gap
keyword or not.

As you double-check keywords in SERP Checker and verify that they
are, in fact, high-value/low-competition gap keywords, you should add
them to your Excel or Google Sheets data sheet.

Cleaning and Organizing Your Data File

Here we’d like to encourage you to make your data sheet as detailed as
possible! Don’t just include the keyword itself in your sheet. Ensure
that you’re also including data columns for things like the competition
level, top sites competing for the keyword, and the type of top-ranking
content for your niche content.

Chances are, you may have a few keywords on your list that you should
re-evaluate. Perhaps some of the keywords on your list aren’t as
high-value/low-competition as you originally thought and should be
removed or exchanged for others.

Once you’re 100% sure that the keywords on your list are gap keywords,
it’s time to organize the data into pillars and clusters.

Select some of the primary gap keywords and denote them as pillars.
These are going to be the main gap topics that you create content
around.

Next, start analyzing the other keywords on the list and figure out
which gap keywords can be clustered together underneath certain pillars.
You’ll use these keywords as secondary keywords that will be scattered
throughout your main gap content.

For example, let’s say that one of your pillar gap keywords is
“extra-large athletic shoes.”

Some of your cluster keywords might be:

“Extra-large golfing shoes”
“Extra-large basketball shoes”
“Extra-large soccer shoes”
“Extra-large football cleats”

Do you see how all of these secondary gap keywords fit into the main gap
keyword of “extra-large athletic shoes?”

Creating A Content Plan For Your Gap Keywords

Having everything organized into main pillars and clusters will allow
you to create high-quality gap content that actually converts. Using the
example above, you could create a high-quality piece of gap content such
as a buyer’s guide for extra-large athletic shoes.

You could also create multiple pieces of blog content such as individual
niche posts on each type of extra-large athletic shoes or brand
comparisons of various extra-large athletic shoes.

Creating Silo Structures For Gap Content

As we’ve discussed in some of our previous articles, one of the key
aspects of getting your content to rank is to interlink your content and
create a good silo structure for your site. This means having clearly
defined pillar content and target pages that are linked to by child
pages such as blog posts and smaller articles.

Continuing with our example of the shoe site, your large buyer’s guide
on athletic shoes would be your main piece of pillar content designed to
rank for the gap keyword “extra-large athletic shoes.”

Then, all of those secondary child posts you created on the individual
types of athletic shoes would eventually link upwards to the pillar
buyer’s guide. This would show the Google algorithm the authoritative
structure of your site and help it rank even higher, allowing you to
take full advantage of the gap keywords you or your client are trying to
rank for.

Creating A Gap Analysis Report

If you’re an SEO specialist who’s been contracted by a company seeking
to rank for gap keywords, then you’ll need to present them with a gap
analysis report. This report will include detailed information, outline
your thought process, provide competitor analysis, existing site
analysis, and more.

Essentially, your report should show your client why they need to
trust you to help their site rank higher. To accomplish this, you need
to ensure that your report is as clear and detailed as possible and
contains lots of valuable data that they might not have been able to
accumulate themselves.

Our specialized SEO toolset provides you with all of the tools that you
need to generate acquire high-quality data and information. From our
Keyword Tool and SERP Checker that allows you to research gap
keywords to our Rank Tracker tool that lets you track your page’s
performance over time, you’ll be well-equipped to answer any questions
that your client might have.

Below, you’ll find a more detailed overview of how you should model your
keyword gap analysis report.

Good Presentation

Good presentation is everything! We suggest organizing your presentation
into a slideshow, complete with large, easy-to-read text, plenty of
images and graphs, and a structured, organized flow.

Once you create your presentation, you’ll be able to present it
in-person or virtually, depending on your work situation. If you’re
in-person, you can load it onto a presentation board. If you’re working
virtually, you can email the presentation to your client.

Another option is that you could create a presentation for a potential
client. If you’re trying to land a new client, you could do them a
favor and run a gap analysis on their brand, present them with the
results, and try to get them to hire you for the job!

Top Competitor Data (Plus, They’re Top-Ranking Pages)

Now, let’s move on to the content of your presentation itself. To start
with, you want to show the client that you know their market. This means
including lots of competitor data. This can mostly be generated using
our SERP Checker tool. You’ll be able to find exact numbers and data
on the primary industry keywords that major competitors in the field are
using.

You’ll be able to show your niche client how hard it will be to move
into this space without the use of gap keywords. Then, in the same
vein, you can present them with the “gaps” that the major competitor
forgot about or is unable to fill.

List of Gap Keywords

Now that you’ve got your client’s attention, it’s time to present them
with all of your research on gap keywords. You’ll show them all of the
sub-niches and high-value/low-competition keywords that they could
easily rank for. This is guaranteed to get them excited and build
trust in your research.

Content Creation Plan

Lastly, you’ll need to present your client with an action plan for how
you plan on utilizing your gap keywords. This means that you’ll want to
present them with a content creation plan for pillar content,
sub-content, and how you plan on linking everything through proper silo
structure.

Ranktracker’s Tools Can Help Your SEO

The great thing about Ranktracker’s tools is that they’re incredibly
versatile. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish SEO-wise, you’ll
be able to use our large toolset to generate high-quality data,
ultra-accurate information, and real-time results.

For example, Ranktracker’s tools can help you run detailed gap analyses
that will help you convert more SEO clients than ever before. By
identifying these gaps in content and keyword usage, you’ll be able to
help smaller brands compete in high-competition industries (or help
large companies plug their gaps to ensure total dominance).

You can use Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder and SERP Checker to
identify holes and find high-value/low-competition keywords in various
niches. Then, you can use the Web Audit tool to analyze how your
client’s sites are already ranking (and what you can do to improve
them).

Once you’ve started your gap-filling campaign, you can generate
real-time reports for your client by using the Rank Tracker tool to
see how the page is performing in Google search engine results.

The best part? Once you’ve sold your client on gap analysis, you can use
Ranktracker’s toolkit to sell them on other services, such as
link-building and content creation. This makes our toolkit one of the
best investments you’ll ever make into your SEO business!

In Conclusion

So, just to give you guys a quick recap on gap analysis, here are some
key points to keep in mind. Success on the internet is largely
determined by finding “gaps” in various industries. These gaps could be
informational gaps that you could use to build trust with visitors or
product gaps that you could use to sell affiliate products or market
your own products.

Gap analysis is the process of finding these gaps. Whether you're
running gap analysis for your own site, an SEO client’s site, or you’re
trying to generate reports to acquire new clients, Ranktracker’s tools
give you everything that you need to run successful gap analysis
campaigns!

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Table of Contents

Intro