Content Gap Analysis shows you the keywords your competitors rank for that you don't — or that you rank for so poorly that you're effectively invisible. These are the topics and queries where competitors are capturing traffic that could be coming to your site instead.
What Is Content Gap Analysis?
Think of it this way: if three of your competitors all rank in the top 10 for "best project management tools for small teams" and you don't rank at all, that's a validated keyword opportunity sitting right in front of you. Multiple competitors ranking for the same keyword confirms that the topic has real search demand in your niche and that the search intent aligns with sites like yours.
Content Gap Analysis automates the process of finding these keywords at scale. Instead of manually comparing rankings keyword by keyword, LinkRocket cross-references your tracked competitors' rankings against your own and surfaces the gaps.
How to Run a Content Gap Analysis
Navigate to the Competitors section from the main menu.
Open the Content Gap tab.
Select competitors to compare. Choose at least two competitors for meaningful overlap data. Including 3–4 competitors tends to produce the strongest signals.
Set your filters to control which keywords appear:
Filter | What It Does | Recommended Setting |
|---|---|---|
Competitor position | Only include keywords where competitors rank within this range | Top 10 (positions 1–10) |
Your position | Only include keywords where you rank at or below this position | Not ranking, or position 50+ |
Minimum search volume | Filter out very low-traffic keywords | 100+ monthly searches for most niches |
Maximum keyword difficulty | Exclude keywords that are unrealistically hard to rank for | Under 40 for most sites; adjust based on your DR |
Click Find Gaps.
Tip: If your initial results feel overwhelming, tighten the "Competitor position" filter to Top 5 and set "Links to at least 2 competitors" — this surfaces only the keywords where multiple competitors rank highly, giving you the most validated opportunities.
Understanding Content Gap Results
For each keyword in your results, you'll see:
Keyword — the search query itself.
Search volume — estimated monthly searches. Higher volume means more potential traffic.
Keyword difficulty — a score (typically 0–100) estimating how hard it is to rank for this term. Lower scores are easier to target.
Competitors ranking — which of your tracked competitors rank for this keyword, and at what position.
Your position — your current ranking, if any. A dash or "Not ranking" means you don't appear in the top 100 results.
Prioritizing Content Gap Opportunities
Not all gaps are worth filling. The best opportunities share several characteristics, and you should evaluate each keyword against these criteria before committing to creating content.
Validation from multiple competitors. If two or more competitors rank for a keyword, that's a strong signal that the keyword is relevant to your niche and worth pursuing. A keyword where only one competitor ranks could be an outlier or a tangential topic.
Reasonable keyword difficulty. As a general guideline, if your Domain Rating is 30, targeting keywords with a difficulty score under 40 is realistic. Keywords with difficulty scores well above your DR will require significant link building before you can compete, so they belong on a longer-term roadmap rather than your immediate content plan.
Meaningful search volume. Keywords with fewer than 50 monthly searches are rarely worth building dedicated content around unless they have high commercial intent (meaning the searcher is ready to buy). For most sites, a minimum threshold of 100–200 monthly searches is a good starting point.
Relevance to your business. A keyword might have great metrics but be irrelevant to your product, service, or audience. Always ask: if someone searching this term landed on my site, would they find what they're looking for? If not, skip it.
Your ability to create competitive content. Look at what's currently ranking. Can you create something meaningfully better — more comprehensive, more current, better structured, or more useful? If the top results are from heavyweight sites with massive editorial teams and you can't realistically compete on quality, the gap may not be worth pursuing right now.
Turning Content Gaps into a Content Plan
Once you've identified your highest-priority keyword gaps, organize them into an actionable plan:
1. Group Related Keywords by Topic
Many content gaps will cluster around related themes. For example, you might find gaps for "project management tools comparison," "best free project management software," and "project management for remote teams." Rather than creating three thin articles, group these into a topic cluster and plan one comprehensive pillar piece with supporting articles.
2. Prioritize by Business Value and Achievability
Rank your topic clusters using a simple framework:
Factor | High Priority | Lower Priority |
|---|---|---|
Business value | Directly related to your product or revenue | Tangentially related; informational only |
Keyword difficulty | At or below your current DR | Significantly above your DR |
Search volume | 500+ monthly searches | Under 100 monthly searches |
Competitor coverage | 2+ competitors ranking in Top 10 | Only 1 competitor ranking |
Content effort | You have expertise and data to draw on | Requires extensive research you can't easily do |
3. Create Pillar Content First
Start with the main topic and build out the core piece of content. This should be comprehensive enough to address the primary keyword and several related keywords within a single, well-structured article.
4. Add Supporting Articles
Build out supporting content that targets more specific or long-tail keywords in the cluster. Each supporting article should link to the pillar content and vice versa, creating a topical silo that signals depth and authority to search engines.
Tip: You can send keywords directly from Content Gap results to your Keyword Vault for organization and tracking, or to Content Studio to begin building briefs and drafts.
Next Steps
After completing your first Content Gap Analysis:
Export your results and group keywords into topic clusters.
Prioritize 3–5 clusters based on business value and achievability.
Create content briefs for your top-priority pillar articles.
Build out content and internal linking structure.
Re-run Content Gap Analysis quarterly to catch new opportunities as competitor rankings shift.
To understand how competitor backlink profiles compare in detail, continue to Comparing Backlink Profiles.