SEO gap analysis: How to find content and keyword gaps

 Learn how to run an SEO gap analysis using Semrush to uncover keyword, content, link, and AI visibility gaps. Build clusters, boost topical authority, and turn insights into revenue-driving roadmaps.

Most teams treat SEO gap analysis as a simple keyword comparison. But a real gap analysis goes deeper. It shows where competitors cover topics more thoroughly, where their websites are easier for search engines to crawl, and where they earn stronger authority through better links.

In fact, in modern gap analysis, you also need to look at where your competitors appear in AI results. Why? Because AI Overviews appear above traditional results and pull answers from only a small set of pages. 

So if competitors appear there and you don’t, that’s a visibility gap you should address.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to run a complete gap analysis across keywords, content, links, technical factors, and AI search visibility. You’ll also see how to turn those findings into a clear roadmap you can put into action right away.
What is a gap analysis?

A gap analysis is the process of measuring the difference between your current SEO performance and the performance of the pages and domains outranking you. For SEOs, this means measuring where you fall short against competitors across content, keywords, links, technical health, and search visibility.

You can use this simple framework to understand what’s working, what’s missing, and what to prioritize next:
Gap Analysis Framework

This structured framework gives you a simple way to think about gap analysis. You first understand your current performance, compare it with competitors, map the opportunities you’re missing, and then turn those insights into a clear roadmap. 
Why gap analysis matters for SEO in 2025

Search works differently today than it did even a year ago. AI-driven searches, entity-based understanding, and semantic grouping have all changed how pages appear and how much traffic they can realistically win.

Because search has changed, the way you run a gap analysis has to change, too. 

A modern gap analysis shows where you’re falling behind in newer areas like AI visibility, entity depth, topical coverage, and semantic variation, and how competitors gain advantages with them.

Here’s how these changes show up in day-to-day SEO.
AI overviews reduce organic clicks

AI overviews appear above traditional SERPs, and many users get their answers there now. In fact, 26% of people end their session entirely after reading an AI-generated summary. This reduces the number of clicks on the standard blue links. 
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SERPs rely on entities, not only keywords

Google uses entities and relationships to understand topics, which means it now needs a clear context: the main idea, supporting details, common questions, and related concepts. 

Pages that provide this depth get pulled into AI-generated results more often because they give the model all of the information to build an answer.

But a page that’s only optimized for keywords can struggle because if it skips key subtopics or supporting entities, the system has less material to work with. 
Topical authority requires intentional coverage

Google now evaluates how thoroughly your website covers a subject, not whether a single page looks strong. If your topic cluster is missing angles, intent variations, or content formats, the topic looks incomplete.

Suppose you run an educational website that teaches email marketing. You publish one strong guide, “What is email marketing,” but you never cover related angles like segmentation, common mistakes, or how to choose a tool. 

You also skip intent variations such as comparisons (“Email marketing vs. SMS”) or troubleshooting (“Why open rates drop”). And if all your content is long-form, with no quick FAQs, definitions, or short tutorials, the cluster looks incomplete. 

A gap analysis reveals: pages you never created, thin sections, missing FAQs, outdated examples, or weak internal links that break the cluster.
Keyword clustering and semantic coverage remove “accidental ranking”

Google now groups searches by meaning instead of treating each keyword separately. This means pages don’t rank by accident anymore. 

If your content doesn’t cover the complete set of related questions, variations, and supporting ideas around a topic (semantic coverage), Google sees the coverage as incomplete. Even if your primary keyword looks strong, visibility drops because the surrounding context isn’t there.
How doing a gap analysis helps you respond to changes

A gap analysis helps you understand how these shifts impact your website and shows you what you need to fix or improve to stay competitive. 

Here’s how: 

    Find untapped demand: See the keywords, intents, and subtopics competitors receive traffic from, even when you’ve never covered those areas, using tools like Semrush’s Keyword Gap, Moz Pro, or SpyFu. 
    Identify competitor strongholds: Monitor which topics and formats help other websites dominate entire topics using topic and content research tools like Organic Research, MarketMuse, or Ahrefs Content Gap.
    Build clusters that show stronger topical authority: Learn where depth is missing—subtopics you never published, pages that need updates, or areas where internal linking is weak. Tools like Topic Research, Surfer, and Thruuu make these missing pieces easy to spot.
    Allocate resources with a clear priority list: Give your team specific tasks based on proven gaps using planning tools like Asana, ClickUp, or Trello to organize content updates, link outreach, and technical fixes in the correct order.
    Track improvement over time: Monitor whether your efforts are paying off by reviewing your website’s overall performance and health each month using Monthly SEO Report, Google Search Console, or Google Analytics.

Approach Gap Analysis
Types of SEO gap analysis

Now that you know what a gap analysis is, let’s look at its five major pillars.
Keyword gap analysis

Keyword gap analysis compares the keywords your website ranks for with the keywords your competitors rank for. This helps monitor where competitors receive traffic that you don’t, as the analysis highlights missing topics, intent variations, and long-tail queries you haven’t covered yet.
Content gap analysis

Content gap analysis looks at the depth and coverage of your content. It helps you identify missing content types, thin pages, outdated explanations, and angles competitors cover more thoroughly. It also reveals intent gaps, for example, when you only cover informational content, but competitors cover comparisons, buying guides, or troubleshooting queries.
SERP feature and AI visibility gap analysis

This analysis shows where competitors appear beyond the standard ranking positions. It includes AI overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask, image results, or videos. If competitors show up across more surfaces, they may capture more clicks, even when ranking positions look similar.
Backlink gap analysis

Backlink gap analysis compares your referring domains with those of your competitors. This reveals link opportunities you haven’t earned, industries or publications where competitors have stronger relationships, and content types that attract more authority.
Technical gap analysis

Technical gap analysis looks at crawlability, indexation, site architecture, page speed, Core Web Vitals, and internal linking. These elements affect how easily search engines can access and understand your website. If competitors score better in these areas, this means their content is easier for Google to process, which can influence rankings.
How to do an SEO gap analysis (step-by-step tutorial)

Let’s walk through how to run the process using Semrush tools.
Step 1: Define your competitor set

Choose a mix of direct, indirect, and SERP competitors because each group shows a different type of gap.

    Direct competitors: Businesses that sell the same products or services you offer. They help you understand where you fall short in searches for your offerings.
    Indirect competitors: These businesses don’t sell what you sell, but they cover the same topics. Many publishers and review websites come in this group. They often dominate informational queries, which makes them important for understanding topical gaps.
    SERP competitors: These are the pages that already rank where you want to appear, even if they’re not part of your industry and don’t compete with your business at all. 

Here’s how to find these competitors using the Organic Research tool:

    Go to “SEO” > “Competitive Research” > “Organic Research.”
    Enter your domain.
    Click “Search.”
    Open the “Competitors” tab and scroll down to the “Organic Competitors” section.

Organic Research Sel Organic Competitors Scaled

You’ll now see the domains that share the most keywords with you and frequently appear in the same search results. 

Once you have the list, choose the top three to four competitors. This gives you enough data to compare patterns against without overwhelming the analysis.
Step 2: Run a keyword gap analysis

After choosing the top competitors, see where they rank and where you don’t. This will help you spot missing topics, weak positions, and intent types you haven’t covered.

Here’s how to do this using the Keyword Gap tool:

    Go to “SEO” > “Competitive Research” > “Keyword Gap.”
    Enter your domain and add up to four competitors.
    Click “Compare.”

Keyword Gap Sel Compare Scaled

Now scroll down to the “All keyword details for” section, and you can see Semrush automatically sorts the keywords into useful buckets:

    Shared: keywords all domains rank for
    Missing: where competitors’ rank and you don’t
    Weak: how you rank lower than competitors
    Strong: how you rank higher than competitors
    Untapped: where at least one competitor ranks, but you don’t
    Unique: keywords only you rank for

Keyword Gap Sel All Keyword Details For Scaled

Next, review the “Intent” labels on the results. This helps you see whether your gaps are informational (how-tos, guides), commercial (comparison terms), or transactional (buying queries).

“Export” the keywords and group them by topic to understand which clusters deserve new pages or deeper content. This way, you’ll have a clear set of keywords and intent gaps that show where competitors outperform you and which topics should move into your content plan next.
Step 3: Run a content gap analysis

Once you’ve identified your keyword gaps, check how deeply competitors cover those topics using the Topic Research tool:

    Go to “SEO” > “Content Ideas” > “Topic Research.”
    Enter your main topic, and, optionally, add a competitor’s domain.
    Click “Get content ideas.”
    Go to the “Explorer” tab, where you’ll see all the subtopics you haven’t covered yet.

Topic Research Sel Seo Content Ideas Scaled

Once you have the topics, analyze the top-ranking competitor articles for each subtopic/target keyword. 

Here’s how to do it using the Content Toolkit:

    Go to “Content” > “SEO Brief Generator”
    Enter your primary keyword, choose your target location, and click “Continue.”

The tool automatically suggests top competitor content for that keyword. 
Content Seo Brief Generator Continue Scaled

    From the available list, select the competitor articles you want the tool to analyze.
    Alternatively, you can add competitor links of your choice. For this, click “+Add article.” 
    Click “Continue.”
    Enter your desired word count, title, and secondary keywords.

Now the tool will analyze your competitor URLs and generate a content brief based on your input data. The generated brief will include:

    Shared structure across top-ranking pages
    Recommended H2/H3 sections
    Secondary keywords
    Suggested word count
    Competitor reference links
    Title and meta suggestions

Seo Content Brief

Now, visit the competitor URLs the tool analyzed and use the brief as a checklist while reviewing them. As you scan their pages, look how they use: 

    H2s 
    FAQs 
    Examples
    Entities 

Match these patterns with the recommended outline in your brief. Anything that consistently appears across competitors but isn’t reflected in your brief or your planned outline is a subtopic or section you’ll need to include when creating your own content.

Check for thin or outdated content

Before you create or optimize anything, review your existing pages on the same or related topics. A quick manual check works best here. Although it’s time-intensive, what you understand after this manual check is worth the time. 

So, open each page and read through it. Look for signs that the page doesn’t go deep enough or no longer reflects how things work today.

Here’s what to look for:

    Shallow explanations that skip steps or don’t answer the obvious follow-up questions.
    Missing examples, screenshots, or clarifying details.
    Outdated instructions or references that no longer match current tools or SERP layouts.
    Short sections that should have more context, FAQs, or supporting subtopics.
    Missing entities or keywords that repeatedly appear in competitor pages.
    Old links or sources that no longer reflect the state of the topic.
    Content that feels disconnected or incomplete when read from start to finish.

Tip: Create a simple spreadsheet to track which pages need minor updates, which need deeper rewrites, and which should be replaced entirely.
Step 4: Assess AI, SERP feature, and visibility gaps

Now that you know the content gaps, track which of your competitors are included in AI Overviews. This shows you which brands AI considers reliable sources and helps you understand the types of content, structure, or signals they provide that your pages currently lack. 

To find this using the AI SEO toolkit:

    Go to “AI” > “AI Visibility” > “AI Analysis” > “Competitor Research.”
    Enter your domain and your competitors’ domains (up to 3).
    Click “Run competitor analysis.”

Ai Competitor Gap Analysis Sel Run Scaled

    In the “AI Visibility” tab, scroll down to the “Topics & Prompts” report

Ai Competitor Gap Analysis Sel Topics And Prompts Scaled

This shows all prompts and AI responses that mention you or your competitors. Review the prompts where competitors appear, but you don’t — the “Missing” tab will show this. Note the topic angles that are featured in those AI responses and use those patterns to update or expand your own pages.

SERP feature gaps

SERP feature gaps are the places where competitors appear in search results beyond the standard blue links, like featured snippets, PAAs, images, or videos, while your website doesn’t. 

Here’s how to find these gaps using the Organic Research tool:

    Go to “SEO” > “Competitive Research” > “Organic Research.”
    Enter the domain of your competitor that you want to analyze.
    Click “Search.”

Organic Research Sel Search Scaled

    Head over to the “Positions” tab and scroll down. 
    You’ll now see a list of the keywords they rank for, along with: pages that rank, exact positions, SERP features their results appear in (snippets, images, videos, PAA, reviews, etc.).

Organic Research Sel Organic Search Positions Scaled

This data shows keywords where competitors earn extra visibility through SERP features. After you check SERP features, take a quick look at how competitors structure the pages that win these features. 

Open a few of the URLs that rank in snippets, PAAs, or related searches, and check whether they use simple elements your page may be missing, like a short definition at the top, a clean list or step-by-step section, or an FAQ block at the bottom. 

To check whether they use structured data:

    Head over to Google’s Rich Results Test.
    Enter the URL of any of their ranking pages and click “TEST URL.” 

Rich Results Test Example Url Scaled

    Check the “Test results” page to see if they use Organization, Breadcrumbs, Product, or Article schema where you don’t.

Rich Results Test Sel Article Result Scaled

If your page lacks the same schema or doesn’t follow a similar structure, that means you’re missing out on a structured data opportunity that you can add immediately.

All of this gives you a clear picture of the AI and SERP visibility gaps competitors are taking advantage of and the formats, structure, and markup your pages need to appear in the same high-impact search surfaces.
Step 5: Run a backlink gap analysis

Now that you know how competitors outperform you in keywords, content depth, and search visibility, it’s time to look at authority signals. This starts with backlink profiles.

Start by comparing referring domains to see which websites trust your competitors enough to link to them. To find this using the Backlink Gap tool:

    Go to “SEO” > “Competitive Research” > “Backlink Gap.” 
    Enter your domain and your competitors’ domains (up to 3).
    Click “Find prospects.”

Backlink Gap Sel Find Prospects Scaled

The “Best” tab in the “Prospects for” section shows a list of domains that link to your competitors but not to you. You can even see how many times referring domains have linked to your competitor’s website and how they linked — which anchor text and URL they used. 
Backlink Gap Sel Prospects For Scaled

Next, sort this list to create your outreach targets — the websites you plan to contact because they already link to your competitors and may also be willing to link to you. 

Here’s how to identify them:

    Sort the “Prospects for” list by “Authority Score” to find the strongest domains.
    Check the “Matches” column.
        If a domain links to multiple competitors, it’s usually a strong outreach opportunity.
        If it links to only one competitor, it may still be helpful, depending on the context.
    Filter the list using the “Best” tab to spot the highest-value opportunities for your domain.

If you notice a domain like “marketinginsider.com” linking to two of your competitors’ email marketing guides, that could be an outreach target for your website because they already feature similar content. You could reach out to them with:

    Refreshed version of your guide
    New data point
    New resource

Once you’ve identified your outreach targets, examine patterns in competitors’ digital PR. This would clarify how your competitors earn links, not only where they get them. 

To do so, open a few of the backlinks listed in the Backlink Gap report and check the context of each link. 

Look for patterns such as:

    Guest posts or contributed articles
    Expert quotes in industry news
    Resource lists or directories
    Data studies or original research
    Tools or templates included in roundups
    Mentions in niche blogs or community sites

These patterns show the types of content and PR activities that consistently earn links in your niche. 

If several competitors earned links from news sites for providing expert commentary, that suggests journalists in your industry accept expert quotes. This becomes a PR angle you can use, too.

Once you gain this understanding, it’s easier to plan outreach, decide which content formats to create, and identify the authority gaps affecting your rankings.
Step 6: Run a technical gap analysis

After backlink analysis, use the Site Audit tool to check whether technical issues are holding your content back. 

Once you finish this step, you’ll have a clear view of the crawl, performance, and structural gaps that may be holding your pages back. These are the technical issues that quietly suppress rankings, so identifying them now makes it easier to fix the most important problems as soon as possible.

For this:

    Go to “SEO” > “On Page & Tech SEO” > “Site Audit.” 
    Enter your domain. 
    Click “Start SEO Audit,” then adjust the general settings to your needs to initiate the audit. 

Semrush Site Audit Search Sel Scaled

Once the audit is complete, you’ll see a breakdown of the main issues affecting your website. Focus on the areas that directly affect visibility because if Google can’t access or understand your content properly, even the best content won’t rank the way it should.

Some of the most common issues to prioritize should be:

    Indexation: pages that aren’t indexed or are blocked.
    Core Web Vitals: slow loading, layout shifts, or poor responsiveness.
    Cannibalization risks: similar pages competing with each other.
    Internal linking gaps: important pages with weak link support.
    Crawl waste: unnecessary URLs, duplicate pages, or deep page paths.

You can find these in the “Issues” tab with an explanation of why and how to fix the specific problem. 
Site Audit Sel Issues Scaled

Compare your results with competitors

Once you understand your own issues, compare them with competitors to see where they perform better. This shows you the technical strengths they rely on to maintain visibility. 

Here’s how to find these:

1. Compare site health: Run a separate site audit for each competitor because it will help you see where:

    Competitors have fewer errors or warnings
    They use technical elements you don’t (like structured data)
    Their overall site health score stays 

2. Compare page speed: Use a free tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to compare your key pages with theirs. Check who performs better on:

    Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long it takes for the main content on a page to load
    Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How quickly the page responds when a user clicks or taps
    Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much the page layout jumps or shifts while loading

3. Review their on-page structure: Open their top-performing pages through “SEO” > “Competitive Research” > “Organic Research” > “Pages” and look at:

    Title tags and meta descriptions
    URL structure
    Heading structure
    Use of FAQs, structured data, or multimedia
    Clarity and layout 

These elements often give competitor pages an edge in both rankings and AI visibility.
Organic Research Sel Pages Scaled
Step 7: Turn findings into a prioritized roadmap

You have completed all parts of the gap analysis, but there’s too much data. Now what? Bring everything together in a simple roadmap so this large amount of data can become clear and actionable for your team to follow.

First of all, group your findings into three buckets:

    High impact / low effort: Quick wins that meaningfully improve visibility. These should be done first.
    High impact / high effort: Larger projects (new clusters, major technical fixes) that take time but deliver strong results.
    Low impact or noise: Tasks that look important in the data but won’t move rankings. Set these aside.

After you’ve grouped them, use a simple template to map your priorities. Here’s an example of how your roadmap may look:
Action Plan

Each action ties back to a specific gap you identified earlier, so every item in the roadmap has a clear reason for being there. Once you organize your findings this way, you’ll know exactly what to do first, what to save for later projects, and what isn’t worth your time.
What to do with gap analysis results

Now let’s see how to turn your gap analysis findings into practical actions that can improve your website rankings.
Build or expand content clusters

Use your keyword and topic gaps to map out clusters you haven’t covered yet. This usually includes creating new pillar pages and supporting articles that cover missing angles, questions, and related terms.
Refresh pages that need more depth

Update anything identified as thin, outdated, or missing key subtopics. In addition, add clearer structure, missing H2s, examples, FAQs, and the entities that appeared across competing pages.
Optimize product and category pages

Add missing filters, descriptions and images, and stronger internal links from related guides or blog content to your product and category pages. This helps these pages rank for more commercial intent queries and improves how search engines understand your product hierarchy.
Add formats that help you show up in AI results and SERP features

Short definitions, FAQs, summaries, step-by-step sections, and comparison blocks help your pages appear in snippets, PAAs, and AI-generated answers.
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Strengthen your internal linking

Connect related pages inside each cluster. To do so, link supporting pages back to their pillar and add contextual links between overlapping topics. This helps Google understand your site structure and reduces cannibalization.
Turn link gaps into a PR outreach plan

Use your backlink gap findings to build a list of high-value domains worth contacting. Focus on websites that link to multiple competitors and look at the content formats they tend to feature. Then contact them to pitch similar content ideas (e.g., guest posts or a new data study) and get a backlink. 
Add or improve schema markup

Based on the SERP feature gaps you find, apply schema types that competitors use. They may be “FAQ,” “HowTo,” “Breadcrumbs,” “Product,” or “Article.”
Improve crawl paths for important pages

Reduce unnecessary folders, fix broken links between related sections, and surface important URLs higher in your website structure. This will help Google find and process your pages faster, especially new or recently updated content.
Organize everything into a simple roadmap

Keep high-impact, low-effort tasks at the top, plan deeper projects next, and set aside anything that won’t move visibility.
Use your findings for quarterly reporting

Turn the gaps you’ve fixed and the ones still open into a recurring check-in for your team. Track how clusters grow, how link profiles change, and whether your pages gain more visibility in SERP features and AI results. This keeps your roadmap up to date and helps you spot new opportunities every quarter.
Seo Gap Analysis
Ready to address content and keyword gaps on your site? 

Take the gaps you’ve found and decide on a small set of actions you can complete within 60 days: 

    One or two new clusters
    Handful of content refreshes
    Short outreach list
    Few high-impact technical fixes

Assign owners and deadlines to each task to make them accountable.

If you manage a business with local pages or location-based search traffic, your next step should be a deeper visibility check on your local presence. 

Our local SEO audit guide walks you through how to review citations, map rankings, and elements that matter for nearby customers. 

It will pair well with the roadmap you’ve built from your gap analysis and will help you uncover a different set of gaps that influence local search performance