We’re gonna get into the what, why, and how of content gap analysis. Learn about the AI tools and prompts used for identifying content opportunities against competitors’ websites.
Timeline
00:55 Understanding Content Gap Analysis
01:15 Using AI for Content Gap Analysis
03:13 Exploring Rival Flow AI Tool
06:31 Manual Content Gap Analysis Techniques
07:18 Brand Blueprint and Business Clarity
Resources
- SEO Power-up Plan
- Brand Blueprint by Authentic AI for Entrepreneurs
- Rival Flow AI
- Other episode recommendations
- Know, Like, Trust Factor – Content With Character with Emily Aborn
- The Catherine Plano Podcast… EP 377 called Shift Your Money Mindset, Raise Your Vibration with Kyle Cease
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple
First and foremost, this episode will help the most if you have full clarity on your business. You don’t have to have it documented but it’s so much easier if you do.
In this episode, I’m going to share the what, why and how of a content gap analysis. Starting with the AI prompt I used (because that’s why you’re here) and then some commentary around the process and tools.
Following that is my digital marketing tool of the week and some recent podcast episodes that I’ve enjoyed recently.
A content gap analysis, also known as keyword gap analysis, is finding topics that you haven’t covered yet that would help your audience; typically these are topics your competitors have written about.
This analysis is primarily used to find ways to rank more or higher in Google.
Here’s the ChatGPT prompt I used that you are probably going to find amusing.
And the prompt is… “What prompt can I give you that will allow me to do a content gap analysis for my website against my competitors?”
ChatGPT then gave me the prompt to use.
Analyze the content on my website [your website URL] and compare it to the content on my competitors’ websites: [Competitor 1 URL], [Competitor 2 URL], and [Competitor 3 URL]. Identify:
- Topics my competitors are covering that I am not.
- Topics I cover that my competitors do not (potential differentiators).
- Gaps in content depth—where my competitors provide more detailed or valuable insights.
- Opportunities for SEO improvement (keywords, formats, or angles I’m missing).
- Unique content opportunities based on audience pain points that neither I nor my competitors are addressing.
Provide specific content recommendations and potential blog post or page ideas based on the findings.
And then it said… Would you like me to run this analysis for you? If so, provide your website and competitors’ URLs!
So I said… Why yes, ChatGPT, I would! Thank you very much! And then I gave it the 4 URLs.
It took just a few minutes for it to give me a generic unpersonalized answer and referred me to different tools. All my hopes and dreams were crushed. ChatGPT lied. Then I remembered, I attempt not to have any expectations from ChatGPT. That helps a lot.
So this isn’t so helpful to most of us solopreneurs. We come to ChatGPT to get answers.
On the bright side, it did alert me to a tool that I didn’t know had a competitor feature. It’s called RivalFlowAI by SpyFu.
So I tried it. There is a free trial. And I actually quite like it. I put in my website, it scans it, and then asks me what page I’d like to improve.
If gave me a list of questions that my page doesn’t answer, it partially answers and that me and my competitor both answer.
It provides the question, an answer to use and even where to put it in my post!
Here’s the kicker. It’s not in my brand tone. And some of the questions aren’t topics I want to add to my page. So I will still go to the actual search engine results page, click through the first 5-10 results and see what’s on the pages.
As this page I was testing with is going into my refresh list with my copywriter in about 3-4 months, I’ll use this and my own creative thinking to decide what I will put in there. Should I have waited to publish this episode until I had results? Maybe. But I tend to live in the moment when doing these episodes soooo, I guess we’ll wait and see what happens and I’ll let you know in a future episode.
If you decide to try the RivalFlowAI, please let me know how you like it. You can email directly at barb@compassdigitalstrategies.com.
Ok, that turned out to be specifically for existing pages. So let’s get back to the prompt and the project at hand.
I went back to ChatGPT and replied… “I thought you were going to provide specific content recommendations and potential blog post or page ideas based on the findings?”
And then ChatGPT said to me… “Apologies for the earlier oversight. Based on the analysis of your competitors’ content, here are specific content recommendations and potential blog post ideas to help your website stand out:”
And then gave me some topics I really found to be just too broad, too basic. Then I thought, well that’s the point of this exercise… to find those topics. Topics I haven’t covered that others have. At the end of the output, it has a button for sources and it did show a known competitor website.
So the next step is to think about whether or not I want to cover those topics and if so, how. And then work them into the project list with my copywriter. I used to do one blog post every month but these days, I’m alternating between a new one and a refresh. Or maybe I’m doing 2 new and one refresh. I’ll have to double check that with my copywriter.
Anywho, back to the topic at hand… The super simplest way to do a content gap analysis is go to your competitor website and see what they are writing about that you’re not yet. You can get a list of their pages in one of three ways… scan their website manually with your eyeballs and write or type them in a google sheet, go to Google, type site:theirdomain.com and see what’s listed that you haven’t written about yet or lastly, scan their website with a tool called ScreamingFrog.
At the beginning I mentioned needing clarity on your business, goals, what you offer, who you help, your sweet spot… A friend of mine, Kinsey Soderberg, from Authentic AI for Entrepreneurs, created a tool called the Brand Blueprint. I highly highly recommend it. I’ll put a link in the show notes for you.
It has helped me tremendously when working with ChatGPT for ideas and talking through solutions. I’ve even provided it to my niece as she started helping me in my business. It’s super helpful to onboard new employees or freelancers.
And the biggest reason why really knowing your business and sweet spot is helpful to know is because you may uncover topics in the content gap analysis that are suggested to you but have nothing to do with your business and sweet spot.
None of us want to manually do work, but here’s the kicker. A lot of the time, the tools don’t understand your business. Take their information and apply it to your own critical, creative thinking for the best ideas.
And here’s a sneaky insider tip when using tools: Use free trials. One for each time you decide you want to run a content gap analysis. Once you do this 3-5 times, you’ll have worked through enough tools to decide which one, if any, is one you’d like to continue with.
The key takeaway
Tools can guide, but you decide – AI-powered tools like RivalFlowAI and ChatGPT itself can provide recommendations, but they don’t understand your brand voice or business goals. Apply critical thinking before implementing suggestions.
As business owners, we have to understand our budget and all things financial. I’d like to introduce you to YNAB, a tool to help you budget both in business and financially. Frankly, I don’t know how I even bought anything or kept any of my expenses and bills paid without this tool. YNAB stans for You Need A Budget and it is the most incredibly helpful tool in my business. There’s a desktop and phone version. And I can see the set aside money for monthly expenses and yearly. It’s a super affordable subscription and easy to set up. If you try it, let me know how you like it!
Episodes I’ve enjoyed listening to this week:
- An episode on a topic that is super related to websites, called Like, Know, Trust: Action Steps to Build LNT. The podcast is Content with Character by Emily Aborn. She shares 4 ways to build each one, for a total of 12 helpful tips.
- On the personal side, The Catherine Plano Podcast… EP 377 called Shift Your Money Mindset, Raise Your Vibration with Kyle Cease.
