stories about getting more traffic are about paying for ads or getting lucky with a viral post.. That is not what happened to us. We went from 6,000 to over 20,000 visitors in just seven months.. We did it all by ourselves using a simple method called competitor content gap analysis.
Here is what we did the results we got and a simple plan that you can use on your own website.
What Is A Competitor Content Gap Analysis?
A competitor content gap analysis is when you compare your websites content to your competitors content. You are looking for topics or search phrases that they are doing well with. You are not. The goal is not just to make content. It is to find where people are looking for something but not finding it. Then you make something than what is already out there.
Where We Started
Before we started this project our website was getting about 6,200 visitors per month. We were ranking for 340 keywords.. Our content was not very good at turning visitors into customers.
We picked three competitors who were doing better than us. We looked at all of their content. Used a special tool to see what keywords they were ranking for. We made a list of all the keywords and topics they were doing well with.
What We Found
We found some holes in our competitors content. Here are three things that stood out:
- Topics that lots of people are searching for but not many people are writing about. Our competitors had basic posts about these topics.. We knew we could do better.
- Missing search phrases. Our competitors would write about “what’s X” but they would not write about “X vs Y” or “how to fix X”.
- Old posts that did not answer peoples questions. Our competitors had posts that did not address what people were searching for now.
These holes in our competitors content became our plan for what to write about.
Our Simple Plan
Here is what we did:
- Find our competitors. We picked three websites that were similar to ours.
- Look at their content. We made a list of all the topics and keywords they were doing well with.
- Figure out what people are searching for. We sorted all the keywords into three groups: people who are looking for information people who are comparing things and people who are ready to buy something.
- Decide what to write about first. We used a scoring system to figure out which topics to write about first. We looked at how many people were searching for something how hard it would be to rank for that keyword and how important it was to our business.
- Write some content. We wrote in-depth posts that answered peoples questions.
- See how it worked. We tracked how our website was doing at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after we published our content.
The Results
Here is what happened:
| Metric Before | After (7 months) |
|—|—|—|
| Monthly visitors | 6,200 | 20,400 |
| Ranking keywords | 340 | 890 |
| Traffic increase |. | +229% |
Most of our posts started ranking well within 4-8 weeks.. By 12 weeks we were getting a lot more traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a competitor content gap analysis?
It is when you compare your websites content to your competitors content to find topics that they are doing well with. You are not.
How do you find holes in your competitors content?
You look at their website. Use a special tool to see what keywords they are ranking for. Then you flag the topics that they are not doing well with.
What tools can help you find competitor content gaps?
There are tools that can compare keywords across websites. You can also look at the search results page to see what people are searching for.
How long does it take to get traffic?
It usually takes 4-12 weeks. It depends on how competitive your keywordsre how good your website is.
How should you decide what to write about?
You should score your topics based on how many people’re searching for them how hard it is to rank for that keyword and how important it is to your business. Then you should write about the topics that score the highest.
How do you know if you are successful?
You should look at how traffic you are getting how well your keywords are ranking and how engaged your visitors are.
Templates To Get Started
- Gap analysis worksheet: competitor URL, keyword, volume, your coverage, gap type
- Topic priority matrix: volume × difficulty × relevance scoring grid
- Content calendar: gap topic → target keyword → publish date → review checkpoint
The Main Point
You do not have to come up with a new plan to get more traffic. You just have to find where your competitors are not doing well and do better, than them. That is how we added 20,000 visitors to our website.
