SEO-13 · SEC. 07 SEO & GEO

Keyword and Topic Gap Analysis Against Competitors

Find topics competitors rank for that you don't cover, ranked by real opportunity.

FORMAT: goal
DIFFICULTY: intermediate
TIME: 20 min
TOOLS: universal
MODELS: any
COPIES: 0 so far

When to use this

You want a content roadmap driven by real gaps, not guesses. Use after pulling your own published topics and a competitor's (from their sitemap, blog index, or a rank-tracking export) — this prompt does the comparison and prioritization, not the data pull.

The pattern

Pastes as plain text

Below the line are two lists: the topics/pages I currently publish on my
site, then the topics/pages my competitor(s) publish, labeled by
competitor name.

Find the gap:
1. List topics the competitor(s) cover that I have no page for at all,
   grouped by theme, not a flat list of 50 items.
2. For each gap, note how many competitors cover it (if more than one was
   given) — topics covered by all competitors and not by me are higher
   priority than one competitor's one-off post.
3. Exclude topics that are off-brand or out of scope for my site given
   what I publish today. Use judgment, don't force every competitor topic
   into the list.
4. For the top 8 gaps, estimate relative opportunity as High/Medium/Low
   based on: how central the topic seems to the competitor's content
   strategy (pillar page vs. one-off post), and how directly it relates to
   my existing topic clusters (easier to rank adjacent to what I already
   cover than to start a brand-new cluster).
5. Output a prioritized table: Topic | Covered by | Opportunity |
   Suggested page type (pillar/comparison/how-to/glossary).

My topics:
Competitor topics (label each competitor):

Real example output

My topics: invoice automation, payment reminders, AR reporting, API docs
Competitors: InvoiceHQ, PayTrack (both invoicing SaaS)

Gaps found (grouped):
Compliance & tax
- "1099 filing automation" — covered by both competitors, InvoiceHQ has a
  dedicated pillar page with 3 linked sub-guides
- "sales tax nexus for invoicing" — covered by PayTrack only, one blog post

Integrations
- "QuickBooks sync guide" — covered by both, InvoiceHQ ranks #3 for
  "invoicing QuickBooks integration"
- "Stripe vs. manual invoicing" — covered by PayTrack only

Prioritized table:
Topic                          | Covered by        | Opportunity | Page type
1099 filing automation         | InvoiceHQ, PayTrack| High        | Pillar
QuickBooks sync guide          | InvoiceHQ, PayTrack| High        | How-to
Sales tax nexus for invoicing  | PayTrack           | Medium      | Guide
Stripe vs. manual invoicing    | PayTrack           | Medium      | Comparison

Excluded as out of scope: "payroll tax withholding" — InvoiceHQ covers it
but we don't offer payroll features, would be off-brand to rank for.

Why it works

A topic covered by every competitor and missing from your site is a much stronger signal than a single competitor's experimental post — treating them the same wastes writing effort on low-probability bets. Filtering for brand relevance before prioritizing keeps the roadmap from chasing traffic you can't actually convert.