SEO-13 · SEC. 07 SEO & GEO
Keyword and Topic Gap Analysis Against Competitors
Find topics competitors cover that you don't, then rank editorial opportunities with the supplied evidence.
- 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 visible content 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 compares the supplied coverage. It does not infer rankings or search demand that were not supplied.
The pattern
I have two lists: the topics/pages I currently publish on my site, and 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 editorial 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). This is not a traffic or ranking forecast unless I supplied ranking or demand data. 5. Output a prioritized table: Topic | Covered by | Opportunity | Suggested page type (pillar/comparison/how-to/glossary). Start by asking me for both lists in one message: my topics, then the competitor topics labeled by competitor name. Wait for my reply before analyzing anything.
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, with a dedicated guide on each competitor's supplied topic list - "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.