How to find content gaps: A strategic guide for growth

Have you ever spent hours crafting what seems like the perfect blog post, only for it to receive little to no engagement after publishing? This is a common challenge for content creators. When content doesn't rank or attract traffic, it's often not an issue of quality.

The problem is more likely a disconnect between what you're creating and what your audience is actually searching for. This is where "content gaps" come into play. Think of them as the missing pieces in your content puzzle: the topics, questions, and formats your audience wants but you haven't covered yet.

I am 40 days away from exam day and I want to find those content gaps ASAP, does anybody know what is the best way to do this?? I know that a lot of people say that you will find them while doing practice problems, but I want a quicker way to do so (will still be doing practice problems along the way).

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Finding and filling these gaps is one of the most direct ways to boost your organic traffic, build authority, and finally get the right people to see your work. And while traditional methods are still useful, modern AI can accelerate the process. For instance, by using the eesel AI blog writer, we grew our own blog from 70k to over 750k impressions in just three months.

Let's walk through how you can do the same.

What is a content gap?

A content gap analysis is the process of finding topics your audience is interested in that you haven't written about. It’s about spotting the opportunities your competitors have either missed or haven't covered very well.

But it’s a bit deeper than just finding missing keywords. According to the SEO team at Backlinko, a content gap can appear in a few different ways:

• Thoroughness: Your article just scratches the surface and doesn't fully answer a user's question.
• Freshness: The information is outdated. Think "Best Laptops of 2022" when it's already 2026.
• Usability: The content is difficult to read. This can include large blocks of text, a lack of images, or confusing navigation.
• Wow factor: The content is factually correct but lacks engagement. It may not have the unique data, compelling story, or expert insight that encourages sharing.

Basically, a content gap is any chance you have to provide more value than what's currently available, whether that’s on your site or a competitor's.

Manual methods for finding content gaps

Before using automated tools, it is valuable to perform some manual analysis. These methods help you develop an intuitive understanding of your audience and the market.

Conduct a comprehensive content audit

Your own website is the best place to start. A content audit helps you see what you already have, what’s working, and what’s not.

The Content Marketing Institute has a pretty simple process for this:

1. Take inventory: Open up a spreadsheet and list all your existing content, such as blog posts, landing pages, and white papers.
2. Track key metrics: For each piece, pull in data that matters, like page views, time on page, bounce rate, and current keyword rankings.
3. Find the underperformers: Look for content that isn't performing well. These are your easy wins. Often, a simple update or rewrite can significantly improve a post's performance.

Analyze the search engine results pages (SERPs)

The first page of Google's search results provides valuable insights. It shows you exactly what the algorithm thinks users want for any given search.

Here's how to use it:

• Search for one of your main target keywords.
• Open the top 5-10 articles in new tabs.
• Skim through them and look for patterns. What questions do they all answer? What format are they using (listicles, guides, reviews)?
• Now, look for what they’re missing. Is the info a bit dated? Is it too generic? Could it use more real-world examples or some helpful visuals? Your opportunity is to create a more comprehensive or valuable piece of content.

Crowdsource ideas from your audience and teams

The people who know your content gaps best are the ones interacting with your brand every day: your customers and your internal teams.

It's pretty easy to gather these insights:

• Your Audience: Run a poll on social media or send a quick survey to your email list asking what they'd like you to cover next. You might be surprised by their ideas.
• Your Internal Teams: Your sales and customer support representatives interact with customers directly and understand their questions, pain points, and objections. This feedback is a valuable source of content ideas. Tools like eesel AI's internal chat can even make this internal knowledge searchable, so your marketing team can easily find recurring questions and turn them into powerful content.

Using SEO tools to find content gaps

Once you have a handle on the manual side of things, SEO tools can help you find keyword-level gaps at a larger scale. They are effective for identifying what topics to cover, but the process of determining how to approach the topic and create the content remains a manual task.

Youtube Studio has a 'Research' tab in the Analytics section. You can explore the topics you're interested in, and it'll tell you where there are gaps in content that people are looking for.

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Use the Semrush keyword gap tool

The Semrush Keyword Gap tool is a classic for a reason. You plug in your domain and a few top competitors, and it gives you a list of keywords they're ranking for, but you aren't.

• Strengths: It’s great for getting a big-picture view of your competitors' keyword strategies. You can easily filter for "Missing," "Weak," or "Untapped" keywords to find quick wins.
• Functionality: The tool provides a list of keywords based on your competitors' rankings. The next step is to analyze this data to determine search intent, decide on the appropriate article format, and plan the content strategy.

Use Ahrefs' content gap feature

Ahrefs has a very similar tool in its Competitive Analysis suite. It does pretty much the same thing: shows you keywords that are sending traffic to your competitors but not to you.

• Strengths: It’s fantastic for finding valuable, high-intent keywords that your competitors are already benefiting from. You can run the analysis for the whole domain or get specific and compare individual pages.
• Functionality: Similar to other SEO tools, Ahrefs helps with the research phase of content creation. It identifies keyword opportunities, which is the first step in the content development workflow.

How to find and fill content gaps with eesel AI

AI tools can help bridge the gap between research and publication. Some platforms are designed to close the distance between identifying an opportunity and publishing the content to capture it. The eesel AI blog writer, for instance, is built to automate parts of this process. It doesn't just show you the gaps; it helps you create high-quality, publish-ready content to fill them in minutes.

Instead of just handing you a keyword, the eesel AI blog writer automates the entire workflow, from research to writing to formatting.

Here's how it automatically handles the different types of content gaps we talked about earlier:

• Context-Aware Research: Instead of you manually sifting through top-ranking articles, eesel AI does it for you. It analyzes the SERPs, understands the searcher's intent, and structures an article that fills any thoroughness gaps.
• Automatic Asset Generation: To tackle usability and the "wow factor," it generates relevant images, infographics, charts, and tables right inside the content. You get a complete, visually appealing article, not just a wall of text.
• Social Proof and Expertise: It pulls in real quotes from Reddit threads and embeds YouTube videos to add authentic voices and expert perspectives, helping you build trust with your readers.

We're not just selling a tool; we're sharing the exact process we used to grow our own blog. We used this exact tool to take our blog from 70k to over 750,000 impressions in just three months by publishing over 1,000 optimized blogs.

The best part? It's completely free to try, so you can generate a full article and see the quality for yourself.

Bridging the gaps: Taking action on your findings

Finding a dozen content gaps is great, but it doesn't mean much until you start creating content to fill them. The final step is all about turning your analysis into real work.

Prioritize your content gaps

You can't do everything at once, so you need a way to prioritize. Here’s a simple framework to help you decide what to tackle first:

1. Business Relevance: How closely does this topic align with your product or service? A topic that directly addresses a customer pain point your product solves should be at the top of the list.
2. Audience Intent: Is the person searching looking to learn, compare options, or buy something? Prioritize topics that map to the most important stages of your buyer's journey.
3. Competitive Landscape: How hard will it be to rank for this? It’s often smarter to go after high-relevance, lower-competition topics first to get some quick wins on the board.

Creating content that closes the loop

When you create the content, your goal should be to fully address the identified gap. According to Semrush's Content Marketing course, modern SEO is all about E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

Your content should be:

• Thorough: It should answer the user's initial question and the next three they'll probably have.
• Credible: Back up your claims with expert quotes, original data, or links to authoritative sources.
• Recent: Make sure you're providing the most up-to-date information available.
• Engaging: Use visuals, clear formatting, and a human, conversational tone to keep people reading.

This is the standard the eesel AI blog writer is built to hit with every article it generates, taking care of the research, visuals, and structure so you can focus on adding your own unique insights.

Visual learners might find a video walkthrough helpful. The following guide provides a practical demonstration of how to identify and leverage content gaps to enhance your SEO and drive more traffic to your site.

This guide provides a practical demonstration of how to find and fill content gaps to get more traffic.

Your next step

Content gap analysis isn't a one-time task. It's an ongoing process of listening to your audience, keeping an eye on the market, and always looking for ways to provide more value.

The workflow is straightforward: start with a manual audit to understand your landscape, analyze the SERPs, talk to your customers, use SEO tools to find keyword opportunities, and then use AI to scale your creation process without sacrificing quality.

Because at the end of the day, the goal isn't just to find gaps. It's to fill them with content that's so helpful and well-crafted that it earns you traffic, trust, and customers.

Ready to stop just finding gaps and start filling them instantly? Generate your first blog post for free with the eesel AI blog writer and see how quickly you can scale your content strategy.