Content Gap Analysis

When This Must Trigger

Use this when the conversation involves any of these situations — even if the user does not use SEO terminology:

Use this whenever the task needs reusable market intelligence that should influence strategy, not just an ad hoc answer.

• Planning content strategy and editorial calendar
• Finding quick-win content opportunities
• Understanding where competitors outperform you
• Identifying underserved topics in your niche
• Expanding into adjacent topic areas
• Prioritizing content creation efforts
• Finding GEO opportunities competitors miss

What This Skill Does

1. Keyword Gap Analysis: Finds keywords competitors rank for that you don't
2. Topic Coverage Mapping: Identifies topic areas needing more content
3. Content Format Gaps: Reveals missing content types (videos, tools, guides)
4. Audience Need Mapping: Matches gaps to audience journey stages
5. GEO Opportunity Detection: Finds AI-answerable topics you're missing
6. Priority Scoring: Ranks gaps by impact and effort
7. Content Calendar Creation: Plans gap-filling content schedule

Quick Start

Start with one of these prompts. Finish with a short handoff summary using the repository format in Skill Contract.

Basic Gap Analysis

Find content gaps between my site [URL] and [competitor URLs]

What content am I missing compared to my top 3 competitors?

Topic-Specific Analysis

Find content gaps in [topic area] compared to industry leaders

What [content type] do competitors have that I don't?

Audience-Focused

What content gaps exist for [audience segment] in my niche?

Skill Contract

Expected output: a prioritized research brief, evidence-backed findings, and a short handoff summary ready for memory/research/.

• Reads: user goals, target market inputs, available tool data, and prior strategy from CLAUDE.md and the shared State Model when available.
• Writes: a user-facing research deliverable plus a reusable summary that can be stored under memory/research/.
• Promotes: durable keyword priorities, competitor facts, entity candidates, and strategic decisions to CLAUDE.md, memory/decisions.md, and memory/research/; hand canonical entity work to entity-optimizer.
• Next handoff: use the Next Best Skill below when the findings are ready to drive action.

Data Sources

Note: All integrations are optional. This skill works without any API keys — users provide data manually when no tools are connected.

See CONNECTORS.md for tool category placeholders.

With ~~SEO tool + ~~search console + ~~analytics + ~~AI monitor connected: Automatically pull your site's content inventory from ~~search console and ~~analytics (indexed pages, traffic per page, keywords ranking), competitor content data from ~~SEO tool (ranking keywords, top pages, backlink counts), and AI citation patterns from ~~AI monitor. Keyword overlap analysis and gap identification can be automated.

With manual data only: Ask the user to provide:

1. Your site URL and content inventory (list of published content with topics)
2. Competitor URLs (3-5 sites)
3. Your current traffic and keyword performance (if available)
4. Known content strengths and weaknesses
5. Industry context and business goals

Proceed with the full analysis using provided data. Note in the output which metrics are from automated collection vs. user-provided data.

Instructions

When a user requests content gap analysis:

1. Define Analysis Scope

   Clarify parameters:

   ### Analysis Parameters
   
   **Your Site**: [URL]
   **Competitors to Analyze**: [URLs or "identify for me"]
   **Topic Focus**: [specific area or "all"]
   **Content Types**: [blogs, guides, tools, videos, or "all"]
   **Audience**: [target audience]
   **Business Goals**: [traffic, leads, authority, etc.]
   

2. Audit Your Existing Content

   Document total indexed pages, content by type and topic cluster, top performing content, and content strengths/weaknesses.

3. Analyze Competitor Content

   For each competitor: document content volume, monthly traffic, content distribution by type, topic coverage vs. yours, and unique content they have.

4. Identify Keyword Gaps

   Find keywords competitors rank for that you do not. Categorize into High Priority (high volume, achievable difficulty), Quick Wins (lower volume, low difficulty), and Long-term (high volume, high difficulty). Include keyword overlap analysis.

5. Map Topic Gaps

   Create a topic coverage comparison matrix across all competitors. For each missing topic cluster, document business relevance, competitor coverage, opportunity size, sub-topics, and recommended pillar/cluster approach.

6. Identify Content Format Gaps

   Compare format distribution (guides, tutorials, comparisons, case studies, tools, templates, video, infographics, research) against competitors and industry averages. For each gap, assess effort and expected impact.

7. Analyze GEO/AI Gaps

   Identify topics where competitors get AI citations but you do not. Document missing Q&A content, definition/explanation content, and comparison content. Score each by traditional SEO value and GEO value.

8. Map to Audience Journey

   Compare funnel stage coverage (Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention) against competitor averages. Detail specific gaps at each stage.

9. Prioritize and Create Action Plan

   Produce a final report with: Executive Summary, Prioritized Gap List (Tier 1 Quick Wins, Tier 2 Strategic Builds, Tier 3 Long-term), Content Calendar, and Success Metrics.

   Reference: See references/analysis-templates.md for detailed templates for each step.

Validation Checkpoints

Input Validation

• Your content inventory is complete or representative sample provided
• Competitor URLs identified (minimum 2-3 competitors)
• Analysis scope defined (specific topics or comprehensive)
• Business goals and priorities clarified

Output Validation

• Every recommendation cites specific data points (not generic advice)
• Gap analysis compares like-to-like content (topic clusters to topic clusters)
• Priority scoring based on measurable criteria (volume, difficulty, business fit)
• Content calendar maps gaps to realistic timeframes
• Source of each data point clearly stated (~~SEO tool data, ~~analytics data, ~~AI monitor data, user-provided, or estimated)

Example

Reference: See references/example-report.md for a complete example analyzing SaaS marketing blog gaps vs. HubSpot and Drift.

Advanced Analysis

Competitive Cluster Comparison

Compare our topic cluster coverage for [topic] vs top 5 competitors

Temporal Gap Analysis

What content have competitors published in the last 6 months that we haven't covered?

Intent-Based Gaps

Find gaps in our [commercial/informational] intent content

Tips for Success

1. Focus on actionable gaps - Not all gaps are worth filling
2. Consider your resources - Prioritize based on ability to execute
3. Quality over quantity - Better to fill 5 gaps well than 20 poorly
4. Track what works - Measure gap-filling success
5. Update regularly - Gaps change as competitors publish
6. Include GEO opportunities - Don't just optimize for traditional search

Save Results

After delivering findings to the user, ask:

"Save these results for future sessions?"

If yes, write a dated summary to memory/research/content-gap-analysis/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md containing:

• One-line headline finding
• Top 3-5 actionable items
• Open loops or blockers
• Source data references

If any findings should influence ongoing strategy, recommend promoting key conclusions to memory/hot-cache.md.

Reference Materials

• Analysis Templates — Detailed templates for each analysis step (inventory, competitor content, keyword gaps, topic gaps, format gaps, GEO gaps, journey, prioritized report)
• Gap Analysis Frameworks — Content audit matrices, funnel mapping, and gap prioritization scoring methodologies
• Example Report — Complete example analyzing SaaS marketing blog gaps vs. HubSpot and Drift

Next Best Skill

• Primary: seo-content-writer — turn missing topics into a draft or content roadmap.

Related Skills in This Suite

Install the full suite: See README for one-command install of all 20 skills.