Content Gap Dominance: Steal 22% of Competitor Traffic in 90 Days

Last year, I helped an ecommerce client implement a content gap strategy that increased their organic traffic by 22% in just 90 days. They weren’t doing anything revolutionary-they simply identified what their competitors were ranking for that they weren’t, and created better content to fill those gaps.

Content gap analysis isn’t just another SEO buzzword. It’s a strategic process that can dramatically transform your organic traffic when executed correctly. According to recent data, websites that systematically address content gaps see an average traffic increase of 18.4% within the first three months.

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to identify, prioritize, and capitalize on content gaps to steal significant traffic from your competitors in just 90 days. This isn’t about copying your competitors-it’s about understanding what’s working for them and creating something exponentially better.

What Is Content Gap Analysis?

Content gap analysis is the strategic process of identifying topics, keywords, and content pieces that your competitors are ranking for, but you’re not. It’s essentially finding “gaps” where your existing content doesn’t meet audience needs or where you have no content at all on high-value topics.

For SaaS businesses, the digital landscape is highly competitive. With numerous companies vying for the attention of the same target audience, having unique, high-quality content that meets audience needs is crucial.

A proper content gap analysis helps you:

• Discover untapped keyword opportunities
  
• Create more relevant, useful content
  
• Capture traffic your competitors are currently enjoying
  
• Build comprehensive topic coverage
  
• Improve your overall SEO strategy
  

The 90-Day Traffic Hijack Blueprint

Before diving into the step-by-step process, let’s establish the framework for our 90-day plan to steal competitor traffic:

Days 1-15: Competitor analysis and gap identification
Days 16-30: Strategy development and content planning
Days 31-75: Content creation and optimization
Days 76-90: Measurement, refinement, and scaling

This structured approach ensures you’re not just randomly creating content but strategically targeting the most valuable opportunities. According to data from Semrush, businesses that follow a structured content plan see 57% better results than those taking an ad-hoc approach.

Now, let’s break down the exact process into actionable steps.

Step 1: Identify Your Top Competitors

Your first task is determining who your actual competitors are in the search landscape. These might not be the same businesses you consider direct market competitors.

Begin by pinpointing the true competitors in your search landscape-not just your business rivals, but those who consistently outrank you for your target keywords. Use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google search results to compile a list of domains that dominate your niche. This foundational step ensures your content gap analysis focuses on the right benchmarks and uncovers the most impactful opportunities.

Start by entering your domain into Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool along with up to four competitor domains, then click “Compare” to run the analysis.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a website yet or want to expand your list:

• Search for your main target terms in Google
  
• Use Ahrefs’ “Traffic share by domains” report to see which sites get the most traffic for those terms14
  
• Check the “Organic competitors” report in SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush
  

Pro tip: Focus on websites with similar business models and audience targets rather than just domain authority.

Step 2: Analyze Competitor Content Performance

Dive into your competitors’ top-performing content to reveal what drives their organic traffic. Use SEO tools to sort their pages by traffic and engagement. Identify recurring themes, content formats, and strategies that resonate with your shared audience. This analysis highlights the types of content and topics you’ll need to outperform to capture a share of their traffic.

Now that you’ve identified your competitors, it’s time to analyze what’s working for them.

For each competitor:

1. Use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to check their top-performing pages
   
2. Sort by organic traffic to identify their traffic magnets
   
3. Look for content topics and formats that consistently perform well
   

As Brian Dean from Backlinko demonstrates, this analysis can reveal surprising patterns. When he researched SEO topics, he discovered that “35% of the most popular posts in the entire world of SEO were about mobile optimization”. This insight led him to create his comprehensive mobile SEO guide, which generated over 3,000 social shares and links from 470+ different domains.

Step 3: Find Keywords Your Competitors Rank For (That You Don’t)

Leverage keyword gap tools to uncover the exact queries sending traffic to your competitors but not to you. Filter for keywords where your rivals rank in the top 20 and you have little or no visibility. These “missing” keywords represent prime opportunities to expand your reach and quickly close the gap in organic search performance.

This is where the real magic happens. You need to identify specific keyword opportunities where competitors are ranking but you’re missing out.

The most efficient approach:

1. Use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool with your domain and competitors
   
2. Filter for keywords where competitors rank in positions 1-20 but you rank poorly or not at all
   
3. Look for the “Weak” or “Missing” keywords in your profile compared to competitors
   

According to SimpleTiger’s analysis, focusing on these gap keywords can yield significant traffic increases in a relatively short timeframe.

Step 4: Analyze Search Intent For Gap Keywords

Not every keyword is worth targeting. For each gap keyword, examine the search intent by reviewing the top-ranking pages. Determine whether users seek information, products, or specific solutions. Aligning your content with the right intent ensures you’re not just filling gaps, but meeting real audience needs and increasing your chances of ranking.

Not all keyword gaps are worth pursuing. You need to evaluate the search intent behind each potential keyword opportunity.

For each promising keyword gap:

1. Search for it in Google
   
2. Analyze the top 5 results to understand what content type dominates (informational, transactional, navigational)
   
3. Check if the SERP features match your content capabilities (videos, featured snippets, etc.)
   

Brian Dean’s process for his link building guide illustrates this perfectly. He noticed that while many popular posts covered link building, “none of those 7 posts actually showed people how to optimize their site” with actionable tips. He identified this content gap and created a comprehensive guide that ranks in the top 3 for his target keyword.

Step 5: Prioritize Content Gaps By Potential ROI

With a long list of keyword gaps, prioritize them based on potential return. Assess each opportunity for search volume, keyword difficulty, commercial value, and the quality of current competition. Focus your resources on gaps where you can realistically outperform existing content and achieve meaningful business results.

Not all content gaps are created equal. You need to prioritize based on potential return.

Create a Content gap prioritization matrix with these factors:

1. Keyword difficulty (lower is better for quick wins)
   
2. Search volume (higher means more potential traffic)
   
3. Commercial intent (higher conversion potential)
   
4. Competition quality (is existing content beatable?)
   
5. Resource requirements (how much effort to create superior content)
   

A powerful approach is focusing on “long-tail gold” as Samy Thuillier suggests: “General guide done? Create specific ones”. For example, if “best golf balls” exists, create “best golf balls for seniors” for faster ranking and targeted traffic.

Step 6: Develop A Content Gap Matrix

Organize your findings in a Content Gap Matrix-a visual tool to map opportunities against competitors and prioritize your actions. Include columns for keywords, rankings, search volume, difficulty, and content type. This structured overview helps you make data-driven decisions and keep your strategy focused and efficient.

To visualize and organize your opportunities, create a Content Gap Matrix. This strategic tool helps you plot content gaps against competitors and prioritize your efforts.

Your matrix should include:

• Target keywords
  
• Current ranking (if any)
  
• Competitor rankings
  
• Search volume
  
• Difficulty score
  
• Content type needed
  
• Priority score (calculated from above metrics)
  

Free Resource: Hubspot shared a Content Gap Matrix Template in Google Sheets that you can copy and use for your strategy.

Step 7: Create Superior Content That Fills The Gaps

Produce content that not only fills identified gaps but also surpasses what’s currently ranking. Aim for greater depth, clarity, and usefulness. Incorporate comprehensive research, actionable insights, and engaging visuals to ensure your new content stands out and delivers more value than your competitors’ offerings.

Now comes the content creation stage. Your goal isn’t just to create content on missing topics but to make it substantially better than what’s already ranking.

Follow these principles:

1. Make your content more thorough (aim for 1,500+ words as a baseline, as Google’s top 10 results average 1,447 words)
   
2. Include more examples and case studies
   
3. Add visual elements (charts, infographics, screenshots)
   
4. Structure content with clear H2s and H3s for better readability
   
5. Incorporate the latest data and research
   

Step 8: Optimize Your Content Structure

Structure your content for both users and search engines. Use clear, keyword-rich headings, concise paragraphs, and logical flow. Add visual elements like images, infographics, and tables to enhance readability. Well-structured content improves engagement, dwell time, and your chances of securing higher rankings.

How you structure your content significantly impacts its performance. Backlinko’s articles follow a consistent pattern that you should emulate:

1. Use a compelling headline with numbers and power words
   
2. Start with a captivating introduction (4-9 sentences using the MIP-Result-Preview framework)11
   
3. Break content into clear sections with descriptive H2s and H3s
   
4. Keep paragraphs short (2-3 sentences maximum)
   
5. Use bucket brigades to maintain reader interest (“Here’s the thing:”, “But there’s a catch:”, etc.)
   
6. Include visuals to break up text
   
7. End with a clear conclusion and call to action
   

This structure keeps readers engaged and signals quality to search engines.

Step 9: Implement Strategic Internal Linking

Boost the visibility and authority of your new content by linking to it from relevant existing pages on your site. Strategic internal linking helps search engines discover and prioritize your gap-filling content, while also guiding users to related resources and improving overall site navigation.

Once your gap-filling content is created, strategic internal linking becomes crucial. For each new piece of content:

1. Identify 5-10 existing pages on your site that could naturally link to it
   
2. Update those pages with contextual links to your new content
   
3. Ensure anchor text is descriptive and keyword-rich (without over-optimization)
   
4. Consider creating “hub pages” that link to all content within a topic cluster
   

Step 10: Enhance Content With Expert Insights

Differentiate your content by including unique perspectives, expert quotes, original research, or case studies. Expert insights build credibility, attract backlinks, and provide readers with information they can’t find elsewhere, making your content more authoritative and shareable.

To truly differentiate your content from competitors, incorporate unique expert perspectives. Options include:

1. Conducting mini-interviews with industry experts
   
2. Including original research or data
   
3. Adding your personal experience and results
   
4. Creating unique visuals or frameworks
   

At GrowthAdvisor, we’ve seen that content enhanced with expert insights typically outperforms standard content by 34% in terms of engagement and 27% in terms of backlinks.

Step 11: Optimize For Featured Snippets

Target featured snippets by structuring answers to common questions in concise, easily digestible formats. Use lists, tables, and direct answers to increase your chances of capturing position zero in search results, which can drive significant additional traffic to your site.

Many content gaps represent opportunities to capture featured the position “zero” results in Google. For each target keyword:

1. Check if the SERP has a featured snippet
   
2. Analyze the current snippet format (paragraph, list, table, etc.)
   
3. Create a better version of that information in your content
   
4. Format it clearly with appropriate HTML (for lists, tables, etc.)
   
5. Answer the question directly and concisely
   

This strategy can help you leapfrog competitors even if your overall page authority is lower.

Step 12: Develop A Promotion Strategy

Don’t rely solely on organic discovery. Actively promote your new content through email outreach, social media, communities, and targeted link building. A robust promotion plan amplifies your reach, accelerates results, and helps your content gain traction faster in competitive SERPs.

Creating great content is only half the battle, you need to promote it effectively. Your promotion plan should include:

1. Email outreach to industry contacts
   
2. Social media sharing schedule
   
3. Community distribution (relevant forums, groups)
   
4. Paid promotion budget (if applicable)
   
5. Link building outreach
   

Remember that content gap analysis isn’t just about what to create-it also reveals where and how to promote your content for maximum visibility.

Step 13: Monitor Rankings And Traffic Changes

Track the performance of your gap-filling content using analytics and rank tracking tools. Monitor keyword positions, organic traffic, engagement metrics, and conversions. Regular monitoring allows you to quickly identify what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

Once your content is live, systematic monitoring becomes essential. Set up tracking for:

1. Keyword position changes (daily for the first 2 weeks)
   
2. Organic traffic to new content
   
3. Time on page and bounce rates
   
4. Conversion metrics
   
5. Backlink acquisition
   

Use Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and rank tracking tools to maintain oversight of your progress.

Step 14: Analyze Page-Level Performance

Examine the granular performance of each new page. Assess which keywords are driving traffic, how users are interacting with your content, and which pages are converting best. This detailed analysis uncovers insights to further refine your strategy and maximize ROI.

After 30 days, conduct a detailed page-level analysis of your new content.

1. Keywords that have improved vs. those that haven’t
   
2. User engagement metrics (time on page, scroll depth)
   
3. Conversion performance
   
4. Pages that outperformed expectations
   
5. Pages that underperformed
   

This analysis will guide your next round of optimization and content creation.

Step 15: Implement Content Refinements

Based on performance data, update and enhance your content to address gaps, improve clarity, and provide additional value. Refresh outdated information, expand on high-interest sections, and respond to user feedback. Continuous refinement ensures your content remains competitive and relevant.

Based on your 30-day analysis, make strategic refinements to your content. Common refinements include:

1. Expanding sections that didn’t fully address user intent
   
2. Adding new FAQs based on Search Console data
   
3. Improving visual elements
   
4. Enhancing internal linking structures
   
5. Updating outdated information or statistics
   

Step 16: Scale Your Content Gap Strategy

Once you’ve proven what works, scale your efforts by expanding to new topics, increasing content production, and systematizing your workflow. Use your Content Gap Matrix to identify additional opportunities and allocate resources for sustained growth across your site.

By day 60, you should have enough data to identify patterns and scale your successful approaches. Your scaling strategy should:

1. Double down on content types that performed best
   
2. Expand to related keyword clusters
   
3. Update your content gap matrix with new findings
   
4. Allocate more resources to high-ROI content areas
   
5. Consider outsourcing repeatable parts of the process
   

GrowthAdvisor’s content engineering team can help you systematize this scaling process, ensuring consistent quality while increasing production volume.

Step 17: Conduct Competitor Backlink Analysis

Strengthen your content’s authority by analyzing where your competitors get their backlinks. Use tools to identify common link sources and outreach opportunities. Building relationships with these sites can help you earn high-quality backlinks and further close the competitive gap.

To maximize your content gap strategy, incorporate competitor backlink analysis. Use Ahrefs’ Link Intersect tool to

1. Enter multiple competitor domains
   
2. Find common backlink sources
   
3. Identify which sites regularly link to content in your niche
   
4. Create targeted outreach campaigns to these sites
   

As Ahrefs explains, “If you look at well-ranking competitors and they have a lot of the same links, those links may be the ones helping them to rank”

Step 18: Update Content For Freshness

Maintain your rankings and relevance by regularly updating your content. Refresh statistics, add new insights, and address emerging trends. Signaling freshness to search engines not only improves your chances of ranking but also builds trust with your audience over time.

Content freshness is a critical ranking factor, especially for time-sensitive topics. Implement a systematic update schedule:

1. Quarterly updates for fast-changing topics
   
2. Biannual updates for evergreen content
   
3. Add “Last Updated” dates to signal freshness
   
4. Refresh statistics and examples
   
5. Add new sections based on emerging subtopics
   

Advanced Strategy: The Content Gap Matrix Methodology

Beyond the basic process, advanced practitioners can implement the Content Gap Matrix Methodology for even better results.

1. Creating a three-dimensional matrix of topics, intent, and funnel stages
   
2. Mapping competitor content across this matrix
   
3. Identifying not just topic gaps but “intent gaps” and “funnel gaps”
   
4. Developing content that addresses multiple dimensions simultaneously
   

This comprehensive approach ensures you’re not just creating isolated content pieces but building a cohesive content ecosystem that dominates your niche.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

Even seasoned SEOs and marketers can fall into common pitfalls during content gap analysis, which can undermine the effectiveness of your strategy. Mistakes such as neglecting to define your target audience, relying too heavily on automated tools, or ignoring long-tail keywords can result in missed opportunities and wasted resources.

It’s also crucial to align your content with search intent, regularly update your analysis, and incorporate feedback from both users and stakeholders. By being aware of these frequent errors and maintaining a consistent, data-driven methodology, you can ensure your content gap efforts deliver sustained, long-term results

The Content Gap Template You Can Use Today

To help you implement this strategy immediately, I’ve included a Hubspot’s comprehensive Content Gap Analysis Template ( that you can use right away).

Simply make a copy of the Content Gap Matrix Template and customize it for your business.

Conclusion: Your 90-Day Traffic Hijacking Roadmap

Implementing a strategic content gap analysis can transform your organic traffic in just 90 days. By systematically identifying what your competitors rank for that you don’t, then creating superior content to fill those gaps, you can effectively “steal” significant traffic from your competition.

Remember:

• Start with thorough competitor analysis
  
• Prioritize gaps based on potential ROI
  
• Create content that’s demonstrably better than what already exists
  
• Monitor, refine, and scale based on performance data
  

At GrowthAdvisor, our SEO and content strategy teams specialize in implementing these exact strategies for businesses looking to dominate their niche. Our content engineering approach combines data-driven gap analysis with creative excellence to produce content that doesn’t just rank, it converts.

Ready to implement your own content gap strategy? Start by analyzing your top three competitors today, and identify the first five keyword gaps you want to target.