Your Fast Track to Mastering Keyword Gap Analysis

Feb 13, 2025 03:00 PM - 1 month ago 46814

Keyword investigation tin consciousness for illustration going to a train position pinch nary ticket. It's easy to find a bunch of trains, but which ones extremity astatine your destination aliases are moreover going successful the correct guidance astatine a summons value you're consenting to pay? There's a ton of effort and worry successful uncovering the correct keywords astatine the correct price, and doing it earlier the train (and your competition) leaves you behind. Keyword spread study is simply a powerful maneuver to make judge you're connected the correct track.  

What is keyword spread analysis?

Keyword spread study is simply a method for uncovering high-value keywords wherever your competitors rank well, and you don’t. The keyword spread tin thief you place underperforming keywords, missed opportunities, and gaps successful your contented strategy. A robust SEO strategy includes analyzing keywords to protect, striking region keywords, and, arsenic covered successful this article, keyword spread analysis.

Announcing Keyword Gap 2.0: Mine Your Keyword Gap for Opportunities

We're excited to denote Moz's Keyword Gap 2.0, our wholly redesigned keyword spread investigation motor built to move you quickly toward actionable, competitory insights. Learn more.

Why conscionable mind the gap, erstwhile you tin mine the gap? (See what we did there?) We’ve listened and learned from you and person built a much powerful, much elastic instrumentality to prevention you clip uncovering high-value keywords for your business, each while delivering insights based connected 2 decades of keyword investigation experience. Keyword Gap 2.0 successful Moz Pro includes:

  • Customizable Venn sketch to quickly target gaps
  • 20X much keywords per domain!
  • Focus connected Traffic Lift to maximize your ROI
  • SERP study to laser-focus connected high-value keywords
  • The expertise to find gaps by domain, subdomain, subfolder, and pages
  • Four built-in information views for fast, in-depth analysis
  • Custom filters by keyword, ranking, volume, and more

Why conscionable show you astir the features and benefits erstwhile we tin show you? How tin you put keyword spread study to activity connected a existent tract pinch Keyword Gap successful Moz Pro.

Find anemic spots and speedy wins successful your SEO strategy

with Moz Keyword Gap 2.0

How to do a keyword spread analysis

Step 1: Identify your competitors

Even if you cognize your manufacture reasonably well, you (or your boss) mightiness person an outdated position of the title aliases not cognize who you’re straight competing pinch for the highest-value keywords successful Google SERPs. Those SERPs themselves are a bully first step. Try searches for illustration [brand], [brand alternatives], aliases high-value merchandise categories. If doing this by manus doesn’t sound for illustration fun, fto our True Competitor tool do the heavy-lifting for you — it analyzes your top-ranking keywords to find retired who you’re really up against for valuable Google traffic.

screenshot of existent competitor

screenshot of existent competitor

What if you don’t person competitors (yet)?

If you’re conscionable starting retired and aren’t presently ranking for galore keywords, see an aspirational analysis. Pick a realistic target institution that represents wherever you’d for illustration to beryllium successful 2 years and analyse their competition. Where do you aspire to be?

Now that you’ve recovered your competitors, you tin commencement your travel correct away. Just participate your domain and up to 3 competitors …

screenshot of keyword spread successful moz pro

Step 2: Prioritize your keyword targets

Keyword spread study tin beryllium overwhelming, the train times show up connected the departure board, and passengers caput towards level 11, but is that the correct destination for your business? Now you tin reply that pinch confidence, conscionable because a competitor ranks for a keyword doesn’t mean that it’s applicable aliases profitable for your site. Keyword Gap 2.0 focuses, by default, connected keywords wherever you already rank but person room to improve. Consider these results from our Samsonite example:

Obviously, you’d for illustration to rank #1 for “luggage,” but earthy measurement isn’t everything. That’s why we attraction connected “Traffic Lift,” the postulation use you guidelines to summation by moving from your existent ranking position to the apical competitor’s position. In different words, what will hap if you adjacent the keyword gap? By focusing connected keywords to improve, we cognize there’s already contented successful place, and mini efforts mightiness output large gains.

We besides show you wherever you guidelines against each competitor, virtually crowning a victor for each keyword. Here’s different position of the data:

Immediately, you tin spot thing interesting: a attraction connected carry-on luggage terms, including informational position for illustration “carry-on luggage size.” This is an actionable taxable that’s an important portion of the searcher’s journey, and Samsonite could materially use from closing this spread and taking Travel Pro’s position.

Step 3: Find each of your keyword gaps

The keyword spread isn’t conscionable 1 destination — successful our three-competitor case, location are galore routes to take from. Keyword Gap 2.0’s all-new, interactive Venn sketch lets you quickly and easy navigate your ain paths:

screenshot of venn sketch view

In this example, we person 8 chopped keyword intersections, each representing a rich | root of competitory keyword data. Hover complete immoderate area for much information, aliases click connected an area to drill down to a circumstantial keyword gap:

screenshot of ven digram drill down into target keywords

Here, we’re targeting a specific, three-way spread (two competitors). Click connected shared keywords to research conscionable this gap. You tin besides usage the oculus icon adjacent to immoderate tract to hide that tract and simplify the keyword spread visualization:

screenshot of venn digagram pinch overlapping keywords

By visualizing your gaps, you tin quickly and efficiently get astatine the champion keyword destinations, without fearfulness of missing immoderate important stops on the way.

Step 4: Target keywords strategically

Before diving into keywords, you request a strategy. Just for illustration plotting a journey, successful SEO requires knowing wherever you guidelines and wherever you want to go. 
Not judge really to take the champion route? Try 1 of our 4 civilization views:

screenshot of select views

Based connected our extent of acquisition successful keyword research, we’ve developed 4 perspectives to springiness you a bird’s oculus position of the competitory scenery …

(i) Keywords to improve

This is the default view, which shows you keywords for which you already rank (in the apical 20 results) but your competitors outrank you. You tin enactment connected these keywords instantly to summation your traffic.

(ii) New keyword opportunities

Once you’re connected the correct track, you tin branch retired and research each of your competitors’ ranking keywords. This position shows keywords wherever your competitors rank but you presently don’t, revealing imaginable opportunities.

(iii) Winning keywords

Part of the travel is enjoying the view, and sometimes it’s important to spot wherever you’re beating the title and winning keywords. Understanding wherever you’re winning is besides captious to knowing wherever you person a bully chance of early success.

Discover keywords driving gross for your competitors pinch Keyword Gap

(iv) All ranking keywords

Finally, you tin spot everything you aliases your competitors are ranking for successful 1 view. This is cleanable for filtering and exporting for deeper analysis.
By utilizing each of these views, you tin easiness your fearfulness of missing retired and get a speedy glimpse astatine aggregate imaginable destinations. Once you understand the full keyword gap, it’s clip to put your scheme successful motion.
Step 5: Choose a way & get moving
Here’s the difficult truth – accepted keyword spread investigation is often for illustration grabbing a bunch of train schedules and stuffing them successful the drawer. You put successful the effort to stitchery a ton of keywords, but you ne'er extremity up going anywhere. Keyword Gap 2.0 is designed to get you moving and nutrient results.

(i) Quickly analyse SERPs

Once you’ve selected a keyword of interest, click connected “Analyze SERP,” and you’ll get an in-depth study astir that keyword, including this snapshot (I’ve chosen “carry connected luggage size” for this example):

screenshot of different competing sites

Now you tin spot who you’re competing against, which SERP features are successful play, and really overmuch activity you’ll request to do to beryllium competitive, utilizing our proprietary Page Authority, Domain Authority, and Brand Authority metrics.

(ii) Mine heavy into competitor pages

The SERPs tin besides show you which circumstantial pieces of contented you’re competing against, and this contented is the representation to your destination. Let’s spell backmost to measurement one, but this clip see circumstantial contented astir ranking for carry-on luggage keywords:

screenshot of circumstantial pages you're competing against

I’ve chosen a ranking Samsonite page, a Travel Pro page outperforming it, and a top-ranking page by American Airlines. Let’s cheque retired the Venn diagram:

screenshot of venn sketch keyword spread overlap

Immediately, I tin spot that the target site’s keyword overlap is small, truthful I’m going to grow my position and attraction connected the larger intersection of Travel Pro and American Airlines. Here are immoderate of the keywords these competitors are ranking on:

screenshot of unfiltered list

Not surprisingly, American Airlines ranks for immoderate branded searches. No worries; we tin easy unfastened up a select and region immoderate keywords pinch “american” successful them:

screenshot of select options successful keyword gap

Experiment pinch aggregate filters to constrictive down ample keyword lists and attraction connected circumstantial areas of interest. Here’s the filtered keyword spread for our example:

screenshot of filtered database successful keyword gap

This isn’t conscionable a keyword database — it’s a topically-focused roadmap. Mining down to the individual page level makes our way clear and puts our destination successful sight.

Step 6: Build a contented brief

So, what do we person astatine this point? We cognize our cardinal competitors, which keywords person the astir opportunity, and which circumstantial pages we’d for illustration to target. Even better, our keywords are highly focused astir a peculiar topic. These are each of the moving parts to build a contented brief. Our random heap of train schedules now has a circumstantial destination, a way to that destination, and a departure time.

Step 7: Track and show your keyword rankings

Once you person your keyword spread mapped out, you tin easy adhd those keywords to a Moz Pro Campaign aliases a keyword list, aliases export the information to tally deeper study and stock pinch your customer aliases team. Both campaigns and lists are straight accessible from Keyword Gap and you tin get your keyword spread study scheme rolling successful conscionable a mates of clicks.

screenshot of adding keywords straight from Keyword Gap successful Moz Pro to your Campaign aliases Keyword List.

Add keywords straight from Keyword Gap successful Moz Pro to your Campaign aliases Keyword List.

Don’t miss your train!

Get your ain travel started and effort Keyword Gap 2.0 today. Even if you’ve utilized our keyword spread devices successful the past, you’ll find a wealthiness of caller options, data, and insights, and a smoother, faster thrust to your destination. Keyword spread study tin thief you observe speedy wins against your competitors, untapped keyword opportunities, and supercharge your contented creation, moving you full-speed successful the correct direction.

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