Choose search competitors, then check business fit
Your business rivals and your search competitors may be different. A software company can compete in results with a publisher, a marketplace, or a specialist consultant. Choose three to five sites that repeatedly appear for relevant questions in your target market. Record why each is included.
Keep the comparison narrow enough to be useful. An entire news publisher’s keyword profile can overwhelm a small service business. Compare relevant folders or individual pages when the subject is specific. Exclude unrelated audiences and locations before scoring anything.
Find gaps with a tool or a manual sample
Ahrefs’ Content Gap documentation describes comparing a target domain or exact URL with competitors and filtering the resulting opportunities. Read the current workflow. Other tools can provide similar comparisons; their coverage and estimates differ.
Without a paid tool, list a small set of customer searches, inspect the relevant results, and record the questions, page types, and useful resources you find. This is qualitative research. It does not establish competitor traffic or an exhaustive set of rankings. Preserve the source URLs and observation date.
Classify the opportunity before creating a page
- Missing topic: you have no useful answer for a relevant customer task.
- Weak answer: you have a page, but it leaves an important decision unresolved.
- Wrong format: visitors need a calculator, example, comparison, or service detail rather than another broad essay.
- Discovery problem: a useful page exists but is poorly connected or technically inaccessible.
- Intentional gap: the topic attracts people you cannot help and should remain outside your plan.
Do not assume that every keyword a competitor ranks for is a keyword you should pursue.
Use a transparent priority score
Here is our editorial prioritization heuristic. Score each item from 0 to 3 for buyer fit, evidence of need, distinct value you can add, and a useful next step. Add those scores, then subtract effort from 0 to 3. The result ranges from −3 to 12. It is a planning aid, not an SEO metric or prediction.
Fictional example: a quote-follow-up template scores 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 − 1 = 9. A broad “best business ideas” article scores 1 + 2 + 0 + 0 − 3 = 0 for that same quote software company. The first has a stronger connection to its buyer even if the second has a larger estimated audience.
Keep the reasons beside the numbers. If two opportunities tie, prefer the one with stronger first-hand evidence and a clearer practical outcome. Download the blank opportunity worksheet.
Write the brief your competitor did not write
Choose the customer decision, the existing page to improve or new page to build, the evidence you can contribute, and the action a reader should be able to take. Add a worked example, a useful comparison criterion, or an honest limitation that makes your resource more useful. Cite research you use and write the explanation yourself.
Finish with five prioritized opportunities and one selected experiment. Record its baseline, effort, release date, and later observations. Competitive research tells you where to look; your own customer evidence tells you whether the opportunity deserves more investment.
Sources and editorial approach
AI-assisted practical guidance prepared for Website Traffic. Product statements were checked against the linked documentation. Workflows and prioritization methods are editorial recommendations; examples are illustrative, not customer results. Product access and interfaces can change.
Put the idea to work
Choose one page or one opportunity. Keep the evidence and record what you change.
Open the related workspace →