If you’re like most SEO experts, you’re probably aware of the “content gap.”
With the help of certain tools, you can find websites that link to competitors but not to you. And you can try to close this gap.
But Rebecca Moss from Moz believes you should flip the script.
Instead of reacting to your competition, why not create link gaps that they have to chase instead?
Rebecca recommends taking an audience first approach and focusing on websites that are:
- Topically relevant to your brand’s industry.
- High quality without spam or irrelevant content.
- Aren’t linking to any of your competitors.
Let’s widen those gaps…
Identify your audience by asking relevant questions. Step into their shoes. What drives them? What do they care deeply about? What problems do they have?
Next, identify the primary and secondary audiences. Let’s take the UK Holiday industry for example.
Your primary targets could be topics like vanlife, backpacking, and work from anywhere. But now take a step further. Work from anywhere > side hustles, freelancers, creators.
These are the not-so-obvious, yet related topics you can include in your niche.
Find site and link targets. Before you start creating content, you’ll want to see whether there are enough quality websites to target and whether you can add value to them.
You can either do manual research on Google based on relevant terms and trends, or use tools that can help you find more websites for your niche.
Create relevant content. Rebecca recommends using the “Three R framework” to fine-tune your strategy: research, react, and relevance. You can read more about it in the full article.
Now, instead of filling gaps, you can make them and get a headstart on your competitors. Good luck!