What are the most effective ways to prioritize content gaps during a gap analysis?

1 Define your criteria

Before you start prioritizing content gaps, it's important to define criteria aligned with your content strategy, objectives, and KPIs. Criteria such as relevance to audience needs, demand for the topic, competition from other content, value delivered, and difficulty of creating and distributing the content can all help you evaluate and rank content gaps. Relevance is how well the gap matches interests and pain points; demand measures search volume, social media buzz, or customer feedback; competition evaluates other content on the same or similar topic; value assesses the impact or benefit of filling the gap; and difficulty considers how hard or easy it is to create and distribute the content.

2 Score your content gaps

Once you have your criteria, you need to score your content gaps based on them. You can use a simple numerical scale, such as 1 to 5, or a qualitative scale, such as low, medium, or high. You can also assign different weights to each criterion, depending on how important they are for your business. For example, you might give more weight to value than to difficulty, or vice versa. The scoring process can be done manually or with the help of tools, such as spreadsheets, content audit software, or SEO platforms.

3 Rank your content gaps

After you have scored your content gaps, you need to rank them according to their overall priority. You can use a simple formula, such as adding or multiplying the scores for each criterion, or a more sophisticated method, such as the Eisenhower matrix, which divides tasks into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance. The ranking process will help you identify the content gaps that are most worth your time and effort, and those that are less critical or can be delegated or postponed.

4 Review and adjust your priorities

Finally, you need to review and adjust your priorities based on your results, feedback, and changes in your environment. You should not treat your content gap priorities as fixed or final, but rather as flexible and dynamic. You should monitor the performance and outcomes of your content, and measure them against your goals and KPIs. You should also gather and analyze data and insights from your audience, competitors, and industry trends. You should then use this information to refine and update your criteria, scores, and ranks, and to plan and execute your content actions accordingly.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?