Sequel
SEO

Competitor keyword gap analysis

Compare what competitors rank for against your own coverage to find high-value keywords you're missing entirely.

Install into your agent
  • What does competitor.com rank for that we don't?
  • Find keywords two competitors rank for and we miss
  • Where are the gaps versus our top rival?

The playbook

A gap analysis answers "what are they getting traffic for that we aren't?" The output should be a prioritized list of topics, not a raw keyword dump.

Steps

  1. Confirm the competitor list. If the user hasn't named competitors, ask; don't guess. Search competitors are often not business competitors.

  2. Pull each competitor's organic keywords. Call ahrefs.organic_keywords for each competitor domain with mode: "domain", ordered by traffic, limit: 500. Keep the same country across all calls or the comparison is meaningless.

  3. Pull your own coverage. Same call for the user's domain. If Search Console is connected, also pull google_search_console.query with dimensions: ["query"] over 28 days. It will show terms you rank for that Ahrefs missed, which prevents false "gaps".

  4. Compute the gap. Keywords where at least one competitor ranks in the top 10 and you rank below 20 or not at all. Weight by volume and by how many competitors rank. A term two or three competitors all cover is a validated topic, not a one-off.

  5. Cluster before reporting. Group the gap keywords into topics rather than listing them individually. Fifty keywords usually collapse into five or six content themes, and that's the actionable form.

  6. Report. Per cluster: the theme, total addressable volume, which competitors rank, their best position, average difficulty, and the single best head term. Then name the top 3 clusters worth pursuing and why.

Gotchas

  • Ahrefs volume and traffic are estimates. Present them as directional. Never mix an Ahrefs estimate and a Search Console actual in the same column without labelling which is which.
  • Set country deliberately. It defaults to a single market; a US-only pull will look like a huge gap for a UK-focused competitor.
  • Not every gap is worth closing. Filter out terms irrelevant to the business before reporting. A competitor's unrelated blog traffic is not an opportunity.
  • Check difficulty against your actual authority. Use ahrefs.domain_overview on both domains first. If a competitor has a far higher domain rating, their easy terms are not your easy terms.

Install

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Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Muse, dots and any other MCP app

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  • Cursor

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  • ChatGPT

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  • Claude Code

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  • Gemini CLI

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  • Grok

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  • Grok Bot

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  • Muse

    Muse writes its own connector. One message is the whole setup.

  • dots

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  • OpenCode

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  • Other MCP app

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Audit or draft an llms.txt

Check whether the site has an llms.txt, whether it follows the spec and points at the pages that matter, and if it is missing draft one from the pages Search Console shows people actually find, so AI assistants get a curated map of the site instead of guessing.

Audit redirect chains and loops

Follow every redirect on the URLs Search Console still sends traffic to, on the sitemap, and on backlinked pages, to find chains, loops, redirects to the homepage, and temporary redirects that should be permanent, so link equity and crawl budget stop leaking.

Audit referring domain quality

Grade the domains linking to a site by authority, traffic and link count, spot concentration risk and link-farm patterns, and separate the referring domains that carry weight from the ones that are noise.

Audit titles and meta descriptions

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is a keyword gap analysis?
A keyword gap is a query your competitor ranks for on page one where you do not rank in the top 20. Closing the gap means either creating content that targets the query or strengthening an existing page that already attempts to rank for it.
How do I find keywords my competitors rank for that I do not?
Use Ahrefs to pull top pages by organic traffic for a competitor, then filter for queries where your site has no position or a position below 20. Sort by traffic to the competitor's page to prioritize by opportunity size.
How many competitors should I include in a keyword gap analysis?
Two to four is the practical range. More than that creates so much data that prioritization becomes harder. Start with whoever outranks you most often for your money queries, not with who you think of as a business competitor.
Should I create new pages for gap keywords or update existing ones?
Check whether any existing page on your site already targets the query at position 15 to 30. If yes, update that page rather than creating a new one, which risks cannibalization. If nothing targets the query, a new page is warranted.
Can an AI agent run a keyword gap analysis?
Yes. With Ahrefs and Search Console connected, the agent identifies competitor top pages, diffs against your rankings, and returns gap queries prioritized by traffic opportunity. Sequel provides both connections and the competitor-keyword-gap playbook.

Put this playbook to work

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