The Competitive Teardown: Keyword Gap & the Missing Tab

Keyword Gap is a JOIN

The Keyword Gap report compares your domain against up to four competitors. Think of it as a JOIN between your keyword table and theirs, then filtered to the rows where you rank nowhere.

It splits results into tabs:

• Missing — they all rank, you do not. *Start here.*
• Weak — you rank, but worse than them.
• Untapped — at least one ranks and you do not.
• Strong — you already beat them (defend these).

Working the Missing tab

The Missing tab is proven demand your rivals already capture and you are leaving on the table. A repeatable workflow:

1. Open Missing and sort by search volume.
2. Keep an eye on KD — favor terms you can realistically rank for.
3. Filter to commercial and transactional intent for money pages.
4. Export the shortlist. That export is your prioritized content plan.

Unlike a brainstorm, every item is backed by evidence: a real competitor already ranks and earns traffic from it.

The full 15-minute teardown

Chain the reports like a pipeline, each stage feeding the next:

1. Domain Overview — size up the rival (the who).
2. Keyword Gap → Missing — find the opening.
3. Keyword Magic — filter the openings to low-KD, on-intent wins (the plan).
4. Site Audit — fix your own foundation so the new content indexes (next lesson).
5. Position Tracking — watch the needle move (final lesson).

Key Takeaways

• Keyword Gap is a JOIN across domains; the Missing tab is demand you are not yet capturing.
• Sort Missing by volume, filter by KD and intent, export — that is an evidence-based content backlog.
• The teardown is a pipeline: overview, gap, magic, audit, tracking.