Content Gap Analysis – A Primer for Attorneys

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By Omnizant Team
Law Firm Marketing Agency

What is Content Gap Analysis?

Content Gap Analysis is the process you can use to determine the existing gaps in your website content strategy. If there are gaps in your content when your potential client visits your website, you may lose them before they have decided to contact your firm.

Content Gap Analysis is the key to helping you recognize current missed opportunities in your website strategy. 

Your website is ideally designed with each step of the prospective client’s journey in mind. But once a website is published and is in use, you may find that your prospect’s journey is different than you anticipated, or that it’s evolved since you last mapped it out. 

Performing content gap analysis periodically helps you identify where important content may be missing on your website. You may also find that some of your practice’s website needs a refresh, whether it’s due to things like changing laws, additional attorney bios that need to be added, or recognition that a newer offering doesn’t yet have the supporting content that a potential client might need to read before they’re ready to sign up. 

This exercise helps to make sure that you’re delivering information that’s relevant to your prospective clients. It’s also important for ongoing SEO on your practice’s website. 

How to Approach Content Gap Analysis

1. Assess the current situation

  • Begin by creating an inventory of all of the pages on your website. (Your practice’s website should have a sitemap that can help you to quickly pull a list of all the pages.) This might include your blog articles, landing pages, and even social media content. Make sure this is as comprehensive as possible.
  • Visit each page on your list, reviewing it thoroughly. How relevant is it to your prospect’s journey today? Does your prospect’s journey itself need an update? What updates need to be made urgently, and are there longer-term changes you should make note of for the future? 
  • Note when each page was last updated. Check each link on every page to make sure it’s still relevant. 
  • For each page, indicate whether it’s easy to digest or not. Is the language and topic consistent with your firm’s current voice? 
  • The goal isn’t just to identify what’s missing; this is also an important opportunity to identify where your current content is missing the mark.   

2. Identify current research trends

  • Take note of the ways people are currently interacting with your website. What terms are they researching to find you? Where do they click on your website? Is there a page they typically view before leaving your website? 
  • There are a number of keyword analysis tools that will help you to identify these patterns and recognize how many site visitors are having these challenges. (This can help you to weigh what needs to be addressed urgently vs. what seems to have only been an issue once in a blue moon.) 

3. Analyze your competitors’ content

  • Visit the websites of your competitors. 
  • Take note of what your competitors are covering that might be missing on your own practice’s website. Keep in mind your own strategy though: make sure that tackling topics in some of that “missing” content is aligned with your own firm’s strategy and prospect’s journey. 
  • What have your competitors missed? It’s equally important to note the topics that no one is covering yet. That’s a great opportunity for relevant content that can really help you with SEO. Filling those gaps can be a major driver of new traffic to your website when you make the most of it. 

4. Get to work

  • Now it’s time for action. Get to work updating your existing content and writing new content for your practice’s website too, giving you new and stronger opportunities to nurture your audience along their journey. 
  • The sooner you address these gaps, the more likely you are to attract new prospective clients who otherwise might have slipped through the cracks. 

Content Gap Analysis should be incorporated into your calendar and workstream for this year (and every year). It’s a key step in keeping your website relevant and making it work for you and your firm. 

About the Author
Since 2006, Omnizant's team of digital marketing experts, designers, developers and writers has helped over 2,000 law firms develop powerful websites that drive business growth.
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