A gap analysis compares your keyword profile against two or three same-sized competitors in Ahrefs Content Gap or Semrush Keyword Gap, filters out the junk, and hands you a content backlog where every item has proven demand.
Pick competitors your own size
The tool comparison is only as good as the sites you feed it. Compare against Leafly and you get fifty thousand gaps you can never close. The right inputs are dispensaries and brands roughly your size, in your market or a comparable one, whose sites you could plausibly out-write. Find them by searching your own money terms and noting which non-marketplace domains keep appearing.
Run Ahrefs Content Gap
In Ahrefs, open Site Explorer for your domain and go to the Content Gap report under Organic search. Enter two or three competitor domains, leave your own in the bottom slot, and run it. The output is every keyword at least one of them ranks for and you do not. Set the intersection control to require two or more competitors — a term multiple rivals rank for is demand with a beaten path, not one site's fluke.
Or run Semrush Keyword Gap
Semrush's Keyword Gap tool does the same comparison with a different lens. Enter your domain plus up to four competitors and read two tabs: Missing, terms every competitor ranks for and you do not, and Weak, terms where you rank but below all of them. Weak is the underrated tab, because those pages already exist and often need an update rather than a build.
Check the gap against yourself in GSC
Search Console holds a gap list no competitor tool can see. Filter the Performance report to queries where you average position 11 to 30 with real impressions. Each is a term Google already considers you relevant for that earns you almost no clicks from page two. These are the cheapest gaps on the board and the right place to start while bigger builds are in progress.
Filter the raw list hard
Gap exports arrive bloated. Cut competitor brand names, strains you will never carry, out-of-state local terms, and anything your license does not permit you to sell. Then sort what survives by difficulty and keep the winnable half. Expect to discard about 80 percent of the raw export — that is the analysis working, not failing.
A worked example: a Colorado dispensary
I ran Content Gap for a Colorado Springs dispensary against two local rivals. The export held 1,900 terms. Requiring both competitors to rank cut it to 410; removing brand names, off-license products, and Denver-only local terms left 74. Sorting by difficulty produced 22 realistic targets, including "live rosin carts colorado springs" and a cluster of concentrate dosage questions neither rival answered well. That became the entire next quarter of content, with zero topics invented from imagination.
Close gaps with better pages, not equal ones
The competitor already ranks with their page, so matching it gives Google no reason to move you above them. Write the page that answers more of the query, with local specifics, current pricing context, and real product knowledge they skipped. The gap told you where to aim. The quality of the page is still what wins the spot.
Key takeaways
- Gap analysis only works against competitors your own size — never marketplaces.
- Ahrefs Content Gap with a two-competitor intersection filters flukes out automatically.
- Semrush's Weak tab surfaces pages that need updates, the fastest gaps to close.
- GSC position 11 to 30 queries are gaps against yourself; start there.
- Expect to discard 80 percent of the raw export, then out-write what remains.
Frequently asked questions
Should Leafly or Weedmaps be in my gap analysis?
No. Comparing a dispensary site against a marketplace with millions of pages returns tens of thousands of gaps you can never close. Compare against businesses your own size in your own market; the output becomes a plan instead of noise.
Is there a free way to run a gap analysis?
Partly. Search Console shows gaps against yourself: queries with impressions but a page-two position. For true competitor gaps you need a crawler-based tool, though Ahrefs and Semrush both offer entry tiers that cover a small comparison.
How often should I repeat the analysis?
Quarterly. Competitors publish, rankings shift, and a gap list goes stale in a few months. A quarterly rerun takes under an hour once the competitor set is chosen and keeps the content backlog stocked with proven demand.
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