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What to Write About for SEO

Most content fails not because it's badly written — but because nobody was searching for it. Here's the decision system for picking topics that actually have demand.

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Why most people pick bad content ideas

The default process is: think of something relevant to your niche, check that nobody else has written exactly that title, write it, publish it. The problem is “relevant” is defined by gut feeling — not by what your audience actually searches for.

The result is a blog full of content that gets zero organic visits. Not because the writing is bad, but because the topic selection was random. You were covering things that felt right rather than things that had real, measurable demand.

The symptoms are recognisable: you publish consistently for six months and your GSC impressions are flat. You check your top pages and your homepage gets 90% of the traffic. Your blog posts get 0–3 visits each, mostly from yourself. The problem isn't execution — it's topic selection.

The filter that changes everything

Before writing anything, run it through one question: is there a specific, identifiable person searching for exactly this — and do I have a real shot at reaching them?

That question kills most content ideas before you waste time on them. “Top 10 marketing tips” fails immediately — you can't describe the specific person searching that, and you have no shot against the sites that already own it. “Why my Shopify abandoned cart emails aren't converting” passes — the searcher is clear, the intent is clear, and there's a real gap in coverage for the specific problem framing.

This isn't about finding obscure niches. It's about being specific enough that you can actually win, and honest about the demand that exists before you spend time creating.

Good idea vs bad idea — the same topics, reframed

Don't write

"Top 10 marketing tips for 2025"

Vague, saturated, no clear searcher. Who exactly is searching this? What do they do with the answer?

Write this instead

"Why your welcome email sequence has a 12% open rate (and what to fix)"

Specific problem, identifiable searcher (email marketers with underperforming sequences), actionable. This is a gap someone has — not a topic you invented.

Don't write

"What is content marketing?"

Answered comprehensively by 10,000 better-resourced sites. You will not rank. Even if you did, the searcher is too early-stage to convert.

Write this instead

"Content marketing for bootstrapped SaaS — what works at under 1,000 users"

Specific ICP (bootstrapped founder), specific stage (pre-growth), specific constraint (no budget). This is a gap your exact customer has that generalist sites don't fill.

Don't write

"How to use social media for your business"

Covered to death. No angle. No audience specificity. No search intent you can win.

Write this instead

"Why posting on LinkedIn isn't growing your B2B SaaS — and what does"

Counterintuitive angle, specific audience (B2B SaaS founder), implied frustration (they're already trying LinkedIn and it's not working). This is pain-first content.

4 methods for finding content worth writing

01

The gap method — what competitors have that you don't

This is the highest-ROI starting point. Find 3–5 sites your audience also reads — not necessarily your direct business competitors, but content competitors. Map their topics against yours. Every topic they cover that you don't is a proven gap: real demand, absent supply on your site. The reason this works is that competitor coverage is validation. They built those pages because people searched for them. You're not guessing at demand — you're reading it.

This is what GetContentGap automates. Paste your URL and it runs this comparison automatically.

02

The pain-first method — search for problems, not topics

Google "why is my [thing] not working" and pay attention to the autocomplete. Reddit searches like "site:reddit.com [your niche] problem" show you what your audience complains about before they know there's a product or page for it. These pain queries often have low competition because content creators think in topics ("email marketing"), not problems ("why my open rates dropped after switching ESPs"). Pain-first content converts better too — the person reading it already knows they have the problem.

03

The expansion method — go deeper on what's already working

If you have any pages with traffic or impressions in GSC, those are signals worth following. What related questions does that topic generate? If you rank for "content gap analysis", the expansion set is: "content gap analysis for SaaS", "content gap analysis tools compared", "how to do a content gap analysis manually", "content gap analysis vs keyword gap". Each of those is a page. Build them before chasing new territory — you already have some authority here.

04

The ICP-specific angle — same topic, different lens

Most content is written for nobody in particular. The opportunity is to take a topic that generalist sites cover generically and rewrite it for your exact customer. "How to write API documentation" becomes "how to write API documentation for a developer tool with no dedicated writers". "Email marketing" becomes "email marketing for B2B SaaS with a trial model". The search volume is lower. The conversion rate is substantially higher. And you can actually rank — because the big sites don't want to go this narrow.

The one mistake that wastes the most time

Writing about what you know without checking if anyone searches for it. This is the most common failure mode, and it feels productive — you're creating, you're publishing, you're being consistent. But if the demand isn't there, consistency just means you're producing more pages that nobody finds.

The fix isn't to stop writing about what you know. It's to verify that what you know overlaps with what people actually search for before you write it. That overlap — your expertise meeting real demand — is where every good content idea lives.

The gap method (framework 01 above) is the most systematic way to find that overlap. It tells you what the market has already validated, filtered to the topics you're not covering yet. If you want the step-by-step version, see how to find content gaps.

Skip the manual process — find your gaps now

Paste your URL below. GetContentGap runs the gap method automatically — it maps your existing content against what authoritative sites in your niche cover and returns a prioritised list of what you should write next. Free, no signup, under a minute.

FAQ

How do I know what to write about for SEO?

Find topics with proven search demand that your site doesn't cover yet. The fastest method is content gap analysis — mapping what competitors rank for that you have no pages for.

What is a content gap in SEO?

A topic competitors rank for that you have no page targeting. These are your best content opportunities — demand is proven, supply is absent on your site.

How do I find content ideas without expensive SEO tools?

GetContentGap benchmarks your site against what authoritative sites in your niche cover and returns the gaps — specific page titles, intent labels, suggested URLs. Free, no signup.

How often should I do a content gap analysis?

Every 3–6 months, or after publishing a significant batch. Gaps close as you fill them — and new ones open as competitors publish and niches evolve.

Should I write about what I know or what people search for?

Both — but search demand is the filter. The intersection of your knowledge and real demand is where good content lives. If you only write what you know, you're guessing at demand.

What to do next

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