Skyscraper Technique vs Content Gap Analysis: Which Is Better for SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals constantly face the challenge of making their content stand out amid an ocean of information. This has driven marketers to explore innovative strategies to enhance their content’s visibility and effectiveness.

Two of the most popular solutions that have emerged from this quest are the Skyscraper Technique and Content Gap Analysis. Both methods share the common goal of driving more organic traffic and improving search engine rankings, but they do so in distinct ways.

Let’s differentiate Skyscraper Technique and Content Gap Analysis here and find which is better for SEO. 

Skyscraper Technique

The term “skyscraper” was first coined and introduced in 2013 by Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko who’s dubbed as an “SEO genius” by  Entrepreneur.com. This renowned digital marketing expert based the approach on an architectural concept of building something bigger and better, hence the name “skyscraper.” 

How to Do It?

Why do we have to build a “skyscraper” in content creation? According to Dean, “It’s human nature to be attracted to the best.” For us to be “the best,” he suggested, “finding the tallest ‘skyscraper’ in your space… and slapping 20 stories to the top of it.” To achieve this, he described it as a three-step process: 

 

1. 1. “Find the tallest skyscraper in your space.”: In other words, identify the top-performing content in your niche. This can be blogs, Instagram pictures, Facebook posts, or YouTube or TikTok videos with a lot of organic traffic, backlinks, and social shares. Many tools, such as Ahrefs, BuzzSumo, or SEMrush, can help you determine such content. 

 

2. 2. “Slapping 20 stories to the top of it”: In other words, improve your existing ideas and create something better than that top-performing content. Add more length, depth, design, value, freshness, or any other factor that makes your content better and stand out.

 

3. 3. Once this “improved” content has been published, perform strategic promotion and outreach. Run a campaign of net linking (i.e., creating and/or getting links to other websites to strengthen a target website’s authority) to obtain backlinks to the improved version. This will encourage other sites to link to you instead of the competitive content determined on the first step. 

Considering this three-step process, the skyscraper technique for content creation and digital marketing is a link-building strategy that aims to help your content outperform the top-performing pieces online. Consequently, this helps your website rank as highly as possible in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, the first time Dean implemented this approach in 2013, his website’s organic traffic increased by 110% in just two weeks! 

Relevance Today

The thing is, that was way back a “decade” ago. How about now? Does the skyscraper technique still work in 2024? If you’re looking for a fool-proof way to build a successful blog and a large blog audience from scratch, then the skyscraper technique is a good start. Making your content better than others in your niche is a surefire way to increase online connections, authority, readers, and social shares, which eventually improves blog exposure and, in turn, overall blog traffic from search engines.

However, if you’ve been in SEO for a while, you must have realized that it won’t guarantee good results. It’s not because the skyscraper technique doesn’t work; rather, SEO’s standards evolve to align with regular search engine algorithm updates and trends. That means strategies like the skyscraper technique that worked one or two years ago may not work now. 

For example, creating more content to get more traffic “was” the trend in the past. This is when the skyscraper technique was known. The industry realized that one high-quality content gained more traffic than other multiple superficial content. However, recent figures show that around 7.5 million blog posts are published daily—again, MILLIONS in ONE DAY. 

That’s approximately a 0.0000143% success rate, so it’s unlikely that your blog post will get a lot of exposure. So, how do websites deal with that competition now? They spend only 20% of their time creating content and 80% of their time promoting content just to be visible among millions of content. 

Another reason it may not work is when attempting to stand out in saturated markets. In content creation, saturated markets are flooded with content, much of which is already top-notch. Competitors in these niches often have well-established authority, strong domain reputations, extensive backlink profiles, and loyal audiences. Their content typically ranks highly, making it difficult for new or lesser-known sites to compete or even gain visibility.

To put it in another way, securing backlinks in saturated markets is challenging because many authoritative sites already link to established content, which has built significant authority and trust over time. This creates a reinforcing cycle where high-ranking content with extensive backlink profiles continues to attract more links, making it difficult for new content to compete.

Additionally, the audience in saturated markets is accustomed to consuming high-quality content and has high expectations. This sophisticated audience requires exceptional value to capture their interest, and they may experience “content fatigue,” where the audience feels worn out or overwhelmed due to the sheer volume of available information and eventually ignores or blocks out much of any content they see.

Like readers’ content fatigue, webmasters and influencers often experience “link fatigue,” where they receive numerous backlink requests and become overwhelmed by the volume. Hence, they become selective and prefer to link to content that offers exceptional value or a unique perspective.

Content Gap Analysis

One alternative to the skyscraper technique is the content gap analysis. Both aim to increase brand visibility and brand but utilize different strategies. As mentioned, the skyscraper technique improves existing content. In content gap analysis, however, you create missing content topics.  This is crucial since missing content can translate into lost customers and missed opportunities. 

How to Do It? 

The first step to running a content gap analysis is determining what kind of missing part you will analyze. There are three main types of content gaps: (1) keyword gaps, (2) topic gaps, and (3) media gaps. 

 

1. 1. Keyword gap analysis involves comparing competitors’ keyword rankings with yours and identifying the keywords they’re successfully targeting in their keyword strategy that you don’t. It’s crucial to implement the latter so you can identify keywords they’re outperforming you for, close those gaps, and ultimately outrank them. 
      
      Knowing the trend is also necessary. Short, popular keywords were the most sought-after in the past because they’re often on the top spot in Google search queries. Nowadays, long-tail keywords (multi-word keywords) have a higher click-through rate (CTR). Although they have a lower search volume, businesses now opt for them because they’re more effective in reaching customers further along the purchasing process, leading to better sales conversion. 

1. 1. Topic gaps or missing topics uncover hidden opportunities to freshen up your site’s content. This may include (but is not limited to) tackling new topics or discussing existing topics in-depth. Filling these gaps works like the skyscraper technique. Both can produce top-notch, valuable content, a fool-proof way to quickly attract and sustain potential customers. 

 

3. 3. Media gaps refer to your website’s lack of video content. Recent statistics  show that 91% of businesses opt for it primarily due to customer preferences. It can increase brand awareness, website traffic, more direct sales, and lead nurturing. On top of all, short-form videos (e.g., Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts) offer the best return on investment (ROI), according to another research. In other words, avoiding this trend or having trouble creating such content is a gap that will put you in a swiftly shrinking demographic. 

Once you’ve identified which gap you want to close and improve, start performing the content gap analysis. For keyword gaps, identify these semantically related keywords and build them into your article. Note that this is important because gone are the days when search engines ranked one page to one keyword. Now, one page can rank for hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of keywords. You can use free tools to perform this, such as Ask The Public, Google Trends, and Ubersuggest, but investing in paid tools is recommended to get more scientific. 

For topic gaps, type your main keyword into Google or any browser. Pay attention to top-ranking pages and identify all the topics they cover that your content is missing. Once you’ve determined these topics, build them into your content. Make sure to go deeper than your competitors by, for example, using anecdotes, case studies, or unique insights that can bring your points to life. 

Lastly, the key step for media gaps is to determine your goals. When getting specific with your goals, remember to consider your target audience, possible channels, and the possibility of paid promotions when putting together creative briefs for each piece of content. Once you’ve decided, create fully optimized videos based on the intended social media platforms. 

Moreover, like in keyword and topic gaps, find the right keywords and content that reflects the appropriate context of your video content. It’s also wise to move beyond awareness. For example, if you wish to educate existing loyal customers, opt for a support center with a video. Similarly, if you’re starting a new product line, consider drip emails integrating video. 

Relevance Today

Content gap analysis will always be relevant today and even in the future. This is because it helps you stay updated with current topics and industry trends your target audience is interested in. Consequently, it improves SERP in the process because, remember, search engines are a sucker for fresh content. 

Aside from relevancy, content gap analysis can improve your content performance, which can lead to a competitive edge. As mentioned, it helps you determine gaps. Once spotted and solved, they become key opportunities that can help you gain an advantage. For example, unveiling these gaps can help you determine what your users are searching for. This improves user experience (UX) and, eventually,  higher SEO visibility. 

Final Thoughts

Both the Skyscraper Technique and Content Gap Analysis can be helpful for SEO. Specifically, the Skyscraper Technique is effective for creating improved content and building backlinks but may struggle in saturated markets, while Content Gap Analysis excels at identifying and filling missing content opportunities but requires continuous monitoring and updating. For more in-depth information, read more and seek professional help.