Vantage-Content — Content Engine & Organic Footprint

A marketing read on the content machine: how often they publish, what they own, how visible they are in buyer search, and where the gaps are. This is not an SEO audit — for keyword/backlink depth it hands off to seo-dataforseo, backlink-analyzer, and seo.

Web-only. Score with scoring-framework.md §2.

Read the engine (per competitor)

1. Cadence — pull /sitemap.xml (or /sitemap_index.xml) and read lastmod;

cross-check visible post dates and Wayback snapshots of /blog. Estimate posts/month and recency (last post age). Consistency > bursts.

1. Topical structure — blog/resource taxonomy. Do they run pillar/cluster

hubs that own a theme, or scattered one-offs? Name the themes they're claiming.

1. Format range — guides, original research/data, templates, free tools,

calculators, webinars, podcasts, video, courses. Range and depth signal investment; original data and tools are the hardest to copy (and most linkable).

1. Distinct POV — is there a thesis/voice, or interchangeable SEO filler? A

strong POV is defensible; filler is beatable with better filler.

1. Conversion intent — do articles tie to offers (CTAs, magnets), or are they

orphaned traffic? Content without conversion is a beatable inefficiency.

1. Share of search — run 5–10 buyer queries for the category; count where

each competitor appears on page 1. This is the marketing proxy for organic strength without keyword tools.

Content-gap method (web-only)

1. List the themes/buyer questions the subject brand's ICP cares about.
2. For each, search and note which competitor(s) own the result.
3. Three gap types:

• Uncontested — a buyer-relevant theme no one covers well → highest

leverage for the subject brand.

• Under-served — covered shallowly → outdo with depth/data/format.
• Saturated — everyone covers it well → don't fight here unless you have a

genuine edge (original data, better format).

1. For volume/difficulty quantification, hand off to seo-dataforseo /

seo-geo-claude-skills:content-gap-analysis.

Output

# Content Engine Teardown — [set]
*Captured [date]*

## Engine comparison
| Competitor | Posts/mo (est) | Last post | Pillar themes owned | Standout formats | POV |
|-----------|---------------:|-----------|---------------------|------------------|-----|

## Share of search (buyer queries)
| Query | Page-1 owners |
|-------|---------------|
*Method: [N] buyer queries run [date]; appearances counted.*

## Content gaps
- **Uncontested (own it):** …
- **Under-served (outdo):** …
- **Saturated (avoid / need an edge):** …

## So what (growth)
- **Topics to own** + format to win them: …
- **Hand-offs:** quantify with `seo-dataforseo`; link depth via `backlink-analyzer`.