How to Run a Content Gap Scan and Fix Identified Issues - AEO God Mode

How to Run a Content Gap Scan and Fix Identified Issues

The Content Gap Scanner analyzes every published post on your site and identifies specific weaknesses that hurt your AEO readiness. It checks for thin content, missing schema, absent meta descriptions, FAQ opportunities, and more, then provides one-click fixes for most issues.

The Content Gap Scanner analyzes every published post on your site and identifies specific weaknesses that hurt your AEO readiness. It checks for thin content, missing schema, absent meta descriptions, FAQ opportunities, and more, then provides one-click fixes for most issues.

Accessing the Content Gap Scanner

Go to AEO God Mode > Content Gaps in your admin sidebar (admin.php?page=aeo-god-mode#/content-gaps).

Running a Scan

Click the Scan button. The scanner queries all published posts and analyzes each one using the analyze_post() method. The scan covers up to 200 posts and shows results sorted by gap score (most issues first).

What the Scanner Checks

Each post is evaluated against these specific criteria:

Gap Type Condition Penalty Points
`thin_content` Word count below 300 Higher = more penalty
`no_schema` No structured data detected (no ASGM override, no Yoast, no RankMath schema) Fixed penalty
`no_meta_description` Empty meta description (checks ASGM, Yoast `_yoast_wpseo_metadesc`, RankMath `rank_math_description`) Fixed penalty
`faq_opportunity` Content has question patterns but no FAQ schema applied Moderate penalty
`howto_opportunity` Content has step-by-step patterns but no HowTo schema applied Moderate penalty
`no_internal_links` Post has fewer than 2 internal links Moderate penalty
`no_external_links` Post has zero outbound links to authoritative sources Low penalty
`missing_alt_text` Images without alt attributes Per-image penalty
`short_headings` H2/H3 headings that are too short or generic Low penalty
`no_featured_image` No featured image set Low penalty

Gap Score

Each post gets a gap_score from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means no issues found. Higher scores mean more gaps. Posts are sorted with the worst scores at the top so you can fix the biggest problems first.

Understanding the Results

Each gap card shows:

  • Post title with a link to edit it
  • Gap score as a visual indicator
  • Individual gaps listed with their type and a description of what’s wrong
  • Fix button for gaps that support auto-fixing

Fixing Gaps

The scanner provides an apply_fix() method that handles several gap types automatically:

Auto-Fixable Gaps

  • no_meta_description — The scanner generates a meta description from the first 155 characters of your post content and saves it to _asgm_meta_description post meta
  • faq_opportunity — If question patterns are detected, the scanner calls the FAQ detector from the Schema engine and applies the detected pairs as FAQ schema
  • no_featured_image — If the post has images in its content, the scanner can set the first one as the featured image

Manual Fixes Required

  • thin_content — You need to expand the content manually. The scanner tells you the current word count and the target
  • no_schema — Go to AEO God Mode > Schema, select the post, and review/apply the auto-detected schema
  • no_internal_links — Edit the post and add links to related content on your site
  • no_external_links — Add citations to authoritative sources
  • missing_alt_text — Edit images in the post and add descriptive alt text

Re-Scanning After Fixes

After applying fixes (automatic or manual), you can re-scan to verify the improvements. The gap score should decrease as issues are resolved.

Troubleshooting

Scan returns zero results:

  • You need at least one published post. Drafts, scheduled posts, and private posts are skipped

FAQ opportunity flagged but I already have FAQ schema:

  • The scanner checks for the _asgm_faq_schema post meta. If you applied FAQ schema through a different plugin, the scanner may not detect it. Setting the schema resolution to “ours” on the Conflicts page and re-scanning should fix this

Fix button doesn’t appear for a gap:

  • Some gaps (thin content, missing alt text on specific images) require manual intervention. The fix button only appears for gaps that have automated solutions
Content Optimization Updated March 11, 2026