Deep Research

Understand what content to create, why it matters, and how to outperform competitors

Frase’s Research is the starting point of your content journey. It helps you uncover content opportunities, analyze competitors, and understand what search engines expect—before you write a single word.

Use Research to decide what to create, how to structure it, and where you can win.

What You Can Do With Research

Frase's Research helps you:

• Discover high-impact content ideas

• Understand search intent behind keywords

• See what competitors are ranking for

• Identify gaps in your existing content

• Use SERP Research to identify ideal length, topics, and headings

• Plan content that aligns with top-ranking results

Research answers strategic questions like:

• Should I write about this topic?

• What’s already working for competitors?

• What content am I missing?

• What does Google expect for this keyword?

Then, turn research insights into focused, high-performing outlines and articles.

Types of Research

Tip: Start with Topic or Content Gap Research to decide what to write about first.

Topic Research

What It Does Analyzes any keyword or topic at a high level.

What You See

• Search volume

• Difficulty

• Related questions and subtopics

Use It For

• Validating ideas before writing

• Understanding demand for a topic

Example

“Should I write about email marketing automation?”

Competitor Research

What It Does Analyzes specific competitor websites and their content strategies.

What You See

• Top-performing pages

• Keywords competitors rank for

• Content strengths and gaps

Use It For

• Understanding what’s working for competitors

• Learning from successful content strategies

Example

“What’s working for my main competitor?”

Content Gap Research

What It Does Identifies topics your competitors rank for that you don’t. Use Gap Research to uncover topics competitors already rank for.

What You See

• Missing keywords and topics

• Content opportunities to close the gap

Use It For

• Finding high-impact content ideas

• Catching up or overtaking competitors

Example

“What content should I create to catch up?”

SERP Research

What It Does Analyzes the top-ranking pages for a specific keyword. Use SERP Research to identify ideal length, topics, and headings.

What You See

• Ideal content length

• Common topics and headings

• Structural patterns across top results

Use It For

• Understanding what Google wants to rank

• Optimizing content to beat top results

Example

“How do I beat the #1 result for ‘shopify marketing’?”

Where Research Fits in the Content Flow

Research is the first step in Frase’s content workflow.

Content Flow

1. Research – Discover topics and analyze competitors

2. Brief – Plan article structure and key points

3. Content – Generate and refine the full article

How Research Integrates with Briefs

Frase Research works in two ways:

Manual Research

• From the left sidebar, run Research first

• Use insights to create briefs intentionally

Auto-Research

• From the left sidebar, jump right to creating a new brief and article

• Frase automatically researches your keywords and competitors in the background

• Every brief includes SERP insights to understand what ranks

Best Practices

• Most users start with Content Gap Research to find opportunities

• Create briefs for the strongest topics first

• Use manual research for strategic planning

• Use auto-research (the +New Article button on the left sidebar) when you want to move fast

Tip: You can skip manual research and jump straight into creating briefs and articles — Frase will research automatically. However, running research first gives you stronger strategic insight and better content planning.

Summary

Deep Research in Frase helps you move from guesswork to strategy. By understanding topics, competitors, gaps, and SERPs, you can plan content that aligns with search intent and gives you a real chance to outrank what already exists.

Research isn’t just optional—it’s the foundation of winning content.