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content brief
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Save Time and Make More Money with a Content Brief

November 26, 2022

If you don’t have a process for your WiFi money, you’re leaving money on the table. An analogy I’ve used is executing a workout program while at the gym. You can see results if you show up every day, but you need a plan if you want to be elite. A vital component of any content publishing plan is creating a content brief or outline.

Many people want to jump straight to writing once they find a keyword, but a little planning will save you hours and rank faster.

Now, if you’re hiring writers, then providing them with a content brief is even more critical to getting back quality content on schedule.

What is a content brief?

A content brief is a document that helps you or your writers focus on the critical elements your audience and Google are expecting.

It saves time in the long run because you or your writers fill in the content around headings, so you don’t hit writer’s block staring at a blank document. 

You will also rank faster because you’ll cover key topics Google expects to see. If you are missing key subtopics covered by other top-ranking sites, then you’ll have a more challenging time breaking onto the 1st page.

It will often contain the following info:

  1. Keyword
  2. Searcher Intent
  3. Word Count
  4. Format
  5. Headings

Keyword

Don’t forget to start with the keyword you are targeting. You want to make it clear to yourself and your writers the purpose of this content.

Searcher Intent

Google’s goal is to provide results matching the intent of the person who entered the keyword.

Often searcher intent is obvious…

What about “coffee mug”? In this case, you’ll need to review the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to see what Google has determined the searcher intent is for this keyword.

The reason searcher intent is important is you don’t want to write a “Best of” review article when the rest of the top 10 articles are all “How to” info articles.

Word Count

The other top results can help determine how many words your article needs to rank on the 1st page. Of course, word count can be subjective, but it’s a good idea to give either yourself or your writer a general length to shoot for.

Format

Some common types of content are:

Before you dive into writing, think about which format will best serve your audience. Again, you can check the SERP to see what format the other top-ranking content uses.

Outline

Finally, you want to build an outline of headings or a semantic tree for your content.

A semantic tree organizes your article using headings (e.g., h1, h2, etc.) to identify and communicate to Google the essential topics in your content and how they are related. Google uses your headings to understand the purpose and relevant keywords for your page.

A semantic tree isn’t just for Google. It’s mainly for Google, but it helps you outline your content. It also helps your readers better understand the content. Finally, reviewing top-ranking content helps you address all the topics related to your keyword Google and your readers expect.

One of the easiest ways to write your outline is to review the top-ranking results. You can manually click on each result to get ideas from your competition. Manually searching the SERP will work, and many of the top writers use this approach, but it can be time-consuming.

The Problem with Content Brief Generators

There are tools to help you write your content briefs more quickly. The problem is they give you headings in a jumbled mess, usually sorted by the ones appearing most frequently.

The whole purpose of organizing headings in a semantic tree is to communicate how information is related. If your tool pulls headings across the SERP and presents them to you out of their original order, then you spend time going back to each result to research how they are related.

To save time, these tools send you right back into the SERP to manually click through results.

The Heading Scraper Tool

The goal of the Heading Scraper tool is to quickly give you the top SERP results with an output of all H1, H2, H3, and H4 in an easily usable format. The context of the related headings in an article matter, so it doesn’t hide that information from you.

Here is an example of how you could build a content brief using the Heading Scraper Tool. We’ll use the keyword “Best Coffee Mug” for the example.

Heading Search

Keyword

There are a ton of tools and techniques to accomplish keyword research. For this example, let’s say we decided to target “Best Coffee Mug.”

Searcher Intent

In this case, the searcher intent is commercial investigation, but we can confirm with the top 3 results.

Searcher Intent

Word Count

Based on a review of the top 3 results, you know the article needs to be between 2000-3000 words.

word count

Format

Often a “Best XXX” article uses a listicle format. This SERP is no different. We’ll plan to use a listicle for our content as well.

Outline

Here is where the Heading Scraper tool makes it easy. Looking at just the top 3 results, you have 20 different “Best of” categories to include in your article. It looks like there is usually an H2 heading for each category.

content brief headings

Now you can pick categories that match your best affiliate offers. It’s easy to copy these headings into your outline with the one-click copy button or by exporting them to a CSV spreadsheet.

You’ll want to bring your perspective or angle to the article.  Don’t just copy the #1 page’s headings.

But there is more information that is even more valuable. You will likely need to add more content to the end of your article to meet the word count goal. And not purely to hit word count but also to address topics and questions your audience might have, and Google expects you to cover.

Here are some topics you might add at the end of your article.

additional topics

You end up with an outline similar to the following:

With the opportunity to see all of the headings, you pick the best categories to match your affiliate offers, and you’ve included additional information to help you rank on the 1st page.

Conclusion

Use a content brief and the Heading Scraper tool to help you save time, rank faster, and earn more WiFi money.

The tool is still developing, so I welcome improvement suggestions or feature requests. Check out the free trial and write content that ranks. Fast. Thanks!