How to Write an SEO-Focused Content Brief
As an SEO Supervisor, you're responsible for growing your company's organic search traffic. You're working with your dev group on some technical enhancements, but you observe a huge slice of the chance lies with content. Your business has a content team, however you observe they're not utilizing keyword research to inform their articles. You have actually attempted to send them keyword concepts, but up until now, they have not been responsive to your tips.
Or how about this circumstance?
You're a marketing director at a start-up. You understand that you need content, but do not have the expertise or time to do it yourself, so you ask your network for suggestions and discover yourself a freelance author. The only problem is, you're not constantly sure what to appoint them. With little direction to work off of, they produce content that fizzles.
The option in both of these circumstances is a content brief However, not all content briefs are produced equal.
As somebody who deals with one foot in material and the other in SEO, I can shed some light on how to make your material briefs both extensive and beloved by your material team.
Let's begin by agreeing on some terminology.
What's a content short?
A content quick is a set of directions to guide a writer on how to prepare a piece of material. That piece of content can be a blog post, a landing page, a white paper, or any variety of other efforts that require content.
Without a material quick, you run the risk of returning content that does not satisfy your expectations. This will not only irritate your author, however it'll likewise need more revisions, taking more of your time and money.
Normally, content briefs are composed by somebody in a nearby field-- like need generation, product marketing, or SEO-- when they require something particular. However, content teams typically do not just work off of briefs. They'll likely have their own calendar and efforts they're driving (material is one of those weird roles that requires to support just about every other department while also creating and carrying out by themselves work).
What makes a content quick "SEO-focused"?
An SEO-focused material brief is one amongst lots of kinds of material briefs. It's unique in that the goal is to instruct the writer on creating content to target a specific search query for the purpose of earning traffic from the natural search channel.
What to consist of in your content quick.
Now that we understand SEO-focused material briefs in theory, let's enter the nitty gritty. What information should we include in them?
1. Main inquiry target and intent
It isn't an SEO-focused content quick without an inquiry target!
Utilizing a keyword research study tool like Moz Keyword Explorer, you can get countless keyword concepts that could be pertinent to your service.
For instance, in my existing task, I'm concentrated on producing content for store owners and others in the brick and mortar retail market. After listening to some sales and assistance gets in touch with Gong (lots of groups utilize this to tape client and possibility calls), I might discover that "merchandising" is a big subject of focus.
So I type "merchandising" into Keyword Explorer, add a couple more practical filters, and boom! Lots of keyword ideas.
Pick a keyword (inspect your existing material to make sure your team hasn't already written on the topic yet) and use that as the "north star" query for your content brief.
I think it's also valuable to include some intent details here. To put it simply, what might the searcher who's typing this question into Google want? It's a great idea to search the query in Google yourself to see how Google is interpreting the intent.
For example, if my keyword is "kinds of visual retailing," I can see from the SERP that Google presumes an informative intent, based on the truth that the URLs ranking are mostly educational posts.
2. Format
Dovetailing perfectly off of intent is format. In other words, how should we structure the material to offer it the best opportunity of ranking for our target inquiry?
To utilize the exact same keyword example, if I Google "kinds of visual retailing," the top-ranking posts include lists.
You might discover that your target query returns results with a lot of images (typical with queries consisting of "inspiration" or "examples").
This better assists the author comprehend what material format is most likely to work best.
3. Subjects to cover and associated questions to address
Picking the target question assists the writer comprehend the "concept" of the piece, but stopping there means you run the risk of composing something that doesn't thoroughly respond to the query intent.
That's why I like to include a "subjects to cover/ related concerns to answer" section in my briefs. This is where I note out all the subtopics I've discovered that somebody searching that question would probably wish to know.
To find these, I like to use methods like:
Using a keyword research tool to show you queries associated with your main keyword that are questions.
Discovering websites that rank in the leading areas for your target inquiry, running them through a keyword research study tool, and seeing what other keywords they likewise rank for
And while this isn't particularly search-related, often I like to use a tool called FAQ Fox to search online forums for threads that mention my target question
You can likewise create the overview yourself utilizing your research with all the H2s/H3s already composed. While this can work well with freelance writers, I've discovered some writers (especially internal material marketers) feel this is too authoritative. Every author and content group is different, so all I can state is just use your best judgment.
4. Funnel phase
This is fairly comparable to intent, but I believe it's handy to consist of as a different line item. To fill out this part of the content short, ask yourself: "Is somebody browsing this term simply looking for information?
And here's how you can label your answer:
Top-of-funnel (TOFU or "issue mindful") is a proper label if the inquiry intent is informational/educational/inspirational.
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU or "option conscious") is a suitable label if the query intent is to compare, examine choices, or otherwise indicates that the searcher is currently aware of your service.Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU or "solution ready") is a suitable label if the question intent is to make a purchase or otherwise transform.
5. Audience section
Who are you writing this for?
It looks like such a fundamental question to respond to, however in my experience, it's easy to forget!
When it concerns SEO-focused content briefs, it's simple to assume the response to this concern is "for whoever is searching this keyword!" however what that fails to respond to is who those searchers are and how they fit into your company's personalities/ ideal customer profile (ICP).
If you do not understand what those personas are, ask your marketing group! They should have target market sectors easily available to send you.
This will not just help your authors much better comprehend what they should be composing, but it also assists align you with the rest of the marketing department and assist them understand SEO's connection to their goals (this is also an important element of getting buy-in, which we'll discuss a little later).
6. The goal action you want your readers to take
SEO is a means to an end. It's not only sufficient to get your material ranking or perhaps to get it earning clicks/traffic. For it to make an impact for your company, you'll desire it to add to your bottom line.
That's why, when creating your content brief, you not just need to think about how readers will get to it, however what you want them to do after.
This is a fantastic opportunity to work with your material marketing and larger marketing group to comprehend what actions they're attempting to drive visitors to take.
Here are some examples of call-to-actions (CTAs) you can include in your briefs:
Newsletter sign-ups
Gated possession downloads (e.g. free templates, whitepapers, and ebooks).
Case research studies.Free trials.
Demand demo.Item listings.
In general, it's finest to use a CTA that's a natural next action based on the intent of the post. If the piece is top-of-funnel, try a CTA that'll move them to the mid-funnel, like a case research study.
7. Ballpark length.
I'm a company believer that the length of any post need to be determined by the subject, not approximate word counts. Nevertheless, it can be useful to provide a ballpark to avoid bringing a 500-word article to a 2,000-word fight.
One tool that can make developing a ballpark word count easier is Frase, which to name a few things, will show you the typical word count of pages ranking for your target inquiry.
8. Internal and external link opportunities.
Since you read the Moz blog site, you're most likely currently totally familiar with the significance of links. This information is frequently left out of content briefs.
It's as simple as including these two line items:.
Appropriate content we need to connect out to. List out any URLs, specifically by yourself site, that could be natural fits to link out to in this article.
Existing content that might link to this new piece. Note out any URLs on your site that discuss your subject so that, after your brand-new piece is live, you can go back and consist of links in them to your new piece.The second product is specifically important, because adding links to your brand-new post can assist it get indexed and begin ranking quicker. A quick way to discover internal link opportunities is to use the "website:" operator in Google.
The following search would reveal me all posts on the Moz blog that discuss "content quick." These might be great sources of links to this article.
9. Competitor content.
Search your target query and pull the leading three-or-so ranking URLs for this area of your content short. These internet marketing gold coast are the pages you require to beat.
At risk of creating copycat content (material that's essentially a re-spun variation of the top-ranking posts), it's a good concept to instruct your author on how best to use these.
I like to consist of concerns like:.
What's our unique point-of-view on this subject?
Do we have any unique data we can pull on this topic?What experts (internal or external) can we request quotes to consist of on this subject?
What graphics would make this more visually engaging than what our competitors have?You get the idea!
10. On-page SEO cheat sheet.
Something I always like to consist of in my briefs is some kind of an "SEO cheat sheet"-- pointers and resources for helping your writers with crucial on-page SEO elements.
Here's an example of one I've used in the past:.
Some content groups are extremely bullish on SEO (business like G2 and HubSpot come to mind), so the writers may not need much help in this location. For others, SEO is relatively new to them.
What to avoid when composing content briefs.
Unfortunately, "SEO" has actually ended up being a filthy word to lots of writers. Understanding why will help us prevent the major pitfalls that can lead to neglected briefs and interdepartmental stress.Don't offer suggestions after that possession has been composed.
When composing for search, we're producing the output. The keyword is the input. To put it simply, target questions are questions to be addressed, not something to be stuffed into copy that's already been written.
Google wants to rank material that addresses the query, not simply repeats it on the page.
For this reason, I would prevent having an optimization action after your writing action. If you don't, you risk the material not matching the intent of the question, which implies it has little-to-no possibility of ranking, and you'll likewise likely distress your writers, who don't wish to undervalue their editorially outstanding material by packing keywords into it.
Do not favor keywords with high volume over high intent match.
I once saw a short where the SEO Supervisor asked for that the writer utilize a specific phrase rather of another phrase since it had search volume while the other didn't.The problem? While relatively similar, the keywords really had completely different intents.
Don't do this.
At finest, targeting keywords purely for volume's sake can result in vanity traffic that never ever converts. At worst, you'll be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and likely missing intent-match totally.
Do not blindly follow keyword tools.
Keyword tools are practical, however they're not best reflections of search need. For instance, due to the fact that they're not always updated exceptionally typically, you might wrongly believe a query has no need when in reality it has a load.
A fine example of this is COVID-19 related keywords. As a newly trending topic previously this year, many keyword research tools didn't register that they had any search volume, when in fact they did. If you would have blindly followed the tool, you may have missed out on the opportunity.
To solve for this, you can utilize tools like Google Trends or perhaps Google Search Console (if you have material on a trending topic or comparable subject on your website already, you should have the ability to see impressions/interest spiking within a few days).
Don't instruct writers to "include these keywords" (especially a particular variety of times).
When listing out the target question (or inquiries) in your content short, it is necessary that we instruct our writers that this is the primary question to respond to rather than this the word I require you to spray throughout the content.
Do not attempt to jam keywords into short articles that weren't planned for search discovery.
Organic search is not the only channel for content discovery. As somebody originating from an SEO background, this took me a while to find out.
That indicates adding search content to your content calendar, not trying to cram keywords into whatever on the calendar.
While it's important to get the on-page SEO basics right (title tag, heading tags, links, and so on) for each piece, not every piece provides itself well to organic search discovery.
If we just produced content based on keywords that a tool informed us gets browsed a certain number of times per month, we 'd never ever write about brand-new ideas. It takes a lot of idea management off the table, along with things like case studies and interview/feature story pieces.
Organic search is powerful, however it's not everything.
Tips for getting your content group purchased in.
Even the best content briefs will not make an effect if your content group refuses to utilize them-- and I've heard of plenty of scenarios where that happens.As an SEO, it can be mind-blowing that your material team does not wish to utilize this: "Don't you want traffic?!" But as someone who leads a content team, I comprehend why they're typically turned down.
Luckily, in most cases, this can be prevented by taking the following actions.
Include them in the preparation procedure.
No one likes to be micromanaged, and thorough content briefs can in some cases feel like micromanaging. One great method to prevent this is by bringing them along for the procedure. Make material briefs a collaboration in between SEO and Content.
For example, connect with the Material Lead and see if they 'd be willing to take a seat with you to develop the content quick template together. By each of you bringing your unique expertise to the table, it can feel less like dictating and more like collaboration (plus, you'll probably end up with a better brief design template that method).
Make it clear that not all material has to be search content.
When working with your content group on this, ensure you emphasize that this is a new content type that can be contributed to editorial planning. Not something that'll replace or need to alter the kinds of content they're already writing.
Regard their proficiency.
Writing is hard. Doing it well needs tremendous skill and practice, however regretfully, I have actually heard many SEOs speak about writers as if they didn't understand anything, even if they do not know SEO.
As an SEO, you'll get far with your material department simply by appreciating their proficiency. Just as numerous SEO Managers aren't writers, it's unreasonable people to expect authors to have the SEO understanding of a full-time SEO professional.
Before you implement a content short procedure, sit down with the Content Lead and members of the material group to evaluate their search maturity. What do they actually require your assist with? Trust them with the rest.
Show results.
One of the best ways to get and keep buy-in is by revealing outcomes. Program your material team how much of their traffic is originating from organic search and how, unlike numerous other material discovery channels, that traffic is remaining constant in time. Give the author a shout-out when you observe their short article ranking on page one.