Learning how to write a content brief involves defining your strategy, analyzing the competition, and outlining the article’s structure before writing begins. It’s the foundational plan, a detailed blueprint that guides your writer, editor, and strategist toward a common goal. Creating content that actually ranks on Google and resonates with your audience doesn’t happen by accident. A content brief is the single most important document for ensuring your content hits the mark every single time, saving you from endless revisions and wasted effort.
Think of it as the architectural drawing for your article. Without it, you’re just guessing. With it, you align your entire team on the purpose, audience, and strategy before a single word is written. This guide will walk you through exactly how to write a content brief, breaking the process into 21 essential steps.
Phase 1: Setting the Strategic Foundation
Before you even think about titles or outlines, you need to define the high level strategy. This phase answers the big questions: why are we creating this content, and who is it for?
1. Define Your Goal
Every piece of content needs a job. Are you trying to drive organic traffic, generate leads, build brand awareness, or educate existing customers? Setting a clear goal is the first step. Marketers who set goals are nearly four times more likely to report success than those who don’t. A simple, written goal also makes you 42% more likely to achieve it. Your goal for the content brief could be to rank on page one for a target keyword or to get 50 new newsletter signups.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
You can’t write effective content if you don’t know who you’re writing for. Define your ideal reader by considering their demographics (age, location, job title) and psychographics (interests, needs, pain points). Creating detailed buyer personas is incredibly effective here. In fact, 71% of companies that exceed their revenue goals have documented personas. Content tailored to a specific audience performs better because it speaks their language and addresses their specific problems.
3. Choose a Primary Keyword
The primary keyword is the main search phrase you want this content to rank for. It’s the SEO anchor for your entire piece. A good primary keyword should have decent search volume, be relevant to your audience, and have a realistic difficulty level for your website. This single decision influences your title, headings, and overall content structure.
4. Select Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords are related terms and phrases that support your primary keyword (often organized as a keyword cluster). Think of them as synonyms, subtopics, or related questions. If your primary keyword is “best electric cars,” secondary keywords might include “electric car reviews” or “EV buying guide.” Including these helps Google understand the full context of your article, allowing you to rank for hundreds of related long tail queries. A single high ranking page can rank for an average of nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords this way.
5. Map the Search Intent
Search intent is the “why” behind a user’s query. If you’re new to keyword intent, start here. Are they looking to learn something (informational), buy something (transactional), or compare options before a purchase (commercial)? Your content must match this intent to rank. Google the primary keyword and look at the top results. Are they blog posts, product pages, or videos? The search results page tells you exactly what kind of content Google believes satisfies the user’s intent. Aligning with it is critical for SEO success.
Phase 2: Research and Competitive Analysis
With your strategy set, it’s time to do your homework. This phase is all about understanding the competitive landscape and gathering the information you need to create the best possible content on the topic.
6. Run a SERP Analysis
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) analysis involves manually examining the top ranking results for your primary keyword. Look at the titles, formats, and overall structure of the content that’s already winning and the SERP features Google is showing. If all the top results are long form listicles with 15 or more points, a short 500 word article won’t be competitive. The SERP is your cheat sheet for what Google wants to see.
7. Add Competitor Articles
Inside your brief, link to one or two of the top ranking competitor articles. This gives your writer a clear benchmark. The goal isn’t to copy them but to learn from them and create something better. Note their strengths (like great visuals or unique data) and their weaknesses (like outdated information or a missing subtopic). This is your opportunity to find a content gap and fill it.
8. List Questions to Answer
Great content anticipates the reader’s questions. Look at Google’s “People Also Ask” box, the Related Searches section, forums like Reddit, and Q&A sites to find common questions related to your topic. Approximately 48% of Google searches now show a “People Also Ask” box. List these questions in your brief and plan to answer them directly in your content, often using them as H2 or H3 headings.
9. Compile Background Research
Gather all the data, statistics, expert quotes, and case studies you’ll need to make your content credible and authoritative. Well researched content builds trust. Don’t just rehash information; find original sources and compelling data points to support your claims. This step ensures your content is rich with value, not just generic fluff. If building out a content plan that includes all this research sounds like a heavy lift, services like Rankai can handle the entire process for you.
Phase 3: Building the Content Blueprint
Now it’s time to start structuring the brief itself. This is where you lay out the specific instructions for the title, metadata, outline, and other core content elements.
10. Write a One Sentence Summary
Distill the core message of your article into a single, concise sentence. This is the elevator pitch for your content. If you can’t summarize it in one sentence, your topic might be too broad. This summary keeps your writing team focused and can often be adapted for social media posts or meta descriptions. Given that users on an average web page read at most 28% of the text, a clear summary hooks them immediately.
11. Propose a Title (H1)
The title, or H1 tag, is the main headline of your article. Brainstorm a few options that are both compelling for readers and include your primary keyword. On average, eight out of ten people will read a headline, but only two out of ten will read the rest of the content. A strong title is your best chance to capture attention.
12. Set the SEO Title
The SEO title (or meta title) is what appears on the Google search results page. It can be the same as your H1, but it’s often optimized to be slightly shorter (under 60 characters) to avoid getting cut off. It’s a major factor in convincing a user to click your link over a competitor’s.
13. Write the Meta Description
The meta description is the short snippet of text (around 155 characters) that appears under your SEO title in search results. While not a direct ranking factor, a well written meta description acts as an advertisement for your page, significantly improving your click through rate (CTR). Tell the user exactly what they will get by clicking on your article.
14. Draft an Outline
The outline is the skeleton of your article. Map out your H2 and H3 headings to create a logical flow. Pair this with content mapping to ensure you cover every stage of the reader journey. This structure ensures you cover all the necessary subtopics and makes the content easy for readers to scan. An outline saves time during the writing process and prevents your content from becoming a disorganized wall of text.
15. Set the Heading Structure
Formalize your outline by defining the H1, H2, and H3 tags. Use headings to create a clear hierarchy. Each H2 should represent a major section of your article, with H3s used for subsections. This not only improves readability for users but also helps search engines understand the structure and topics of your page.
16. Set a Target Word Count
Based on your SERP analysis, set a target word count. While quality matters more than quantity, there’s a strong correlation between content length and search rankings. The average first page result on Google contains about 1,447 words. Your target word count should be a guideline that ensures your article is comprehensive enough to compete with the top results.
Phase 4: Finalizing the Guardrails and Actions
The final phase of how to write a content brief involves adding the finishing touches that ensure quality, consistency, and a clear next step for the reader.
17. Specify Internal Links
Internal links are links from your article to other relevant pages on your own website. If you’re unsure how many to add, see this guide on how many internal links per page. They are crucial for SEO and user experience, as they help search engines discover your content and guide readers to more of your resources. In your brief, specify 3 to 5 existing pages to link to.
18. Specify External Links
External links point to other websites. Linking to authoritative, reputable sources to back up claims or cite data builds trust and credibility for your content. Plan to include a few external links to non competitive sites like research studies, industry reports, or official sources.
19. Attach a Style Guide
To ensure brand consistency, attach your company’s style guide. This document should outline your preferred tone of voice, grammar rules, and formatting standards. A style guide is essential for maintaining a cohesive and professional brand voice across all your content, especially if you work with multiple writers.
20. Define the Call to Action (CTA)
What do you want the reader to do after they finish your article? A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that guides them to the next step, such as subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a guide, or booking a demo. A clear CTA turns a passive reader into an active lead. Defining it early ensures your content is built to drive business results.
21. Set Deadlines and Milestones
Finally, establish a clear timeline for the content creation process. Set milestones for the first draft, revisions, and the final publication date. This keeps your team accountable and ensures your content calendar stays on track. Structured projects with defined milestones are three times more likely to succeed.
Creating high quality SEO content at scale requires a repeatable process, especially if you’re exploring programmatic SEO for templated pages. If you’re looking to supercharge your content production without getting bogged down in the details of how to write a content brief every time, explore how a dedicated service can help. Rankai’s AI driven SEO program handles everything from keyword research to writing and optimization, delivering 20+ pages a month designed to rank.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main purpose of a content brief?
The main purpose of a content brief is to align your entire team on the strategy and goals for a piece of content before it’s created. It acts as a single source of truth to ensure the final product is strategic, on brand, and optimized for both users and search engines.
How long should a content brief be?
A good content brief is as long as it needs to be to provide clear direction. Typically, this can range from one to three pages. It should be detailed enough to prevent confusion but concise enough that your team will actually read and use it.
Who on the team should know how to write a content brief?
Content strategists, SEO managers, and marketing managers are typically responsible for writing content briefs. However, anyone involved in the content lifecycle, including writers and editors, can benefit from understanding how to write a content brief to improve collaboration.
Can I use a template for my content brief?
Yes, using a template is highly recommended. A template ensures you cover all the critical steps every time, from goal setting to keyword selection and outlining. This guide can serve as the foundation for your own custom template.
What is the most important part of a content brief?
While every section is important, the strategic foundation (goal, audience, keyword, and intent) is arguably the most critical. If you get these elements wrong, the rest of the brief won’t matter because the content will be aimed at the wrong target.
How does a content brief help with SEO?
A content brief helps with SEO by ensuring every piece of content is intentionally optimized from the start. It forces you to choose the right keywords, match search intent, analyze competitors, structure your content with proper headings, and plan for internal links, all of which are key factors for ranking well in Google.
