How To Write an SEO Content Brief That Delivers Better Results (+ Free Template)

First, let’s start with a basic definition:

What Is an SEO Content Brief?

A content brief is a document designed to instruct a writer on how to create a piece of content. The finished brief will differ based on the type of content created, such as blog posts, white papers, webinar scripts, product pages, etc.

However, regardless of the type, the core concepts behind a content brief remain the same. It creates clear expectations and streamlines the entire content creation process. Additionally, a well-crafted content brief helps in aligning the content with the target keyword (or keywords) and search intent, ensuring that the content meets the needs of the audience and ranks well in search engines.

Creating an effective content brief is a talent in and of itself. However, the writer may become overwhelmed if you supply too much information. They may also believe they lack creative flexibility, undermining their drive and job quality.

What Does an SEO Content Brief Look Like?

Here’s an example of the content brief template we use for our writers:

There is no one-size-fits-all when creating content briefs. It’s what you want your writers to understand before they delve into the content creation process. While a content brief template is essential (and feel free to use the free content brief template provided above), you can add your customization, such as Project Tone, aligning notes for the intended audience.

Including meta descriptions, or clear directions on how to create one, in the content brief template can help search engines understand the content and increase average click-through rates.

Why Are Content Briefs Important?

Writers are not always SEO experts. Experienced writers will have gained some SEO knowledge, but you must specify how you want your article optimized in the brief.

Everyone has their method for developing a content brief template, and there are various steps to creating an excellent brief.

Even with a content brief template in place, things will vary from one project to the next based on details such as:

• The type of content (blog post, article, whitepaper, etc.)

• Who the content is being created for (in-house or for a client–as well as the intended audience)

• The purpose of the content (to inform, have the reader take action, share news, etc.)

Content briefs keep your team completing their content tasks efficiently, helping you move on to the next step-client reporting. Show your clients how the content you're generating is driving their results.

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How Beneficial Are SEO Content Briefs for Your Agency?

If you’re just throwing darts and hoping to win the game of content marketing, you can pretty much do whatever you want. And there are plenty of people accidentally winning at this game. But agencies need to be much more considerate when deciding how to create top-notch content for their clients.

Here are seven reasons why your agency needs a standard content brief:

1. Content Briefs Save Time and Money

While it can take some time to perfect the content brief process, it will be much easier for your writers to know the scope of what they need to write. Whether your writers work hourly, per article, or based on number of words produced, you want to provide as much information so they can focus on writing quality content–while sticking close to your client's goals. 

Remember that “cost” is not just about the payment for the article you outsourced, but other hard and soft costs we will outline below.

2. Prevent Rewrites and Reduce Revisions

Rewrites and revisions take time, and the content brief cuts down on the amount of time spent making revisions, changing the concept, or refocusing the target keywords.

Not to mention, you could end up in a situation where the entire content idea gets scrapped after investing a lot of initial time in the writing and editing phase because it does not align with your client’s brand. A well-crafted content brief can often avoid this costly waste of time and effort. 

3. Don’t Miss Any Critical Information

Great statistics, facts, and relevant articles can shape an article while making it insightful and authoritative. Thinking strategically during the content brief stage will help ensure the finished blog post doesn’t have any significant information gaps (such as missing the mark on keyword research).

Content briefs are essential for keeping written content focused on the overall marketing strategy goals and ensuring all key information is included.

4. Provide a Single Source of Reference for Your Team

Communicating with your client is essential and helps build relationships. You might have an account manager working directly with a client. If they provide updates to your client and discuss what type of content is being produced for the month, the writers need to be kept in the loop. 

The content brief process can help explain the scope of the content. This also means you can get more SEO clients that will buy into your SEO content packages with professional procedures and clear wins that they can understand.

Also, your editor or content team can reference the scope while reviewing the drafted article. This will help determine if it's the correct content strategy focus and deliverable promised to the client.

5. Content Briefs Increase Consistency

Standardized processes lead to consistency. Whether tone, facts, messaging guidelines, brand style, buyers' journey, or intended audience. Identifying pain points and setting specific goals can also help the writers align their words with the readers searching for these answers.

6. Improve Search Rankings

Gathering all the questions and concerns for a specific keyword or the type of keyword phrases and subtopics that need to be discussed should be written in the content brief. This will help a search engine identify the core concept of your article, but it will also help your writer create the proper structure and keyword focus to help you rank better. 

Of course, search intent is the primary focus. However, understanding the keyword search and identifying who might search for the term can help you write for optimal conversion.

7. Provide Clear Direction and Faster Approval

Providing clear direction can lead to quick approval of the final drafted article. Your team can feel confident that the content is the best version of well-researched and quality content that might exist. And it matches what was promised to the client in the initial content strategy.

Time originally spent on revisions and rewrites can be spent on enhancing the article with engaging visuals and other assets that bring your client’s content up a notch. 

Also, if you are hiring freelance writers, use the content brief to qualify them and set expectations before they start writing. If the writer understands the content brief, it’s a good indicator that the writer can tackle the topic. If not, find someone else to write for you.

8. Delivery Deadlines

Clear objectives, fewer revisions, rewrites, and a faster approval time ensure deadlines are met. In addition, providing your writers with the tools and focusing on writing concise and insightful content reduces the ‌time needed to complete their projects and meet your client's deadlines.

Before we go any further, it’s important to note that no two individuals, companies, or editorial teams will take the same approach when creating content briefs. Focus on what’s best for you and your content writers; everything else will fall into place. However, here are some general guidelines on how to create a content brief that you can use as a starting point. 

How To Write an Effective SEO Content Brief in 5 Steps

A content brief should include all the information a writer needs to create high-quality content that checks all the boxes.

Remember, a content brief is a document that details the purpose of your content, its target audience, and the desired outcome. It’s a high-level overview of your content marketing strategy. 

Keeping things simple and straightforward is essential to creating an effective content brief. Remember that a good content brief aims to help writers create relevant and valuable content that meets your client's objectives.

Too many requirements can overwhelm the writer, while too few can cause confusion. After reading your brief, your writer should understand exactly what you need from them. Writing an effective content brief takes time and practice. We’ve had plenty of failures along the way! 

Luckily, we have also learned some great lessons in the process. So let’s look at how you can easily write an effective one.

What To Include In an SEO Content Brief (Plus a Free Content Brief Template) 

Before we provide a detailed look at the most important elements of a content brief, let’s review a full content brief example:

Overview (example)

Content Focus: 5-Step Process to Writing an Effective Content Brief for Writers

Due Dates: Provide key dates for the writing process, including initial draft and final draft due dates.

Post Length: How long the draft should be, typically indicated by word count.

Target Keyword Intent: Indicate the type of keyword search intent being targeted, including informational, commercial, navigational, or transactional.

Style Guide: Include a link to the appropriate style guide (e.g. a client's brand style guide) for the article.

Topic Summary: A content brief will serve as an essential guide for writers to understand what’s required from them when taking on new assignments. It will also save you time, money, and stress while improving the quality of your final article. 

Outline: Including recommended H1s, H2s, H3s, etc.

• Introduction

• What Is a Content Brief?

• Tip #1:

• Tip #2:

• Tip #3:

• Tip #4:

• Tip #5

• Conclusion

Here is an example of how we created our content brief for this content brief guide:

• What Is a Content Brief?

• Why Are Content Briefs Important?

• How Beneficial Are Content Briefs for Your Agency?

  • Content Briefs Save Time And Money

  • Prevent Rewrites And Reduce Revisions

  • Don’t Miss Any Critical Information

  • Provide A Single Source of reference for your content team

  • Content Briefs Increase Consistency

  • Improve Search Rankings

  • Provide Clear Direction And Faster Approval

  • Ensure Delivery Deadlines

• How to Write an Effective Content Brief (5 Steps)

  • What Information Belongs In A Content Brief?

• Should I Use Templates For Content Briefs?

• How To Write A Content Brief

Target Audience: Agency owners and SEO specialists who are in the process of creating a content brief for their clients.

References or Statistics to Include: Articles that can be used as research as well as any relevant stats, facts, or charts that can help visualize

Competition:

• What Is a Content Brief? - MarketMuse, 1305 words

• What Is A Content Brief (And Why Is It Important)? - Content Harmony 1435 words

• How to Create the Perfect Content Brief -  SemRush 1950 words

• How to Write an SEO-Focused Content Brief Your Writers Will Love - Moz 2951 words

Recommended Meta Data

Although this might change during the content drafting process, it's good to start with a general idea of the target meta data for the post, including:

• URL

• Canonical URL

• Meta Title

• Meta Description

SEO Keyword Focus:

• Primary keyword: Content brief

• Secondary keywords: content brief template, content brief example

• Keyword placement: primary keyword once in the intro, body, and conclusion; secondary keywords in subheadings and used naturally throughout

• Content structure: introduction, a minimum of five subheadings, and conclusion

• Internal links: minimum of five links to internal blog posts

  • Example:

  • https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/keyword-search-intent (use anchor text: keyword search intent)

• External links: minimum of three links to reputable industry sources and studies

Other Notes:

A freeform section where you add anything else the writer needs to consider during the writing process, such as visuals or expert quotes.

Breaking Down the Key Elements in a Content Brief Template

Now that you know what a content brief looks like, it’s time to dig into the five most essential elements to include.

1. The Details (Overview)

Think of this section as a high-level overview of the content. Upon reading it, the writer should understand what the piece should entail and the approach they need to take.

These five points should always be part of this section:

• Title (or several title ideas)

• Two to three-line description of the direction the writer should take

• Outline, including headings and subheadings

• Word count

• Target audience

• Create a persona for your audience

• Style guide

In the example above, you’ll see that this section kicks things off by providing the knowledge necessary to help the content creator formulate an idea of what’s being asked of them.

Be as clear and concise as possible while understanding that there are other sections where you can share additional information.

Title & Description

While a meta description description and title are important for SEO, it’s also essential to provide more context for your writers. That way, they'll stay focused on the concept of the article and not sway away from the article's intent. 

Remember that your proposed title may change during the writing process, but the core concept behind the original title should remain the same. 

Outline

Most of the time, you want to target several keyword clusters for your clients. It can be “warning signs of mold remediation” or “difference between mold removal and mold remediation.” As a content marketing agency, you have done all the keyword research and plan of action to target these keywords. Providing an outline eliminates the headache for you and the writers because you’ve clearly outlined the content you want–and don’t want–them to write. 

Word Count

Word count is essential for two main reasons:

1. Cost of the article

2. Competition

When you write and assign specific content for your client's site, there are many factors. Depending on how you structured your content writing package for your client, you might have to ask your client to pay extra or determine if the cost of the article is within your budget.

The other reason ‌you want to add a word count to the content brief is to stay competitive for the primary keywords you want to rank for. 

Let’s say each of the competitors wrote an average of 2000 words, packed with insightful content. If your client’s budget only allows for an article that contains 1200 words or fewer, competing with more authoritative posts on that subject may be challenging. That could mean your content team has to pivot to target a different topic–with lower ranking difficulty or get budget approval to do a more in-depth piece on the subject. 

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That’s not to say that this number is everything. A shorter article with real insights is far more valuable to everyone–readers and search engines included–than a longer article full of fluff to just exaggerate the word count. 

It could be that a 1200-word count might end up ranking better if the competitive pieces are full of fluffy nonsense. Targeting feature snippets, for example, and providing a concise article might be better. However, when creating the content brief, you need to verify that all sections within the article you want to cover are there. And that - more than anything else - typically informs the required word count.

Target Audience

Persona development is part of any typical content marketing strategy. When a sales agent knows who they're selling to, they may adapt their sales pitch to fit that customer's demands and enhance their conversion rate.

The same goes for a writer. One who understands who they're writing for can better customize the message of the piece and their language to that specific audience.

Construct an audience persona to help your writer understand who they're writing for. This is a text, graphical representation, and profile of a 'person' who represents your target audience.

An audience persona might be as simple as a few sentences identifying your target demographic, frequent pain issues, education level, and anything else you know is vital to your audience. 

Here’s an example of what you would include in the target audience section of your content brief:

The primary target audience for the client may be females from 35 - 49, but perhaps this article is intended to reach a specific subset of the audience. For example, maybe this piece is needed to support the client’s new line of green cleaning products. Therefore, the persona could be adjusted to focus on those in the higher range of that demographic (e.g., 42 - 49), married with kids and interested in the environment. 

Style Guide

Each client is different. Whether your client needs to target B2B, B2C, SMBs, medium-sized business owners, homeowners, etc., your tone and style of writing and spelling conventions (e.g., UK vs. US English) should cater to these audiences at a granular level.

2. Competition

In a perfect world, there would be no competition for the assigned topic. But in the real world, you know this is never (or very rarely) the case.

You'll still have competition even if you’re tackling a relatively unknown angle in a less popular niche. After all, there are more than 2.98 billion indexed pages on the internet.

So, that’s why it's important to provide a competition section in your content brief. Here’s what you should include:

• Run a search for the primary keywords you’re targeting, or use a rank tracker tool to run it for you

• Make a note of the top 10 to 20 search results

• Find similar content already published on the top competing websites

For this example, let’s look at what Google returns for the keyword string “how to write a content brief.”

We can see there are approximately two billion results in this keyword research. Of course, there are other factors at play in ranking for this term, but that alone tells you it's pretty competitive.

A review of the first page provides a clear idea of top competitors, their approach, and the type of content they’ve shared on the subject.

You should review three to five of these top pages to help guide the details you share with your writer.

For example, if you find that the top result's average word count is 1,500 words, you can set the content brief requirement for 2,000 or more words to ensure your finished content is more in-depth than the competition.

Do the top-ranking articles have engaging and relevant graphics to support them? If so, you should plan on creating those as well. (We’ll cover more on visuals in a moment.)

You can use this information to guide the creation of your content brief, which is then shared with the writer, so they understand what it will take for their content to perform alongside the top players.

3. Research

Even if you expect the writer to perform a lot of keyword research independently, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help. On the contrary, by providing keyword research on the topic, it’s easier for you to guide how the writer creates the content, which improves the likelihood of it aligning with your requirements. It also results in a more refined content marketing strategy.

This section can include, but is not limited to:

• Competitor links

• Resources to find content ideas

• Recent studies

• Recent statistics

• Related blog posts

This is especially true if your content was inspired by a recent industry trend, research report, or external analysis. Make sure to provide the writer with what inspired the idea in the first place. 

You can’t (and don’t want to) include every piece of research in your brief, but it never hurts to give the writer a jump start. This is also where you can call out your agency’s citation guidelines. For example, if you don’t reference or quote published sources older than two years, this would be the place to note that. 

4. SEO

When writing a blog post or other content, the SEO section of a content brief is critical, as you want to give it the best chance of ranking at the top of the search engines.

Of course, the importance of the search engine optimization section depends largely on your content marketing plans. But if it makes sense, you’ll want to share as much information with the writer as possible, such as:

• Topic focus

• Keyword research (i.e., primary and secondary keywords)

• Content structure, including the use of subheadings

• External and internal links

While most of these details will vary from one brief to the next, some standardization guidelines will remain.

For instance, you may have strict rules about the the number of internal links to include and how often primary and secondary keywords appear.

An example of this is Ahrefs for keyword research (and more). For example, a search for content brief returns the following results:

Upon conducting a thorough review of the keyword, you’re able to answer questions such as:

• Is the keyword worth pursuing from a volume perspective?

• Are there other keywords that are better to target? 

• Are there alternate versions or different keywords to target in the same piece of content?

• How difficult will it be to reach the top of the search results?

Identify Keywords and Search Intent

Start with keywords-after all, everybody who knows anything about SEO understands the significance of keywords.

Knowing what keywords you are targeting for search engine rankings and the objective behind the content is the beginning point for each article.

If the keyword search intent is transactional, the post should be focused more on features and benefit messaging. In addition, the content should provide valuable insights and information with minimal product placement if the keyword intent is information. 

Identifying both the keywords and the search intent must be expressed clearly to a writer from the start if you want to end with an article that covers the topic in the way your agency intended.

For example, you don’t want an informational article about dealing with yellow bathtub stains to become an article that says “buy this product and here’s why” as it does not support the informational intent behind the keyword.

Once you've decided on your keywords, which will also inform the headline of your post, you'll need to offer some context for the piece's goal. This is vital for SEO and creating a nice reading experience.

Specify in your brief that you want a step-by-step tutorial, bullet points, or other high-value content structures.

While providing the primary keyword offers a writer a basic notion about the post, it still leaves most of the content, aim, and direction open to interruption.

Add Topics and Subtopics to Be Covered

As part of your brief, offer some subtopics or subheadings you wish to see in the blog post.

Subheadings do more than only offer structure to an article; they also:

• Aids readers scanning your blog post in finding what they're seeking for 

• It gives Google a clearer understanding of your content

• Breaks up the “wall of text” to make the blog post easier to read.

• Allows you to rank for additional keywords within those subheadings.

• Provides search engines with snippets to show in featured positions

If you're unsure what subtopics to add, go to Google and check what's suggested for your term on the search results page (SERPs).

Internal or External Links You Should Add

Including a mix of links is critical for both the long-term impact of SEO and the credibility of the article.

Adding links comprises two steps. 

1. The first is to inform your writer that any metrics, facts, or statistics they've referenced in the work should be linked.

2. The second step is to submit a list of internal and external links that you would want to see in the article.

While some links will happen naturally during the writing process, providing a baseline set of links is very beneficial to the writer. They can read the articles you've asked them to link to and gain a deeper and more in-depth grasp of the subject. 

Internal linking of the existing articles that cover similar topics is a great way to provide more context for users and search engines.

Plus, you can provide guidelines on the quantity and quality of links to be excluded. For example, you can clearly outline that there should be:

• No more than 3 links from outside sources

• All links should be to high-quality, relevant websites

• Do not use external links that are focused on a similar topic

• At least 3 but no more than 6 internal links

5. Visuals & Other Notes

Who wants to read a giant block of text?

The answer is simple: no one!

Plus, compelling visuals are a great way to generate quality backlinks.

That’s why every content brief should include a section for visuals or other text treatments (such as block quotes).

It's important to note that this is only necessary if the writer is also expected to provide visuals. If you plan on doing this in-house after reviewing the content, you may not need to include it in the brief - but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Even if they are not providing finished visuals, it is handy to have them paste links to some source graphics that can be referenced in the article or recreated by your internal team. 

Some of the points to include:

• The visuals you want to include in the article (photos, infographics, charts, screenshots, etc.)

• The number of visuals

• The preferred placement of visuals

• Naming conversion for the visuals

Maybe you want the writer to recommend a featured image and three to five others to include in a blog post. You can share this direction, along with a list of sites for finding images (if your client uses stock photography):

• Pixabay

• Unsplash

• Shutterstock Royalty-Free Images

• Pexels

• Free Images

Since choosing the right images is often subjective, sharing as many details as possible is best. For example, you could ask the writer to do one of the following:

• Share five images related to social media.

• Share five images related to social media, with three of the logos of specific platforms and the other two screenshots from popular profiles.

Which one sounds better to you? (Hint, it’s #2)

Ask for Feedback

Even if you’re impressed by the depth and clarity of your content briefs, it doesn’t necessarily mean your writers agree. And that’s why you need to ask for feedback. Ask questions such as:

• Are your content briefs clear and complete?

• Do they help you understand what is being asked of you?

• What is your favorite part of the briefs?

• What is one (or two) thing you would change in future briefs?

Maybe you’ll find that your content briefs are hitting home with every writer. Or maybe you'll find a few holes that you can patch up to share better and more detailed content briefs in the future. You never know until you ask.

Final Thoughts

Assuming a writer doesn’t need a content brief is a mistake. Even the best ones need a brief to hit all SEO goals and align with your clients’ needs.

Although it will take some time and practice, the guidance above puts you and your agency in a better position to create detailed content briefs for writers.

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