A freelancer I work with showed me a content brief she got from a client last month. It was a spreadsheet with 47 keywords, their search volumes, and three competitor URLs.
That was it. No direction. No outline. Just data.
She spent three hours trying to reverse-engineer what the client actually wanted before she could start writing. This is backwards. A brief should make writing easier, not harder.
What a content brief actually needs
A good brief answers three questions before the writer opens a blank document. Start with proper keyword research to inform your brief:
- What's the specific angle or problem we're solving? Not just "write about SEO"—but "help founders get their first 1,000 visitors without hiring an agency"
- Who's reading this and what do they need? A technical developer wants different content than a non-technical founder
- What structure should I follow? An outline with key sections saves hours of "wait, what should go here?"
When a brief answers these clearly, the writer can focus on writing well instead of guessing what you want.
Why most SEO briefs fail writers
Here's what usually happens: someone exports keyword data from an SEO tool and drops it in a Google Doc. Maybe they add a few competitor links.
The writer gets:
- A list of 30 keywords with search volumes (but no guidance on which ones matter most)
- Competitor URLs (but no clarity on what to learn from them or differentiate against)
- A target word count (which leads to fluff just to hit the number)
This isn't helpful. It's just raw information with no context or direction.
How to structure a brief writers can actually use
Start with a clear title and angle
Not just a keyword—an actual headline that captures the promise. "How to optimize WordPress content without an SEO expert" is way more useful than "WordPress content optimization."
Define the reader and their situation
One sentence about who this is for helps the writer nail the tone. "Small business owners with WordPress sites who need organic traffic but have zero SEO experience."
Provide a suggested outline
This doesn't have to be final, but it gives the writer a starting structure. Look at what's ranking on page 1 and pull common themes: what sections do they all cover? What questions do they answer? Turn that into an outline.
List specific questions to answer
Based on search intent and "people also ask" boxes, what are the 3-5 questions readers expect answered? Make these explicit.
Show the search intent
Is this a how-to guide? A comparison post? An opinion piece? A landing page? The intent changes how you write. Learn more about understanding and aligning with search intent.
Real example: before and after
Before (typical SEO brief):
"Topic: SEO for small business. Keyword: SEO for small business (1,200 searches/month). Secondary keywords: small business SEO tips, local SEO. Target length: 2,000 words. Competitors: [3 URLs]"
After (actionable brief):
Title: "SEO for small business: a practical guide to getting found online"
Reader: Small business owners with no SEO experience who need their website to bring in customers
Suggested structure:
- Why SEO matters for small businesses (not theory—actual business impact)
- The three SEO tasks that drive 80% of results
- How to pick keywords your customers search for
- Simple checklist for optimizing each page
- How to track progress without drowning in analytics
Questions to answer:
- How long until I see results from SEO?
- Can I do this myself or do I need to hire someone?
- What are the biggest SEO mistakes small businesses make?
The second brief takes 10 minutes longer to create but saves the writer hours of guesswork.
Why this matters if you manage multiple writers
If you work with freelancers or a content team, clear briefs mean you can ensure every piece follows your on-page SEO checklist from the start:
- First drafts come back closer to what you actually wanted
- Less revision rounds (which saves everyone time and money)
- Consistent quality across different writers
- Content that's optimized from the start, not retrofitted after
How Rankeli generates these automatically
Creating briefs like this manually is time-consuming. You're analyzing competitors, pulling questions from search results, structuring an outline—it takes 20-30 minutes per brief. That's why we built Rankeli to solve this problem.
Rankeli does this in seconds:
- Suggests a title based on search intent and competition
- Generates an outline from top-ranking content patterns
- Lists specific questions and topics to cover
- Shows you the search intent so the writer knows the right approach
The result? Briefs that actually help writers instead of confusing them. And content that ranks because it was optimized from the outline stage, not as an afterthought.
