How to Create an SEO Content Brief in 10 Steps

If you’re looking to prioritize the long-term work of creating compelling, interesting, and engaging content for your website, you need to make sure all of your writing team is on the same page. 

An SEO content brief helps you not only rank for your best keywords over time, but makes sure that every piece of content that’s produced and published is designed to match up with the user’s search intent. 

In this detailed guide, we’ll walk through how to create an SEO content brief step-by-step, from understanding keyword research and search intent to gleaning competitive intelligence and improving your on-page optimization. 

By the end of this article, you’ll have a rinse-and-repeat framework you can give to your writing team to make sure your content is not only sound but practical and impactful. 

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

1. Outline content goals
2. Define your target audience and who you’re creating content for
3. Start keyword research
4. Establish user intent
5. Create the content structure (brief)
6. Review an on-page optimization checklist
7. Create content guidelines
8. Conduct a competitor analysis
9. Assign writing tasks
10. Prepare the final version of your SEO brief

Bonus tip! Continue reviewing and optimizing content to stay ahead of the competition.

Step 1: What Are Your Goals for Your Content?

Before you even begin to research a single keyword to include in your SEO content brief, take a step back and be clear about why you’re creating this content. 

• Are you looking to generate more organic search engine traffic? 
• Do you want to rank for a specific keyword? 
• Are you looking to increase backlinks or engagement? 
• What stage of the customer journey are you targeting? 

Example: If you run a site that’s all about buying smartphones and you’re writing to attract an audience that’s looking for the “best budget smartphone,” your goal would be to drive affiliate sales and capture those users who are looking for affordable smartphone options. Once you’ve got the overall goal for your content in mind, it’s time to move on to step two. 

Step 2: Who Are You Writing For?

In order to create an SEO content brief and prepare content for your target audience, you have to know who they are. 

This means going beyond demographics and taking a deeper look into the pain points or interests that drive them, as well as the search intent behind their inquiry. They could just be looking for general information, want to do a product comparison, or need a solution. 

Example: Going back to our smartphone example, your audience could encompass several different segments from first-time smartphone buyers to budget-conscious shoppers. Knowing your audience is just the beginning, now you have to think like they do. 

Step 3: What Keywords are People Using to Find You?

To create a comprehensive SEO content brief, you have to know what keywords your target audience is using to find you. 

There are a variety of keyword research tools and content optimization tools that can help you find this out, from Google’s free Keyword Planner to Originality.ai’s Predictive SEO Tool (which offers suggestions for genuine content improvements and is resistant to keyword stuffing). Then there are also other premium tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush. 

Depending on the tool you opt for it could provide insight into competitive analysis, content gaps, and more. 

Learn more about the breakthrough features of the Originality.ai Predictive SEO Tool in our Predictive SEO Accuracy Study.

Tips for finding relevant keywords

1. First, select the primary keyword: the main keyword that your article will focus on. 
2. From there, choose the secondary keyword that supports the main keywords. 

Example: So if you’re writing about the “best budget smartphones” as your primary keyword, your secondary keyword could be things like “cheap Android phones” or “best phones under [price point]”. 

Once you’ve chosen your primary and secondary keywords, take a look at the search volume. You’ll want to choose those keywords that have high search volume and low-to-medium competition. 

Step 4: What’s the Reason Behind the User’s Search?

One of the ways that Google’s algorithm ranks content is based on user intent. If your content doesn’t match what users are expecting to see, they won’t stay long on your site (impacting dwell time). So, in your SEO content brief make sure to clearly outline the reason or intent of the article.

Example: Someone searching for an inexpensive smartphone may want: 

• Information: How to shop for a budget smartphone, what to keep in mind as they research, what brands or price ranges to consider, and so on.
• Product comparisons/reviews: They want to see comparisons between the top-rated smartphones or reviews on which ones to buy, such as the “best budget smartphones in 2025”. 
• To make a purchase: They’ve done their research and are ready to make a purchase and you want to do everything you can to make sure that happens on your site. That means attracting those users who are searching for bottom-of-funnel topics and keywords. 

For initial insight into the intent around a keyword, try searching it! Google your primary keyword and then look at the top-ranking articles. 

Keep an eye out for the type of content in the top-ranking articles as well: if all of the top-ranking sites are listicles, yours should also be a list. If all of the top results are product pages, a blog post may not align with the search intent. Pages are ranked at the top for a reason, and the reason is because they align well with the user’s search intent. 

Then, specify in the SEO content brief the type of structure you’re looking for to make sure the final article will have the best layout.

Step 5: Creating Your Content Structure

Next, it’s time to actually start laying out your content structure. Here’s a general template to follow that’s easy for your users to read and is designed to be structured in such a way that search engine robots, including Google, can follow easily: 

• H1 Title (Include the primary keyword)
• Introduction (Hook the reader and mention key takeaways)
• H2 sections
  
  • Break the content down into logical sections (AI can help you with this!)
• H3 sections
  
  • Designed to support the sub-section with more detailed information
• Conclusion
  
  • (Optional) call-to-action

Include this structure in your SEO content brief and further customize it by incorporating previous steps such as keywords, target audience, and search intent.

Step 6: Your On-Page Optimization Checklist

Next, you’ll want to take steps to make sure that Google understands your content so that it can rank it. The structure of the article itself is just one piece of the puzzle. 

Include this easy on-page optimization checklist in your SEO brief:

• The article includes a title tag that uses the primary keyword naturally
• The article includes a meta description of 150 characters or less
• Keywords are used strategically in the headings (H1, H2, H3)
• The article links to other internal pages on the website
• The article cites authoritative sources
• The article includes alt text for images

Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to move on to creating content guidelines or standard content briefs. 

These guidelines are designed so that all members of your writing team write consistently in a way that reflects your brand’s tone, style, voice, and formatting. 

Step 7: Create Content Guidelines

Content guidelines don’t necessarily have to be as long and drawn out as a full-on brand voice guide, but they do have to cover the basics in a way that keeps your content uniform and consistent. Here’s what to include: 

• Tone and style: Is it casual? Authoritative? Technical? 
• Word count: Choose a word count length that’s in line with competitors (or longer).
• Use of lists and tables: To improve readability and make the piece easy to visually scan.
• Call to action within the article and below it: What action do you want your readers to take? 

Specifying these in your SEO brief will help to keep content consistent and optimized.

Step 8: Do a Detailed Competitor Analysis

If you’re not sure where your competitors are, it’s worth doing a detailed competitor analysis. 

Here’s how:

1. Go to Google and type in your primary keyword or phrase
2. Check the top 3-5 results
   
   • What do they cover? Do they include comparison tables? Expert opinions or reviews? Pros and cons? Video? Infographics?
3. Spot their content gaps
   
   • What are they missing?
   • Can you add your own original research, video, or infographics? 

Originality.ai’s Content Optimizer can help you streamline this process. It works as an alternative to MarketMuse and Surfer SEO. Simply add your copy and select a keyword to optimize for. Then, you’ll see competitor sites, their Google rank, and content score.

You could then optionally include competitor comparisons in the SEO brief to give writers, editors, and SEO specialists of the content you are trying to rank ahead of.

Step 9: Assign Writing and Editing Tasks

If you have several content creators on your team, you’ll need to define who’s responsible for what before assigning the SEO brief to your writing team.

For example, the writer creates the draft, the editor reviews it for clarity, the SEO specialist optimizes the meta tags and structure and the graphic designer creates images. 

There are a variety of project management tools out there that can help you track the progress of the article as it moves through each of these steps. 

Step 10: Final SEO Brief Checklist

Finally, it’s time to do one last look over the brief and make sure it includes everything you need to publish and polish each piece for the best possible SEO. Ask yourself these questions as you review your SEO content brief: 

• Does the content align with the user’s search intent?
• Am I using both long-tail and short-tail keywords throughout the piece?
• Do the keywords flow naturally without sounding like they’re stuffed? 
  
  • Read more about how to avoid keyword stuffing.
• Do the tone, style, and length match brand guidelines? 
• Are there clear calls to action that match the goals of the content?

Bonus Tip: Track Your Content Performance Over Time

Even when you have your SEO content brief in your hands — the work still isn’t done. 

You’ll need to monitor how your content is performing over time in order to make adjustments and revisit certain points over time. 

Be sure to check Google Search Console and use Google Analytics to check metrics like page views and time on page. 

Then, incorporate tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to check things like organic traffic growth and backlink performance. 

After Creating Your SEO Content Brief: Next Steps 

Once you’ve created your SEO content brief, what’s next? 

From here, you can take the time to build more topical authority, learn how to use AI for topic clustering, and continue optimizing content with the Originality.ai Predictive SEO Tool to stay ahead of the competition. 

By following these steps, you’ll make sure that every post you write is as optimized as possible, built to perform, and designed to engage! 

Learn more content marketing and SEO best practices in our top guides:

• 9 Tips on Optimizing Content for Dwell Time SEO
• How to Lower Website Bounce Rate With Quality Content
• What Is a Content Marketing Funnel? Your Complete Guide
• 11 Ways to Use AI for Content Consistency in Marketing