What is a content brief and why it matters for SEO
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TL;DR: What is a content brief?
A content brief is a detailed document that outlines the key requirements, goals, and guidelines for a piece of content.
It acts as a roadmap for content creators, ensuring that the final output aligns with the intended purpose, target audience, and SEO objectives.
For beginners: The purpose of a content brief
The primary purpose of a content brief is to provide clear instructions to content writers, editors, and strategists—both in-house and freelance writers or strategists.
It ensures that everyone involved in the content creation process is on the same page, from the initial concept to the final draft.
This alignment is crucial for producing high-quality, effective content that meets the desired goals.
A content brief can offer:
• Clarity: Provides a clear direction for content creators.
• Consistency: Ensures uniformity in tone, style, and quality across different pieces of content and a team of writers, content strategists, and marketers.
• Efficiency: Streamlines the content creation process, saving time and resources.
• SEO optimization guidelines: Enhances the likelihood of achieving higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) with details about target keywords and user intents.
Why a content brief matters for SEO
Here’s why this often overlooked step in the content production process is so important:
Content briefs guides writers with good search engineoptimization practices
Content briefs can lead to better content optimization
Content briefs streamline the content creation process so resources can be used efficiently
It guides writers with good search engine optimization practices
A well-structured content brief plays a significant role in SEO by instructing the creation of content that is not only high-quality but also optimized for search engines.
Content briefs include specific instructions for the target search query—including incorporating specific keywords (ie, primary keywords and secondary keywords, also known as target or focus keywords), which is essential for on-page SEO.
By targeting relevant search terms, content can rank higher in search engine results, driving more organic search traffic.
Guiding writers and subject matter experts to create helpful content—content that includes information gain—is key to competing with consensus content in the search engine results pages (SERPs). And this also increases the chances of attracting backlinks and engagement via sharing of great content.
It leads to better content optimization
Detailed SEO content briefs can provide insight into headings, estimated word counts of content competitors, the type of content that would best serve search intent (for example, a listicle, an in-depth article with a how-to video, or detailed step-by-step piece).
Meeting search intent is key to healthy content optimization and SEO performance, as SEO is about more than just targeting high search volume keywords.
They can also help direct high-quality content creation, which is essential for SEO success.
A good content brief helps ensure that the content is comprehensive, relevant, and valuable to the target audience. But it should also instruct the content writer or copywriter in the primary call to action (or CTA).
Should this piece lead readers to sign up for a newsletter, download a freebie, or make a purchase? There should be instructions on the intended audience and CTA for the writer.
It streamlines the content creation process
A content brief simplifies the workflow and boosts efficiency, allowing content teams to produce more content in less time.
By providing a detailed content outline with clear instructions and goals, a brief can reduce the time spent on revisions and rewrites.
This streamlined content workflow is especially beneficial for teams of writers, as it ensures everyone knows their role and expectations.
Time-consuming tasks such as keyword research, competitor analysis, and content structuring are outlined in the brief, saving time and effort during the content production process.
Content briefs can also facilitate better collaboration among different in-house team members and freelance writers. By having a clear document to reference for each piece of content, teams can work more cohesively and efficiently.
To streamline the production process and minimize revisions, detailed content briefs can include:
Notes on tone of voice
Key points or takeaways for the target audience
Links to a style guide or brand guidelines
Guidance on content format
Instructions on content length
Examples of the best content to guide or inspire
Popular questions (eg. people also ask)
How content briefs work
The success of your content—and your content brief—all depends on what you include.
Crucial elements of a content brief
A comprehensive content brief includes several key elements that guide the creation of effective content writing.
Target search intent: Understanding the target search intent is crucial for creating content that meets the needs of the audience and aligns with what they are searching for online.
SEO keywords: Identifying and including primary and secondary keywords or long-tail keywords helps in optimizing the content for search engines.
Target audience and buyer personas: Defining the target audience and creating detailed buyer personas help tailor the content to the specific needs, preferences, and pain points of the intended demographics.
Internal pages to internally link in the content: Including internal links to relevant pages on your website enhances the user experience and improves SEO by distributing link equity throughout the site.
Instructions regarding information gain: Incorporating new and relevant data, such as customer testimonials, firsthand experience, statistics, case studies, and recent research, adds value to the content and helps it stand out in search results.
Content outline and subheadings: Providing a structured content outline with subtopics ensures that the content is organized, easy to read, and covers all necessary points.
Steps to create an effective content brief
Initial search intent and keyword research: Utilize keyword research tools like Clearscope’s Keyword Discovery, Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to identify the most relevant queries and find related keywords to target in your content. This step is crucial for creating SEO-focused content briefs.
Define your content’s goals: Clearly outline the goals of and CTAs for the content, such as increasing organic traffic, generating leads, encouraging newsletter signups, or boosting engagement. These goals will guide the direction and tone of the content.
Structure the content brief template: Create a template that includes all the essential elements of a content brief that are important to your organization’s content production process. This template can be reused for different projects, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
Clearscope allows you to save and store multiple custom content brief templates in your accout—which can automate one tedious part of the content creation process. Learn more.
7 best practices for content brief creation
Prioritize search intent and user experience: Ensure the content brief aligns with the current search intent of your target audience to provide a better user experience. This includes clear, concise writing, and easy navigation.
Reference brand voice guidelines: Include links to style guides to maintain consistency with your brand’s voice and style. This ensures that all content pieces reflect the brand’s identity and values.
Provide a short competitor content analysis: Linking to competitor content for review helps identify gaps in your own content and provides insights into what is working well in your industry. (Clearscope makes this step easier than ever. Learn more in Competitor analysis: Your step-by-step guide.)
Identify where the new content fits in your overall content strategy: Determine how the new content will fit into your overall digital marketing content plan, noting the core topic family if you are using a pillar and cluster model to organize your content.
Incorporate social media requests: Include instructions for promoting the content on social media platforms like LinkedIn, which is often part of a holistic content marketing strategy. Instruct writers to provide a social post for relevant channels if necessary.
List external links that are crucial to incorporate: Note what relevant external links to authoritative sources should be incorporated during the writing process.
Include copy requests for meta data and healthy on-page SEO factors: Make sure writers follow on-page SEO best practices, such as optimizing meta descriptions, headers, and anchor text.
3 common mistakes to avoid as a beginner
Mistake #1: Overlooking search intent
Failing to address the search intent can result in content that doesn’t resonate with your audience.
LEARN MORE: Why search intent optimization beats keyword optimization
Mistake #2: Ignoring brand voice and guidelines
Consistency in brand voice is crucial for maintaining brand identity and trust with your audience. Leaving resources or references to style guides out of your brief creation isn’t a good idea.
Mistake #3: Not including guidance for content visuals
Don’t leave your writers hanging. Include notes on what existing visuals to use or what graphics should be created before publishing.
FAQs about content briefs
Q: How does a well-structured content brief improve SEO outcomes?
A well-structured content brief ensures that all aspects of SEO are considered during content creation and that best practices are followed, leading to higher quality, more relevant content that performs better in search engine rankings.
Q: What if your content writer comes back with an underwhelming first draft?
If the first draft isn’t what you were envisioning, provide constructive feedback and clear guidance on areas for improvement.
Use the content brief to highlight any missed elements or misaligned points.
Additional resources and citations
Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 from the Content Marketing Institute Blog
How to write a content brief (with template) from the Zapier Blog
Contributing authors and updates
The original version of this article was moved from another URL on October 11, 2024, to include updated education on current best practices by the Clearscope team.
If you're looking for the now-updated, original article, please visit The best way to use SEO content briefs in today's SEO landscape
