Most content brief templates you find are a list of headings with nothing in them. They tell you a brief should contain "target keyword" and leave you to work out what good looks like.
This one is the actual template, with every field explained, a filled-in example underneath, and a short version for posts that do not warrant the full thing. If you want the non-SEO version of the same document, we keep a plain content brief template as well. If you would rather generate one than fill it in, our free content brief generator produces the same fields from a keyword.
Copy it into a document, a Notion database or a spreadsheet. It takes about forty minutes to fill in properly the first time and fifteen once you have done a few.
The template
Fourteen fields, in the order you should fill them. The last two are the ones almost every template omits and the two that make the biggest difference to the finished piece.
| # | Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Target keyword | One primary term, the one you want to rank for |
| 2 | Secondary terms | 3 to 8 realistic variations and related terms |
| 3 | Search intent | Informational, commercial, transactional or navigational |
| 4 | Required format | Listicle, guide, comparison, template, tool page |
| 5 | Reader | Who they are and what they already know |
| 6 | Job to be done | What the reader needs to be able to do after reading |
| 7 | Word count | Based on what currently ranks, not a round number |
| 8 | Competitor summary | The top 3 to 5 URLs and what each covers |
| 9 | Outline | H2s and H3s, in order |
| 10 | Questions to answer | From People Also Ask and your own customers |
| 11 | Sources and data | What to cite, what is off limits |
| 12 | Internal links | Target URLs with the anchor text to use |
| 13 | What to leave out | Sections and angles to skip, and why |
| 14 | The angle | What this piece says that the ranking pages do not |
What each field is actually for
1. Target keyword
One term. Not three, not a theme.
If you cannot pick one, you have two articles rather than one, and writing them as a single piece is how cannibalisation starts.
2. Secondary terms
Variations the same page can realistically rank for, taken from a keyword tool or from the questions in the SERP. These are for the writer's awareness, not a list to work in mechanically.
Say this in the brief: use these where they fit naturally and ignore any that do not. Writers who treat them as a checklist produce the stilted paragraphs everyone recognises.
3. Search intent
Search the target keyword and look at what ranks. That is the intent, whatever you assumed.
This field decides whether the article can rank at all. If the first page is entirely listicles and your brief asks for a guide, the format is wrong and no amount of writing quality fixes it.
4. Required format
Follow from field 3. Listicle, step-by-step guide, comparison, template, definition page, or tool.
Include the entry count for listicles. If the ranking pages run twelve to sixteen items, say so, because a writer given no number will produce seven.
5. Reader
Not a persona document. Two sentences: who they are, and what they already know.
"A marketing manager at a 30-person B2B company who has run SEO before but never built a content programme" tells a writer more than three paragraphs of demographics.
6. Job to be done
What can the reader do after reading that they could not before? If you cannot answer this, the article does not have a purpose yet.
This field is also your standard for cutting. Anything that does not serve it comes out.
7. Word count
Take the word counts of the pages currently ranking and give a range around them. Never a round number pulled from nowhere, and never "as long as it needs to be", which produces padding.
A range works better than a target. "1,600 to 2,200" gets you a considered length. "2,000" gets you 2,000 words whether or not the topic supports it.
8. Competitor summary
The top three to five URLs with one line each on what they cover. This is the field that takes the longest and saves the most time downstream.
What you are looking for: the sections they all have, which are table stakes, and the sections none have, which are your opportunity.
9. Outline
H2s and H3s in order. Give the writer the structure and let them own the prose.
Mark which sections are essential and which are optional. Writers will otherwise treat every heading as mandatory and pad the thin ones.
10. Questions to answer
Pull these from the People Also Ask box and from questions your own customers actually ask. The second source is better and almost nobody uses it.
11. Sources and data
What to cite, what to avoid, and which of your own data the writer can use. Also state whether they may cite AI-generated summaries, and the answer should be no.
Be explicit about competitors. If naming them is fine but linking to them is not, say so here. This is where that rule belongs, and it is the one writers most often break.
12. Internal links
Specific target URLs with the anchor text to use. Two to four per article.
Do not leave this to the writer. They do not know your site well enough, and "add some internal links" produces links to your homepage. Choosing them is far easier on a site with a hub structure, which our guide to content hub SEO sets out.
13. What to leave out
The field almost every template omits. List the sections and angles you do not want, and give the reason.
Why it matters: without it, writers cover everything the competitors cover out of caution, and the article becomes the average of the first page. The whole point is to be different from that.
14. The angle
One sentence: what this article says that the pages currently ranking do not.
This is the only field that cannot be generated. It comes from your own experience, your customers or your data. A brief with the other thirteen fields filled and this one blank produces a complete, competent, forgettable article, and that describes most of what is published.
A worked example
Filled in for a real keyword, so you can see the level of detail that is useful.
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Target keyword | "email marketing automation for small business" |
| Secondary terms | small business email automation, automated email campaigns small business, email automation software |
| Search intent | Commercial investigation, buyer comparing platforms |
| Format | Listicle, 12 to 15 entries, grouped by business type |
| Reader | Owner or marketer at a business under 20 people, has sent newsletters, has never built an automation |
| Job to be done | Pick one platform this week and know why |
| Word count | 1,600 to 2,200 |
| Competitors | Three platform listicles running 8 to 15 entries, one glossary guide, one vendor blog |
| Questions | What does automation cost? What should I automate first? Is the free tier enough? |
| Sources | Vendor pricing pages only, checked this month. No third-party pricing aggregators |
| Internal links | The AI marketing automation comparison, anchor "AI marketing automation" |
| Leave out | The history of email marketing. Deliverability, which is its own article |
| The angle | Four automations cover most of the return. Name them first, then match platforms to them |
The short version
For a 700-word post, the full template is overhead. Use five fields:
- Target keyword
- Intent and format
- Outline
- Internal links
- The angle
Never drop the last one, even on short posts. It is the field that decides whether the piece is worth publishing.
Where the fields come from
Fields 1, 2 and 7 come from a keyword tool. Fields 3, 4, 8 and 9 come from reading the SERP, which takes twenty minutes and cannot be skipped.
Field 10 comes from People Also Ask and your inbox. Fields 12 and 13 come from knowing your own site. Field 14 comes from you.
A brief generator can produce fields 1 to 11. Our comparison of AI content brief generators covers the tools that do it, and the SERP-driven ones are considerably better than the model-driven ones for fields 8 and 9.
Two mistakes to avoid
Briefing the outline so tightly that the writer has nothing to do. If you have written the article in the brief, write the article. Give structure and constraints, not sentences.
Reusing yesterday's brief with the keyword swapped. The intent and format fields have to be re-derived for every keyword, because the SERP is different every time. This is the shortcut that produces guides on listicle queries.
If briefing is the bottleneck
Some teams need better briefs. Others need the article to exist at all, and the brief is a step that keeps not happening.
Distribb is built for the second case: it reads the keyword and SERP data these fields describe, then writes and publishes the article to your CMS on a schedule, skipping the handover entirely. It is the same engine as our AI content writer, so the fields above become the input rather than a document someone else has to act on.
Honest limitation: it will not supply field 14. The angle still comes from you, and it is the difference between an article that ranks and one that gets cited.
Our guides to content writing for SEO and AI content strategy cover what happens either side of the brief.