How to write a content brief, with a template

A content brief is the plan for one page, written before the page. A good one takes ten minutes to fill in and saves the hour you would otherwise spend halfway through the draft working out what the post is for. This is the template GapDigest’s own post plans follow, with a note on each field and a filled example at the end. Copy the blank one into a doc.

The template

Target keyword:
Monthly searches / difficulty / intent:
Action: write a new post | update <URL>
Title:
Angle (one sentence):
Outline:
  1. <heading>
     - <point>
  2. ...
Secondary keywords:
What the competing page covers:
Questions readers ask:

Eight fields. Anything more is a style guide, which belongs in a separate document that every brief points at.

Each field, and what goes wrong without it

Target keyword. One phrase. A brief with two target keywords produces a page that ranks for neither. If two phrases mean the same thing, pick the one with more searches as the target and put the other in secondary keywords.

Searches, difficulty, intent. The numbers that say whether the post is worth writing at all. Searches tell you the ceiling. Difficulty tells you whether a site your size can reach it. Intent tells you what kind of page to write: a guide for an informational phrase, a comparison for a commercial one. A free gap check gives all three for keywords a competitor ranks for and you don’t.

Action. New post, or update an existing page. Search your own site before you decide. If a page already covers part of the topic, the brief names it, and the writer extends it instead of writing a second page that splits the topic.

Title. The working title, written to be the page’s H1. It contains the target keyword and makes a promise the page keeps.

Angle. The one sentence that says why this page beats the pages already ranking. It comes from reading them: what they cover, and where they are thin. “Their page is a list of 30 meals; ours is a seven-day plan with weights, and the list is the appendix” is an angle. A brief without one produces a page that matches the competition and ranks below it, because it arrived later.

Outline. The headings in order, with the points under each. This is where most of the ten minutes goes. The test for a heading is whether a reader who only reads headings could follow the page. Put the answer to the target query in the first or second section, not the last.

Secondary keywords. Five to ten related phrases the page should use in headings or body text: variants of the target, and the narrower questions a full page on the topic answers. They come from the same gap check, and from the “People also search for” suggestions under the results.

What the competing page covers. A short list, from reading the page that ranks for the target. It keeps the writer from leaving out something every ranking page includes, and it is where the angle comes from.

Questions readers ask. The “People also ask” questions Google shows for the target. Each one is a heading or a paragraph, and a page that answers them in plain sentences is the shape both the featured snippet and the AI Overview quote.

A filled example

For an invented backpacking food blog whose competitor ranks third for a phrase the blog has no page for.

Target keyword: no cook backpacking meals
Monthly searches / difficulty / intent: 2,400 / 18 / informational
Action: write a new post
Title: No-cook backpacking meals for a week on the trail
Angle: The ranking page is a list of 30 meals with no plan behind it; give
  readers a seven-day plan with the weight and calories of each day, and put
  the meal list after it as the appendix.
Outline:
  1. Why go no-cook
     - Stove and fuel weight saved
     - Fire bans and alpine zones
     - What you give up: hot dinners in the cold
  2. What a no-cook day weighs
     - Calories per ounce targets
     - A sample day at 1.4 lb
  3. The seven-day plan
     - Table: day, meals, weight, calories
     - Two swaps per day for allergies
  4. 18 meals by type
     - Cold-soak dinners, no-soak lunches, breakfasts, snacks
  5. Resupply on the trail
  6. Packing without a stove
Secondary keywords: cold soak backpacking meals, no cook backpacking food,
  stoveless backpacking meals, backpacking meal plan 7 days
What the competing page covers: 30 meals grouped by meal; cold-soak basics in
  two paragraphs; product links for six brands; no weights, calories, or plan
Questions readers ask: How do you cold soak food for backpacking? What is the
  lightest no-cook backpacking food? How many calories a day do you need
  backpacking?

Filling it in less than ten minutes

The slow part of a brief is not the writing; it is the reading that precedes it. Finding a keyword worth the post, checking its numbers, opening the competing page, pulling the “People also ask” questions, and searching your own site for an existing page is most of the time. GapDigest does that reading every week for the keywords your competitors rank for and you don’t, and sends the filled brief, which it calls a post plan, every week. The content briefs page shows one in full, and the free plan sends up to four a month.