My #1 Free Content Brief Template (Google Doc & Word Template)

Right here’s the reality: Should you wanna create genuinely top quality, SEO-friendly content in the age of AI, you want a stable content material temporary template to start out your creation course of. An awesome content material temporary invitations you into the mindset of your readers, helps you clear up their challenges from the place they’re at proper now and guides you thru every main part that must be coated. Sounds refined, however it is a massive deal.

When you’ve give you the precise matter or key phrase to pursue, your content material temporary is the subsequent step in crafting your publish. Whether or not you’re writing your self, working with freelance writers, using an in-house workforce, or producing posts with the assistance of AI instruments like my AI article writer or the 80+ powerful tools I’ve made inside of RightBlogger, your content material temporary is a necessary step within the course of—if you need actual outcomes.

After all, you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel each time you start a content material temporary. That’s why a dialed in, time-tested content material temporary template (like mine) makes it simple to suppose by your matter and specify precisely what the completed publish ought to appear to be.

Obtain My Free Content material Transient Template

Obtain my free content material temporary template that’s been used to create 1,000+ high-performing Website positioning-optimized weblog posts & pages, driving tens of millions of month-to-month guests to my weblog and purchasers like LinkedIn, Adobe, Intuit, Shut, Forbes, and extra.

On this content material briefing information, I’ll run by the why of utilizing a content material temporary template, earlier than digging in to what it’s best to embody. Then, I’ll share some examples together with my ready-made content material temporary template you possibly can snag at no cost proper right here (above).

The Purpose of a Content material Transient Template in Content material Advertising

I used to jot down and overview a ton of content material briefs in my function as Head of Content material at Close, the place I grew our Website positioning site visitors by 60% in my first 6 months—once we printed dozens of latest weblog posts & up to date 100s.

One of many largest advantages of diving deep into the content material briefing course of, is that I needed to actually sit with every theme & matter, placing myself within the footwear of our ultimate readers and clients—for each piece of content material we produced.

To place collectively a powerful content material temporary, I wanted to completely perceive the issue that ultimate buyer was attempting to resolve … and determine learn how to present the very best resolution within the type of our content material.

If you undergo the method of making a content material temporary (primarily based on a complete template), you possibly can absolutely nail the intent or mindset of your ultimate reader. Should you simply grab a keyword and begin writing, you’re in all probability going to overlook all that nuance.

Utilizing a content material temporary template additionally helps you:

1. Save time answering questions from the author (or time re-prompting your AI tools)
2. Scale back your variety of rewrites and edits—the draft weblog publish ought to hit the mark each time
3. Be certain that your content material is designed from the bottom up for great on-page SEO
4. Align each bit of content material together with your broader SEO content strategy

When employed successfully, a content material temporary will prevent time and place your content material for actual success.

What’s a Content material Transient vs a Artistic Transient?

Earlier than we dig in additional, let’s take an actual fast take a look at the distinction between a content material temporary and a artistic temporary.

A content material temporary is a doc that particulars the important thing necessities for a weblog publish (and infrequently for different kinds of long-form written content material, like whitepapers). It’ll embody issues like details about the objective of the piece, the audience or persona for the content material, very important Website positioning data, a phrase rely, and a top level view.

You’ll typically see it known as an “Website positioning content material temporary” due to the necessary Website positioning components it consists of.

A artistic temporary is a doc utilized in a variety of contexts, primarily inside promoting. It may be for a picture plus copy, a video, a social media advert, a complete touchdown web page, or nearly any type of content material that promotes your product/service. It’ll embody data on the corporate background, audience, and key message of the advert.

What’s a Content material Transient vs an Define?

An overview or plan for a chunk of content material will checklist the subheadings plus any key factors to incorporate.

A content material temporary will embody a top level view of the publish … nevertheless it goes a lot additional than an inventory of headings and key factors. It additionally incorporates Website positioning particulars, details about the viewers, and an evidence of the objective of the piece, tying in together with your broader content material advertising technique.

4 Steps to Making a Nice Content material Transient (Template)

Let’s run step-by-step by the important thing sections of my handiest content material temporary template.

👉 Does this look a bit of too in-depth for you? You won’t need each part for each content material temporary, nevertheless it’s a good suggestion to incorporate all of them in your template so you possibly can fill them out when wanted.

1. Normal Directions on Content material Briefing

These sections will possible stay the identical for each content material temporary.

• Tone and Voice: Inform writers in regards to the tone or model voice you utilize. One thing like “casual and laid-back” or “assured and direct” could also be sufficient. Should you’re utilizing AI to draft your publish, RightBlogger’s MyTone feature enables you to arrange your personal customized tone, or you should utilize the “Writing tone & Model” dropdown.
• Home Model: Do you spell out numbers below 10 in your weblog? Do you utilize Title Case or sentence case for headers? These little particulars assist hold your posts constant. Have a “Home Model” part in your temporary the place you give directions—or hyperlink to your type information, in case you have quite a lot of factors to make right here.
• Goal Viewers: Though you’ll give a selected viewers for every specific piece of content material, it may be useful to have a normal audience to your merchandise/companies listed at first of every temporary. For B2C content material, this may contain demographics (e.g. “girls aged 35–50”). For B2B content material, you’re extra prone to be taking a look at firm attributes (e.g. “SaaS startups”).

2. Website positioning Particulars

Your content material temporary is an important device for enhancing on-page Website positioning. Meaning together with very important Website positioning particulars to your writers or AI device to make use of.

• On-Web page Title and Meta Title: Your publish ought to have a title upfront, so the content material may be tailor-made to that title. You might need to have an on-page title (the H1 on the web page) plus a separate meta title for search engines like google.
• Meta Description: It may be useful to jot down the meta description forward of time. In case your author will fill this out, go away house for it within the temporary (and take into account highlighting it for completion). This might alos function a high-level overview for the publish. RightBlogger’s Google Preview tool enables you to see how the meta title and meta description will look in Google.
• Major Key phrase: It’s good to be crystal clear in regards to the main key phrase to your publish. This key phrase must have sufficient quantity to be value your time, with out being so aggressive that it’s unattainable to rank for. My Key phrase Analysis Instrument will enable you discover key phrases that match this candy spot.
• Secondary Key phrase(s): These are different (often decrease quantity) key phrases you’re hoping your publish will rank for too. This shouldn’t be an exhaustive checklist of LSI key phrases.
• Website positioning Report: Should you’re utilizing a device like Clearscope or Surfer to optimize your content material—and I undoubtedly advocate you do!—then it’s best to embody a hyperlink to the report in your temporary. That is the place writers can get the LSI key phrases and craft a well-optimized piece of content material.
• Search Intent: Are searchers in search of data or prepared to purchase? It could be useful to checklist intent by way of the client’s journey: top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, or bottom-of-funnel. SEOs additionally categorize intent as navigational, informational, business, or transactional.
• Website positioning Success Standards: What rank ought to this publish obtain in SERPs (search engine outcomes pages) with a view to attain its content material objective? Aiming for first place is probably not real looking, particularly for a high-difficulty key phrase. Your success standards may be “ranks on the entrance web page” or “inside prime 5 outcomes”.

3. The Core Content material Transient and Define

This a part of your content material temporary template is what many individuals consider because the temporary itself … nevertheless it’s necessary to have all of the overarching and Website positioning data first to set the scene.

• Kind of Content material (non-compulsory): Should you solely publish weblog posts which might be all of an identical format, then you definately in all probability don’t want this part. However in the event you publish a spread of content material varieties, specify clearly in your temporary what this piece is. As an illustration, you might need “case research” in fairly a unique format to “listicles”.
• Particular Viewers: Who precisely is that this publish for? As an illustration, on a B2B weblog, you may take into consideration particular roles (equivalent to “gross sales workforce”) and even in regards to the degree of seniority of the meant viewers (e.g. “gross sales workforce leads” vs “gross sales workforce reps”). You may need to embody particular ache factors for this viewers.
• Purpose or End result: Earlier, we had the success standards for the publish on Google: that is in regards to the objective or consequence for the viewers. What ought to the reader be capable of do or perceive after studying the publish? You could possibly additionally incorporate this as a CTA (name to motion) on the finish of the publish.
• Phrase Rely: Give a phrase rely or vary for the publish. Relying in your wants, you possibly can body this in a spread of various methods, equivalent to “round 2000 phrases”, “not more than 2,500 phrases”, “2000+ phrases”, or “2000-2,500 phrases”.
• Competitors: Listing the present prime 3–5 posts for the key phrase. Competitor evaluation helps the author to place this publish compared to them. As an illustration, if the highest posts don’t give many stats or examples, that’s a simple strategy to stand out.
• Inner Hyperlinks: Are there related posts or pages you need to promote in your web site? Listing them right here for the author.
• Analysis Notes: Optionally, you possibly can embody helpful analysis notes for the author right here. This may embody hyperlinks to sources, notes about your product/service, urged exterior hyperlinks to incorporate, sources like infographics to incorporate, or anything that will be useful.
• Define (With Subheadings): The content material define ought to embody notes on the introduction, principal physique, and conclusion of the publish. Embody subheadings, itemizing them as H2s, H3s, and so forth as acceptable. You might need to give bullet factors for every part to supply extra steering to the author. Creating the define may be time-consuming: AI instruments like RightBlogger’s Blog Post Outline Generator will pace up the method dramatically.

4. Author Guidelines (Non-compulsory)

On the finish of your content material temporary, you could need to give writers a guidelines of issues to do throughout the content material creation course of. A lot of the guidelines will possible stay the identical every time.

This can be a good place to flag up something your content material workforce (or freelance content material creators) may neglect, so you possibly can keep away from a lot of revisions and get a high-quality publish first time round.

Your guidelines may contain issues like:

• Embody 3+ inner hyperlinks.
• Put headers in Title Case.
• If mentioning people, hyperlink to their LinkedIn profiles.
• Format the “Key Takeaways” part as a numbered checklist.

Obtain My Free Content material Transient Template

Obtain my free content material temporary template that’s been used to create 1,000+ high-performing Website positioning-optimized weblog posts & pages, driving tens of millions of month-to-month guests to my weblog and purchasers like LinkedIn, Adobe, Intuit, Shut, Forbes, and extra.

2 Bonus Efficient Content material Transient Examples to Be taught From

Let’s check out a few completely different examples of content material briefs. It may be actually useful to see how different corporations are producing their content material briefs to get concepts for establishing or tweaking your personal content material temporary template.

Content material Transient Instance 1: Writing Studio

Writing Studio, a well-regarded content material writing company, shares an instance of one in every of their content material briefs from how they work with scaled up content material manufacturing:

It’s a brief and to-the-point temporary, nevertheless it consists of a very powerful components that we checked out above, like:

• Major key phrase (known as the “focus key phrase” right here) and secondary key phrases
• A meta title and meta description
• Phrase rely
• Target market
• Goal of the piece
• Inner hyperlinks

I like how they’ve additionally included the decision to motion. They’ve additionally specified the kind of English to make use of, which may be helpful in the event you’re working with worldwide freelancers.

Their instance doesn’t embody the define (it seems prefer it acquired reduce off earlier than this level), however what we do have right here seems like an excellent begin for serving to writers produce good high quality content material.

Content material Transient Instance 2: Serpstat

The all-in-one Website positioning platform, Serpstat, shares this easy instance of a content material temporary from their inner processes:

Once more, it has a whole lot of key components in place, like:

• Major key phrase (known as the “goal key phrase”)
• Target market
• Tone of voice
• Title

That is an Website positioning-focused temporary that features semantic (LSI) key phrases, which is beneficial to have in the event you’re not going to be utilizing an Website positioning-optimization device like Clearscope. Together with questions is useful, too, particularly in the event you’ll be tasking the author (or an AI) with creating a top level view.

Methods to Create a Content material Transient Template with AI

Extra bloggers, myself included, are utilizing AI instruments to create content way faster than each earlier than. The excellent news? It’s even higher to make use of a content material temporary template alongside together with your AI instruments of selection—both utilizing the instruments to create components of the temporary, or utilizing instruments like RightBlogger to draft your content material primarily based on the temporary.

RightBlogger (my AI platform for bloggers and small enterprise house owners) is full of instruments that can assist you write your content material temporary:

It’s also possible to produce a whole Website positioning-optimized weblog publish out of your content material temporary, utilizing a device like RightBlogger Chat or ChatGPT.

Right here’s a immediate you should utilize:

AI isn’t at all times nice at following phrase rely steering, so you could must re-prompt to get it to supply a publish of the precise size.

Experiment with completely different prompts so you possibly can streamline your workflow and get an superior outcome every time.

Obtain My Content material Transient Template and Begin Utilizing it At present

Creating detailed content material briefs means your writers can produce weblog posts that hit the mark each time.

Through the use of a content material temporary template, you can also make positive your briefs are at all times constantly useful—no matter whether or not it’s you or another person in your workforce producing them.

Obtain my content material temporary Template at this time to get a jumpstart on high-converting briefs to your subsequent spherical of weblog content material.

Obtain My Free Content material Transient Template

Obtain my free content material temporary template that’s been used to create 1,000+ high-performing Website positioning-optimized weblog posts & pages, driving tens of millions of month-to-month guests to my weblog and purchasers like LinkedIn, Adobe, Intuit, Shut, Forbes, and extra.