How to write a good content brief for SEO

To get quality output from your writers, you usually need to provide quality briefs.

But, briefs get trickier when SEO is involved. What really makes a content brief SEO-focused?

Kameron Jenkins from Moz shared a blog post on creating effective SEO debriefs

What information should you include in an SEO content brief?

1. Primary query target and intent: It’s not a SEO brief if you don’t include the query you want to target.
2. Format: Not all writers are savvy at structuring content with SEO in mind.
3. Topics to cover and related questions to answer: The query helps the writer understand the big idea of the post. But you should also include other subtopics related to the main query that came out from the keywords research.
4. Funnel stage: The query kinda addresses this question, but it’s better to define in which stage of the funnel is the audience you’re trying to reach.
5. Audience segment: Define the specific customer persona you want to target.
6. The goal action you want your readers to take: What actions do you want your reader to take after reading the piece? A newsletter signup? A demo request?
7. Ballpark length: The topic itself will determine the length of the post, however, it’s good to indicate the approximate word count.
8. Internal and external link opportunities: Indicate relevant content the piece should link to. And existing content that could link to this new post.
9. Competitor content: Search your target query and pull the top three-or-so ranking URLs for this section of your content brief.
10. On-page SEO cheat sheet: Title tags, meta-description, subheadings. Include a list of tips and resources for helping your writers with important on-page SEO elements.

Source: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-write-seo-content-brief