This is the brief I fill in before any page is written for search, whether I am writing it myself or handing it to a writer. It is for UK in-house marketers, business owners and freelance writers who commission or produce SEO content and want every page to have one clear job before the drafting starts. Copy the fields below into a document or a spreadsheet row, fill them in, and give the result to whoever is writing.
If the term is new to you, my glossary entry on what a content brief is explains it in a few paragraphs. This page is the working version: the fields, what goes in each one, a filled-in illustration, and the checks I run before a page goes live.
Why the brief comes first
Most weak SEO pages are not badly written. They are well written about the wrong thing, or about two things at once. A writer given only a keyword has to guess who is searching, what they want to find and what the page should get them to do next, and every guess that misses costs a rewrite.
A brief moves those decisions to the start, where they are cheap to change. It also gives you something to check the draft against. Without one, feedback turns into taste (“I don’t like the tone”); with one, it becomes a question of fit (“the brief says the reader is a landlord who has never used accounting software, and this section assumes they have”).
The brief is also where you stop two pages on your own site competing with each other. Once a page is published and indexed, untangling that is slow. Before anything is written, it is a short check.
What goes in an SEO content brief
There are eight parts. On a short blog post, some of them take one line. On a service page that has to bring in enquiries, every part matters. Fill them in order, because the later parts depend on the earlier ones.
1. The page
- Working title: a plain description of the page, not the final headline.
- URL: the slug you intend to use, short and descriptive. Decide it now so internal links can point to it from day one.
- Page type: service page, location page, guide, blog post, product category, FAQ or comparison. The type sets the reader’s expectations and the length.
- New or update: if it replaces or improves an existing URL, give that URL and say what is wrong with the current version.
- Owner and dates: who writes it, who approves it, when the draft is due, and who checks facts if the subject is regulated.
2. The search target
- Primary term: the one phrase this page is built to rank for. One per page, no more.
- Secondary terms: close variants and sub-questions the same reader also types. If a secondary term needs its own answer at length, it probably needs its own page instead.
- Search intent: what the person searching wants to happen, in one sentence. Name the type too (informational, commercial, transactional or navigational), but the sentence is what the writer will use. My glossary entry on search intent goes through the four types with examples.
- What ranks now: look at the top results on google.co.uk for the primary term and note what kind of page Google is choosing (guides, service pages, directories, videos), what they all cover and what none of them covers. That last gap is often the best reason for your page to exist. A proper SERP analysis goes further, but even ten minutes of looking beats none.
- Cannibalisation check: list any page on your own site that already targets the primary term or something close to it, and say how this page differs. If you cannot state the difference in a sentence, merge the pages rather than writing a new one. Keyword cannibalisation is the name for the problem this prevents.
Record where the terms came from. If they came from keyword research, name the tool and the date. If they are your own judgement because you have no data yet, write that down, so nobody later mistakes a guess for evidence.
3. The reader
- Who they are: as specifically as you can. “Small business owners” is too broad to write for; “owners of a two-van plumbing firm in the Midlands who have never paid for marketing” is not.
- What they already know: this decides which terms need explaining and which would sound patronising.
- What they are worried about: cost, being locked into a contract, choosing wrongly, wasting time. The page should answer these before the reader has to ask.
- UK context: anything specific to the UK that changes the answer, such as HMRC rules, a regulator, regional differences across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, VAT, or the way prices are usually quoted.
4. The goal and the next step
- Business goal: what the page is for. An enquiry, a phone call, a sale, a newsletter sign-up, or simply trust that pays off later on another page.
- Call to action: the one action you want the reader to take, worded as it will appear. Pick one primary call to action; a second, softer option is fine for readers who are not ready.
- How you will know it worked: the measure you will look at in three months, such as clicks from Search Console, form submissions from this URL, or calls tracked to it.
5. The structure
- H1: the on-page headline, containing the primary term in a way that reads naturally.
- H2s and H3s: the outline, in order. Each heading should tell a skim reader what that section answers.
- Questions to answer: the real questions the reader has, from the results page, your sales calls, your inbox and your customer service team. The questions people put to you on the phone are usually better than anything a tool suggests.
- Formats: where a table, a numbered list of steps, a calculator, a diagram or a short video would explain something better than paragraphs.
- Length: a range, not a target. The topic decides it. Say what must be covered, and let the word count follow.
6. Evidence and specifics
This is the section that most briefs leave out, and it is the one that makes the difference between a page that says what every other page says and one that is worth ranking.
- First-hand material: what the business knows from doing the work. Its process, the questions customers ask, the mistakes it sees, photographs of real jobs, its real prices or price ranges. Google’s guidance on experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust rewards exactly this kind of detail.
- Sources: any statistic or rule the page relies on, with the original source (GOV.UK, the ONS, a regulator, the primary research) and the date you checked it.
- Who can be quoted: the person in the business whose expertise the page draws on, and whether they will review the draft.
- What must not be said: claims you cannot prove, results you have no permission to share, and anything a regulator restricts. Advertising claims on a UK website fall under the CAP Code, which the ASA enforces, and sectors such as financial services, healthcare and legal services have their own rules on top.
7. Links
- Links out: the pages on your own site this page should send readers to, with the anchor text for each. Anchors should describe the destination, so a reader knows where they are going before they click. My glossary entry on anchor text covers what good and bad anchors look like.
- Links in: the existing pages that should link to this one once it is live. This is the half everyone forgets, and a new page with no internal links pointing to it is slow to be found and slow to rank.
- External links: sources worth citing, so the reader can check the claim for themselves.
8. Metadata
- SEO title: roughly 50 to 60 characters, primary term near the start, written for a person scanning a results page.
- Meta description: roughly 120 to 160 characters that say what the page gives the reader and why it is worth the click. Google may rewrite it, but a good one is often kept. You can test both lengths in my title tag and meta description checker.
- Structured data: the schema type, if any, such as Article for a guide, Service for a service page, or Product for a product.
- Images: what is needed, who supplies it, and the alt text, written to describe the image for someone who cannot see it.
The template to copy
Here is the same thing as a single block you can paste into a document or a spreadsheet. Leave nothing blank: if a field does not apply, write “not applicable” so the writer knows it was considered.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Working title | Plain description of the page |
| URL | Intended slug |
| Page type | Service, location, guide, blog post, category, comparison |
| New or update | New, or the existing URL and what is wrong with it |
| Owner, approver, due date | Names and dates |
| Primary term | One phrase |
| Secondary terms | Three to six close variants or sub-questions |
| Source of the terms | Tool and date, or “own judgement, no data yet” |
| Search intent | One sentence, plus the type |
| What ranks now | Page types in the top results, what they share, what they miss |
| Overlapping pages on this site | URLs, and how this page differs |
| Reader | Who, what they know, what worries them |
| UK specifics | Rules, regulators, regional or pricing points |
| Business goal | What the page is for |
| Call to action | Exact wording and destination |
| Success measure | What you will check, and when |
| H1 | Headline with the primary term |
| Outline | H2s and H3s in order |
| Questions to answer | From the results page, calls and emails |
| Formats | Tables, steps, tools, images, video |
| Length | A range, with what must be covered |
| First-hand material | Process, examples, prices, photos |
| Sources | Links and the date checked |
| Expert reviewer | Name and role |
| Must not say | Unprovable claims, restricted wording |
| Links out | URL and anchor text for each |
| Links in | Existing pages that will link here |
| SEO title | Draft wording |
| Meta description | Draft wording |
| Structured data | Schema type, if any |
| Images and alt text | What, who supplies it, alt text |
A filled-in illustration
The example below is made up to show how the fields work together. The practice, the page and the details are fictional, not client work.
Imagine a small accountancy practice in Bristol that wants a page for landlords who are being brought into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which means keeping digital records and sending quarterly updates to HMRC.
| Field | Illustrative entry |
|---|---|
| URL | /services/making-tax-digital-for-landlords/ |
| Page type | New service page |
| Primary term | making tax digital accountant for landlords |
| Secondary terms | MTD for landlords; quarterly updates for landlords; MTD software for landlords; landlord accountant Bristol |
| Search intent | Commercial: a landlord wants an accountant to take Making Tax Digital off their hands |
| What ranks now | National accountancy firms and software providers. Most explain the rules; few say what an accountant does each quarter or what the landlord still has to do themselves |
| Overlapping pages | The existing landlord accounts page covers year-end returns. This page covers quarterly MTD work only, and each links to the other |
| Reader | A landlord with a few buy-to-let properties who has filed their own Self Assessment for years and is unsure whether the new rules apply to them |
| UK specifics | HMRC’s current guidance on who must join and when, linked and checked on the day of publishing |
| Call to action | “Book a free 20-minute call to check whether MTD applies to you” |
| H1 | Making Tax Digital accountant for landlords |
| Outline | Does MTD apply to you; what changes each quarter; what I handle and what you still do; software; fees; switching from your current accountant |
| First-hand material | The partner’s own quarterly checklist, the practice’s real fees, the questions landlords have asked on the phone |
| Must not say | No named clients without written permission; no promise of tax savings |
| Links out | Landlord accounts page (“year-end accounts for landlords”); contact page; HMRC guidance |
| Links in | Home page services list; landlord accounts page; any blog post on MTD |
Notice what the brief settles before a word is written: the page sells a service rather than explaining the law, it does not compete with the practice’s existing landlord page, and the writer knows to ask the partner for the checklist and the fees rather than inventing them. For more on turning a brief like this into a page that also converts, see my article on writing a service page that ranks and converts.
Checks before the page goes live
When the draft comes back, check it against the brief before you check it for style.
- Does the opening paragraph tell the reader they are in the right place, and answer the main question or say where the answer is?
- Is there one H1, and does it contain the primary term naturally?
- Does every question in the brief have an answer on the page?
- Is every statistic sourced, dated and linked, and is every claim one the business can stand behind?
- Does the page include the first-hand material the brief asked for, or has the writer fallen back on generalities?
- Are the links out in place with descriptive anchors, and have the links in been added to the existing pages?
- Do the SEO title and meta description fit, and is the URL the one agreed?
- Does the call to action match the brief, and does it work on a phone?
- Has the expert reviewer signed off, if the subject needs one?
Then publish, request indexing in Search Console, and put a date in your diary three months out to compare the result against the success measure you wrote down.
Using the template across many pages
For one page, a document is fine. For a whole site or a content programme, keep the briefs as rows in one spreadsheet, one row per URL, with the fields as columns. That turns the sheet into a keyword map as well: you can sort by primary term and spot two rows targeting the same thing before anyone writes either page.
Start from your keyword list rather than from page ideas. Group the terms by intent first, so each group becomes one page; my free keyword clustering tool does a first pass on a list you paste in. If you would rather have the research and the page-by-page mapping done for you, that is what my keyword research service produces.
AI tools can help fill in parts of a brief, such as summarising what the current results cover or suggesting questions. They cannot supply the first-hand material, the business’s real prices or the judgement about which page should own a term, and those are the parts that make a page worth ranking. I set out where I draw that line in using AI for marketing without hurting SEO.
The same template works for improving pages you already have. Fill it in for an existing URL, compare the page against it, and the gaps become your list of edits. If you would like me to do that for your most important pages, my on-page SEO service starts from exactly this kind of brief.
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