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Content brief template with a worked example
A content brief is the contract between whoever decided a page should exist and whoever has to write it. A good one removes every guess: what query the page answers, who is asking, what angle makes it different, what each section must cover, where it links, and what finished looks like. Fill it in below — the outline table is pre-filled with a worked example you can overwrite.
Quick answer
What is a content brief?
A content brief is the written contract between whoever decided a page should exist and whoever has to write it. A complete one removes every guess: the query the page answers, who is asking and why, the angle that makes it different, what each section must cover, which internal and external links belong in it, and what finished looks like. Briefs exist to prevent rewrites — most drafts that miss are missing the brief, not the writer.
Who should use this template?
- Editors briefing freelancers who do not know your product or your customers
- Solo marketers who write their own drafts and want the thinking done first
- Agencies standardising output quality across several writers
- Anyone tired of receiving drafts that miss the search intent entirely
Free, no signup and no email required. Everything runs in your browser — what you type is never sent anywhere, and your in-progress work is saved to this browser only.
The content brief template
Fill in the fields below, then copy the whole thing as Markdown or download it as a file. The table also exports as CSV for spreadsheet work.
1. The target
One page, one primary query. If you cannot name the single query this page wins, the brief is not ready.
Exactly as people search it. Not your internal product term.
Variations and sub-questions that belong on the same page, not on separate ones.
Decides the format. Get this wrong and no amount of writing quality rescues the page.
New page or an existing one being rewritten. Two URLs for one query is cannibalisation.
2. The reader
The writer needs to picture one person. Vague audiences produce vague drafts.
Role, context, and what just happened to make them search.
So the writer neither patronises them nor loses them in jargon.
The specific thing that makes the visit worth it — a decision, a document, a number, a next step.
3. The angle
Look at what already ranks, then decide what makes this page worth publishing at all.
The top three to five results and the format they share — listicle, guide, tool, comparison.
The unanswered sub-question, the missing depth, the outdated advice, the absent artefact.
First-hand experience, proprietary data, a working tool, a genuinely held opinion. Without one, reconsider the page.
4. Specification
The constraints that decide whether a draft is accepted or sent back.
A range, set by what the query needs rather than by a house minimum.
Under about 60 characters, primary keyword near the front.
Around 150 characters, written as a reason to click rather than a summary.
Second person, no hype, British or American spelling — whatever your style guide says.
One CTA, matched to intent. Informational pages rarely convert on a hard sell.
Only schema types the page genuinely qualifies for — FAQPage, HowTo, Article.
5. Links and sources
Decided in the brief, not left to the writer's search history.
Three to five of your own pages, with the anchor context they should be linked from.
The step everyone forgets. A new page with no inbound internal links launches orphaned.
Primary sources only — documentation, official guidance, original research. No citing a blog that cited a blog.
Section outline
The spine of the draft. Each row is one heading, what it must cover, and the sub-question it answers for the reader.
| Level | Heading | Must cover | Question it answers | Approx words | Remove row |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- Level
- H2 or H3.
- Heading
- Written as it will appear, not as a topic label.
- Must cover
- The points that have to appear under this heading for the section to be complete.
- Question it answers
- The searcher's actual question. If a section answers nothing, cut it.
- Approx words
- A rough share of the total, so structure is balanced before writing starts.
How to write a content brief with this template
Fill the five sections and the outline table so a writer can start without asking a single clarifying question.
- 1
Name one primary keyword
Choose the single query this page must win, exactly as people search it, and record the target URL so you do not create a second page for the same query.
- 2
Classify the intent
Informational, commercial investigation, transactional or navigational. Intent decides the format before it decides anything else.
- 3
Describe the reader
Role, context, what they already know, and the specific thing they need to leave with.
- 4
Read the current results
Open the top three to five ranking pages, note the format they share and the sub-question none of them answers properly.
- 5
Write the angle
State what makes this page worth publishing — first-hand experience, original data, a working tool, or a genuinely held position.
- 6
Build the outline
One row per heading with what it must cover, the reader question it answers, and an approximate word count.
- 7
Decide the links in advance
List three to five internal links to include, the existing pages that should link to this one, and primary external sources.
- 8
Set the spec and export
Fix the length range, working title, meta description, tone, CTA and any schema, then copy the brief as Markdown and send it to the writer.
What a content brief has to do
A brief exists to move every decision that requires context away from the person who has the least of it. The writer should not have to guess which query the page targets, which of your product's features are relevant, whether the reader is a beginner, or which of your other pages this one should link to. Every one of those guesses turns into a revision round, and revision rounds are where content budgets quietly disappear.
The measure of a finished brief is whether a competent writer who has never used your product could produce a publishable first draft without asking a clarifying question. If they would need to ask, the missing answer belongs in the brief. That test is more useful than any word count or field checklist, because it points directly at whichever section you left vague.
Intent decides the format
Intent is the field people fill in fastest and get wrong most often. It is not a label you assign from your own preference — it is a description of what the search results already reward. If every result for your target query is a tool, a listicle or a comparison table, a 2,000-word essay will not win the query no matter how well it is written, because it answers a question the searcher was not asking.
That is why the angle section asks you to open the current results before writing the outline. You are looking for two things: the format consensus, which tells you the shape your page must take to be considered at all, and the gap, which tells you why yours deserves to outrank them. A page that matches the format and closes a real gap has a chance. A page that does neither is content for its own sake.
Outlines that prevent rewrites
The outline table is the part of the brief that saves the most time. Each row pairs a heading with what it must cover and the reader question it answers. That last column is doing quiet, heavy work: any section that cannot name a question it answers is a section the reader will skim past, and cutting it at brief stage costs nothing while cutting it at draft stage costs a rewrite.
Give each section an approximate word count. Not because word counts are a ranking factor — they are not — but because they force you to balance the structure before anyone writes. Briefs without them reliably produce drafts where the introduction runs a third of the length and the section that actually answers the query gets four sentences.
Write headings as they will appear on the page, not as topic labels. 'What to include in a content brief' is a heading. 'Contents' is a note to yourself. Headings written properly at brief stage tend to survive into the draft, which means the page's structure is agreed before anyone has invested effort in prose.
Links, sources and the parts everyone forgets
Two fields in this template are skipped more than any others, and both matter. The first is the list of existing pages that should link to this new one. A page published without inbound internal links is an orphan: harder to discover, slower to be crawled, and cut off from the authority the rest of your site has accumulated. Deciding those links in the brief means they get added at publish time instead of in an internal-linking project nobody ever schedules.
The second is external sources. Specifying primary sources — official documentation, first-party guidance, original research — protects you from the most common accuracy failure in commissioned content, which is a writer citing a blog post that was itself citing a blog post. Where you have first-hand experience or your own data, say so explicitly in the brief so the writer knows to foreground it rather than paraphrasing the same generic advice everyone else has published.
Finally, keep one call to action per page and match it to intent. A person searching an informational query is not ready for a hard sell, and jamming one in trains readers to bounce. The right CTA for a top-of-funnel page is often the next useful page rather than a signup form. Briefs that specify this stop writers from improvising an ending that undoes the trust the page just earned.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Two pages briefed for the same query
You end up competing with yourself, splitting links and impressions across both. One primary query, one URL — check the target URL field before briefing.
An audience described as 'marketers'
That is a category, not a reader. Say what role they hold, what they already know, and what just happened to make them search.
No angle at all
If the brief cannot say what this page has that the current results do not, the draft will be a competent restatement of everything already ranking — and it will rank accordingly.
Outline as a list of topics
'Benefits', 'Tips', 'Conclusion' gives the writer no idea what to say. Write the heading as it will appear plus the points it must cover.
Internal links left to the writer
Writers do not know your site. Name the three to five pages to link to, and the pages that should link back to this one.
Word count set by house rule
A 2,000-word minimum applied to a query that wants a 600-word answer produces padding, and padding is the easiest thing in the world for a reader to detect.
Content brief template — FAQ
What is a content brief?
A content brief is the document that tells a writer exactly what a page must do before they write it: the primary keyword and search intent, who the reader is, the angle that differentiates the page, a section-by-section outline, the internal links and sources to use, and the title, meta description and call to action.
What should a content brief include?
One primary keyword and its secondary variations, the search intent, the target URL, a description of the reader and what they need to leave with, an analysis of what currently ranks and what it misses, a section outline with word counts, internal and inbound links, external sources, target length, working title, meta description, tone and the call to action.
What does a good content brief example look like?
The outline table on this page is a worked example: each row names the heading as it will appear, the points that section must cover, the reader question it answers and an approximate word count. A complete brief adds the keyword, intent, audience, angle, links and spec around that outline.
How long should a content brief be?
One to two pages. The useful test is not length but whether a competent writer who has never used your product could produce a publishable first draft without asking a clarifying question. If they would need to ask, the answer belongs in the brief.
Who should write the content brief?
Whoever holds the context: the person who decided the page should exist, knows the product, and has looked at the search results. That is usually an editor, SEO lead or marketer rather than the writer, because the brief's whole purpose is to move context to the person who has the least of it.
Is this content brief template free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no signup, no email gate and no server calls. Copy the finished brief as Markdown, or download it as a .md or .csv file. Your in-progress work is stored in your own browser's local storage.
If you would rather not fill this in by hand
The template above is free and always will be — plenty of people use it and nothing else. Auto SEO is what you use when the bottleneck stops being the plan and starts being the execution: it audits your site, researches keywords and content gaps, generates long-form drafts with headings, metadata, structured data and internal links, publishes to 13 CMS platforms on a schedule you set, and tracks both search rankings and whether AI answer engines cite you. Link placements through our curated network are a separate, opt-in part of the product.
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