Content brief is a working document written before a text is produced. It records topic, goal, audience, search intent and outline so that writers and editors work from the same specification.
What does a content brief contain?
Google has no standard for it. Templates from Jasper and Siteimprove overlap (assessment). They usually list goals, target audience, primary and secondary keywords, search intent, a heading outline, tone, a target length, sources and a deadline.
Google’s guidance on helpful content suggests checking content by “Who, How, and Why”. For a brief, that means noting who writes, how the text is produced and why it is published (assessment). Google also states that it has no preferred word count, so a length target is an editorial choice.
Example
Code
Topic: Hub page
Intent: Definition
Audience: Marketing, little prior knowledge
Outline: H2 Definition, H2 Structure, H2 Example
Internal links: Pillar page, topic cluster
Author/sources: Name, expert review, primary sources
Sources
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Content brief – Jasper (secondary)jasper.ai
- Content brief best practices – Siteimprove (secondary)siteimprove.com
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