SEO Content Brief

Example output: examples/seo-content-brief-vercel-rate-limiting-20260514/BRIEF.md

Content Brief

Turn a domain plus a topic intent into a complete content editor brief: target keyword, title options, H2/H3 structure, content gaps the current top results miss, internal linking plan, AI search angle, and estimated traffic potential.

Prerequisites

• SE Ranking MCP server connected.
• Claude's WebFetch tool available (used for top-3 content teardown).
• User has provided: (a) target domain, (b) market/country (default: us), and optionally (c) a seed topic or intent. If no seed topic is given, discover the best opportunity from the keyword-gap step.

Process

1. Domain overview DATA_getDomainOverviewWorldwide, DATA_getDomainKeywords

   • Pull organic traffic, top countries, and top 100 organic keywords in the target market.
   • Save the raw JSON and a human summary.

2. Competitor discovery DATA_getDomainCompetitors

   • Identify the top 5 organic competitors by shared keywords in the target market.
   • Save a one-line positioning note per competitor.
   • Note: the upstream API does not support limit/offset, so this call returns the full set (~60KB for popular domains) and the MCP harness writes it to a file. Read that file path, parse the {data: [...]} JSON, sort by common_keywords desc, and take the top 5.

3. Keyword gap analysis DATA_getDomainKeywordsComparison

   • Pull keywords the competitors rank for that the target domain does not.
   • Filter: informational intent, search volume > 1,000/mo, keyword difficulty < 40.
   • Save the filtered gap list sorted by volume.

4. Pick the best topic cluster

   • From the gaps, select one topic. Justify the pick with: traffic potential, difficulty, relevance to the target domain's product. Surface reasoning to the user before proceeding.

5. SERP and keyword deep-dive for the chosen topic

   • DATA_getSerpResults for the top 10 organic + SERP features (AIO, PAA, Featured Snippet, Video).
   • DATA_getRelatedKeywords and DATA_getSimilarKeywords for expansion.
   • DATA_getKeywordQuestions for People-Also-Ask and question-based variations.
   • DATA_getAiOverview + DATA_getAiOverviewLeaderboard to see which brands LLMs cite today for the topic.

6. Top 3 content analysis WebFetch (always) + mcp__firecrawl-mcp__firecrawl_scrape (when available)

   • WebFetch first (free, instant): pull markdown for the top 3 ranking URLs. Extract H1/H2/H3 spine, word count per article, shared subtopics, gaps, and prose-level formatting patterns.
   • Firecrawl second (3 Firecrawl credits — 1 per top-3 winner) — recovers what WebFetch's markdown can't show:
     • From metadata: <title> length (the real string, not markdown's first heading), meta description length, og:title, og:description, og:image, twitter:card.
     • From the returned html: every <script type="application/ld+json"> block. Parse and list @types per winner (Article, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Product, etc.) — these become the "schema baseline" for the new article.
     • On-page signals: hero-image presence, byline structure (<a rel="author">, <meta name="author">), table count, code-block count.
   • Classify the brief's template against the 8-template map in references/intent-template-map.md. Cross-reference: (a) the dominant page type across the SERP top-10 (use the heuristics in skills/seo-sxo/references/page-type-patterns.md), (b) PAA patterns from step 5, (c) the keyword's intent classification from DATA_getRelatedKeywords. Pick one of: ultimate-guide / how-to / listicle / explainer / comparison / review / best-of / landing-page. If the SERP is split across types, follow the MIXED rule (see Tips). The chosen template determines the recommended H1/H2 outline shape and word-count floor — record both the template and a one-sentence justification in BRIEF.md.
   • If Firecrawl unavailable (or --no-firecrawl passed): WebFetch portion runs unchanged. The brief's "Top 3 winners — on-page benchmark" subsection (see Output) emits (skipped — Firecrawl required for schema/og:* on competitor pages). Template classification still runs from WebFetch + SERP data.

7. Internal linking plan

   • DATA_getDomainKeywords filtered to the target domain plus WebFetch of 5 high-ranking pages on topically adjacent queries.
   • For each: propose an anchor text and the section of the new post it belongs in.

8. Synthesise the brief (see Output Format).

Output format

Create a folder seo-content-brief-{target-slug}-{YYYYMMDD}/ with the synthesised brief at the top level and step files in evidence/:

seo-content-brief-{target-slug}-{YYYYMMDD}/
├── BRIEF.md                        (writer-ready synthesis — primary deliverable; inlines 01-domain-overview, 02-competitors, 06-internal-links into a "Context" section)
└── evidence/
    ├── 01-domain-overview.md       (DATA_getDomainOverviewWorldwide raw — preserved for reproducibility)
    ├── 02-competitors.md           (DATA_getDomainCompetitors raw)
    ├── 03-keyword-gaps.md          (DATA_getDomainKeywordsComparison filtered)
    ├── 04-serp-and-keywords.md     (DATA_getSerpResults + related/question keywords)
    ├── 05-content-analysis.md      (top-3 winners' H-spine + on-page benchmark)
    └── 06-internal-links.md        (target domain pages + proposed anchors)

Top-level: BRIEF.md only — a freelance writer should not need to open anything else. Step files preserve the raw API/scrape outputs in evidence/ for reproducibility / to back up the editor brief.

BRIEF.md follows this shape:

# Content Brief: {proposed title}

**Template type:** {one of: ultimate-guide / how-to / listicle / explainer / comparison / review / best-of / landing-page / MIXED}
**Why this template:** {one-sentence justification grounded in SERP top-10 page-type majority + PAA pattern + keyword intent}

## Target keyword
- Primary: {kw} ({volume}/mo, KD {kd}, intent: informational)
- Secondary: {kw1} ({volume}), {kw2} ({volume}), {kw3} ({volume})

## Title options
1. {title option 1}
2. {title option 2}
3. {title option 3}

## Meta description (150-160 chars)
{draft}

## Suggested structure

### H1: {proposed H1}

#### H2: {section 1}
Cover: {bullets of what to include}
Cite: {sources to link out to}

#### H2: {section 2}
...

## Gaps the current top 3 miss
- {gap 1, with evidence}
- {gap 2, with evidence}
- {gap 3, with evidence}

## Top 3 winners — on-page benchmark (Firecrawl)

| Signal | Winner 1 | Winner 2 | Winner 3 | Required for parity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `<title>` length (chars) | {n} | {n} | {n} | {target} |
| Meta description length | {n} | {n} | {n} | {target} |
| `og:image` present | {✓/✗} | {✓/✗} | {✓/✗} | {yes/no} |
| `twitter:card` | {value} | {value} | {value} | {value} |
| JSON-LD types | {Article, …} | {…} | {…} | {must include} |
| Byline structure (DOM) | {✓/✗} | {✓/✗} | {✓/✗} | {yes/no} |
| Word count (rendered) | {n} | {n} | {n} | {target range} |

(Or: `Top-3 on-page benchmark: skipped — Firecrawl not installed.`)

## Internal linking plan
| From existing page | Anchor text | Target section |
|---|---|---|
| {url} | {anchor} | {section} |

## AI Search angle
- LLMs currently cite {brands} for this query.
- To earn mentions: {specific actions, e.g., add a comparison table, cite a primary study, include a structured data block}.

## Deliverables
- Word count target: {n}
- Tone and voice: {guidance from domain overview}
- Required assets: {images, schema, examples}

## Traffic potential
- Conservative: ~{n}/mo at position 5
- Target: ~{n}/mo at position 1-3

## Raw data references
- evidence/01-domain-overview.md
- evidence/02-competitors.md
- evidence/03-keyword-gaps.md
- evidence/04-serp-and-keywords.md
- evidence/05-content-analysis.md
- evidence/06-internal-links.md

Tips

• Respect SE Ranking Data API rate limit: 10 requests per second. Iterate sequentially, do not fan out across 20 keywords in parallel.
• Firecrawl cost. Step 6's competitor benchmark adds 3 Firecrawl credits per run (1 per top-3 winner). Pass --no-firecrawl to skip it (the brief still ships, just without the on-page benchmark table).
• If the user only provides a domain and no topic, run step 3 first and present the top 3 gap opportunities before deciding.
• Keep the brief self-contained. A freelance writer should not need to open the raw-data files unless they want to double-check something.
• Do not hallucinate keyword difficulty or volume. If an endpoint returns null, mark the field unknown in the brief rather than guessing.
• If the topic triggers AI Overviews, the AI Search angle section is mandatory, not optional. Growth in this era requires being citable by LLMs.
• If the SERP top-10 has mixed page types (e.g. 4 listicles + 4 comparisons + 2 explainers), treat as MIXED and produce a hybrid brief that explains the consultant's chosen template + why; don't force-pick one when the SERP itself is split. Record MIXED in the Template type line and use the Why this template line to justify the hybrid choice (which template's outline shape you're inheriting and which secondary patterns you're folding in).