/publish-article

name: publish-article
description: Publish an article to a site you own — with a searched-for title, a real author, a licensed cover image, linked sources, and (optionally) one planned backlink. Use when the user says "publish an article", "put this on our blog", "publish this draft", "add a backlink", or hands over finished copy to ship. Covers the pre-publish gates that decide whether a published page earns anything.
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, WebFetch, WebSearch

Publish Article

Writing the article is the easy half. This skill covers the half that decides whether the published page earns traffic, citations, or link value: what it is titled for, who it is attributed to, what image it carries, what it links out to, and whether the thing you intended actually rendered.

Every rule below has a check you can run before publishing. A rule without a check gets skipped, so run the checks.

Modes

• **Content mode (default)** — publish an original article. No backlink involved.
• **Backlink mode** — the same, plus one planned keyword link to a target page.
• **Supplied-copy mode** — the user hands you finished text to publish. See "Supplied copy is

immutable" below; it overrides the writing guidance, never the verification.

Gate 1 — measure the title keyword BEFORE writing

This is the decision that most determines whether the page is worth publishing, and it is the one usually made by instinct while drafting. Print this table before the first word:

| Candidate head phrase | Monthly volume | Difficulty | In the target topic's family? | |---|---:|---:|---|

**Volume is measured, never assumed.** A phrase invented from the article's own finding ("the 1.3% narration gap", "the delivery problem") has zero volume by construction — nobody searches a coinage they have never read. Clever titles are the default failure mode here, not an occasional slip.

**The winning phrase must belong to the topic family you are actually competing in.** This is the subtler failure and it survives the volume check cleanly. Linking to a slide-deck product, `ai training video generator` (250/mo) beats `ai training slides` (0/mo) on volume and is still the wrong answer: it ranks the article for a video need while the target sells slides, weakening the topical signal at exactly the moment the choice looks optimised. Take the best-supported phrase from the right family over a bigger number in a neighbouring one.

**Keyword tools badly understate AI and long-tail volume — do not read a 0 as "no demand".** A tool can report 0 for a phrase your own Search Console shows taking clicks at position 1. Where search-console data and a keyword tool disagree, the console wins; the tool is only there to rank candidates against each other.

Fixing this after publishing is cheap on any CMS that keeps a redirect from the old slug — do it rather than living with it. The window closes once the URL is indexed or cited.

Gate 2 — plan the anchor and the topic (backlink mode, before writing)

A backlink's value is carried by its anchor text and by whether the surrounding article is about the same thing as the target page. Both are decided up front and stated, never improvised while drafting:

| Site | Article angle | Anchor | Anchor type | |---|---|---|---|

**Read the anchors already pointing at that target page first.** New anchors are chosen against the existing distribution, not in isolation.

• **Every anchor contains the target keyword or an obvious variant.** A branded or generic anchor

(`here`, `this tool`, the bare brand name) passes almost nothing for the keyword being fought for. Spend one only after the keyword-bearing anchors are in place.

• **Vary the surface form** — exact, plural, branded+exact, partial. One identical anchor repeated

across every placement is the clearest possible footprint of bought links.

• **The article's topic must match the target page's topic.** A link to an educational-video page

from an e-bike article is worth close to nothing however good the anchor is.

• **One link per article to the target.** A second adds no value and looks manufactured.
• Apply Gate 1's two rules to the anchor as well. `AI training presentation maker` reads like a

keyword and is one nobody types; `AI training presentation` is the phrase with real demand.

Original research (original copy only)

A press release, company blog post, or wire story is a lead, not an article. Add something a reader cannot get by opening the source:

• Read the originating source plus at least two independent primary sources contributing

different facts. Reprints and syndicated copies count as one source.

• Produce at least one original finding by calculating, comparing, ranking, or tracing change

over time. State the denominator, period, and method beside the result so it can be reproduced.

• For a data-bearing story include **one table and one chart**: the table carries exact values,

the chart reveals the pattern. Bar chart for comparable categories, line chart only for a real time series. Never stretch two data points into a decorative chart or invent numbers to satisfy this rule. Where a topic genuinely has no comparable data, ship a structured comparison table and say why a chart would mislead.

• Charts are supplemental editorial media, embedded in the body with descriptive alt text and a

visible source/method line — never the cover image.

Before publishing, print: sources used, the original finding, table row count, chart type, word count. If the draft is mainly a rephrased announcement, research further instead of publishing.

Supplied copy is immutable by default

When the user provides an article, draft, title, or passage and asks to publish it, that text is approved copy, not a brief. **Never rewrite it without explicit permission.**

• Preserve the supplied title, thesis, framing, examples, conclusions, tone, ordering, and level

of certainty. Do not replace the user's argume