/seo-content-brief

name: seo-content-brief
description: Generate competitive SEO content briefs — per-section heading structure, word-count guidance anchored on top-ranking pages, required entities, internal and external links, schema recommendations, and GEO citability guidance. Covers new-page and improve-existing-page briefs. Uses DataForSEO to auto-fetch the SERP when connected; otherwise analyzes the competitor URLs you provide. Trigger when the user says "content brief", "write a brief", "content outline", "blog brief", "service page brief", "brief for", "writing brief", or "outline for".

seo-content-brief

**Family:** seo **Status:** Stable

Purpose

The production-planning side of content. Produces a brief a writer (or `content-draft`) can execute: H1 + H2/H3 structure, per-section word-count guidance anchored on the actual top-ranking pages, required entities/sub-topics, internal/external links, and schema recommendations. Free path: analyze the competitor URLs you provide; auto-SERP-fetch is the optional DataForSEO path.

Triggers

• "content brief" / "write a brief" / "writing brief"
• "content outline" / "outline for" / "brief for [keyword]"
• "blog brief" / "service page brief"

Inputs

• Target keyword(s) and page type (blog / service / pillar / comparison / glossary)
• Mode: new | improve (improve requires the existing URL)
• 3–10 top-ranking competitor URLs (or let DataForSEO fetch the SERP)
• Target audience

Steps

1. **Gather the competition.** Use the provided top-ranking URLs (free path) or, if DataForSEO is configured, fetch the live SERP. Fetch each page's content. 2. **Extract patterns.** Common H2/H3 themes, entities/sub-topics every competitor covers, average and range of word counts per section, and any gaps none cover (your differentiation angle). 3. **Set the structure.** Recommend H1 + heading outline with a per-section word-count range (grounded in competitor averages, not a generic "1,500-word minimum"). 4. **Specify requirements.** Required entities, internal links (to/from related pages), external authoritative citations, and schema (via `seo-schema`). 5. **Add citability guidance** — note where to place specific, sourced claims so the page is GEO-citable (see `seo-geo`). 6. **Render** the brief, paste-ready for a writer or `content-draft`. For improve mode, diff the existing page against the brief and list what to add/cut.

Outputs

• Structured brief (markdown): outline, per-section word counts, entities, links, schema
• For improve mode: a gap list against the existing page

Dependencies

• None required (free path uses provided competitor URLs)
• Optional: DataForSEO (auto-SERP), `seo-schema` (schema), `content-draft`

(executes the brief)

Notes

Per-section word counts grounded in real competitor scoring beat generic minimums.

Related: `seo-cluster` is the upstream orchestrator that dispatches per-page briefs to this skill. Pairs with `content-draft` (writes it) and `seo-content` (audits the result).