How to Create an SEO Content Outline (According to 20+ Pro Content Marketers)

When it comes to creating new content online, there is a bit of a chicken and egg situation: 

Users need to like your content for it to rank well, but search engines first need to show your content to users. 

So which do you prioritize? 

You always write for both but prioritize one over the other at different stages. 

During the creation of your content outline, the priority should be Search. 

Because your outline needs to consider not only how a user will make sense of the content, but how search engines make sense of it to serve it to users

—Shonavee Simpson-Anderson, SEO Strategist at Firewire Digital.

Read on for more expert insights into the intersection of Search Engine Optimization & Content Outlines. 

But first,

What is an SEO content outline?

A content outline is an initial framework of a finished piece of content. 

For SEOs, it goes a step further by touching on search-friendly formatting and insights from competitive analysis. 

SEO content outline: A standard Content Brief, but with extra attention to search bots and searchers. 

Elements of a 5-Star content brief

An excellent content brief keeps the writer on track, ensures SEO guidelines are followed, and in general—offers a fluid writing process.  

For Francis Angelo Reyes, founder of Lupage Digital, it is better to overshare with your writers. 

It provides boundaries so that everyone avoids surprises.

Francis: “pretend you're the content writer. Try to imagine what questions writers ask for then add them to the brief.”

Here’s what Jonas van de Poel, Head Of Content Marketing at Unmuted adds: 

• Title: A suggested title containing the primary keyword.
• Description: Short description of the content piece. A ±100 word summary of what the content piece is about, to give a bit of context apart from the title and the rest of the outline.
• Outline: Headers and subheaders to be included in the piece. Sourced from things 'People Also Ask' and tools like Surfer SEO.
• Length: Suggested length in the number of words.
• Competition: Top 3 SERP results (including length in words).
• Statistics: Minimum of three relevant statistics and their source URLs.
• SEO instructions: Primary keyword, secondary keywords, placement of those keywords, and internal + external links to add.
• Visuals: Instructions on what type of visuals to add and where to place them. 

Jonas: “This is the minimum when it comes to writing a good content brief. 

So far, all the content writers I've worked with have been happy with this approach. It's led to some top-notch content pieces that have performed very well in SERPs."

Benefits of an SEO content outline

• Nail search intent
• Clear direction
• Quality control
• Speed up writing
• Create cohesive content

Nail search intent

“Search is a primary distribution channel for our content. 

So we need to make sure we're covering our bases when it comes to search intent. 

We address that in the outline phase. If we don’t, we risk writing an entire draft.

Only to have to revamp it when rankings didn't come through as expected.”

—Joe Michalowski, Content Strategist at Mosaic.tech

Clear direction

“The most important benefit of a content outline is providing the writer with context and direction.”

Says Ana Simova, Editor of Writer & Co

Kayla Voigt, Writer + Entrepreneur feels the same. 

Kayla: “In general, an outline is better as a way to check with the writer that they're on track with what you're looking for. 

Not necessarily as a shortcut to completing the piece more quickly.” 

Quality control

When it comes to blog outlines, top of the benefits list is quality control. 

Alex Birkett, Co-founder of Omniscient Digital:

“If you work with a writer for a long time, they start to understand some of your expectations second-nature. 

But if you work with freelancers, or especially if you're working with many freelancers… you need a way to translate your strategy into tactical decisions on each piece."

SEO content outlines do just that. 

And for Jonas van de Poel, Head Of Content Marketing at Unmuted:

"This offers external and internal writers the guide rails to create content with the potential to rank. 

Regardless of their SEO knowledge and expertise."

Speed up writing

Here’s one from Luke O’Neill, Owner of Genuine Communications.

Luke: “You can use outlines to speed up writing content in-house or to help new freelance writers hit your brief.”

It’s a similar experience over at Linnworks. 

Megan Wenzl, SEO Content Manager says: "I tend to get articles done faster with an outline because my thoughts are organized."

Create cohesive content

“An outline leads to a much more cohesive and organized post.”

Says Dominick “D.J” Costantino, Content Writer and Podcast Host at 7Shifts

Dominick: “It makes the job of writing a matter of connecting the dots”.  

Co-founder of ExaWeb Corporation, Patrick Garde, agrees.

“Creating a content outline helps writers better organize their ideas. 

This provides them with a solid foundation before they even write the article itself.

Outlines help to create smoother transitions from one topic to the next. 

And more attention is payed to the order that content is presented."

Lauren Fox, Director of Marketing at Brafton sums it up perfectly.

Lauren: "An outline helps you visualize all the information you want to cover on the topic. 

Plus, rearrange sections before the writing process begins. 

How to Create an SEO Content Outline

• Set content goals
• Know your audience
• Brainstorm topics, questions, and themes
• Uncover intent and content structure from keywords
• Study search results
• Craft keyword-rich headers
• Map out visuals

Set content goals

Founder & Director of Straight Up Search, Jamie Irwin says you should “always keep your content goals in mind.”

“What are you trying to achieve with your content? 

Are you trying to drive traffic to a particular page on your website? 

Increase leads? 

Boost brand awareness?”

Jamie wants you to answer those.

He finishes: “Once you know what your goals are, you can tailor your outline to focus on achieving them."

Know your audience

"A great content outline starts when you know who your post is for, and what you're trying to say. 

From there, you can begin to build out the topics and sections that you want to cover in the piece. 

Then add the supporting quotes, stats, links, keywords, and important information."

—Dominick "D.J" Costantino, Content Writer & Podcast Host at 7Shifts

Brainstorm topics, questions, and themes

By incorporating questions and themes related to your main topic, the article should rank higher and in Google.

For Maddy Brown, Marketing Communications Specialist at Spacer, she brainstorms with Answer The Public. 

She does this to get sub-topics and questions someone reading a piece on the topic would want answers to. 

Maddy: “Once I have a rough idea of the subject matter itself, I head to Ahrefs to find volumes of keywords and other FAQs.

I start piecing together a skeleton structure.

Often, I also lean on tools like Google Trends to confirm I'm on the right track. 

Then, I identify any up-and-coming themes to focus on. "

Tools are great. 

However, Managing Director of BankBound Brian Reilly, advises that you manually research your topic as well. 

Brian: Search Google and review the “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” boxes.

Uncover intent & content structure from keywords

“Creating an SEO-friendly content outline requires taking a deep look at the reader's intent. 

This can be inferred from the keywords they use. 

—Ivan Kreimer, Content Fiesta

For Maddy Osman, SEO Content Strategist and Founder at The Blogsmith, keyword research is an important initial step for creating content. 

She says: “the data you'll find in search will inform the ideal article structure.”

After the keyword, what's next? 

Precious Oboidhe, SEO Content Writer at Content Estate answers.

Precious: “Once I have the keyword, I create multiple titles for the post. In the draft phase, I select the best.”

Hannah von Rothkirch, Content Lead at Konstruct Digital wraps this up.

Hannah: “Identifying similar clusters of related keywords can help you find more sections you need to include in your outline.” 

For finding these keywords, she recommends:

• Clearscope
• ContentHarmony
• Frase
• SurferSEO

Study the search results

“Search engines are looking for the most helpful answer for every query.”

Says Kim Herrington, Founder & Creative Director, Orsanna

Kim: “If you can do a better job than what ranks right now, it’s possible to outrank those articles and gain traffic. 

Since search engines have already ranked many sites, the results give a good guide to what people are looking for. 

That can save you a ton of time when creating an outline.

When looking at the results, ask yourself the following questions:

• What format do they use?
• What information do they all include? 
• What’s missing you could add?
• What resources do they link to or include?
• What additional resources should be added?
• What questions does the article leave unanswered?"

“One best practice that works for me—and our readers at the Piktochart blog!—is to look at the related searches and “People Also Ask” section in the SERP.

These search phrases and questions are good subheadings for that specific keyword you’re writing about. 

It’s like you’re getting a glimpse of what your target readers want to know about the topic. 

Most of all, it's free!"  

—Kyjean Tomboc, Content Manager, Piktochart

That said, you don’t have to limit yourself to search results. 

Sherine Omar, Senior Content Marketer at FigPii takes it a bit further. 

Her research can include listening to webinars and podcasts, reading online blogs, and talking with industry experts. 

Craft keyword-rich headers 

“Look at the top-ranking articles for the keyword you're targeting and make a list of all the subheads they include.

—Sam Wright, Lead Marketing Strategist at Digital22

Sam: “Write the headers of the article out first. 

Then add bulleted information under each one to outline what that section will cover. 

This is particularly important if you don’t do the writing yourself.

Think about the flow of information. 

The order your readers will most want to consume it in. 

Although writing to rank, it is still crucial to consider the people you want to read the content piece.” 

For Owner of The Website Flip Mushfiq Sarker, writers are the subject matter experts. They should be left to do their thing. 

Mushfiq: “Develop a generic content outline with high-level headers. 

Then have the writer put in further subsections and ideas.

This works great because you can incorporate on-page SEO techniques by analyzing the competitors. 

Also, the subject matter expert (aka, the writer) ingests uniqueness and authority into the outline.”

Map out visuals

To wrap things up, organize your visual elements.

Sam Wright, at Digital22 suggests that you plan where you can add rich media.

Think images and videos to enhance your written content.

Bonus: Tips & Strategies for Optimizing a Content Outline

• The 5W1H method
• Involve other stakeholders
• Don’t provide all the answers
• Tailor outlines to writers

5W1H method

“In the 5W1H method, you ask questions based on the words What, Who, When, Where, Why, and How. 

The aim is to dive deeper into a certain topic. 

What is it about? Who is it for? Where should it be carried out? Why is it important? How can you improve it, etc.

For example, if I write about customer acquisition, some main points would be:

• What is customer acquisition?
• Why is customer acquisition important?
• What are some effective customer acquisition strategies?
• Who should business owners focus on when planning customer acquisition strategies?
• Where should business owners invest more customer acquisition efforts in?
• How can businesses improve their customer acquisition efforts? 

People who are interested in a particular topic often ask basic questions based on the 5W1H. 

They’ll type specific terms and questions in the search bar, then click on results that seem to be relevant. 

If our titles, headings, and content signal to the search system and the audience that this is what they’re looking for, our content is more likely to rank on the first page and to come to those who want to read it."

—Mai Bui, Content Marketer at Camelo HQ

Involve other stakeholders

A lot of the time, I create content outlines by myself and they're OK. 

But when I have a great "sounding board" for me to bounce my outlines and ideas for content across, everything instantly gets better. 

Sometimes you can get stuck inside your head. Get others involved and sign off on each others' work."

—Jamie Irwin, Founder & Director, Straight Up Search

Don’t provide all the answers

"I prefer to use minimum viable content briefs. 

This is a management philosophy of mine in general. 

If you provide all the answers, you stunt creativity and autonomy. 

The trouble is balancing that with quality control. 

So in a content brief, I include the must-haves: 

• here's the keyword we're aiming for
• get an A+ on Clearscope
• here are some questions to answer in the piece
• here are some internal links, and 
• here are some competitors to beat

Outside of that, just make it awesome."

—Alex Birkett, Co-founder at Omniscient Digital

Nadiia Shevelieva, Chief Marketing Officer at Trust has been on both ends.

She has been a content manager/editor and a writer as well.

Nadiia:

"I know that good briefs need to strike a balance. 

They need to tell the writer what to do but not give them too many instructions to the point where they’re overwhelmed." 

Tailor outlines to writers

Brooks Manley, SEO & Content Marketer suggests that you get to know your writers.

Brooks: “Cater your outlines to best suit their strengths and weaknesses. 

For example, if you've got a subject matter expert with strong writing skills, but zero SEO chops, give strong keyword guidance, but don't box them in from a content perspective. 

Instead of giving them a specific heading, just direct them to include a keyword/keyphrase in the heading and let them run with it." 

Final thoughts

If you've not been implementing SEO in your outlines, you might want to change that.

It’s simple.

Take keywords as your guide to creating what your audience wants. 

If you do this, you have a good chance at moving up search results.