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