You will produce a content brief detailed enough for you or a writer to create a page that can win the query.
"Can you write us a blog post about PSLE maths?" A freelance writer who receives that request will produce something. It will probably be competent, generic and close to the five pages already ranking, because nothing in the request told them what to do differently. The same happens when you brief yourself in your head and start typing.
A content brief fixes this. It is one document that holds every decision about a page before anyone writes it: who it is for, what it must answer, what makes it different and how you will know if it worked. This exercise pulls together everything from module 5 and much of modules 2 and 3 into one brief for one search.
Write the brief as a document with these parts, in this order.
Start with the target. Name the main search and the keyword cluster it belongs to, from your keyword map in lesson 2.5, Build your keyword map, and the topic cluster it sits in, from lesson 5.4, Topic clusters and internal links. Then state the intent, as confirmed on the results page.
Next, the reader. One or two sentences on who is searching and what situation they are in. "A parent of a P5 child who is losing marks on problem sums, probably not a maths specialist, reading on a phone in the evening."
Then the main answer: the two or three sentences that will open the page, written out in full. If you cannot write them yet, you are not ready to brief the page.
Then the follow-up questions, from lesson 5.1, Match the format and depth the searcher needs: five or more, in the order a reader would ask them. These become the page's subheadings.
Then the format and outline. State the format the top results use and the one you will use, and list the headings in order, as you practised in lesson 3.2, Headings, body copy and the words people use.
The next part of the brief carries the material from lesson 5.2, Add what the current results are missing. List the first-hand details to include: examples from your work, photos you will take, your own figures, mistakes you have seen. List the proof: reviews, results shared with permission, credentials. List the sources for any facts or figures, and where a figure changes often, the official site where readers should look it up.
Name the author who will appear on the page and the line about their experience. If the page touches money, health or safety, say what qualifications or licence details will be shown.
List the internal links in: the pages on your site that will link to this one, and the anchor text each will use. Then list the links out: where this page will send readers next, including any service page.
State the call to action that fits the intent. A guide for parents early in their worry might end with an offer of a free worksheet or a link to a related guide. A commercial page ends with booking a trial or asking for fees. The action you ask for should match what the reader is ready to do, as Content and copywriting that people read covers in its lessons on calls to action.
Finally, define success. Pick the measures you will check in Search Console after three months, which you will learn to read in module 9: impressions and clicks for the main search and the page, average position for the main search, and whether the page is indexed. Write down today's figures if the page exists, or "new page" if not.
Here is a shortened version of Priya's brief for her heuristics guide.
Target: "how to solve PSLE maths heuristics", in the cluster on PSLE heuristics, part of her PSLE maths topic cluster. Intent: informational. Reader: a P5 or P6 parent whose child knows the heuristics by name but cannot tell which to use. Main answer: "Heuristics are named strategies for problem sums, such as drawing a model or working backwards. Most children know several, but lose marks because they cannot tell which one a question needs. This guide shows you how to spot it."
Follow-ups: which heuristics come up most, how to choose, what to do when a child freezes, common model-drawing mistakes, how a parent who never learned the model method can help. Format: guide with worked examples and photos of real models, matching the top results. First-hand details: her three-question checklist, two anonymised pupil errors, four photos of wrong models with corrections. Author: Priya, twelve years teaching upper primary maths.
Links in: the PSLE maths overview and the P5 and P6 class pages. Links out: the overview, the Paper 2 mistakes page and the P5 class page. Call to action: a free set of five practice problems sent on WhatsApp, with a note about trial classes. Success after three months: the page is indexed and shows impressions and clicks for the main search in Search Console.
A finished brief like this one fits on two pages and is specific enough that a writer could start without asking questions. Choose your top priority search and write yours as the activity below sets out.
Write a complete content brief for one priority search, using your results-page notes and the gaps you found.
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