A Step-By-Step Walkthrough to Create a Content Outline

Going from a keyword or phrase to a well-developed and well-written article can be a daunting task. What do you write about that’s going to be interesting and useful, while still following good SEO practices? 

One good way to make sure that you stay on topic and produce a good piece of content is to create a content outline to serve as your guide to the finished piece. 

If you are using freelancers or staff writers to scale your content production, this outline also helps you communicate your vision for the piece to the writer.

What is a content outline?

Simply put, a content outline is a detailed overview of what your finished article, blog post, or other pieces of content will include. 

Essential elements include H2 and H3s or heading text, your desired keywords and key phrases, and the optimum length for the piece. 

It’s also helpful to include whether you want to add images and/or videos to support the content thesis.

How to outline your content

It’s not difficult to create a content outline. To do so, you’ll want to follow these steps:

1. Define the goal for your content

Knowing what you want your content to do for your business is essential to the outline and to any good piece of content. 

Do you want it to increase your click-throughs and ultimately sales? Do you want to increase your brand awareness? Do you want to gather qualified leads for your sales team? Or, do you want to get people to sign up for an event or training course? 

Whatever your goal, define it in writing as part of your outline.

2. Find keywords that support your goal

Based on your goal, research and choose a few popular keywords and phrases. There are many SEO tools to help you find good keywords and phrases. 

These include Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs Keyword Planner. 

3. Look at what the competition is doing

Ideally, you don’t want to write the same article just like a dozen other companies have on their websites. You want to create a unique angle or point of view using your keywords. 

To do this, look at what comes up when you insert your keyword in the Google or other search engine search box. Find a unique take on the same topic. 

One useful tool is to look at the “People also ask” section that Google includes in search results. 

While not all of these questions will likely apply to what you want to write about, you can get some good ideas of what people what to know about your topic using this section.

4. Decide on a title

The next step is to title your piece. Unlike titles for magazine and newspaper articles, you’ll want to avoid cute or “punsy” titles. 

Instead, when writing for the internet, you’ll want to write your title so that it communicates quickly what your piece of content is about. 

Good choices include “How to…”, “X Ways to …” and “A Step-by-Step Guide to xxx”.

5. Write your headings

Now that you know what you’ll be writing about, further define your article’s flow by writing your subheadings. 

You’ll want to include your keyword or phrase in some of these for good SEO. 

In addition, make sure that the headings flow logically from the introduction to the conclusion of your piece. Mark which headings should be tagged H2 and H3. (This format helps communicate to search engine bots the topic and structure of your article.)

If your subtitles are not self-explanatory, you may want to add a single bullet point beneath your subtitle further explaining the information you want to be included in the section.

6. Write the intro and the conclusion (optional).

This step is optional, but it will further help your writer define your voice and the direction you want to take with your article. 

By adding the conclusion, you’re telling the writer how you envision the article coming together at the end. 

Creating good content with WriterAccess

WriterAccess simplifies the process of connecting with skilled writers who can effectively contribute to your content marketing endeavors. Additionally, it offers AI-powered tools that enhance the overall experience, ensuring a seamless workflow.

Armed with your content outline, our pool of more than 15,000 writers can create articles, blog posts, social media posts, ebooks, white papers, and more that are both good for your readers and are well-optimized to rank well with search engines. 

Using the tested and reliable writers at WriterAccess offers a number of advantages. You don’t have to pay a staff writer and only pay our writer for the work produced. 

In addition, you have the trusted and reliable WA name and reputation behind your writer, giving you peace of mind you may not have when you hire a freelancer on your own. 

Lastly, you don’t have to worry about writing your content yourself, freeing you up to spend more time with your customers and your employees.

We think our track record speaks for itself. To date, WriterAccess writers have produced more than two million projects for customers with a 99.97% success rate. 

We make it easy to give us a try. WriterAccess offers a two-week trial. Visit us today to get started.