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

MM
Matt Montenegro Founder & CEO
29/10/2022 3 min
TL;DR

A content outline is a document that details what an article should include, the framework you build before you draft. It is where turning a keyword into a focused, SEO-friendly piece actually begins.

  • Why it matters: An outline keeps a draft on topic; without one it is easy to drift into a tangent or repeat yourself without noticing.
  • How it works: Semrush's flow is research the topic, distill the key points, group them under logical headings, refine for flow, then add notes under each.
  • Reality check: It need not be elaborate; even a quick bullet list can pull you back when a draft loses its way.

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. 

In practice, a lot of folks skip the outline step and just wing it, which sometimes works—until it doesn’t. There’s nothing quite like realizing halfway through a draft that you’ve drifted into an off-topic rant or repeated yourself three times without meaning to. An outline doesn’t have to be complicated or overly detailed; even a quick bullet list can pull you back on track when you feel lost in the weeds. It’s a bit like a grocery list for your ideas, so you don’t end up coming home with five bags of chips and nothing for dinner.

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.

Another thing—good outlines save time not just upfront, but later, too. Revising a poorly structured article is much harder than taking five minutes to map things out at the start. Plus, when writers hit those inevitable blocks, having a roadmap makes it much easier to pick things up again, rather than staring at a blank page (or scrolling social media and calling it “research”). It’s the kind of step that feels optional until hindsight shows you otherwise, trust me.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a content outline look like in practice?

It is a skeleton of headings and notes you build before writing any prose. Semrush says an outline typically has a few parts: an H1 title, H2 section headings and H3 subheadings, plus key points, supporting data or examples, and references under each. Its sample outline for a product-photography guide runs from an introduction through the types of product photography and editing tools to a conclusion, with a couple of note bullets beneath each heading.

Does making a content outline actually save time?

Yes, mostly on the back end. As the article puts it, revising a poorly structured article is much harder than taking five minutes to map things out at the start, so the upfront cost is small next to the rework it prevents. An outline also gives a writer a roadmap to pick up when they hit a block, instead of staring at a blank page. The time spent outlining is usually returned during drafting.

How does a content outline help when you work with writers?

It turns your intent into a brief. If you use freelancers or staff writers to scale content, the outline communicates your vision for the piece so the writer knows the angle, the sections, and the points to hit before starting. Semrush notes an outline can serve as a communication tool for sharing ideas with others. That shared plan keeps a team aligned and cuts the back-and-forth on drafts that miss the mark.

How do you make a content outline SEO-friendly?

Start from search intent. Semrush advises looking at what competitors already publish for your keyword and noting the gaps you could cover more comprehensively, then structuring the outline so the piece matches what searchers expect. That matters because content that does not match search intent is likely to send readers straight back to the results page, however polished the writing.

MM Matt Montenegro

Matt Montenegro

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