An outline is the list of questions the page answers, in the order the reader asks them, each one a heading with its answer first underneath. Twenty minutes of outlining saves an hour of writing and most of the rewriting. In topic-first SEO the outline comes from the search results and from your map, not from what you feel like saying first.
The blueprint
In SEO land a good outline is usually called a 'content brief'. I call it a 'blueprint', because a useful one is built from the pages it has to beat: which questions they answer, in what order, what they miss, and what you will add. A brief tells a writer what to write about. A blueprint tells them what the page has to do to get in.
The rule: every heading is a question the reader has, in the reader's words, and the first sentence under it is the answer. The consequence is that each section becomes a passage Google can rank on its own and an AI answer can quote. A heading like "Step 2: Considerations" is neither. Nobody searches for it, and nothing under it can be lifted out and used.
| Part of the blueprint | What goes in it | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| The question | One line. The page's reason to exist | The topic map |
| The shape | Guide, comparison, roundup, how-to | The results |
| The sections | Four to eight headings, each a question | People also ask, the headings of the top three, the questions across the counter |
| The gap | What the top ten skip or get wrong | Reading three of them with a pen |
| Your addition | The one section only you can write | Your work, your customers, your measurements |
| Length | What the top ten do, minus the padding. Usually 600 to 1,200 words | The results |
| Links | The siblings this page hands the reader to | The map |
"Single or dual boiler", outlined in twenty minutes. The question comes off the map. The shape is a comparison, because the top ten are comparisons. People also ask and the headings of the top three give the sections: what is the difference, can a single boiler steam and brew at the same time, which suits one person and which a family, what does the dual boiler cost extra, our pick. Reading three results shows the gap: all of them compare specifications and none says what the difference feels like on a weekday morning. So the addition is one section you can produce in your own shop: make a latte on each machine, time it from switching on to the cup, write down both numbers. That section is the page. Two links close it: the grinder page and the descaling page.
Worked example: one blueprint, from the map to the draft
Step by step
- Write the question and the shape at the top. If you cannot fill either line, go back to the four-filter check.
- Collect the questions. People also ask, the headings of the top three results, and the questions across the counter that belong to this page.
- Keep four to eight. Merge duplicates. Anything that belongs to a sibling page becomes a link, not a section.
- Order them as the reader asks them. What is it, does it matter to me, which one, what does it cost, what should I do. Never the history first.
- Under each heading, write the answer sentence before anything else. Even in the outline. If you cannot write it, you do not know the answer yet.
- Mark the one section only you can write. If there is none, stop. Rule 4 of the four-filter check failed and the page is not ready.
- Hand the blueprint to whoever drafts. You, a writer, or the AI. Writing with AI starts from exactly this document.
Four outlines that fail, every time: the kitchen sink (fifteen headings, which is three pages pretending to be one), the chronology (history first, answer last), the "Introduction" heading (the paragraph before the first heading is the introduction), and the wrong shape (a how-to outlined for a keyword whose results are roundups).
When you need this, and when you don't
You need a blueprint for every page on the map, and you need it most when someone else drafts. It is the difference between "here is a topic" and "here is what the page has to do".
You don't need one for a page under 300 words or for a page that answers one question in one section. Write the question, write the answer, add the thing only you know, done.
Next
- Next page: On-page SEO for a topic-first page. Twenty minutes of housekeeping once the outline is right.
- SitePerfector builds the blueprint for each page on your map from the results it has to beat: AI outlines.