SEO content writer: what the job is now, the brief that makes it possible, and how to judge a draft

An SEO content writer is paid to produce the page that answers a specific search better than the pages currently ranking for it. That is three jobs in one: working out what the person typing the query actually wants, finding or gathering something the existing pages do not have, and writing it so the answer is obvious in the first paragraph. Word counts, keyword density and heading templates are not the job. A writer who can read a results page, interview a subject expert for twenty minutes and cut their own draft by a quarter is worth more than one who can produce three thousand words a day.

This page covers the craft and the quality bar. For choosing which queries to write for in the first place, see a guide to keyword research.

What the job actually is now

Google publishes its own description of what it is looking for in the guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people first content, and the search quality rater guidelines show how human raters are asked to judge pages. Read both once and most content debates settle themselves. What they describe is a page with first hand knowledge, a clear author and purpose, and enough depth that the reader does not need to open another tab. Four parts of the modern brief follow from that:

• Original input. An interview with somebody who does the work, your own data, screenshots of the actual process, a tested example. This is the part that cannot be summarised from the pages already ranking.
• Intent accuracy. A comparison query needs a comparison page. A how to query needs steps. Getting the format wrong is the most common reason a well written page fails.
• Structure that answers early. Direct answer first, detail underneath, for the reader who is scanning and for the systems that quote the top of a page.
• Editing. Cutting is where the quality comes from. Most drafts improve by twenty per cent when they get twenty per cent shorter.

The brief a writer needs

A brief that is just a keyword and a word count buys you a rewrite. A brief with these eight lines usually gets a usable first draft.

Line	Example of what good looks like
Primary query	The one phrase, with the variants listed under it
Who is searching	Role, what they already know, what they are about to decide
Intent and format	Learn, compare, buy or find a local supplier, and the page shape that fits
What ranks today	Top five URLs with one line on what each does well and what it misses
The angle	The one thing this page will have that those five do not
Source material	Expert to interview, data to use, docs to cite, product screens to capture
Must answer	Four to six questions the page has to resolve, in the reader words
The action	What the reader should be able to do when they finish

The "what ranks today" line is the one most briefs skip and the one that saves the most time. Twenty minutes reading the current first page tells a writer what the query means, what the expected depth is, and where the gap is.

Writing for the intent, not the keyword

• Learn queries want a definition in the first two lines, then the mechanism, then an example. No company history, no long preamble.
• Compare queries want a table in the first screen, honest strengths for each option, and a sentence on who each option suits. A comparison that finds no fault with your own product is not read as a comparison.
• Buy queries want price or pricing model, what is included, what happens next, and proof. Vague pricing on a buy page sends the reader to a competitor who was clearer.
• How to queries want numbered steps, the prerequisites stated up front, and what the result looks like when it worked.
• Local queries want the area served, opening hours, a phone number and directions, above everything else.

Two mechanical habits help every format. Write the title and first paragraph last, when you know what the page actually says. And make every heading a question or a plain statement, so the contents list reads like a conversation rather than a taxonomy. The Google guidance on title links explains how the title you write is used in results, which is a good reason to write it as a promise you keep.

How to judge a draft

Score every draft out of ten on these, before any discussion of style. Anything under seven goes back.

• Is the answer in the first paragraph? Read only the first paragraph and nothing else. If the reader cannot act on it, the page starts in the wrong place.
• What is in here that is not on the pages already ranking? Name it in one sentence. If nobody can, the draft is a summary of other summaries.
• Could the reader do the thing now? The test for a how to page is whether somebody completed the task from the draft alone.
• Is every number and claim sourced? An unsourced figure is a liability, and a linked source is a trust signal.
• Does it match the format the query expects? Compared with the current first page, not with your house template.
• Has it been cut? Delete the introduction that restates the title. Delete the paragraph that says the topic is important. Both are always deletable.
• Would the subject expert put their name on it? Ask them. It is the fastest accuracy check there is.

A working brief, filled in

Primary query:   how to write a product comparison page
Variants:        comparison page seo, vs page template
Reader:          marketing lead at a 20 person software company
Intent:          learn, with a template they can copy
Ranks today:     1) vendor blog, thin, no example
                 2) agency guide, good structure, no screenshots
                 3) forum thread, honest, disorganised
Angle:           a filled in example plus the three legal lines to keep
Sources:         interview [name, 25 min], our own two live examples
Must answer:     what goes above the fold, how to be fair about
                 competitors, how to handle pricing, how long
Action:          reader can draft their own page in an hour
Length:          1,200 to 1,500 words, table required

Where people get stuck on SEO content writer

How long should an SEO article be?

As long as the question needs and no longer. Check the current top five for the depth the query expects, then write the complete answer and cut it. Length follows the question, not the other way round.

How many times should the keyword appear?

Once in the title, once in the first paragraph, and after that only where a human would naturally use it. Write for the question and the phrasing takes care of itself.

Is AI written content a problem for SEO?

Google assesses the page, not the tool that typed it. The practical line is the same as it has always been: original input, accurate facts and real usefulness. Drafting with an assistant and then adding an interview, your own data and a hard edit produces a page that stands up. Publishing an unedited generated draft produces a page that reads like the other twelve on the first page.

What is the difference between an SEO content writer and a content marketer?

The writer owns the page: brief to published draft. The marketer owns the programme: which topics, in what order, promoted how, measured against which business outcome. Small teams combine them, and the two skill sets are genuinely different.

How do you measure whether a page worked?

Impressions first, because they show Google has matched the page to queries. Then click through rate, which tells you whether the title earned the click. Then the action you set in the brief. Give a new page eight to twelve weeks before judging it.

What should a writer charge or be paid for?

Per piece, not per word. Paying per word pays for length, and length is the one thing you do not want more of.

One more reader to write for

Everything above is about writing a page a person finds through a list of links. A growing share of readers never see that list. They ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or Google AI Overviews and get a paragraph that names two or three options, assembled from pages those systems read. The writing that gets pulled into those answers has a particular shape, and it is the same shape this page argues for: the claim stated plainly near the top, specifics rather than adjectives, and facts a system can lift without needing the surrounding paragraph. The question worth asking about your own category is which pages are being quoted in those answers today, and whether yours are among them. AI Knows Us checks what the assistants say and which sources they cite.