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Writing an article

This page shows how to start an article, steer it while it is written, and edit it afterwards.

Each article costs one article credit. See Credits and billing.

The new-article wizard

Go to /app/articles/new. The wizard has four steps: Topic, Kind of article, Voice and evidence, and Review and start.

Step 1: Topic

  1. Type your focus keyword: the search phrase the page is about, for example "deck permits brisbane". Click away from the box. You see monthly searches, difficulty and what searchers want (their intent), plus related phrases.
  2. Click a related phrase to add it as a secondary keyword. You can add up to 10.
  3. Pick the project the article belongs to. You need a keyword and a project to continue.

If the keyword is hard to rank for, the page says so. Difficulty is a guide to how much competition there is. It is not a promise either way.

Step 2: Kind of article

Pick the kind of page that fits the search. The wizard suggests one, and marks kinds that match what already ranks as "Recommended for this search". If the top results are mostly one format and you pick another, the wizard warns you.

The kinds are: Complete guide, How-to, List article, Best of, Comparison, Review, Explainer, Local page, News, Case study, Opinion, Questions and answers, Pillar page, Checklist, Buying guide, Definition, Recipe and Programmatic page. Free trial and Starter workspaces can use eight of them: Complete guide, How-to, List article, Best of, Comparison, Review, Local page and News. Programmatic pages (one page per row of your own data) are for Agency and above.

Then set the main controls:

  • Reading level and point of view.
  • Length: shorter than what ranks, what ranks, or longer than what ranks.
  • Creativity: low keeps to the expected angle, high tries bolder angles and freer wording. Facts still need a source either way.

Open More controls for:

  • Who the article is for, and how much they know (beginner, some background, expert).
  • Whether "I" means the author or "we" means the business.
  • How many citations: key figures only, every fact, or heavy.
  • How citations look.
  • Formatting: tables and lists where they help, mostly prose, or prose only.
  • Whether to include a questions section, and whether to use a table.
  • A call to action, such as "Book a free site measure".
  • Notices (see below).
  • For programmatic pages: the page's own facts, one "name: value" per line. Each page needs at least three of its own facts, or it reads like a copy of the others and is held back. A workspace can only make a set number of programmatic pages each month.

Notices

Under "Notices to show with the article" you can tick:

  • It has affiliate links. The article gets an affiliate line near the top. If an article needs an affiliate line and does not have one, scoring flags it as a blocking issue.
  • It is sponsored.
  • Say it was written with AI help. This adds one line: "This article was written with the help of AI and checked against its sources."

A workspace admin can set the AI-assisted notice to be on for every new article in /app/settings on the Team tab. You can still untick it on any article. Some clients, platforms and regulators expect a notice. You decide whether you must tell readers. The AI content policy explains more.

Step 3: Voice and evidence

  • Voice. Pick one of your voices. "Fine-tune the voice for this article" shows eight dials: formality, energy, warmth, authority, humour, directness, storytelling and simplicity. Moving a dial changes this article only.
  • Author. Choose a named author, or "The business (no named author)". A named author helps the Trust pillar. Create authors at /app/authors.
  • Reviewer. Needed for health, money, legal and safety topics. Only choose a person who will actually review the article.
  • Your own sources. Up to 10 pages you trust. The engine also finds sources itself on plans that include it. See Sources and fact checking.
  • Your experience. The engine never makes up first-hand stories. Add real ones on the Experience page at /app/vault. If it is empty, the engine asks you a few short questions after the outline (on plans that include this).

Step 4: Review and start

  • When should the engine stop for you? Pick an approval mode:
    • Check the outline, then the article. Writing waits for you to approve the outline. Best for a first article on a topic. This is the only mode on Free trial and Starter.
    • Check the finished article. The engine plans and writes. You review before it is marked ready.
    • Autopilot. The engine plans, writes and marks the article ready when every check passes. It still waits for you if a check fails. The second and third modes are for Essential Plus and above.
  • Length in words. Leave blank to match what ranks, or enter 300 to 5000.
  • Language and spelling. The default is Australian English. If you pick a language other than English, some English-only checks are skipped.
  • A summary of your choices, and an estimate of the AI cost. The run stops and asks you if it would go past the plan's budget.

Press Start the article. The page tells you the cost (1 article credit) and your credits left. Research and the outline take about three minutes. Rebuilds do not use another credit.

While it is written

The article page shows progress. Depending on your approval mode it will stop for you at these points.

Outline approval

The engine stops with an outline. You can:

  1. Change the main heading (H1) and the working title.
  2. Move the length slider. The page shows the range that pages which rank run to.
  3. Rename sections, change a section's word target, move sections up or down, remove a section (an outline keeps at least two), or add one (up to 18).
  4. Read what each section covers and which sources it uses.
  5. Press Approve and write, or Save changes to keep your edits for later.

You can also press Plan the outline again (keeps the research) or Find more sources first.

Experience questions

On plans that include it, the engine may ask a few questions about your own experience. Answer in two or three sentences each.

  1. Type your answer.
  2. Add who said it and their role. The article quotes them by that name.
  3. Optionally add a photo, up to 15 MB. It is saved as a WebP image with location data removed.
  4. Tick "This can be published".
  5. Press Save answers and write. You can also press Save and answer the rest later, or Write without them.

Answers are saved to your Experience page for use in later articles.

Final review

When writing and checking are done, you see "Ready for your review". If a blocking check failed, the page lists it and the Mark ready to publish button stays off. See How scoring works.

  1. Read the whole article.
  2. Check the facts that matter. See Sources and fact checking.
  3. Press Mark ready to publish, or Run the edit and fix passes again.

Editing an article

Open the article from /app/articles. The tabs are Overview, Editor, Scores, Research, Plan, Sources, Fact-check, Performance, Metrics, Competitors, Team, History and Export.

The Editor tab

The text is shown as plain text with simple markup. Your edits save by themselves. The label shows "Saved", "Saving" or "Unsaved changes". Scores for reading level and other quick checks update as you type.

Adjust voice

Press Adjust voice to open the voice sheet. It has the same eight dials as the wizard, starting at this article's voice. Move only the dials you want to change, then press Rewrite in this voice. Facts, headings, keywords, links and the questions section are kept. Only the voice changes. Scores run again.

Rewrite a section or a selection

  • A section. Pick it in "Select section to rewrite". Choose a quick action (more casual, more authoritative, shorter, longer, add an example, add figures from sources, simplify, more direct, add humour, remove fluff) or type your own instruction.
  • A selection. Select at least 10 words in the text, up to about 800 words. Choose rephrase, simplify, punchier, more formal, expand or condense.

Each rewrite saves a new version, and the article is scored again. Your workspace gets 10 rewrites each month at no charge. After that, rewriting the whole article in a new voice costs 0.25 of a credit. Section and selection rewrites are not charged.

History and versions

The History tab lists every version: what made it (first draft, edited by hand, rebuilt, revised, restored and so on), when, its score, and the change in score compared with the earlier version.

  • Compare with current shows what changed.
  • Restore makes that version current again. Restoring is itself saved as a new version.

If a new version arrives while you have unsaved edits, the page asks whether to keep your edits or load the new version.

Team

The Team tab lets you assign the article to someone with a due date, ask a teammate to review it, leave comments, and see the activity list. A reviewer can sign off a version or ask for changes. A workspace admin can require a sign-off before WordPress publishing. See Publishing to WordPress.

Export

The Export tab downloads the article as Markdown, HTML or Word, or copies it for Google Docs. It also holds the WordPress publish controls.