Build a content brief from a target keyword and three competitor URLs that a freelance writer can actually execute without asking you ten questions

You are building a content brief for a freelance writer who has never seen our site before and won't get to ask follow-up questions before drafting.

TARGET KEYWORD
how to switch payroll providers mid-year

TOP-RANKING COMPETITOR URLS
gusto.com/blog/switching-payroll-providers, adp.com/resources/mid-year-payroll-switch, rippling.com/blog/change-payroll-mid-year

OUR ANGLE OR DIFFERENTIATOR
We build the actual data-migration checklist ourselves for every customer, so we can go deep on the specific mid-year tax-filing gotchas that generic guides wave past.

AUDIENCE
HR managers at 50-200 person companies who've decided to switch but are nervous about the tax-filing transition specifically.

STEP 1 — READ THE COMPETITION
Treat the competitor URLs as representing what's currently satisfying this query, and infer their likely structure, subtopics, and depth from the keyword and URLs given (note explicitly that you're inferring rather than having crawled them live, and ask me to paste key excerpts if precision matters more than speed). List the subtopics that appear to be table-stakes — if all three competitors cover something, our piece has to cover it too or it reads as incomplete by comparison.

STEP 2 — FIND THE GAP
Identify one or two subtopics or angles that are plausibly under-covered given our stated differentiator, and explain specifically why our angle lets us go deeper there than a generic competitor would.

STEP 3 — BUILD THE BRIEF
Write the actual outline as H2/H3 headings, not a description of what an outline should contain. For each H2, give the writer one or two sentences on what needs to be said, not just the heading — a heading alone forces the writer to invent the content, which defeats the purpose of a brief. State a target word count per section, not just a single total, since a writer without section-level guidance almost always front-loads early sections and rushes the ending. Specify the primary keyword placement (title, one H2, first 100 words) and up to three secondary keywords to work in naturally, without instructing the writer to force them.

WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not write the brief as a set of generic content-writing best practices ("use short paragraphs, add a call to action") — every instruction in the brief must be specific to this exact piece. Do not invent statistics, studies, or named sources to include — if the brief calls for a supporting stat, instruct the writer to find and cite a real current source rather than presenting a placeholder as if it were factual.

OUTPUT FORMAT
1. Table-stakes subtopics (bullet list).
2. Content gap and why our angle earns it (one paragraph).
3. Full outline with word counts per section and one-to-two-sentence guidance per H2.
4. Keyword placement notes.
5. Suggested title and meta description (under 60 and 155 characters).