Outline, questions, links and SERP

Plan your article with the Outline, Questions, Links and SERP tabs: topic brief, headings to add, FAQ questions, internal link ideas and competitor outlines.

Four tabs in the side panel help you plan what to cover and how to structure it. Everything you add from these tabs goes into your article as normal text you can edit.

#Outline tab

#Topics to cover (AI topic brief)

When AI is available, SerpPal reads the outlines of the top pages and builds a topic brief:

• The search intent (for example informational or commercial) and the content type that ranks (for example a listicle or a guide).
• Stand out: an angle that would make your article different from the others.
• Topics to cover, each with a short note and an importance bar from 1 to 10. A green check means your article covers it. The counter shows how many you cover.
• Title ideas: click one to put it in the Title field.

If an older analysis has no brief yet, click Build the brief. It takes a few seconds while the AI reads the top pages.

A topic counts as covered when one of your headings carries most of its key words, or your text carries nearly all of them. Words with the same meaning are matched, so "Pricing and plans" also covers "How much does it cost".

#Better headings

Click Suggest and the AI proposes clearer headings that use the phrases top pages use. Each idea shows your old heading crossed out and the new one. Click Apply to change that heading in your article, or Add for a suggested new section, which is added at the end. If your headings are already good, you see "Your headings already look good".

#Common headings on top pages

The headings that several top pages share, with how many pages use each one and the key words that signal it. A green check means you cover it. Click + to add it as an H2 at the end of your article, then move it where it belongs.

#Angles to stand out

Topics only one or two top pages cover. Adding one can make your article more complete than the rest.

#Competitor outline

Pick any competitor page from the menu to see its H1, H2 and H3 headings. Click + next to a heading to add it to your article.

#Questions tab

• Add an FAQ section with the top questions: adds a "Frequently asked questions" H2 at the end of your article with up to 6 questions as H3 headings and an empty paragraph under each, ready for your answers. Check the list and remove any question that repeats another.
• People also ask: the questions Google shows for this search.
• Asked in top articles: questions competitors answer in their own text (up to 20).
• Next articles to write: related searches. Click Analyze to start a new analysis for that keyword in the same project. It counts as one analysis.

Click + next to any question to add it as an H3 heading at the end of your article.

To let the AI write the whole FAQ with answers, use the Add button next to FAQ section under AI search readiness on the Optimization tab.

#Links tab

The Links tab finds pages on your own site that this article should link to.

1. Add your website in the project settings, then click Read sitemap on the project page. See Sitemap and internal links.
2. In the editor, open the Links tab and click Find link ideas.
3. SerpPal compares your article with the pages on your site and lists up to 20 ideas:
   • When the page's topic phrase is already in your text, click Link it to turn that phrase into a link.
   • When most of its words appear but not the exact phrase, you see "Not in the text yet, mention it where it fits." Click Copy URL and link it by hand.

Ideas update as you write. Pages you already link to, and the article's own target URL, are left out. If you see "No site pages yet", read your sitemap from the project page first.

To have the AI add internal and outside links in one go, use AI Writing, then Add internal and external links. See AI writing in the editor.

#SERP tab

The SERP tab lists the Google results that were analyzed, in ranking order. Each one shows:

• Its position (or + for a page you added yourself), title and address. "Address hidden by Google" means Google did not reveal the link.
• Its word count, number of H2 headings and reading ease, or the reason it could not be read.
• Its content score, so you can see what you need to beat.
• "Not used" when the page is not part of your competitor set.

Click a result to open its outline. Click Select competitors to choose which pages set your terms, ranges and target, add pages of your own, or recover links Google hid. Rebuilding does not run a new Google search and does not count as an analysis. See Choosing competitors for the full guide.

#Common questions

Headings I add always go to the end. Can I add them at the cursor? Not from these tabs. Add them, then cut and paste the heading where you want it, or type the heading yourself.

Why are there no questions? Some keywords have no "People also ask" box and the top pages ask no questions in their text. Try the Next articles to write ideas instead.

Why is the topic brief missing? The brief needs AI to be available on the site. Click Build the brief to create it for older analyses. If it fails, you see "The AI did not return a usable brief. Try again."