Content Brief From a Competitor URL
Hand Claude a competitor page and get a sharper brief that names the exact gaps your article can win.
Last updated: July 2026 · Collective Brain
Good for
- Beat the top-ranking page systematically before you write a single word
- Hand editors a ready brief with outline, questions and proof points
- Audit existing content against a rival and upgrade it on purpose
The prompt
You are a senior SEO content strategist. I will give you a ranking competitor page. Derive a content brief that beats the article on substance and closes its open gaps.
Competitor content (URL or pasted text): [competitor URL or text]
Target keyword: [your target keyword]
Target audience: [your audience]
Our offering: [your product or offer]
Work in four steps:
1. Analysis: Identify the search intent, summarize the structure (H2/H3) and state the article's core claims and value promise.
2. Gap hunt: Surface what is missing or weak. Look for unanswered user questions, thin sections, outdated data, missing examples, missing evidence, skipped subtopics and poor structure.
3. Superiority plan: Derive concrete improvements that let us deliver more depth, freshness and trust for [your offering] than the competitor page does.
4. Brief: Turn all of this into an actionable brief.
Return the result in exactly this format:
- Recommended H1 and meta description
- Search intent in one sentence
- Proposed outline (H2s with bullet-point content per section)
- Additional questions we will answer (list)
- Specific competitor gaps we will close (list)
- Internal linking and relevant entities/terms
- Recommended word count and tone
If information is missing or you cannot reliably open the page, say so plainly and ask me to paste the text instead of guessing.Replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Frequently asked
Can Claude open the competitor URL itself?
Not always reliably. Whether Claude can fetch a page live depends on your version and the tools you have enabled. The safest route is to paste the article text into the prompt so Claude works from the real content instead of guessing.
Does this replace an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Semrush?
No. The prompt produces a content brief from a single page. Search volume, backlinks and the full SERP landscape still come from your SEO tool. Use both together for the strongest brief.
Related
Rather have it done?
Prompts are a start.
Results are our job.
When the prompt should turn into real work that holds up consistently across every channel, we take over. Start free, finish professionally.