Create Article Outlines Using AI Based on Google Ranked Results

Automate your SEO content research with this guide to create article outlines using AI, APIs, and analysis of top-ranking pages. In today’s competitive SEO landscape, simply writing an article and adding links isn’t enough. If you’re serious about creating high-ranking content, the foundation lies in well-structured outlines.

Why Start with Outlines?

Crafting an optimized outline before writing saves time and ensures your content is built to rank, avoiding the need to reverse-engineer SEO strategies later. By analyzing the structure and key elements of top-ranking pages—such as the questions they answer and the entities they include—you can better align your content with Google’s expectations.

Previously, this kind of research was a manual and time-intensive process. Thanks to advances in large language models (LLMs), APIs, and web scrapers, you can now automate much of this work. This allows you to focus on injecting your unique insights into the content, creating articles that are both optimized and valuable.

What This Guide Covers

This tutorial walks you through a step-by-step process to:

• Define target keywords and article types.
• Analyze the top-ranking pages for key questions, entities, and summaries.
• Automate the creation of article outlines with a script leveraging AI and APIs.

If you’re not into coding, don’t worry. A pre-written Google Colab is available for you to get started with just a few clicks. Find it here.

Why Focus on Summaries, Entities, and Questions?

Here's why.

Summaries

Summaries highlight how top-ranking pages address search intent. By analyzing their headings and structural elements, you can replicate successful patterns in your outlines. Using tools like Firecrawl, you can extract content in markdown format to focus on advanced structural elements like headings.

Entities

Entities are well-defined concepts—like “artificial intelligence” or “New York City”—that Google uses to understand content relationships. Including prominent entities helps align your content with Google’s expectations for contextual relevance. Ranking entities by salience scores ensures the most important topics are emphasized.

Top Questions

Questions represent what users—and by extension, Google—want answers to. By addressing these in your content, you’re more likely to meet search intent effectively.

Option 1: Running Locally

You can set up the script on your local machine using an IDE like Jupyter Notebook. This method offers greater control, allowing you to save API keys securely and edit prompts easily.

• Install Anaconda: Download here.
• Launch Jupyter Notebook: After installation, open the Anaconda prompt and type jupyter notebook.

Option 2: Using Google Colab

For a quick setup, run the pre-written Google Colab script. This option is ideal for testing before committing to a local setup.

Step-by-Step Guide

Here's the run of things.

1. Obtain API Keys

You’ll need API keys for the following services:

• Google Cloud Natural Language API: Extracts entities from content.
• Google Custom Search API: Retrieves top-ranking pages for your target keywords.
• OpenAI API: For generating summaries and analyzing questions.
• Firecrawl API: Scrapes content from top-ranking pages.

Set up your keys and credentials following Google’s detailed instructions here.

2. Install Required Libraries

Install necessary Python libraries, including Google APIs, OpenAI, Firecrawl, and Weights & Biases (W&B), using:

3. Analyze Top 10 Pages

Using the script, the following steps are automated:

• Retrieve the top 10 pages for your target keyword.
• Scrape their content.
• Extract headings, entities, and questions.
• Summarize their content using GPT-4.

4. Generate the Article Outline

Feed the collected data (questions, entities, and summaries) into a prompt that guides GPT-4 to produce an optimized article outline. The outline includes:

• Headings and subheadings.
• Recommendations for addressing search intent.
• Integration of questions and entities for maximum relevance.

Sample Output

The script produces an outline resembling this structure:

1. Introduction: Brief overview of the topic.
2. What Is [Main Topic]?: A concise explanation, optimized for featured snippets.
3. Top Questions Answered: Key questions users are searching for.
4. Entities in Context: Sections incorporating prominent entities.
5. Examples and Tutorials: Practical applications or demonstrations.
6. Conclusion: Wrap-up with additional resources or calls-to-action.

Why This Works

By aligning your content with the structure, topics, and intent of top-ranking pages, you’re leveraging Google’s proven preferences. Combined with automation, this approach saves time while improving content quality and search performance.

Just the Beginning

This script is a starting point. Experiment with different prompts, APIs, and adjustments to refine your outlines further. With the right tools and approach, you can create articles that are not only SEO-friendly but also deeply valuable to readers.