Decision tree
Briefing writers for a link placement: three modes, one tree
The marketplace gives you three content modes per order. Which one to use depends on how much of the voice you want to own.
Our default
Own the text when the page is a flagship, automate when it is a supporting piece
Flagship pages deserve a brief and a human edit. Supporting pages, where one clean link in a short relevant article is enough, are what automatic mode is for.
- Flagship page: own article
- Product-adjacent page: your prompt
- Supporting page: automatic
The decision tree, as questions
- 1
Does legal or brand review the voice?
If yes, write the article yourself or have your freelancer do it, and supply it finished. The mode is called your own finished article.
- 2
Is there a specific angle the host site must take?
If yes, use your own prompt or instructions. Name the audience, the claim and the sentence that carries the link.
- 3
Is it enough that the text is on topic with one clean link?
Then choose automatic: give the target URL and the keyword, and the article is written for you.
- 4
Still unsure?
Order one link in automatic mode, read the result, and decide whether the next three need a brief.
What a one-page brief contains
Writers fail briefs, not the other way round. Briefs fail first. A good one fits on a page. It names the target URL, the keyword to use once, the reader, and the one thing the article must say.
Add the tone rules your style guide already holds. Short ones. Then: no superlatives, no invented statistics, British or American spelling. If the article goes on someone else's site, ask for a single link and a neutral anchor. Over-optimised anchors read as manufactured, and Google's SpamBrain, announced in December 2022 for link spam, is built to notice patterns like that.
Skip commands such as "make it rank". They add nothing, and no mode can promise it.
Brief template, copy into your content tool
- Target URL, exactly as it loads, with no tracking parameters
- One keyword to use once, and the anchor wording you accept
- The reader in one line: job title, problem, what they will do next
- The single claim the article must make, and where it comes from
- Words to avoid, per your style guide
- Deadline, with a review day before the live date
- Which content mode you are ordering in
Reviewing what comes back
Read it on a phone. If the link sentence feels bolted on, rewrite the sentence, not the brief. Links read well when the sentence would still make sense without them.
Check three things before you approve a draft you wrote yourself for a placement: the claims, the number of links (one), and whether the article would be useful to the host site's own readers. A host that publishes useful pieces is the reason a link has any weight.
Keep the file. When a quarterly content backlinks report asks what was ordered, the brief is half the answer, and it saves rewriting the same guidance for the next freelancer.
A link placement brief for a freelancer, in four sentences
Freelancers bill by the hour, so a vague ask costs you twice. Give four sentences and a link. The audience, the claim, the sentence that carries the link, and the deadline.
Example, invented. Here it is: "For heads of operations at mid-size logistics firms, show that route planning errors usually start in the handover between teams. Mention our guide once, in the paragraph on handovers, with a descriptive anchor. Due Thursday 5 November." That is a complete brief. It can be pasted into ChatGPT or Claude as your own prompt just as well as sent to a person.
Notice what is missing: any request about search position. The writer cannot control it, and mentioning it only encourages stuffing.
Three modes compared on a content team's terms
| Question | Automatic | Your prompt | Your own article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who drafts? | AI, from URL and keyword | AI, from your instructions | You or your writer |
| Your time | Minutes | Ten to fifteen minutes | Hours, then edit |
| Voice control | Low | Medium | Full |
| Best for | Supporting pages | Product-adjacent pages | Flagship pages |