Content Strategy
An example of the content planning we put in front of a client: choosing the topic out of their own search data, then writing the brief that goes to a writer.
01Choosing the topic
A real shortlist for an off-road lighting client. Six candidates came out of their query data and only one is worth writing first. The table says what should happen to the other five instead, because a client is owed the reasoning as well as the pick.
The shortlist, and why the winner won
Six candidates from the query data. One is a first post; the rest are not, for reasons worth writing down
| Topic | Verdict | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Curved vs straight light bars | Write this first | Nobody owns the comparison, including the client. It is the entry point to the largest unclaimed cluster in the category, and the client is the only brand that can answer it honestly with "both". |
| Are light bars street legal, and where | Optimize, do not write | A page already exists and ranks respectably while converting almost nothing. Fixing it is arguably more urgent, and it is not a new post. |
| Best light bar, buying guide | Upgrade the existing guide | The largest demand of any candidate here, and the most contested. A guide already exists, so the work is an upgrade, not a new page. |
| What an amber light bar is for | Wait | Smaller, and blocked behind a product page naming problem. Revisit once that ships. |
| Spot vs flood vs combo beam patterns | Partly covered | The category pages already explain beam patterns, and some of these queries already convert. |
| What ditch lights are | Leave it | Already performing reasonably from a strong position. Less upside than a cluster where the brand is invisible. |
All six have demand behind them. The one worth writing is where the brand is absent and uniquely qualified, which is a narrower test than picking the biggest number.
02Why this one
Three things that rarely line up together.
- Nobody owns it, including the client. The direct comparison queries all rank far outside the first few pages and return no clicks at all. When a commercial brand sits that far down on a question this specific to its own category, it usually means nobody has written the definitive answer.
- It is the front door to the largest unclaimed cluster on the site. Curved light bar terms carry substantial demand across more than a hundred queries and convert at almost nothing from mid-page. A comparison article is where someone enters that topic before they are ready to browse a category page. The article feeds the category page, and the category page feeds the products.
- The client is the only brand that can answer it honestly with "both". Every competitor selling a one-piece bar has to argue for the shape it happens to sell. The Gravity® Pro line adjusts between straight, semi radius and full radius on the same bar. That is a structural difference, not a marketing angle, and it makes the client the only credible author of a neutral comparison.
03Example Blog Post Content Brief in Detail
Brief · Curved vs Straight Light Bars: Which One Do You Actually Need?
Comparison post · 1,200 to 1,600 words · one table minimum, six internal links, three schema types
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Reader | Someone in the research phase who has decided they want a light bar and hit a fork they cannot resolve. Not brand loyal yet. Probably has a forum tab open in the next window. |
| The mistake to avoid | Writing it for someone who already owns a Pro6. The product page FAQs serve that person. This is for the reader who has never heard of the Infinity Ring. |
| The angle | Answer the question straight, and only then introduce the third option. Say plainly where a straight bar wins, including where the client's own products are not the answer. |
| Why the honesty is load-bearing | A reader who senses the comparison was rigged stops reading before the section that sells anything. The adjustable bar has to arrive as the resolution to a tension the article has already built, not as a product placement in paragraph two. |
The on-page fields, written in the brief and not left to the publisher
Character counts shown where the field gets truncated in a result
| Field | Set to | The rule behind it |
|---|---|---|
| URL slug | /campfire/curved-vs-straight-light-bars | Matches the question, no dates, no stop words. Short enough to survive being pasted into a forum reply. |
| Title tag | Curved vs Straight Light Bars: Which One Do You Need? (53 characters) | Trimmed from the H1 so it does not truncate. The comparison terms come first, because that is the part scanned in a list of results. |
| Meta description | Curved or straight light bar? Curved spreads light wider, straight throws further. Here is how to choose, and how Gravity bars do both on one bar. (146 characters) | Answers the question inside the description itself. A description that only promises an answer gets rewritten by the search engine. |
| H1 | Curved vs Straight Light Bars: Which One Do You Actually Need? (one per page) | Keeps the conversational phrasing the title tag had to drop. It should read like the question the reader typed. |
| H2 subheads | The eight in the outline below, each phrased as a question | Subheads are the retrieval surface. A question-shaped H2 with a direct answer under it is what gets lifted into an AI answer or a snippet. |
| First paragraph | The short answer, two to three sentences, before any preamble | The extractable block. It has to make sense with nothing above or below it. |
| Image alt text | Written per image, in the table below | Describes the configuration shown, not the product name. The alt text is what an image search and a screen reader both work from. |
| Canonical | Self-referencing on the post | Cheap insurance on a template that will also render this post in the blog index and in a category feed. |
| og:title and og:description | Both populated at publication | The empty og:description on the product pages is a live problem. Editorial does not repeat it. |
Alt text, written per image
Four images minimum. Each one describes what is being shown, in the words the reader would use
| Image | Alt text | Why this wording |
|---|---|---|
| Hero, the same bar in both shapes | “A Gravity Titan light bar shown straight above the same bar set to full radius” | The comparison is the subject of the article, so it is the subject of the alt text. Names the product once, and only because the shape is specific to it. |
| Close-up of a link joint | “Close-up of the indexing tab between two light inserts, showing the 22.5 degree increments” | The mechanism, in the same terms as the section it sits in. A reader who cannot see the image gets the same fact. |
| Overhead mount on a Wrangler | “A 50 inch curved light bar mounted overhead on a Jeep Wrangler windshield frame” | Length, shape, mount position and vehicle. Everything a fitment search would ask. |
| The width ladder diagram | “Diagram comparing light bar widths from 20.33 inches on the 3-light to 57.83 inches on the 9-light” | A diagram carrying numbers needs those numbers in the alt text, because the figures are the content and an image is not readable. |
| What not to write | “KC light bar” · “off road lighting” · “light-bar-hero-final-v2.jpg” | A product name is not a description, a category is not a description, and a filename is what gets left behind when nobody writes one. |
- The short answer. Two or three sentences at the very top, before any preamble. This is the block that gets pulled into AI answers and featured snippets, so it has to stand alone with no surrounding context.
- What a curved light bar actually does differently. The optical explanation, in plain language.
- What a straight light bar does better. Written honestly. If a straight bar wins for a use case, say so.
- How to choose, by vehicle and by how you drive. Highway, trail, dunes, work. Practical and scannable.
- The third option: a bar that does both. Introduce the Infinity Ring system here, and not before.
- Does curving a light bar change how wide it is? Almost nobody answers this, and it is a genuine fitment question.
- Light count is not inches. A short section clearing up the naming.
- FAQ. Five or six questions with declarative answers.
Facts to include, and where each one came from
Verified against the installation manual (91413-91419_TITAN_LED_LT_BAR_REV4.pdf) and live product specification blocks
| Fact | Detail | Belongs in |
|---|---|---|
| Three configurations | Straight, semi radius, full radius, set on the same bar | 5 |
| Radius points per bar | Two on the 3-light, up to eight on the 9-light, adjustable at every link | 5 |
| Width changes when curved | The 8-light Titan measures 51.58 in straight and 51.09 in at full radius | 6 |
| Constant height and depth | 6 in tall, 3 in deep in every configuration | 6 |
| Insert clocking | 22.5° increments via an indexing tab | 5 |
| Patent | US Patent No. 9,676,322, Light Linking System | 5 |
| Output comparison | The 50 in Titan produces 23,776 lumens; the 57 in Pro6 produces 22,572 | 5 or FAQ |
| Width ladder | 3-light 20.33 in, 4-light 26.58, 5-light 32.83, 6-light 39.08, 7-light 45.33, 8-light 51.58, 9-light 57.83 | 7, as a table |
| Warranty | 23 years against manufacturer defects | FAQ |
Real numbers are the point. This category is saturated with articles that describe beam patterns in adjectives and cite nothing.
04The sentences that have to be quotable
Written as complete, self-contained statements, because they only work when something quotes them without the paragraph around them.
- "A curved light bar spreads light wider across the edges of the road. A straight light bar concentrates more of its output directly ahead."
- "Curved bars generally suit wider trails and open terrain. Straight bars generally suit high speed running where distance matters more than width."
- "The Gravity® Pro6 and Gravity® Titan adjust between straight, semi radius and full radius on the same bar, so the choice does not have to be permanent."
- "Curving a light bar makes it slightly narrower. A 50 inch Gravity® Titan measures 51.58 inches straight and 51.09 inches at full radius."
- "The number in the name refers to inches of width, and the light count is separate. A 39 inch Gravity® Titan is built from six 6 inch lights."
05Links, schema and the guardrails
Internal links, so the post is a hub
- The new curved light bars category page, once live. The primary conversion path, and the reason to sequence that page first.
- The Gravity® Pro6 and Gravity® Titan hubs.
- The dedicated fixed-radius SKU, where the article covers non-adjustable curve options.
- The existing lighting buying guide.
- The light bar legality guide, which ranks respectably and converts almost nothing.
- A link back from the existing Pro6 post, which has no inbound editorial support today.
Structured data and meta
- BlogPosting, which the client's editorial template already carries.
- FAQPage on the FAQ section.
- BreadcrumbList, missing sitewide, added here as part of the wider fix.
- The width ladder as a real HTML table, not an image. Tables get extracted and quoted; images do not.
- Meta description and og:description both populated at publication. The empty og:description problem on the product pages does not get repeated in editorial.
What to avoid
- Opening with brand heritage or racing history. Open with the answer.
- "Unmatched", "ultimate", "no compromise". The article trades in verifiable numbers.
- Claiming curved is better. It loses its authority the moment it stops being a real comparison.
- Repeating marketing product names as if they were measured widths. Use the manual figures.
How it gets measured
- Primary: whether the post reaches the first page for the comparison queries within twelve weeks. It ranks nowhere near it today, so any first-page result is a large move.
- Secondary: click-through from this post to the category page and the two product hubs.
- Tertiary: whether the cluster's click rate improves as the brand starts appearing with content that matches the question.
- Dependency: publish after the category page is live. If the post ships first, add the category link retrospectively rather than sending a ready buyer to a page that sells one configuration.