Article Rewriter — Existing Content Improvement Pipeline

When to Rewrite vs Refresh vs Create New

Rewrite: Article ranks position 5-20 but is losing ground, has clear entity or E-E-A-T gaps, or was written before semantic SEO was the priority. Rewriting reorganizes structure, adds entities, injects experience signals, and re-engineers the featured snippet target.

Refresh: Article ranks position 1-5 and has good signals. Only update stale statistics, add new FAQ pairs, update dateModified. Do not restructure or rewrite performing content.

Create new: Article ranks position 21+ with no impressions, or the existing page targets the wrong intent. Redirect old URL to new page if the new page replaces the old one completely.

Phase 1: Competitive Analysis (Pre-Rewrite)

Before changing anything, understand what ranks above you and why.

Step 1: Pull top 5 URLs for the target keyword.

Via DataForSEO SERP endpoint or manual SERP check.

Step 2: Content inventory per competing URL.

For each of the top 5, record:

• Word count (target: match #1 + 10-15%)
• H2 topics covered (what sub-topics does the competitor address that you don't?)
• Featured snippet target (does a competitor own a featured snippet? What's their snippet structure?)
• Schema types present
• Number of FAQ pairs
• Internal link structure (how many and where do they link?)
• Entity declarations (what primary entities appear in H1 and first paragraph?)

Step 3: Gap matrix.

Build a simple table: competitor topic coverage vs your current coverage. Every sub-topic in 3/5 competing pages that your article doesn't address = a critical rewrite target.

Phase 2: Entity Enrichment

Pull the Google NLP API analysis for your article and for the top-ranking competitor article.

Compare entity salience scores:

• Entities with salience 0.7+ in competitor, below 0.3 in yours = missing primary entity
• Entities completely absent from yours = entity gap

For each entity gap:

• Add a paragraph or sentence where the entity appears in context
• Ensure the primary business entity appears in H1, first paragraph, and schema
• Ensure location entities appear in at least 2 H2s for local intent queries

Phase 3: E-E-A-T Signal Injection

Run eeat-factor-extractor on the current article to identify which signals are absent. Then inject:

Experience signals (minimum 2 per article):

• Add a first-person anecdote per section where it fits naturally: "When we handled [specific scenario] in [location]..."
• Add before/after specifics for service businesses
• Add a case study section with real (anonymized if needed) project data

Expertise signals:

• Verify all technical claims are accurate and use correct terminology
• Add at least one code section, regulation citation, or technical specification where relevant
• Update author byline to include specific credentials relevant to the article topic

Authority signals:

• Add 2-3 outbound links to authoritative sources (government data, industry associations, peer-reviewed research)
• Update or add author bio linking to LinkedIn or other credentials
• Add publication date + last updated date visible on page

Trust signals:

• Verify NAP is accessible site-wide
• If pricing content: add date stamp for when price data was verified
• If regulatory content: cite specific regulation number and agency

Phase 4: Structural Improvements

H1 optimization:

• If keyword is not in first 5 words of H1, restructure
• If H1 is a question, convert to declarative unless PAA-targeting is the explicit goal

H2 restructuring:

• Cover all topic gaps identified in Phase 1 competitive analysis
• Ensure each H2 addresses a distinct sub-topic (no redundant H2s)
• At least one H2 should be phrased as a question (PAA signal)

Featured snippet engineering:

• Identify the H3 most likely to produce a featured snippet (process question, definition question, or comparative question)
• Write a 40-60 word answer block directly under that H3: entity name first, declarative sentence, numeric data point, no hedging language
• Expand below the snippet block to 200-300 words (snippet appears above, content satisfies depth below)

Internal linking improvements:

• Link to the pillar page for this topic cluster from within the article
• Link to 2-3 closely related spoke pages
• Link from 2-3 existing related articles to this article using descriptive anchor text

Phase 5: Technical Formatting

• Verify heading hierarchy: H1 → H2 → H3 (no skipped levels)
• Convert all bullet lists with 4+ items to either a table or a numbered process list
• Ensure images have descriptive alt text and WebP format
• Add FAQPage schema with 4-6 Q&A pairs relevant to the article's topic
• Verify canonical tag points to the correct URL
• Update dateModified in Article schema after rewrite

Quality Gate Before Republication

Before republishing, verify:

• [ ] Word count matches or exceeds #1 competitor + 10%
• [ ] All critical topic gaps from Phase 1 addressed
• [ ] Entity salience gaps from Phase 2 filled
• [ ] Minimum 2 experience markers present
• [ ] Featured snippet target H3 + 40-60 word answer block present
• [ ] FAQPage schema with 4+ Q&A pairs installed
• [ ] Author byline with credentials visible
• [ ] At least 2 authoritative outbound links
• [ ] Internal links to pillar page + 2 related spoke pages
• [ ] dateModified updated in Article schema

Cross-References

• eeat-factor-extractor — signal inventory before Phase 3
• koray-content-brief — brief structure that a rewrite should conform to
• featured-snippet-optimizer — snippet engineering detailed in Phase 4
• content-freshness-decay-monitor — determines which articles need full rewrite vs refresh

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