How to compare your competitors' outlines and use them to create a brief?

In Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), content needs more than just keywords—it needs the right structure. 

As a GEO-first platform, Scalenut helps you create high-performing content briefs by analyzing the outlines of top-ranking competitors.

With the Competitor Outlines feature, you can quickly compare headings, subtopics, and structure across the top 30 URLs. This lets you spot content gaps, align with proven formats, and build briefs that are both SEO-ready and AI-discoverable.

Use it to shape your content strategy with confidence and stay ahead in search and generative engines.

How To Compare Competitor Outlines?

STEP 1

Log in to your Scalenut account and click on the ‘Article Writer’ option under GEO Core.

STEP 2

On the redirected screen, in the keywords field, enter your primary keyword along with any relevant secondary keywords. Next, select your target location, competition benchmark and click the “Create” button to proceed.

Once you click create and open the report, it will land on the context screen.  You have to use the option at the top right corner - skip to editor.

STEP 3

On the GEO AI Editor, you’d have all the information that it has gathered for your keyword. Simply head over to the Research tab available on the right panel.

STEP 4

The Research tab in the right panel unlocks valuable insights that support GEO-focused content creation. The Research tab includes: Key Terms, Competition, Questions,
Statistics and a Detailed Report. To get a comprehensive overview, click on the Detailed Report button at the top right.

STEP 5

On the detailed report screen, click on the Outlines tab. Here, you’d be able to see the top 10/20/30 ranking URLs, depending on your competition benchmarking approach with their outlines all at once. 

STEP 6

You can sort them by their Rank or Scalenut’s Content score.

STEP 7

You can easily expand or collapse the outlines to primarily focus on your competitors by clicking on the arrow icons. Or, choose to Expand or Collapse all.

STEP 8

To add a heading, click on any H tag from your Competitor outlines to create a framework.

Simply click on it, and it’d be added to your outline section under Content brief on the right panel.

STEP 9

You can further click on it to edit/ make any changes to the heading. 

STEP 10

To add a note to your heading, click on the note icon and type the note in the field box. Or, if you wish to delete any heading, you can easily do so by clicking on the bin icon.

STEP 11

The top-right of every outline has the Content Score to help you understand the benchmark for quality content. You can also access the live version for every ranking site beneath it.

STEP 12

Once satisfied with the competitor outline reference and you are ready to write, click on ‘Back to Editor’.

STEP 13

In case you want to shift any heading from H2 to H3, you can also easily do that by clicking on your preferred choice.

STEP 14

On the editor, simply click on ‘Brief’ tab. You’d find the option ‘Copy to Clipboard’, click on it and then paste the outline in the editor.

STEP 15

Once you have the outline pasted, you can use our AI features to generate a comprehensive article. To begin with, you can use the ‘Write Ahead’ feature. Simply place the cursor where you’d want to generate the content, and click on it. It’d generate a content for the same within seconds.

STEP 16

Once the content is generated, you can further use the Cruise AI feature to give specific instructions like rephrase, shorten, expand, simply etc. You can also put manual instructions, or get the language altered - From US English - UK English and vice versa.

When you leverage Scalenut’s Competitor Outlines, you're not just matching what ranks—you’re strategically aligning your content with how top-performing pages are structured. 

This ensures your brief is comprehensive, competitive, and optimized for both search engines and generative AI platforms. 

In the GEO landscape, structure is strategy—and with Scalenut, you're always one step ahead.