Our Workflow

How we go from a question someone is searching for to a published article that fully answers it. Every step, in order.

Why Process Matters

The most common way AI-assisted content fails is not because AI was involved. It fails because there was no real process behind it. Someone types a keyword, takes whatever comes back, and publishes it without reading it. That is not research. That is copying at speed.

Our process is designed around the opposite principle. We direct the research. We review the output. We verify what matters. We publish only when we are satisfied the content fully helps the reader who lands on it.

We use AI as a research and drafting tool. The same way a newspaper editor uses reporters - the editor sets the brief, reviews the draft, checks the important claims, and makes the final call. The tool does significant work. The judgment belongs to the researcher.

The Six Steps

1

Find the specific question Not a broad topic. A specific question that a real person is actively searching for an answer to right now. We look at what people search for, what existing top results cover, and what they are missing.
2

Research from original sources Official documents, manufacturer data, verified buyer feedback, published studies. We read the original, not someone else's summary of it. For SEO questions, that means Google's own documentation. For product questions, that means manufacturer specifications.
3

Brief the AI with clear direction We give the AI a detailed brief: the angle, the audience, the key points to cover, the standard to meet. Not just a keyword. A real brief, the way an editor briefs a reporter before they go out to cover a story.
4

Read the output carefully Every section. We find anything weak, unclear, wrong, or not genuinely useful to a real reader. We ask for changes and keep going until the result meets our standard. This step is not optional and it is never skipped.
5

Verify what matters Numbers, product details, technical facts, claims about what official guidance says. We check these against the original source before publishing, not afterwards. If we cannot verify a claim, we do not publish it.
6

Publish when ready The article goes live when we are satisfied it fully answers the question and genuinely helps the reader. Not when a deadline says so. Not when a word count is hit. When it is ready.

Going to the Original Source

One habit matters more than any other in our research: going to the original source rather than accepting a summary of it.

The internet is full of content that has been simplified, misread, or taken out of context at every layer. A blog post summarises a study. A video explains the blog post. A social media thread quotes the video. By the time most people see a claim online, it has passed through many hands and something has changed each time.

We cut through this by reading the original. For any question about what Google requires, we read Google's own published documentation directly. For any question about a product, we go to the manufacturer's official specifications. For any question about a regulation or requirement, we read the actual document.

Our pillar article, How Content Research Has Evolved - And Why AI Is Just the Latest Tool, includes two real investigations that show exactly what this looks like in practice - and what we found when we went to the original source instead of accepting the popular consensus.

What We Do Not Do

We do not publish content for the sake of filling a website. We do not publish thin articles that send readers chasing information across other pages. We do not change publication dates just to appear current. We do not invent product specifications or create ratings without documented research behind them.

We do not physically test every product we write about. Where we have not tested something ourselves, we say so clearly and explain what our research is based on instead.