> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chatfeatured.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Articles & Content Strategy

> Turn AI search visibility gaps into citation-worthy articles. Discover content opportunities, generate AEO-optimized drafts, and manage the publishing lifecycle.

The **Articles** module is ChatFeatured's content engine. It transforms citation gaps and zero-visibility search prompts into comprehensive, citation-worthy content designed to get your brand recommended across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.

Every article is grounded in your [Brand Book](/using-chatfeatured/brand-book), backed by verified Google search volume data, and structured with the exact entity markers and citation formatting AI answer engines trust.

***

## Why AEO Content is Different

Traditional SEO articles focus on ranking keywords in a 10-blue-links search engine. **Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)** content is engineered for conversational synthesis:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Direct Answer Structure" icon="bolt">
    Concise executive summaries and clear heading answers that AI models can extract directly for conversational snippets.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Comparative Citations" icon="scale-balanced">
    Fair, authoritative comparison tables and feature matrices that answer engines cite for vendor evaluation queries.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Entity & E-E-A-T Signaling" icon="badge-check">
    Authoritative definitions, structured schema (`Article`, `FAQPage`), and industry citations that establish domain expertise.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Targeted Prompt Coverage" icon="crosshairs">
    Articles are explicitly associated with tracked search prompts where your brand currently lacks visibility.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## The Article Lifecycle

Articles in ChatFeatured progress through an automated pipeline with full editorial control at every stage:<br />

<Check>
  \[ Pending Idea ] ──► \[ Draft / Generating ] ──► \[ Review ] ──► \[ Approved ] ──► <br />\[ Scheduled / Published ]
</Check>

| Status                 | Description                                                                                                                                                   |
| :--------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Pending**            | Proposed article concepts waiting for your approval. Includes title, description, strategic reasoning ("Why"), priority, target keywords, and mapped prompts. |
| **Draft (Generating)** | The article has been approved and queued. ChatFeatured conducts live web research, analyzes competitor citations, and drafts the full content (2–5 minutes).  |
| **Review**             | Generation is complete. The article is ready for your team to read, edit headings or copy, and refine metadata.                                               |
| **Awaiting Approval**  | *(Optional)* Content is locked while awaiting final sign-off from an editor, legal reviewer, or stakeholder.                                                  |
| **Approved**           | The article is signed off and ready for 1-click or scheduled publishing to your connected CMS.                                                                |
| **Scheduled**          | Set to automatically publish to your CMS on a designated date and time.                                                                                       |
| **Published**          | Successfully published live to your CMS (Shopify, WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, or ChatFeatured Hosted Blog).                                                    |
| **Archived**           | Shelved or retired articles. Archiving releases reserved generation credits and dismisses open tasks.                                                         |

***

## Ways to Create Articles

When you click **Create Article** on the Articles page, you can choose from four distinct creation modes depending on your workflow:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Suggest articles" icon="sparkles">
    **Let your agent analyze your AI search performance and suggest high-impact articles.**<br />The agent audits your prompt gaps, competitor citations, and search demand to recommend high-priority articles that directly move your visibility metrics.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Based on tags or prompts" icon="tags">
    **Pick tags or prompts and get article suggestions targeted at them.**<br />Target specific underperforming search queries, product line tags, or regional clusters to build topical authority where you need it most.
  </Card>

  <Card title="I have a content idea" icon="lightbulb">
    **Describe your idea and your agent will shape it into an article suggestion.**<br />Provide a rough concept, title, or scenario. The agent researches cited competitor sources and structures it into an AEO-optimized outline and strategy.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Start from scratch" icon="pen-to-square">
    **Name your article and start writing in a blank draft.**<br />Bring your own content or write manually using ChatFeatured's rich markdown editor while associating tracked search prompts and keywords.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/chatfeatured/jeu6Q2ak4cjymfns/ways-to-create-articles.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=jeu6Q2ak4cjymfns&q=85&s=764ec0a46749799fea552ea5811ece4b" alt="Ways To Create Articles" width="802" height="483" data-path="ways-to-create-articles.png" />
</Frame>

## Article Content Types

When articles are suggested, ChatFeatured assigns the format best suited to capture citations for the target query intent:

* **Product Comparison (`product-comparison`):** Head-to-head evaluation of your brand vs. one or more competitors with structured feature matrices.
* **Best-of Roundups (`best-of`):** Category roundups evaluating top market tools (e.g., *"Best AEO Tools in 2026"*).
* **Comprehensive Guides (`guide`):** In-depth educational blueprints and technical workflows.
* **Problem / Solution (`article` / `blog-post`):** Direct answers to troubleshooting or operational queries.
* **FAQ Guides (`faq`):** Clustered question-and-answer articles optimized for FAQPage schema extraction.

***

## Step-by-Step Workflow

<Steps>
  <Step title="1. Create or Review Suggestions">
    Use **Suggest articles**, pick specific prompts/tags, enter a custom idea, or start from scratch. Suggested articles appear under the **Pending** filter with their strategic explanation ("Why"), priority score (High, Medium, Low), and mapped search prompts.
  </Step>

  <Step title="2. Approve and Queue for Writing">
    Select the articles you want to produce and click **Approve Articles**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="3. Automated Research & Generation">
    During generation (2–5 minutes), ChatFeatured:

    * Analyzes top-cited external URLs from AI responses for the mapped prompts.
    * Incorporates your [Brand Book](/using-chatfeatured/brand-book) metadata and [Knowledge Base](/using-chatfeatured/knowledge-base) collateral.
    * Formats direct answer paragraphs, semantic heading structures (`H2`, `H3`), and comparison tables.
    * Generates SEO meta titles, descriptions, excerpts, and featured images.
  </Step>

  <Step title="4. Review and Edit Content">
    Open the generated article in **Review** status to inspect the markdown preview. You can:

    * Edit body text, headings, and lists directly in the rich markdown editor.
    * Add or remove associated keywords and tracked prompts.
    * Regenerate or upload a custom featured image.
    * Adjust URL slugs, excerpts, and author bylines.
  </Step>

  <Step title="5. Publish or Schedule to Your CMS">
    Click **Publish** to send the article directly to your connected destination:

    * [Shopify](/integrations/shopify)
    * [WordPress](/integrations/wordpress)
    * [Webflow](/integrations/webflow)
    * [Ghost](/integrations/ghost)
    * [ChatFeatured Hosted Blog](/integrations/chatfeatured-blog)
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Associated Keywords & Prompts

Every article in ChatFeatured maintains active relationships with your analytics:

* **Associated Prompts:** The exact search prompts this article was engineered to influence. Once published, monitor these prompts in the [Prompts](/using-chatfeatured/prompts) tab to verify increases in brand visibility and citations over subsequent days.
* **Associated Keywords:** High-intent search terms with estimated monthly search volumes and competition indexes pulled from Google Ads.

<Tip>
  **Track Impact After Publishing:** After an article is published and indexed, check its mapped prompts in the [Analytics](/using-chatfeatured/analytics) dashboard to see how quickly AI answer engines adopt your new URL as a citation source.
</Tip>

***

## Automated Article Generation via Playbooks

Rather than approving articles manually each week, you can automate your content pipeline using [Automations (`agent-tasks`)](/using-chatfeatured/automations).

Pre-built playbooks allow the AEO Agent to autonomously:

1. Scan for new 0% visibility prompt gaps every week.
2. Draft and approve high-priority articles matching your monthly quota.
3. Queue articles for generation and notify team members when drafts are ready for review.

***

## Related Guides

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Prompts Management" icon="message-bot" href="/using-chatfeatured/prompts">
    Track the search queries driving your content suggestions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Brand Book" icon="building" href="/using-chatfeatured/brand-book">
    Configure company descriptions and buyer personas to align article tone.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Shopify Publishing" icon="shopify" href="/integrations/shopify">
    Publish approved articles directly to your Shopify store blog.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Hosted Blog CMS" icon="bolt" href="/integrations/chatfeatured-blog">
    Publish to ChatFeatured's native, zero-config AEO blog.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>