> Markdown version of https://jode.io/docs/themes-and-briefings/ · Português: https://jode.io/pt/docs/temas-e-briefings/index.md · Summary: https://jode.io/llms.txt Features # Themes and briefings A theme is a future article. Each theme enters the plan with a briefing that says what the article covers, which search it wants to win and what it leaves to neighbouring themes. This is where the plan's editorial strategy is built, before any article is written. PRO Updated for version 3.85 12 min read ## 3 ways to add themes On the plan's screen, the Themes for blog card has the Add themes button. It opens a window with 3 tabs. Before you confirm, the window shows the estimated cost and time of the briefings. [![The Themes for blog card, where the 3 ways to add themes start.](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/themes-for-blog-en.webp?v=bffc365548)](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/themes-for-blog-en.webp?v=bffc365548) The Themes for blog card, where the 3 ways to add themes start. ### Generate themes AI builds the plan for you from a subject. You fill in the Central theme, the Specialty, the Target audience, the Audience knowledge level (Basic, Intermediate or Advanced), the Production model (SEO on demand, Content marketing or Sector authority), the Funnel stages, the Cadence and the Maximum number of candidate themes. That number is a ceiling: AI stops once it reaches it. Then click Generate Editorial Plan. AI researches real demand on the web and organizes the themes into pillars, satellites and subsatellites, with search intent and funnel stage, in the output language set in Global Settings. A bar shows each phase (Research, Organize, Check for repeats, Import, Refine the briefings) and picks up where it was if you reload the page. Cancel generation stops everything and keeps on record what was already spent. **No repeated themes.** Before creating anything, AI reads the whole plan: the themes, the articles in the index and the considered seasons. A theme that would repeat a subject already covered is not created, and the report says why, naming the owner by its exact title, for example "Discarded: the plan already covers it in «…»". 2 new themes of the same generation with the same search don't stay together either: the one with the higher number always goes. ### Import themes Bring the plan you already have. In Upload a plan file, send a file with a table (.csv,.md,.txt,.docx or.pdf) or paste the table. The plugin detects the columns and asks you to confirm which column goes into each briefing field. Only the Title (H1) is required. A column that matches no field can stay as - Keep as a custom field -: it becomes a custom field of the theme. ### Insert manually Paste the titles, one per line. Each line becomes a theme. It is the quickest way to try the plugin or to add a few themes to a plan that is already built. On LinkedIn plans, the card is called Themes for LinkedIn and has a 4th tab: Copy from WP editorial plan. See [LinkedIn](https://jode.io/docs/linkedin/). ## The theme queue No theme enters the plan's list without a written briefing. Whichever way you add it, each new theme waits in a queue until AI writes its briefing, comparing it with every other briefing in the plan, the article index and the considered seasons. Only then does it show up in the list. - **Themes being added**: the box that shows the progress. You can close the page; the work carries on by itself. - **Themes not added**: the red box that shows up when a theme could not come in, with the reason for each one. Try again sends it back to the queue; Discard drops it. Nothing already paid for is lost. - **Busy server:** if the server is full, the queue waits a little and tries again by itself, and the screen says why and when the next try is. While themes are waiting in the queue, Generate themes is unavailable on that plan: you can generate new themes as soon as the queued ones are in the list, or after discarding the ones that could not come in. ## The briefing fields The briefing is what the article will be. These are its fields, in the theme card's Edit briefing window: **Title (H1)** The article's title. AI never rewrites the title. **Type** Pillar, Satellite, Subsatellite or Asset: the article's role in the cluster. It stays as you chose. **Level of knowledge** Basic, Intermediate or Advanced: how much the reader already knows about the subject. **Intent** Informational, Commercial/Investigative or Transactional: what the searcher wants. **Funnel** TOFU, MOFU or BOFU: top, middle or bottom of the funnel. **Main Keyword** The search the article wants to win, using the words that are in the title. It goes into the excerpt, the first paragraph and your SEO plugin. **Canonical Keyword** The main keyword plus the article's focus, written as a search. **Micro-Question** The exact question the article answers. It is a single, precise question, never a generic "what is X". **Destination URL** The article's address. Left empty, it is made from the title. **Anti-Cannibalization Note** The article's map in 3 parts: **Focus** (the exact subject), **Goes deep on** (the points it covers in depth) and **Leaves out** (what is left to other themes, each one by its exact title between «»). The names of the note's 3 parts follow the output language. When writing, the article covers its focus in depth and mentions each "Leaves out" subject in a few lines, with a link. That way neighbours don't compete for the same search. ### The Main Keyword rule - **It appears in the title:** AI never changes it. - **It doesn't appear in the title and the theme already has an article:** it stays as it is, with a warning. - **It doesn't appear in the title and there is no article yet:** when you regenerate the briefing, AI proposes another one. - **With Search Console on,** a real search the theme itself already shows up for on Google stays. ## Editing and refining a briefing In the Edit briefing window, you can change any field by hand or ask AI. The button changes with the briefing: [![The Edit theme briefing window, with the AI model, the title and the briefing fields.](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/briefing-window-en.webp?v=0be645c465)](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/briefing-window-en.webp?v=0be645c465) The Edit theme briefing window, with the AI model, the title and the briefing fields. - **Complete with AI** shows up when a core field is missing. AI fills in only the empty fields. - **Regenerate with AI** shows up when the briefing is complete. AI rewrites the Canonical Keyword, the Micro-Question and the Anti-Cannibalization Note. Level, Intent, Funnel and Type only change if they are empty; the title and the address, never. - **Rewrite the whole briefing for this title (Main Keyword, Level, Intent and Funnel included)**: for when the theme changed subject. The box ticks itself when you change the title in the window. The Type stays manual, and if the theme already has an article, the window reminds you to regenerate the article afterwards. In every case, AI reads the briefings of all the plan's other themes, the index and the considered seasons before writing. It never adds a deadline, amount, percentage or law number that is not in the title or the saved briefing. What it wrote stays in the window for you to review before saving, and the cost of each call shows up in the card's AI briefing generation history. ### The model that writes the briefings Right below the theme list bar, a white card keeps, for this plan, the AI model, the Reasoning effort and the Extended thinking used for briefings. It comes set to the newest Sonnet and medium effort. The extended thinking box only shows up on models where it changes something. Changing the model inside the Edit briefing window applies to that one time only. ## Already covered in other plans When an article is generated, the anti-cannibalization check also looks at the considered seasons' themes that have no article yet. If the new article already covers part of one of those themes' subject, the generation leaves a notice on it: Already covered in other plans. That way, when that theme's turn comes, it knows what has already been written and doesn't repeat it. The notice shows up in 3 places, always with the same list: - **In the theme card's header**, a yellow chip Already covered in other plans: 1 with the number of articles. It shows even on a closed card, so you can spot those themes in a long list. - **Inside the open card**, right under the Anti-Cannibalization Note. - **In the theme's Edit briefing window.** Each line of the list has: - **The title of the other plan's article**, with a link that opens its card, in its own plan, in a new tab. - **That article's plan**, for example (plan: …). - **What it already covers**, under Already covers: …. - **If it is not published yet**, the line says Still a draft: it counts once it is published. The notice is written only by the article generation; it can't be edited. When the turn of the theme that got the notice comes, each line is checked: - **The other plan's article is published:** the anti-cannibalization check reads that article with its whole published text and today's data, and the theme only mentions what it already covers, if that still holds. - **It is still a draft:** the line is not used this time and stays saved. - **It is gone** (theme, plan or project deleted; article trashed, deleted or detached from its theme): the line is deleted. This also happens the moment the article goes. Each new generation of the other plan's article replaces the lines it left with the new ones. The notice exists only in WP plans. ## Regenerate all briefings When the plan has grown or changed direction, Regenerate all briefings, at the end of the model card, rebuilds the briefings of the whole plan at once. First AI maps the plan; then it writes each briefing reading the same map; finally it checks whether any pair of themes still repeats and rewrites the one that goes. - **Before:** the window shows the estimated cost and time. The plan needs at least 2 themes. - **During:** a bar shows the progress, even after reloading the page. You can cancel until the briefings start being saved. - **After:** a report says what changed. Undo brings back the previous briefings until the next run on the plan; a briefing you edited afterwards stays as it is. Themes waiting in the queue are included in that run. ## The theme card Each theme is a card in the plan's list. Click the header to open it. Inside: - **The briefing fields** and, under Additional fields, the fields that came from an imported spreadsheet. - **Category, WP Author and the Schema Rank author**: they start at (Inherited from the editorial plan) and follow the plan until you pick another one just for this theme. The theme's choice is never overridden by the plan. - **Theme resources**: the custom fields and body shortcodes that go into this article, the theme's own or, when it has none, the plan's. Once the article exists, a change here goes straight to the post, and a change on the post shows up here. - **The Word buttons**: Article (Word) (the article with its SEO data) and LinkedIn summary (Word), when there is one. Every file is also in the Documents tab, explained in [Projects and plans](https://jode.io/docs/projects-and-plans/). - **Attach to a WP article**: links the theme to an article that already exists in WordPress, published or draft, instead of generating a new one. Generating the article, the generation history and publishing are in [Article generation](https://jode.io/docs/article-generation/) and [Publishing](https://jode.io/docs/publishing/). ## The article index The Article index — this plan is the live list of what the plan already has on the site. It is what anti-cannibalization, theme generation and briefings look at so a subject is never repeated. You don't write anything in it: each row follows the real article. [![The plan's article index, with the considered seasons.](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/article-index-en.webp?v=6ccba0072c)](https://jode.io/static/docs/img/article-index-en.webp?v=6ccba0072c) The plan's article index, with the considered seasons. - **From the post** come the title, address, category, subheadings (H2 and H3) and date. **From the briefing** come the keyword, type and angle. - **A draft stays in the index.** An article leaves the index when it goes to the trash, is deleted, is detached from its theme, becomes a page or its theme is deleted. - **View index and Download index** show and download the list. ### Articles from before the plugin If the site already had articles on the subject, Import index takes their list (pasted or in a.md file). Those rows are yours and count in the comparison like any article. Themes that match an imported article become Published before: they leave the queue and cost nothing. Unmark as done puts the theme back in the queue, and Remove imported entries clears the imported rows. ## Considered seasons A season 2 must not repeat season 1. In Considered seasons, next to the index, you tick other plans of the same project and kind. Those plans' articles and themes are then read by the anti-cannibalization check of each new article, by the briefings and by this plan's theme generation. - **Nothing comes ticked.** The line under the index says what applies: "Considers only this plan." or "Also considers: …". - **Read at that moment:** a new article in a ticked plan already counts in the next comparison. - **Not passed along:** ticking season 1 doesn't bring in the seasons it considers itself. - **Link building stays within this plan.** You can also tick the seasons when creating the plan, in the New plan card. ## Plan PDF Download Plan PDF creates the whole editorial plan as a PDF, ready to present to the client: the themes grouped by macroblock, with each block's funnel, weeks and number of articles, and each theme's anti-cannibalization note right under its row. Found something wrong or missing? Write to [support@jode.io](mailto:support@jode.io). 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