SEO Blog Brief Agent

Turns a target keyword into a search-intent-matched blog brief a writer can draft from: three working titles, the intent, a full H2/H3 outline, primary and secondary keywords, internal-link targets and a meta description under 155 characters.

A Markdown blog brief containing: (1) three working titles; (2) the dominant search intent with reasoning; (3) a one-line target audience; (4) an H2/H3 outline with a purpose note under each H2; (5) a primary keyword and four to eight secondary keywords with placement notes; (6) three internal-link anchor slugs; (7) a target word count with reasoning; (8) a meta description under 155 characters with the character count stated.

# Blog brief — Choosing a project management tool for a small agency

## Working titles
1. How to Choose a Project Management Tool for a Small Agency
2. The Small Agency Guide to Picking a PM Tool You Will Not Replace in a Year
3. Seven Things to Check Before You Buy a Project Management Tool for Your Agency

## Search intent
**Commercial investigation.** The searcher has accepted they need a tool and is building evaluation criteria before shortlisting. They are not looking for a definition of project management and they are not yet ready for a pricing page. A post that opens by explaining what project management is will lose them in the first paragraph.

## Target audience
Owners and operations leads at agencies of 5-20 staff, buying their first paid PM tool, currently running projects in a mix of spreadsheets and chat.

## Outline

### H2: Why generic PM tools break in an agency
_Establish the specific failure: agency work is billable, client-scoped and concurrent, and most PM tools are built for a single internal team. Earn the reader's attention by naming a problem they have already had._
- H3: Client work is not internal work
- H3: The billability problem most tools ignore
- H3: What happens at ten concurrent projects

### H2: The seven criteria that actually matter
_The core of the post and the section most likely to be linked to. Each criterion needs a concrete test the reader can run during a trial, not an abstract quality._
- H3: Client visibility without giving clients your workspace
- H3: Time tracking that feeds an invoice
- H3: Capacity planning across concurrent projects
- H3: Templates for repeatable project shapes
- H3: Permissions that survive a freelancer
- H3: Reporting your clients will accept
- H3: The cost of getting the data back out

### H2: Three categories of tool, and who each suits
_Give the reader a map rather than a ranking. Lightweight trackers, all-in-one platforms, agency-specific tools — with the honest trade-off of each._
- H3: Lightweight task trackers
- H3: All-in-one work platforms
- H3: Agency-specific tools

### H2: A 20-minute evaluation you can run this week
_Convert criteria into a procedure: set up one real live project in each shortlisted tool and time it. This is the section that makes the post worth bookmarking._

### H2: Rolling it out without the team quietly ignoring it
_Adoption is where these purchases fail. Cover the first-week rules, who owns the tool, and what to switch off._

### H2: The questions to ask before you sign
_Short close. Contract length, data export, seat pricing for freelancers, what happens at renewal._

## Keywords
**Primary:** project management tool for small agency — place in the H1, the first 100 words, and one H2.

**Secondary:**
- agency workflow — the 'why generic tools break' section
- client projects — criteria section, naturally
- task tracking — the tool-categories section
- agency capacity planning — its own H3
- time tracking for agencies — its own H3
- agency project templates — its own H3
- PM tool evaluation — the 20-minute evaluation section

## Internal links
- /agency-operations-guide (anchor: how agency operations differ)
- /client-onboarding-checklist (anchor: onboarding a new client project)
- /time-tracking-for-agencies (anchor: time tracking that feeds an invoice)

## Target word count
**1,800-2,200 words.** The criteria section carries seven sub-sections that each need a concrete test, and under-writing them turns the post into a listicle the reader has already read elsewhere. Above 2,400 words the evaluation procedure gets buried.

## Meta description
> A practical guide for small agencies choosing a project management tool: the seven criteria that matter and a 20-minute evaluation you can run this week.

_151 characters._

## Note on this brief
The intent judgement above is inferred from the keyword phrasing, not measured from a live SERP — I have no web access. Before writing, check the current top five results yourself: if they are all vendor comparison pages rather than guides, the intent has shifted commercial and the outline should lead with the tool categories instead of the criteria.