Understanding RankUp Checklists

Written By Chioma Ugwu

Last updated 6 months ago

Checklists are one of the most powerful features of RankUp. They translate complex SERP, keyword, and competitor analysis into actionable, bite-sized tasks you can apply directly while writing or updating content. This makes implementation fast, repeatable, and reviewable. You can use them to:

  • Turn insights into tasks writers can follow

  • Reduce guesswork and creative drift when using AI

  • Systematically target featured snippets, SERP features, and keywords

This guide explains where checklist suggestions come from and how each checklist type is generated, so you can trust that every suggestion is data-driven and aligned with ranking factors.

How Checklists Are Created

RankUp’s workflows (for both Content Briefs and Update Briefs) start with a deep analysis of:

  1. Competitor analysis: RankUp identifies top competitor pages, breaks down their structure, and extracts ranking keywords and strong subtopics.

  2. SERP feature analysis: The system examines Google’s search results page features (People Also Ask, Answer Boxes, AI Overviews) and the types of content that typically appear there.

  3. Data cross-check: We examine the secondary keywords competitors are ranking for, the traffic they generate, and how they utilize them. This shows which subtopics drive results and which are worth prioritizing.

  4. Your site’s GSC data: For Update Briefs, RankUp layers your Google Search Console data (impressions, clicks, and queries) on top of the competitor analysis. This gives higher priority to keywords that Google already associates with your page, allowing you to strengthen and expand the rankings you’ve already earned.

This analysis is then transformed into checklist items that guide you on how to enhance your draft: what to add, what to refine, and where to optimize.

These checklist items appear inline next to headings/paragraphs or in the checklist panel of the Brief Editor, and can be added to chat/Writer Agent tasks.

Components of RankUp Checklists

When you apply a checklist item to your draft, RankUp gives you two layers of guidance:

  1. Checklist Item: The core instruction (e.g., “Update the direct answer for ‘What is Pendo?’ to be more direct and concise.”)

  2. Comments: Most checklist items include comments, which provide ****supporting instructions, details, context, and reasoning that show you and the Writer Agent how to implement the core instruction. These comments are crucial because they help you understand why a change is being suggested and how it can improve your content.

Checklist Types Explained

These are the checklist types you’ll find in Content Briefs and Update Briefs:

1. Keywords

  • What: Specific subtopics to add, reorder, or expand on, and where/how to do it.

  • How it’s generated: Competitor keywords and subtopics are analyzed and turned into actionable instructions. RankUp prioritizes subtopics based on traffic potential and competitor performance. For Update Briefs, Google Search Console signals are also factored in to prioritize subtopics already gaining traction for your page.

  • Goal: Keyword checklists ensure your content has enough coverage for the subtopics search engines (and readers) look for in the content.

  • Example checklist item: “In the introduction, explicitly define the term using its common variants, such as 'product/service management' and 'product and service management'”.

2. Unique Angle

  • What: Suggestions for original content or coverage that competitors miss.

  • How it’s generated: Competitor content is mined for blind spots or repetitive patterns. RankUp cross-references this with your site’s unique data and product positioning to recommend angles that make your content stand out.

  • Goal: Unique angle checklists aim to enhance the uniqueness of your content and increase user value.

  • **Example checklist item: “Beyond FAQs: How to Build a Free Knowledge Base That's Proactively Driven by User Feedback and Support Trends.”

3. AI Overview Optimization

  • What: Suggestions on how to optimize content and structure for AI overviews.

  • How it’s generated: RankUp fetches the AI Overview results, scrapes the referenced content, performs a causal analysis, and converts findings into tasks that replicate the signals the overview uses.

  • Goal: These improve the chances of your content being included in AI-generated summaries.

4. SERP Features

  • What: Tasks that target People Also Ask (PAA) boxes, Answer Boxes, and other search engine result page features.

  • How it’s generated: RankUp analyzes Google search result pages to identify which features (like People Also Ask or snippets) show up for your query. It then reverse-engineers competitor answers in those positions to uncover what factors contributed to their visibility. This insight is turned into actionable checklist items that you can use to target the same features.

  • Goal: Gain visibility in high-value result types.

  • Example checklist item: “Expand the 'Product management tools' bullet point into a dedicated subsection with specific examples.”

5. Standard SEO Best Practices

  • What: Core on-page improvements that strengthen content quality, clarity, and relevance.

  • How it’s generated: RankUp pulls from widely accepted SEO fundamentals (content depth, use of related entities, supporting research, and overall section quality, etc.) and benchmarks them against your page. It combines industry best-practice rules with competitor comparisons to highlight areas where your content might fall short.

  • Goal: Fix low-effort technical or structural blockers to ranking.

  • Example checklist item: “Integrate more diverse media, such as additional images, custom graphics, or embedded videos, to break up text and enhance engagement.”

6. Direct Answers (Update Briefs only)

  • What: Short, explicit answers placed under headings so LLMs and RAG systems can pull them verbatim.

  • How it’s generated: For each heading, RankUp compares your current answer with competitor responses, especially those appearing in featured snippets or SERP summaries. It then recommends more concise, direct phrasing with comments that provide suggested answers and clear reasoning, so you understand why it’s more effective.

  • Goal: These direct answers are designed to optimize for AI Overviews, LLMs, and Answer Boxes, increasing your chances of being featured in snippets and AI-generated responses.

  • Example checklist item: “Update the direct answer for 'What is product service management?' to be more direct and concise.”

7. AI Suggestions

  • What: Broader improvement recommendations for phrasing, structure, missing angles, etc. Helps polish sections, improve clarity, and align tone with what works in top-ranking content.

  • How it’s generated: The system analyzes your draft alongside competitor content and SEO signals. It identifies gaps (like unanswered questions, weak headings, or missing examples) and suggests edits or rewrites that boost both readability and search performance.

  • Goal: To improve the overall quality and comprehensiveness of your content.

  • Example checklist item: “Expand the FAQ with the question: 'What are concrete examples of product-related services in SaaS?’”

8. Inbound Internal Links

  • What: Suggestions of other pages on your site that should link to this page.

  • How it’s generated: RankUp analyzes the relationships between your pages and identifies strong, relevant pages that can link to the one you’re focusing on, directing authority and traffic to your priority content. It then pinpoints exact spots and anchor text for adding links.

  • Goal: To strengthen internal linking structure and funnel authority to high-priority pages.

  • Example checklist item: “Get a link to this page from 'https://www.featurebase.app/blog/what-is-productboard'.”

9. Outbound Internal Links

  • What it is: Recommendations of other pages on your site that this page should link out to.

  • How it’s generated: It uses the same semantic/topic clustering and link-distribution logic as inbound links, but in reverse, ensuring this page links to related or high-priority pages that benefit readers and improve site navigation.

  • Goal: Enhance user experience by guiding readers to relevant next steps while strengthening internal structure for improved SEO.

  • **Example checklist item: “Add an in-article internal link to 'https://www.featurebase.app/blog/product-feedback-form'.”