When you review a draft for publication, you need to check that the writing supports the subject in the brief. Use Content Optimizer before publication so you can revise the draft's structure if its nearest categories differ from your intended topic.
State the intention first
Select the category you meant the piece to serve before reading any result. Choosing afterward invites picking whichever category the draft turned out to match, which measures nothing.
Choose the specific category rather than the safe parent one, which will return a comfortable result because most writing in the field sits near it.
Three outcomes
| Result | Meaning | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Your category is nearest | The topic comparison supports the intended subject | Complete the remaining editorial checks |
| Your category appears, below others | Covered, but the length is spent elsewhere | Usually structural: the opening or a background section grew |
| Your category is absent from the ten | The piece is about something else | Diagnose before rewriting |
Focus on the first few results. Later categories may be the closest remaining matches without being relevant, so ninth place does not necessarily indicate a useful match.
Diagnosing the third outcome
Three causes account for nearly all of them.
Written from the supplier's side. The commonest. A guide meant for hotel owners choosing a booking platform that explains how booking platforms are built, what integrations they offer and how vendors price them is accurate and addressed to the wrong person. Both audiences share a vocabulary, so no term count reveals it.
The opening drifted. Background grew until it occupies a third of the piece, and the nearest category describes the background.
Two subjects in one page. Both covered adequately, neither the clear focus, and the result reports the blend.
Check the opening separately
The editor accepts 8,192 bytes and refuses longer text rather than trimming it, so a long piece is checked in sections.
That is an advantage rather than an inconvenience. Checking the opening alone frequently locates the problem in one paragraph, which a whole-article number would average away.
What not to do with the phrase list
The report lists phrases associated with your category that the draft lacks. Read them as a description of what writing in that category usually involves, and ask which you have a reason to discuss.
Inserting terms to move the number produces worse writing every time, and the measurement cannot detect it. If you cannot write a full sentence a reader would benefit from, the phrase does not belong.
What the check does not tell you
Not whether the writing is accurate, good, complete, or likely to rank or be cited. It tells you whether the piece reads as being about what you intended, which is one property among several that matter.
Before approving the draft, compare its subject with your brief and investigate any mismatch. That gives your revision a specific purpose.
See Content Optimizer, how the comparison helps you edit, or checking the audience dimension.