Enhance Existing Articles Before Creating New Ones

Task Library

Force a search-first discipline on all content proposals – improve the page that already owns a concept instead of publishing thin new competitors, keeping effort on Greatest Hits rather than net-new bets.

Category: SEO & Content Architecture

Use this when anyone – human or agent – proposes a new article, and before any new draft is approved.

Inputs

  • The proposed topic/concept, named in one line
  • The SEO Tree map and WordPress search access
  • The Nine Requirements checklist from the Task Library Standard

Steps

  1. Search first: check the tree map, WordPress search, and a site: query for the concept – find every page that already touches it.
  2. If a hub already owns the concept, enhance it instead of publishing a competitor: sharpen the definition, add new linked examples with notes, refresh data, strengthen the E-E-A-T section, improve the above-the-fold diagram.
  3. If coverage exists but is scattered with no clear owner, pick (or build) one hub and fold the fragments into it – consolidate and 301-redirect the rest.
  4. Only create a new page when nothing on the site owns the concept – and then build it as a definitive article to the Nine Requirements, not as another thin post.
  5. Apply the content-strategy ratio: roughly 90% of effort on proven existing content (Greatest Hits), 10% on new experiments.
  6. Re-verify the enhanced page against the Nine Requirements and republish in compliance with /blog-posting-guidelines.
  7. Record the decision (enhance / consolidate / create new) in the content inventory so the tree map stays true.

Definition of done (QA checklist)

  • Documented search performed before any new page was approved
  • No new page published on a concept an existing hub already owned
  • Enhanced page re-checked against the Nine Requirements (definition, process, examples, cross-links, CTA, guidelines, short URL, diagram, E-E-A-T)
  • Decision logged in the inventory; tree map current
  • Linked back to the definitive article (/seo-tree) and relevant siblings

Example(s)

  • Example needed – run the Meta-Article Prompt (/meta-article-prompt-template) after the first enhance-vs-create decision is executed.

File in the zip: skills/seo-content-architecture/enhance-existing-articles-before-creating-new-ones.md. Download the Task Library zip.

Index: Task Library. Article guidelines.

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