How to create an article from your own topic

By the end you will have a generated draft in Articles, with its evidence, its scores and a hero image on the way. Your part takes a couple of minutes; the run itself takes a few more. Any plan works, including Free, as long as you have a credit left this month.

Before you start

• A site added and its content focus confirmed. Until then Generate now is replaced by Finish setup. See how to add a new site.
• At least one article credit remaining this month. Credits are shared across your sites.
• A topic in mind. One sentence is enough: what the article answers, and for whom.
• Optional: a Brand Book and a few knowledge base sources, so the draft sounds like you and cites your own facts.

Steps

1. 1

   Open the Generate article dialog

   On Home, press Generate now in the header. Serpio prefills a suggested topic with a badge such as From public research or From your brand keywords; you are about to replace it. If the idea workbench has nothing to show, its Enter your own topic button opens the same dialog, and so does Generate on the Articles page.

2. 2

   Pick the content niche

   If your site has more than one focus, choose it under CONTENT NICHE. The line under the field says whether ideas are ready for that niche. You can type a topic either way.

3. 3

   Type your topic

   Select the suggested text under TOPIC and type your own. The source badge disappears. That is expected: Serpio will research your wording fresh instead of reusing the suggestion's evidence.

4. 4

   Review the article keywords

   Serpio automatically chooses relevant terms from the focus's measured keyword opportunities. Under KEYWORDS FOR THIS ARTICLE, leave that selection automatic or add and remove keywords to override it for this draft.

5. 5

   Add editorial direction if you want it

   Open Editorial direction · optional. Fill any of What should readers learn or do?, Your angle, Outline · one section per line (up to 12 lines) and Call to action. Leave blank what you do not care about.

6. 6

   Choose tone, style and length

   TONE is Informative, Friendly, Authoritative, Casual or Empathetic. STYLE is Blog, Editorial, Technical, Concise or Conversational. TARGET LENGTH is 600, 900, 1,200, 1,500 or 1,800 words. The SEO score's minimum word count follows this target.

7. 7

   Press Generate

   Press Generate, or Enter in the topic field. The button reads Queueing for a moment and the dialog closes. If it reads Confirm content focus instead, finish setup first. If you are out of credits, the You've hit your monthly limit dialog appears and nothing is queued.

8. 8

   Watch the job card

   You land on Articles with a card headed Generating your article. Now working on names the current stage while Plan, Research, Write and Finish tick off. Prepared for this article shows how many sources, knowledge passages, link options and target words the run has. You can leave the page.

9. 9

   Open the draft

   When the card reads Draft ready, the article card takes its place with a Draft chip and SEO and GEO bars. Click it to open the workspace.

What happens next

• The hero image generates in the background. Publish stays disabled until it is ready or has failed.
• The first quality check ran during generation and runs again after any edit you save.
• The draft always waits for you. Open it, review it, then click Publish and choose at least one destination.
• One credit is used now that a draft exists.

If something looks off

• Generate now is missing and you see Finish setup. Confirm the content focus, keywords, audience and voice cues, then come back.
• The card reads Retrying automatically. The writing service was briefly unavailable. Serpio tries up to three times on its own; do nothing.
• The card reads Generation paused. Read the explanation, then press Retry generation. Your topic and settings are saved and no credit was used.
• The topic field says "Couldn't load a suggestion. You can enter your own topic." That only affects the prefill. Type your topic and continue.
• The draft looks thin on evidence. Add documents or URLs to the knowledge base and generate again; see how to add knowledge.

Go deeper

• Generating an article for every stage, the retry rules and the credit model.
• Bring your own topic on choosing a topic Serpio can support with evidence.
• A tour of the article workspace for what you see once the draft opens.
• How to create an article from an idea if you would rather start from the workbench.