Writing and review: article format, content types and quota

The article format every writer follows, content types and their counts, the checks a draft must pass, approval and publishing, and the monthly quota.

Property → Content → Settings7 min read

Every article follows your site's article format, whoever writes it. AutoPSEO's writer drafts from a research brief, a validator checks the draft against your format, an editor model reviews it, and the draft then waits for your approval or goes live. This page covers the format, content types, the checks every draft must pass, approval, and the monthly article quota.

The article format

The format sits under Settings → Article format (shared by every content type): "Every article follows these, whoever writes it; a content type can set its own counts on top." The site scan proposes values measured on your own articles.

Field	Default	Allowed
Title suffix	None	Up to 40 characters, separator included, added to every title
Title width	60	30 to 120, suffix included; a Chinese, Japanese or Korean character counts as two
Name every article mentions	None	Up to 60 characters, must appear exactly as written
Direct answer, most words	60	20 to 150
Sections, fewest to most	3 to 7	1 to 12
FAQ, fewest to most	2 to 6	0 to 12
Key takeaways, fewest to most	3 to 6	0 to 10
Takeaway, most characters	100	40 to 200
Sources, fewest to most	0 to 8	0 to 12
Sources must be on other sites	Off
Write the searcher's question as its own field	Off
Link only to the pages listed below	Off
Publish a new article only when every language passed	Off	See translation
Names translations keep exactly as written, one per line	None	Up to 50
Pages articles may always link to, one per line	None	Up to 200 addresses
Categories, one per line	None	Up to 50; every article then picks one

The meta description length (120 to 165 characters by default) comes from the scan's proposal and is not on the form; a description outside it only raises a warning.

Content types

Content types holds the kinds of page your site publishes: "Each kind of page lives under its own path and takes the searches its rules match; a search no other type takes goes to the default type." Each type has:

Name, and a Key (your site sees it in the webhook).
Path on your site: "Empty for the site root. Articles already published keep their address."
Rules: Takes searches that are (questions, how-tos, definitions, comparisons, alternatives, best-of lists), Or contain one of these words, and Never searches with these words. One type can be the default: "it takes every search no other type takes".
Its own counts (empty fields use the article format): sections, FAQ, key takeaways, sources, Direct answer, most words, Question field and categories. Title, brand, links and languages stay site-wide.
What the writer should know about this kind of page, up to 2,000 characters, for example "Compare the two products point by point, then give a verdict for each kind of buyer."

A type that is the site's own section receives no articles; it only steers searches away from the types AutoPSEO writes. Types built from parts of your addresses and list pages are covered in typed pages; sections served as captured, in hosting. How searches are routed to types is in topics.

The checks every draft must pass

The same validator runs on AutoPSEO's drafts and on drafts from your own AI. An error sends the draft back; a warning is kept with it.

Errors:

No title, or a title wider than Title width. A missing suffix is added for you, with a warning.
No meta description, H1 or direct answer; an H1 over 110 characters; a direct answer over its word limit.
Key takeaways, sections or FAQ entries outside their ranges, fewer sources than the minimum (extra sources are cut), a section without heading or body, an FAQ entry without question or answer, a takeaway over its length.
No question when the question field is on; a category that is not one of yours.
The brand name missing, or written differently.
On typed pages: lists outside their counts, and numbers the site's own pages do not give.

Warnings:

A link outside the allowed set, which is turned into bold text. Allowed links are the internal pages the brief suggests plus Pages articles may always link to, or only the latter when Link only to the pages listed below is on.
No link to your own site at all.
Stock phrases such as "delve into", "game-changer" or "in conclusion".
Sources dropped because they point at your own site when sources must be on other sites. AutoPSEO's writer may only cite pages from its own research.

Body HTML is reduced to p, ul, li, strong, em, a and code. There is no minimum word count; briefs aim for 1,200 to 2,000 words.

How AutoPSEO's writer works

Brief. It reads the top 10 search results for the topic, takes excerpts from up to three of them on other sites, the questions people also ask, up to 15 related searches from your own Search Console data, link candidates from your site (your Property Context key pages, live articles, top pages and sitemap) and the business facts you keep in Property Context.
Draft. The prompt carries your format and the type's instructions, and forbids inventing facts about your business.
Check. A draft that fails validation goes back once with the list of errors. If it still fails, the task fails.
Editor review. A second model scores the draft out of 100 (usefulness for the search 40, originality against the top results 20, structure 20, plain language 20) and lists blocking issues: an unsupported claim about your business, an unsupported number, a factual error, content off the search, a section with no substance, or text copied from the research.
One fix. A blocked draft is revised once and marked Needs a careful read; it is not reviewed again.

That is four model calls at most, and nothing loops. A paid step that fails is not repeated on its own.

Review and publishing

With Approve every article before it goes live on (the default), drafts wait in Waiting for review: "Drafts wait here until someone with full access approves or turns them down." Preview shows the search result, the checks (score, blocking and minor issues, warnings) and the languages. Then choose Approve and publish or Turn down. A draft that is turned down keeps counting against the month's quota.

With approval off, AutoPSEO's drafts go live by themselves, except drafts marked Needs a careful read, which still wait for a person. A draft can wait as long as needed; approving it later still publishes it. Drafts from your own AI land in review too, and its unattended run publishes them only when approval is off.

Publishing makes the revision live and keeps the earlier ones. The publication date never changes; the modified date does. Missing languages are translated first, the cover made while the article was written comes along when your site shows covers, and the article is delivered to your site. Tasks move through these states: Planned, Queued, Researching, Writing, In review, Publishing, Published, Turned down and Failed.

The monthly article quota

Plan	Price a month	Articles	Optimisations	Research credits
Starter	US$19	10	20	5,000
Pro	US$45	40	80	20,000
Business	US$279	200	400	100,000
7-day trial	Free	2	4	2,000

A new article, a rewrite and a refresh each use one article; an optimise task uses one optimisation.
The quota is charged once, when AutoPSEO's writer saves the draft, however often a step is retried. A draft that fails before it is saved costs nothing.
Not counted: drafts from your own AI over MCP, translations (they use research credits), covers, list pages, articles imported from your site, and new path values.
The month is the calendar month in UTC. When the articles run out, the queue waits for the 1st with "This month's articles are used up. The quota resets on the 1st; a larger plan carries more."

The Content page shows Articles this month and Optimizations this month against the allowance. Plans and prices: pricing.

Next: translation and covers.