Topic Research

What this skill does

The master pipeline. Give it a client domain and it runs seven phases in sequence, account understanding through to a prioritized content roadmap ready to brief:

1. Business Context - website crawl + Ahrefs site metrics → product, ICP, pricing, competitors, organic footprint
2. Opportunity Extraction - 7 types of content angle (competitor, objection, feature, use-case, industry, pain, winner expansion)
3. Keyword Validation - Ahrefs volume, KD, related terms per opportunity
4. SERP Qualification - live SERP check, QUALIFY / CONDITIONAL / KILL (many topics die here - that's the point)
5. Business Fit Filter - 5 commercial gates per keyword
6. Topic Shaping - assigns content format to each survivor
7. Prioritization - 6-dimension scoring → tiered, sequenced build queue

Two approval checkpoints are built in (after account picture, after opportunity angles) so the strategy stays grounded before any keyword work scales.

Inputs

• Client domain - e.g. risevision.com
• Context (optional) - priorities, target segments, competitors that matter
• Other MCPs (optional) - if a Google Search Console, CMS, or analytics MCP is connected, it pulls live rankings and traffic data in Phase 1

Requirements

• Ahrefs MCP server connected (volume, KD, SERP overview, organic keywords)

When it activates

• "run topic research for [domain]"
• "build me a content roadmap for [client]"
• /topic-research <domain>

Output

A tiered, sequenced build queue of content topics - each validated against real keyword data, SERP competition, and commercial fit. Tier 1 (≥14), Tier 2 (10–13), Tier 3 (≤9), in build order.

Tips

• Any phase can also run standalone as its own skill - paste the prior phase's output
• Bottom-funnel commercial topics are favored over top-of-funnel traffic plays
• The pipeline is designed to kill weak topics early - a short final list is a feature, not a bug