Write, review and publish blog posts

The SEO Tool writes a blog post for a keyword, checks it against your rulebook, and holds it for your approval. Use this guide to take a post from keyword to published, and to refresh it later.

Before you start

• Set up the SEO Tool and add your store as a brand. See Set up the SEO Tool. Import your existing posts at the same time, so posts already on your blog aren't written twice.
• Connect an AI model. See Connect your own AI model.
• Add at least one approved source domain in the brand's rulebook. See Set your SEO rulebook and style guides.

Generate a draft

1. In the sidebar, click SEO Tool.
2. On the Dashboard tab, find the Generate a blog post card.
3. If you have more than one brand, choose the one you want in Brand.
4. Choose what to write about:
   • Click Pick a keyword, then choose one from the Keyword list. Keywords from Search Console come first, with their impressions and position. Your own keyword bank follows. Keywords you've already written for are left out.
   • Or click New topic and type a phrase in Topic or keyword. Pinned adds it to the brand's keyword bank and writes one article for that search.
5. Click Generate draft.

   

The draft is written in the background, usually in one to three minutes. Your model writes it, your rulebook checks it, and Pinned stages it in your Shopify store as an unpublished draft. When that's done, the draft is in your task queue. Nothing is published until you approve it.

You can also click Write beside a keyword in the Keywords table on the dashboard. To manage the full list, see Manage your SEO keywords.

Find a draft waiting for you

1. At the top of the SEO Tool, click the Need approval tab, or open Need approval.
2. Find your article. Articles are grouped by what they're waiting for: Needs an image, Needs review or Needs compliance.
3. Click Review on the article's row.

   

If the draft isn't there yet, check Background work on the same page. Drafts are queued there and normally start within a minute. Click Run the queue now to start the queue right away.

Review a draft

The article page shows the draft next to what's live. For a new post, the left side says nothing is live yet. Below the title you see the article's status and word count.

Switch between views

Above the text, use these tabs:

• Proposed shows the draft as it will read, with its meta title and meta description. Their lengths are shown against the limits.
• Redline compares the draft with the previous version, section by section. Green is added and red is removed. It's unavailable when there's nothing to compare, such as a first draft.
• Edit lets you change the title, meta title, meta description and body directly. It appears while the draft is waiting for your review. Click Reset edits to discard your changes.

Your edits run through every validation rule before they're saved, then go to the Shopify draft and are approved in one step. If a save is refused, your unsaved edits are restored in this browser when the page reloads.

Read the highlights

Pinned highlights what deserves a second look: Claims, Prices, Products, Links and Glossary terms. Each chip shows a count and how many are "to check". Click a chip to hide or show that kind of highlight.

Use the side cards

• Checklist lists every highlighted item, with warnings first. Click an item to jump to it in the text.
• Search Console shows how the page and its target query are performing. Numbers appear after the nightly sync, once the page has impressions.
• Internal links shows how many internal links the text has and suggests more. Tick the ones you want and click Add selected links. On a draft, they're added to the Shopify draft as a new version, which needs approval again.
• Translations explains that translations are written after the English version is published.

Further down the page, Validation shows whether every rule passed, or lists the ones that didn't. History lists each version, review and sign-off. If the post cites sources, they're listed too, and any source outside your approved domains is marked "not on allowlist".

Decide

The decision bar sits at the bottom of the review.

1. Click Approve to approve the draft exactly as shown. It's unavailable while you have unsaved edits.
2. Or open Edit, change what you need, and click Approve with edits. Your edits are validated, saved and approved together. You can add a note about why you changed it. The note is optional and is shown to the model next time.
3. Or click Request changes. Choose a Reason, describe what needs to change, then click Send back for changes.
4. Or click Reject. Choose a Reason, explain why, then click Confirm rejection. Click Cancel to back out.

The explanation is required when you request changes or reject. It's stored and shown to the model the next time it writes for this brand.

Finish the gates

The Gates card shows what's left before the post can publish: Featured image, Editorial review, and Compliance (tier 2) when it applies. Each row shows a status such as "set", "missing" or "pending".

Add the featured image

If Featured image is marked "missing", an Add the featured image form appears. The Image brief section on the page suggests a subject, search terms and alt text.

1. In Image URL, paste a link Shopify can fetch, such as your CDN, Unsplash or Pexels.
2. Check or edit the Alt text.
3. Click Set image.

You can also upload the image in Shopify admin and click Sync from Shopify on the article page.

Complete compliance sign-off

When the Gates card lists Compliance (tier 2), a Compliance sign-off (tier 2) form appears. Add your Notes if you need to and click Sign off. Click Reject if the post shouldn't go ahead.

Publish to your store

When the article is ready, a Publish section appears with a button that reads "Publish to" and your store's name. Click it. Pinned syncs the draft from Shopify, re-runs every validation rule on exactly what will go live, then publishes. Your approval is recorded with it.

Once the post is published, the article page links to it with open live page.

Refresh a published article

1. Open the published article from your brand.
2. In the Refresh this article card, optionally add a reason in the Reason (optional; required when there are no signals) field. The hint reads "e.g. add a section on cleaning". A reason is required when the page has no Search Console signals.
3. Click Queue refresh.
4. When the refresh is ready, open the article and review it as above. The live version is on the left and the proposed version on the right, and Why this refresh: explains the changes.
5. Approve it and complete the compliance sign-off if asked. Then, under Publish the approved refresh, click the button that reads "Publish refresh to" and your store's name.

The refresh uses Search Console signals, stale years and broken links. Untouched sections stay exactly as they were. Nothing changes in your store until you publish the refresh. Pinned first checks that the live article hasn't changed since the refresh was prepared, and the article's address stays the same.

If you reject a refresh, run a new one when you want another attempt. Your SEO Manager agent can also propose refreshes. See Use the SEO Manager agent.

Troubleshooting

Generate draft is greyed out

A notice reads "Before generating for" your brand. Connect an AI model on the Connections page or add a key under Settings. Also add at least one approved source domain in the brand's rulebook. If Pick a keyword has nothing to choose, switch to New topic.

The draft failed validation

You see: "The model could not produce a draft that passes validation in three attempts. The last attempt and its failures are below." Check the Validation section for the rules that failed, adjust your rulebook if needed, then generate the draft again.

Approve is unavailable

You have unsaved edits. Click Approve with edits to save and approve them, or Reset edits to go back to the draft. Approve with edits stays unavailable until you change something on the Edit tab.

I don't see the Publish section

Check the Gates card. The post needs a featured image, your approval and, when listed, compliance sign-off before it can publish.

Product names and links aren't being checked

An alert says the product catalog hasn't been read yet. Read it on the brand's Catalog tab. See Keep your product catalog and internal links in shape.

A job failed or timed out

On the Need approval tab, Background work lets you queue a failed job again with the same request.