User Guides
Writing Backgrounds for Editorials
Learn how to write Backgrounds that give Rank Engine real material to work with. Covers what to include, how to explain the “how,” and what makes the difference between weak and strong.
User Guide
Using ARI for Better Backgrounds
ARI is Rank Engine’s assistant for improving your brand integrations.
It stands for:
- Assess
- Research
- Integrate
Its purpose is simple: to help turn rough, incomplete, or overly vague Background information into something Rank Engine can use well.
First, the important distinction
ARI is for branded Backgrounds.
It is there to help when you are writing Background information about:
- A company/brand
- A founder
- An expert
- A professional
- Or another subject you want meaningfully integrated into your articles
It is not for non-branded keyword-driven orders. Non-branded Backgrounds are much shorter and mainly there to describe the product or service being promoted to ensure optimal link placement.
How ARI works
ARI improves a Background in three steps.
1. Assess
ARI reviews what you have written and checks whether it is actually usable for order planning and article writing.
That goes beyond surface-level writing quality. It looks at whether the Background contains enough real substance — specifically, whether your initiatives are strong enough to support the order setup you have chosen.
That means it is checking for things like:
- Clarity and specificity
- Enough usable detail, not just broad claims or generic positioning
- What the subject did, how it worked, and what resulted from it
- Whether the material is sufficient for the chosen integration style
It returns a judgement — “Good-to-go” or “Needs some work” — along with feedback on what is strong and where the gaps are.
2. Research
If the Background needs more depth, ARI can look up useful public information to help fill those gaps.
That might include:
- The subject’s website or company website
- Business listings and profile pages
- Other relevant public sources connected to the subject
ARI gathers verified sources and keeps them separate from your original text. You can then double-check the generated Backgrounds before submission to ensure accuracy.
This is especially useful when the facts are out there but your Background is still rough or incomplete.
3. Integrate
ARI then rewrites the Background using your original text, the assessment findings, and the research it gathered.
ARI keeps things neutral-positive, non-promotional, and uses verified, non-controversial facts.
ARI is not trying to hype the subject, it is trying to make the Background stronger, clearer, and more usable.
ARI adapts to your setup
ARI does not use one generic standard for every project.
It takes the order setup into account, including:
- Whether the Background is project-wide or set per-placement
- Whether the campaign is using Single-section or Multi-section brand integration
- How much substance is likely needed for that configuration
A Background that is perfectly fine for a lighter integration may not be strong enough for a more prominent one.
This is one of the most useful things ARI does — it checks the Background against what the campaign actually needs, not just against a generic quality bar.
How to use ARI in practice
A simple workflow:
1. Start with what you already have
Even if it is rough, put your notes into the Background field.
2. Run Assess
See whether ARI thinks the Background is already strong enough or whether it is missing important detail.
3. Run Research and Integrate
If the Background needs work, let ARI pull in useful public context and rewrite it more cleanly.
4. Review the result
Check whether the revised version is clearer, more specific, more complete, and more usable for the campaign you are building. You stay in control of the final wording.
5. Save it and move on
Once the Background feels strong, you are in a much better position to build the rest of the campaign properly.
Final takeaway
The best branded Backgrounds tell us who the subject is, what they do, how they do it, and the outcomes/results of their various initiatives and methodologies.
ARI helps by assessing what you wrote, researching what is missing, and integrating stronger detail into a better version.
If your Background feels vague, thin, rushed, or hard to structure, ARI is the tool that helps turn it into something Rank Engine can actually use well.
And if you have any questions or need more guidance, please get in touch.
Read More »
User Guides
How to Use the Project Builder
A practical guide to setting up an order in Rank Engine’s Project Builder: from choosing project-wide or per-placement settings to outreach strategy, brand integration, and delivery.
User Guides
Choosing the Right Brand Integration
How to choose the right Brand Integration based on your campaign goals, Background strength, and how prominently the subject should feature.
User Guides
Article Topic vs Article Brief
Understand the difference between Article Topic and Article Brief, when to use each, and when to leave both blank and let Rank Engine develop the direction from your Background.
