Content Style Guide Template
Create a comprehensive style guide that ensures consistency across all content — voice, formatting, terminology, and quality standards for your team and contributors.
Best for: Growing teams adding writers, freelancers, or AI tools to their content process
Brand Voice & Personality
350-450 wordsDefine 3-5 voice attributes (e.g., confident, conversational, technical-but-accessible). For each attribute, provide a spectrum: 'We are bold, not aggressive. We are witty, not gimmicky.' Include 2-3 example sentences that demonstrate the voice correctly.
Tone Guidelines by Content Type
300-400 wordsDefine how tone adjusts across content types. Blog posts: conversational and educational. Case studies: professional and data-driven. Social media: punchy and relatable. The voice stays consistent; the tone adapts.
Grammar & Formatting Standards
300-400 wordsDocument your standards: Oxford comma (yes/no), title case vs sentence case for headlines, number formatting (spell out under 10), date format, and capitalization rules. These small decisions prevent constant style debates.
Terminology & Glossary
350-450 wordsList product-specific terms with approved spellings and usage. Include industry terms you use frequently and any you avoid. Specify trademarked terms with correct formatting. This prevents the confusion of 'is it setup or set up?'
SEO Writing Standards
300-400 wordsDefine SEO requirements: keyword placement (first 100 words, H2s), meta title and description formats, internal linking minimums, image alt text standards, and URL formatting. Make SEO compliance part of the style guide, not a separate checklist.
Visual & Formatting Standards
300-400 wordsDefine: paragraph length (3-5 sentences max), use of bullets and numbered lists, header hierarchy (H1 once, H2 for sections, H3 for subsections), image specifications, and pull quote formatting. Consistent formatting improves readability scores.
Content Quality Benchmarks
250-350 wordsSet minimum quality standards: minimum word count by content type, required source count, readability score target (aim for grade 8-10), and uniqueness threshold. Every piece published should meet these benchmarks — no exceptions.
Pro Tips
The best style guides are under 10 pages. If your guide is 50 pages, no one will read it. Focus on the 20% of rules that prevent 80% of inconsistencies.
Include 'before and after' examples for key voice and tone guidelines. Showing 'don't write this → write this instead' is 10x more effective than describing the rules abstractly.
Make the style guide searchable — a PDF or Google Doc works better than a printed handbook. Writers need to look up specific rules quickly, not read the guide cover to cover.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I update the style guide?+
Review quarterly, update as needed. Your voice evolves, new terms emerge, and SEO best practices change. An outdated style guide creates more problems than no guide at all. Averi's brand memory adapts continuously without needing a static guide.
How do I get freelancers to follow the style guide?+
Make it mandatory reading before the first assignment, and include a 5-question quiz to confirm comprehension. Reference specific guide sections in your content briefs. Most freelancers want to follow guidelines — they just need them to be clear and accessible.
Should my style guide cover AI-generated content?+
Yes. Add a section on AI usage: when AI assistance is acceptable, how to review AI output for brand voice, and requirements for human editing before publication. Averi handles this natively — the brand voice is built into the AI, not applied after.
Templates are a starting point. Averi is the engine.
Averi turns this framework into a living content engine — strategy, creation, SEO, publishing, and analytics in one workflow.
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