Deep Research

Turn uncertainty into clarity before you ever open a blank page.

Frase Research is how you decide what's worth creating, how it should be structured, and where you actually have a chance to win.

It helps you understand what search engines expect, what competitors are doing well, and where opportunities exist that others haven't captured yet.

Prefer to do this hands-free? You can run any of these research types — validate a topic, map a cluster, size up competitors, or find competitor gaps — and get a brief back by just asking, from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client. It's included on every Frase plan. See Automate with Claude & MCP.

Why Research Comes First

Research helps you answer the right questions before you invest time writing.

• Is this topic even worth pursuing?
• What's already working in this space?
• What does Google expect to see here?
• Where can my content do something better—or different?

Research is necessary to write relevant, valuable, and optimized content.

The 4 Types of Research in Frase

Frase offers four distinct research types. Each one helps you answer a different strategic question before you write.

Build a Brief from a Topic

Use this when you're deciding what to write about.

Topic Research analyzes a keyword or idea at a high level so you can quickly judge demand and competitiveness.

It helps you:

• Validate ideas before committing
• Understand search interest
• See related questions and opportunities

Topic Research

Use this when you're devising a larger content plan.

Map subtopics, see what ranks in search, and how ideas cluster together before you choose what to write.

It helps you:

• Improve topical authority
• Optimize programmatic SEO strategically
• Visualize content clusters

Analyze Competition

Use this when you want to know who you're really up against.

Competitor Analysis compares your brand head-to-head against the competitors you choose—who ranks, how strong they are, and how they frame the topic.

It helps you:

• See who competes for your audience and where they're strongest
• Compare SERP visibility, content depth, and positioning side by side
• Spot the openings competitors leave—and pin them straight into your brief

Frase asks for the topic, the competitors to compare (Brand Hub suggestions help you fill this in fast), and what you want to learn from the comparison. When it's done, you can jump straight into Find Gaps or generate a brief.

Find Gaps

Use this when you want to find opportunities you're missing.

Content Gap Research identifies topics and keywords competitors rank for that you don't.

It's especially useful for:

• Finding high-impact content ideas
• Expanding topical coverage
• Catching up—or pulling ahead

Many teams start here to prioritize what to create next.

How Research Works

The research experience begins with a question: what are you actually trying to do? Build a brief from a topic, explore a topic space, size up your competitors, or find gaps they've missed. Each path is tailored to the goal.

Before the research runs, Frase asks four quick questions—topic, goal, audience, and market. This locks in the strategy before the SERP analysis runs, so the keywords, evidence, and brief structure it surfaces are anchored to what this specific piece needs to accomplish—not just what's generically ranking.

You can also apply your Brand Hub writing settings—brand voice, term rules, reference docs—before a single search query runs.

Where Research Fits in the Content Workflow

Research is the first step in Frase's content flow:

1

Research

You research to decide what matters.

2

Brief

You brief to plan structure and focus.

3

Content

You write with clarity and intent.

How Research Flows Into Briefs

Frase lets you move from research into briefs in two ways:

• From Create → Research, you can intentionally run research first, then create briefs using what you've learned.
• From Create → Content and + New Content button, you can jump straight into creating a brief and let Frase research topics and competitors automatically in the background.

Either way, every brief is grounded in SERP insights—so writers (and Frase) know what matters before drafting begins.

The result: clearer briefs, fewer revisions, and content that starts aligned instead of hoping to get there later.

Keep a Brief in Sync With Your Research

Research doesn't always stand still after you've built a brief. If you go back and change what the brief is based on—pin new evidence, add keywords, or adjust the plan—Frase marks the brief as stale instead of quietly serving the old version.

Open the Research session and you'll see a "Research updated" banner with an Update brief button. Click it to regenerate the brief from your current research, so the plan reflects what you actually pinned.

A couple of things worth knowing:

• If the brief is already current, regenerating does nothing and costs you nothing.
• If you've already started the article, or hand-edited the brief, Frase leaves your original untouched and builds a fresh version from the new research instead of overwriting your work.

How to Review Research

Summary Tab — Your control room to choose what goes into the brief.

You have full control to pin and curate which keywords, SERP structure, AI visibility signals, and supporting evidence integrate into your content brief and article.

SERP Tab — See how competitors have structured their content.

Word counts, domain authority, heading hierarchy. Everything you'd expect, informing a smart output.

Keyword Tab — Difficulty, coverage, and intent in one view.

Pin the terms you want the brief to target. The bottom bar tracks what you've committed to as you go.

AI Visibility Tab — View AI platform opportunities and competitor gaps.

Before you write a word, you can see which AI platforms are citing your competitors and where the gaps are for you to fill. Pin your strongest evidence—stats, quotes, and facts straight into the brief.

When you're ready, the brief is a complete strategic document with content type, target tone, core argument, a section-by-section outline with evidence already mapped in, plus a do's and don'ts guide. Everything a writer (whether in-house or AI-driven) needs before they start.

Use the Brief Builder on the right side-panel to track progress and make adjustments as needed.

Want to make changes? Use Ask AI. From there, hit Write to generate content, export the brief and write it yourself, or hand it to a freelancer. The brief is yours to use however you normally would.

How to Research for Existing Content

Keyword, SERP, and competitor research also lives right inside the content editor.

The Keyword Research tab of the right sidebar helps you initiate research, and the Checklist tab helps you optimize:

• Every evidence row links to its source, so you can check the claim before you use it.
• Draft on a topic row writes that section into your document, dropped in below the most-related section.
• As you write, the topics and questions you've covered tick themselves off.

You can research for imported existing articles too. If an imported article doesn't have a primary keyword yet, Frase asks for one first, then runs research against it.