Your first article with the AI Content Editor

The AI Content Editor is Rankion's workbench for articles that rank in Google and get cited by ChatGPT/Perplexity at the same time. This guide takes you from picking a keyword all the way to publishing.

Preparation — pick a keyword

Without a keyword there's no direction. If you don't have one yet, jump into the Keyword Explorer and find one with decent search volume and acceptable difficulty. How that works is described in Keyword research with the Explorer.

Important: pick one main keyword plus 3–5 semantically related terms. The generator uses them to build depth and relevance.

Create the article

In the UI: Content → AI Content Editor → New article. Pick your project, enter a working title and the main keyword. Via the API:

curl -X POST https://rankion.ai/api/v1/projects/{project_id}/articles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Vegan protein sources 2026", "keyword": "vegan protein"}'

Response: HTTP 201 with the article ID. The article is now created as a draft — without content for now.

Start generation

Now the main step. Pass the generator the keyword, article type, target length, tone and language:

curl -X POST https://rankion.ai/api/v1/articles/{id}/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "keyword": "vegan protein",
    "article_type": "guide",
    "target_length": 1500,
    "tone": "informative",
    "language": "en"
  }'

Cost: 5 credits. The call is asynchronous and immediately returns HTTP 202 with a job_id. The actual generation run takes 30–90 seconds in the background.

Valid article_type values include: guide, listicle, how-to, comparison, landing-page. More options in AI Content Editor.

Poll until done

In the UI you see a live status (polling every 5 s) — you can leave the page and come back. Via the API you poll the article:

curl https://rankion.ai/api/v1/articles/{id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

As long as processing_status is processing, generation is still running. Once completed, content_html and content_markdown are populated.

Score & optimize

Before you publish: have the article scored. The score measures SEO (on-page factors), GEO (LLM citation potential), readability and structure quality.

curl -X POST https://rankion.ai/api/v1/articles/{id}/score \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

You get 15–30 concrete improvement suggestions. With /optimize you can also have them applied directly — see AI Content Editor and Articles API.

Publish

If you have a WordPress or Shopify connection set up in your project, you can publish directly:

curl -X POST https://rankion.ai/api/v1/articles/{id}/publish \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"target": "wordpress", "status": "draft"}'

We recommend the first push as draft, then a manual review in the CMS, then live.

Tips for better results

• Specific keywords beat generic ones. "Vegan protein sources for strength training" produces clearer articles than "protein".
• Lock down the tone — expert, friendly, provocative. Consistency beats arbitrariness.
• Keep target length realistic. Long-form (>2000 words) needs more semantic depth; for thin topics, prefer short and concise.
• Use the score loop: generate → score → optimize → re-score. Three rounds usually suffice for top-ranking quality.
• Bring in your own knowledge: add brand data, USPs and FAQs into the editor. The generator will preferentially pull from them.

Next up are Optimize content for Google + AI for existing URLs and Track AI visibility (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) to measure impact in AI search.