Storylines

Storylines is Rankion's tool for planning topic clusters instead of producing them by accident. A storyline is a curated collection of pillar article + cluster articles around one coherent topic. You define the theme, set the sub-topics, assign existing articles or generate missing ones — and you get an overview of which pieces of the cluster already stand and which are still missing. Required for anyone thinking about SEO beyond single articles: clusters rank together, not individually.

What it can do

• Pillar + cluster model — a storyline has exactly 1 pillar article (hub) and N cluster articles (spokes). The pillar covers the topic broadly, clusters go deeper on aspects.
• Topic outline — AI-driven outline builder: you give the main theme, Storylines proposes 8–15 sub-topics, each with search intent and difficulty.
• Article assignment — assign existing project articles or generate missing ones with a click based on the sub-topic (see AI Content Editor).
• Status visualization — the storyline dashboard shows missing / draft / published per cluster article.
• Linking recommendation — Storylines combined with Internal Linking suggests pillar↔cluster cross-links.
• Editable — rename, reorder, delete, add sub-topics — all without losing data on already-assigned articles.

When to use

• You're starting a new content effort in a niche and want to publish cluster-oriented from day one.
• You have 20+ articles around one main topic and want to retroactively put them into a clean pillar structure.
• You're planning a mini-book / guide series and want to track ordering + coverage.
• You want to give Agentic Chat a briefing source so the master agent generates cluster-consistent content.

Workflow

1. Create storyline — POST /projects/{project}/storylines with title and main topic. AI builds the outline.
2. Edit sub-topics — adjust the outline until it fits.
3. Assign articles — drag & drop existing articles onto sub-topics, generate missing ones with a click.
4. Publish — finished cluster articles are published via the editor; the storyline dashboard updates status live.
5. Link — an internal-linking run within the storyline scope builds pillar↔cluster connections.

API

Body of POST /projects/{project}/storylines:

{
  "title": "Stoßdämpfer wechseln — Komplett-Guide",
  "main_topic": "Stoßdämpfer wechseln",
  "target_keywords": ["stoßdämpfer wechseln", "stoßdämpfer kosten"],
  "outline_mode": "ai_generate"
}

Credits & Limits

• Create storyline with outline_mode: ai_generate: 3 credits (outline generation).
• Create storyline with outline_mode: manual: free.
• Generate cluster article: standard generate cost (see AI Content Editor) per article.
• Update / Delete: free.
• Quantity limit: 3 storylines on the Free plan, unlimited on Pro+.

Related modules

• AI Content Editor — cluster articles are generated and maintained here.
• Keyword Explorer & Research — sub-topics are enriched with search volume and keyword difficulty.
• Internal Linking — the natural linking layer over every storyline.
• Content Audit — checks cluster coverage and reports missing sub-topics as action items.