Editorial standards

How every article earns its place.

theStacc publishes thousands of articles a month for our customers. Every one passes the same 7-stage standard. AI writes the draft. A human signs off. Here is the full process.

The 7 stages

Every article walks this path.

No shortcuts. No "skipped because we were busy." If a stage fails, the article does not ship.

01

Topic research

AI

We pull keyword data from DataForSEO, real People Also Ask questions from Google, and live SERPs. We pick the angle the top 10 ranking pages do not cover.

  • Search volume above 100 / month
  • Keyword difficulty under 35
  • At least 3 PAA questions to answer
02

Outline + brief

AI

The model writes a heading-by-heading outline. Every H2 and H3 maps to a real search query. The brief lists the customer's brand voice, the target reader, and the call-to-action.

  • One H1, 5 to 9 H2s, 2 to 4 H3s per section
  • Target word count: 1,500 to 3,500 words
  • One source per non-obvious claim
03

Draft

AI

The model writes the full article in the customer's brand voice. The voice model is trained on 30 of the customer's own writing samples. Every paragraph reads at a Class 8 reading level by default.

  • Average sentence length: 14 words
  • No filler phrases ("in today's competitive landscape")
  • One specific number per 200 words
04

Fact-check pass

AI + tools

Every stat, name, year, and source URL is cross-checked against a live web search. Numbers older than 18 months get flagged. Broken source URLs get replaced or removed.

  • Stats checked against original source
  • Names spelled per the original publication
  • No source older than 24 months unless evergreen
05

SEO + schema pass

AI

The article is scored against the live top-3 ranking pages. We match keyword coverage, add internal links, generate JSON-LD schema (FAQPage, Article, HowTo, or BreadcrumbList as needed), and ensure the meta title and description fit Google limits.

  • SEO score above 90 / 100
  • Meta title 50 to 60 chars
  • 3+ internal links per article
06

Human read

Human

Neha (our Content Lead) or one of her team reads 10% of every article we ship. Customer-owned articles get a customer approval step before they go live, unless the customer has chosen full autopilot.

  • 10% of articles get a full human read
  • Every customer can switch to "human approval required"
  • One rewrite request per article is free
07

Publish + monitor

AI

The article is pushed to your CMS (WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Ghost, or a custom webhook). We monitor it for 90 days. If it does not start ranking, the model writes a v2 — for free.

  • Auto-published to your CMS
  • Rankings tracked daily for 90 days
  • Free rewrite if no movement by day 90
The split

What AI does. What humans do.

We do not pretend a human writes every word. We also do not pretend the model never gets it wrong. Here is who owns what.

AI owns
  • Topic research — keyword data, SERP scraping, PAA mining
  • Drafting — every word of the first draft
  • Fact-check — running each claim through live web search
  • SEO scoring — comparing against top 3 ranking pages
  • Schema markup — JSON-LD generation per page type
  • Publishing — pushing to your CMS via API
  • Rank tracking — daily SERP checks for 90 days
Humans own
  • Brand voice setup — training the model on your samples
  • Editorial review — 10% of articles read in full
  • Sensitive topics — medical, legal, financial articles get a 100% human read
  • Customer approval — your team can approve before publish
  • Brand voice rules — Neha sets and updates the brand voice doc
  • Disclosure — every affiliate link gets a human-written disclosure
  • Complaints — every reader complaint goes to a human inside 24 hours
Brand voice

8 rules that every article follows.

These are the rules our model is fine-tuned on. The same 8 we hold ourselves to.

01

Lead with the outcome

"Rank in the Map Pack" beats "GBP automation engine."

02

Verbs beat nouns

"We publish, you grow." beats "Our solution drives growth."

03

Specific numbers, not vague claims

"30 articles a month" beats "lots of content."

04

Real customer words

"Map Pack," "near me," "free trial." Not "SERP visibility" or "demand-gen funnel."

05

Address the reader

"You," "your." Never "users" or "businesses."

06

Short sentences

Two clauses max. Average under 18 words. Headlines under 10.

07

One verb per CTA

"Start." "Try." "Watch." "Book." No compound asks.

08

Drop the qualifier

Cut "really," "very," "incredibly," "super," "actually." They weaken every line.

Sources

Where every fact comes from.

We cite original sources, not aggregator sites. Every stat must be traceable to a primary source within 24 months.

Primary sources only

Government data, the original research paper, the product's own pricing page, the actual case study — never a "top 10" listicle.

Date stamped

Every claim that is older than 18 months gets either a refresh or a "last updated" note. SEO stats older than 24 months get cut.

Outbound links to the source

If we quote a Moz study, we link to Moz. If we cite Search Engine Land, we link to Search Engine Land. Credit goes where it belongs.

No hidden ads

Sponsored content is labelled "Sponsored" in the byline. Paid placement does not buy a positive review. Ever.

Disclosure

When we earn money from a link.

theStacc earns affiliate commission on some of the third-party tools we review on this site. We disclose this in three places:

  1. At the top of every review and comparison article — in plain English, before the first paragraph.
  2. In a label next to every affiliate link, so the reader can tell which links pay us.
  3. In a sitewide disclosure footer on the privacy policy.

Affiliate commission does not change our verdict. It does not move a tool up the ranking. It does not buy a higher star rating. Tools we rate poorly stay rated poorly even when they pay us.

If a customer asks us to review a tool we are an affiliate of, we say so up front. The customer sees the disclosure exactly as the public reader does.

Corrections

When we get it wrong.

We will. We are publishing thousands of articles a month. If you spot a factual error, a broken link, or a quote we should not have used — email hello@thestacc.com. We fix it within 24 hours and log the correction at the bottom of the article.

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