Content & tone

The content and tone settings are where you define the stylistic rules that every IndexPine article must follow. These rules are applied in addition to the brand voice fingerprint built from your existing content.

Target word count

Set the minimum and maximum word count for generated articles. IndexPine will aim to hit the midpoint. A minimum of 1,500 words and maximum of 3,500 words covers most informational content. If you target very competitive keywords, longer and more comprehensive articles (2,500–4,500 words) tend to outperform.

Tone presets

Choose from these built-in tone profiles as a starting point:

• Professional — authoritative and factual, no slang, formal register. Suits B2B, finance, healthcare, legal.
• Conversational — warm, approachable, uses contractions and occasional colloquialisms. Suits lifestyle, SaaS, consumer apps.
• Educational — structured like a textbook, lots of definitions and examples. Suits tutorials, how-to guides, documentation.
• Journalistic — objective, fact-forward, quotes sources. Suits news-adjacent or research-led publications.
• Opinionated — takes a clear stance, uses first person, not afraid of controversy. Suits thought leadership and essays.

Custom voice instructions

Write free-form instructions that override or supplement the tone preset. These are the most powerful way to shape the output. Examples:

• "Open every article with a specific data point or surprising fact, never a rhetorical question."
• "Use British English spelling throughout. Never use American spellings."
• "Write like you are explaining to a smart 12-year-old. Avoid jargon. Define technical terms the first time they appear."
• "Every article must include at least one real-world case study or example company."
• "Use Oxford commas. Use em dashes for parenthetical asides, not parentheses."

Banned words and phrases

List words and phrases the AI must never use. Each entry on its own line. The anti-slop quality gate enforces this list before a draft is saved. Common entries:

delve
leverage
it is important to note
in conclusion
in today's fast-paced
a comprehensive guide
unlock your potential
game-changer
seamlessly

Article structure rules

You can enforce specific structural requirements:

• Require a TL;DR summary block at the top of every article.
• Require a FAQ section at the bottom.
• Require a "Key takeaways" bullet list before the conclusion.
• Set the maximum H2 heading count (to prevent shallow, listicle-style articles).
• Require specific heading formats (e.g. all H2s must be questions).