How to Create a Content Style Guide for Your Team (Free Template)

A content style guide is a short, shared document that tells everyone who writes for your brand how to sound and what rules to follow: voice and tone, grammar and spelling choices, formatting, word list, SEO rules and, in 2026, how to use AI. To create one, audit your best content, define your voice, pick a base style manual, write down only the rules your team keeps getting wrong, and keep it in one place that’s easy to find. A free template is below.

What is a content style guide?

A style guide (sometimes called an editorial style guide) is a set of writing guidelines for a company’s content: blog posts, landing pages, emails, help articles and social posts. It answers the questions writers ask every week: Do we write “e-mail” or “email”? Title case or sentence case in headings? Do we say “customers” or “users”? How formal are we?

A style guide is a living document. A good one is short enough to read in 15 minutes and specific enough to settle arguments.

Content style guide vs brand style guide

A brand style guide (or brand guidelines) covers the whole brand identity: logo usage, brand colors, typography, imagery and design elements. A content style guide covers words: tone, grammar, formatting and messaging. Many companies keep the style guide as a section of the brand guide; content teams usually need it as a standalone document they can open while writing.

Why your team needs a style guide

You need one as soon as more than one person writes for your company. It helps you:

• Keep brand consistency. Readers should hear the same brand voice on the blog, in emails and in the product.
• Edit faster. Editors point to a rule instead of explaining it again in every review.
• Onboard writers. Freelancers and new team members get your standards on day one.
• Scale content creation. More writers and AI drafts don’t have to mean more inconsistency; a shared guide is one of the simplest content marketing best practices.

What should a style guide include?

Most guides cover these eight sections. Keep each one short and give examples.

1. Audience and purpose

Who you write for (roles, knowledge level, what they need) and what your content should do for them. One paragraph is enough.

2. Voice and tone

Voice is your brand personality, and it stays the same everywhere; tone changes with the situation. Describe your voice in 3-4 traits, each with “this, not that” examples:

Then show how your tone of voice shifts across types of content: friendlier on social, calmer in error messages, more precise in documentation.

3. Grammar and mechanics

Choose a base style manual so you don’t have to write every rule yourself. Common choices are the AP Stylebook (news and marketing) and the Chicago Manual of Style (books and long-form). Then list only your exceptions and the rules people get wrong: serial (Oxford) comma or not, numbers as words or digits, US or UK spelling, abbreviations and acronyms.

4. Formatting and structure

Rules for headings (sentence case or title case), paragraph length, lists, bold text, links, tables, images and alt text. Add rules for writing for the web: answer first, one idea per paragraph, descriptive headings.

5. Word list

Your product names, how to write them, and the terms you use or avoid. For example: “Contadu” (never “ContaDu”), “sign up” (verb) vs “sign-up” (noun), “customers” not “clients”.

6. Content types

Short rules per format: blog posts, landing pages, emails, social posts, help articles, case studies. Include target length, structure and the call to action for each type of content.

7. SEO rules

How writers should handle keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, headings and internal links. Link to your keyword map so each writer knows which keyword belongs to which page, and to your guide on writing meta descriptions.

8. AI writing rules

If your team uses AI tools, say how: which tasks are allowed (outlines, first drafts, rewrites), what must always be checked by a person (facts, quotes, numbers, sources), and how to keep the brand voice. Add a short list of phrases AI tends to overuse that your editors should cut.

How to create a style guide in 7 steps

Use this process to create a style guide that fits your content strategy and brand messaging:

1. Audit your best pieces. Collect 10-20 pieces you’re proud of and note what they have in common: sentence length, word choices, structure.
2. Define your audience and brand voice. Agree on 3-4 voice traits with “we are / we are not” pairs, using real examples from the audit.
3. Pick a base style manual. AP or Chicago for grammar and mechanics, plus one dictionary for spelling.
4. List your exceptions and common mistakes. Ask editors which corrections they make most often. Each one becomes a style guideline, written so writers can create content without asking.
5. Add the word list, SEO and AI rules. These are specific to your company and save the most editing time.
6. Get feedback. Share a draft with writers, editors and product marketing. Cut anything nobody would miss.
7. Publish it where people write. One link, pinned in your project tool and in every brief. Name an owner and review it every 6 months.

Free style guide template

Copy this template into a doc and fill it in. Most teams finish a first version in a day.

STYLE GUIDE: [Company name]

Owner: [name] · Last updated: [date]

1. AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE

Who we write for:

What our content should help them do:

2. VOICE AND TONE

Voice trait 1: We are ___, not ___. Example:

Voice trait 2: We are ___, not ___. Example:

Voice trait 3: We are ___, not ___. Example:

Tone by channel (blog / email / social / product / support):

3. GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS

Base style manual: [AP / Chicago] · Dictionary: [name]

Spelling: [US / UK]

Serial comma: [yes / no]

Numbers: [digits from 10 / always digits]

Headings: [sentence case / title case]

Other exceptions:

4. FORMATTING

Paragraphs: [max sentences]

Lists, bold, links, tables:

Images and alt text:

5. WORD LIST

Product and feature names:

Use / don’t use:

6. CONTENT TYPES

Blog post: length, structure, CTA

Landing page:

Email:

Social post:

Help article:

7. SEO RULES

Keyword use, title tag, meta description, headings, internal links:

Link to keyword map:

8. AI WRITING RULES

Allowed uses:

Always checked by a person:

Phrases to cut:

9. EXAMPLES

Good examples (links):

Before / after edits:

Style guide examples

Reading an external style guide is a great starting point and a great way to see how others solve the same problems. Two worth reading (for visual rules, look for brand style guide examples instead; a style guide for design is a different document):

• Mailchimp Content Style Guide: written for Mailchimp’s own writers and shared publicly for other content teams. It covers voice, tone, grammar and mechanics, writing for accessibility and translation, and a word list. It’s published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license, so check the license terms before you reuse its text.
• Google developer documentation style guide: a model for technical content. It shows a useful hierarchy: project-specific rules first, then the guide, then external references such as Merriam-Webster and the Chicago Manual of Style.

How to keep your style guide in use

The guide helps only if people open it. Make it part of the content creation process for every piece of content for your company:

• Link it in every content brief and in your writer onboarding.
• Turn the top 10 rules into an editing checklist.
• When an editor fixes the same issue twice, add a rule; when a rule is never used, delete it.
• Review the guide every 6 months, and note the date and changes at the top.

Common style guide mistakes

• Too long. A 60-page PDF nobody reads. Start with 3-5 pages.
• Rules without examples. “Be friendly” means different things to different writers.
• Copying another company’s voice. Borrow structure, not personality. Your brand story and brand image are your own.
• No owner. Without one person responsible, the guide goes stale.
• Hidden in a folder. If writers can’t find it in 10 seconds, they won’t use it.

How Contadu helps your team follow a style guide

Contadu helps content teams put the guide into everyday writing:

• One place for the team: unlimited team members and task assignment, so the guide link travels with every task and brief.
• Consistent SEO rules: the Content Writer suggests NLP terms for each page’s keyword, so every writer follows the same SEO standard.
• AI drafts in your format: custom generative AI templates let you build your structure and voice rules into the prompts your team uses.
• Original content: a plagiarism checker helps editors catch copied passages before publishing.

Try it with your team on a 7-day free trial.

FAQ

What is a style guide?

It’s a document with the writing rules for your company’s content: voice and tone, grammar and spelling choices, formatting, word list and channel-specific guidelines. It keeps content consistent across writers.

What is the difference between a style guide and brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines cover the whole brand identity, including logo, colors and typography. A content or writing style guide covers how you write. Many companies keep both, with the content guide as one section of the brand guide.

How long should a style guide be?

Start with 3-5 pages. Add rules only when the same question or mistake comes up repeatedly.

Should we use AP style or Chicago style?

AP is common for news, marketing and web content; Chicago is common for books and long-form publishing. Pick one as your base and list your exceptions.

Who should own the style guide?

Usually the head of content or managing editor. They approve changes, keep it updated and make sure new writers get it.

How often should a style guide be updated?

Review it every 6 months and after big changes such as a rebrand, a new product or a new content type.

Can I use another company’s style guide?

You can learn from public guides and adapt their structure, but check the license and give credit. Your voice should come from your own audience and best content.

Do style guides apply to AI-generated content?

Yes. AI drafts should follow the same rules as human writing, and a person should check facts, quotes and voice before anything is published.