A content (or editorial) calendar is a schedule where you visualize your content strategy. The purpose is to streamline publishing and ensure a coherent posting with no gaps or mistakes.
As a rule, such calendars include the following details:
- Title/topic
- Type of content
- Publication date
- Involved team members
- Status
Additional details that can be included are URLs, meta titles and descriptions, the channel of publication (if you are dealing with multi-channel distribution), and other information that can help optimize the process.
Why Is an SEO Content Calendar a Necessity, Not an Option?
Editorial calendars may not be essential for amateurs and people who run a blog just for fun. In their case, securing consistency and timely publishing may not be a necessity.
However, if we are talking about a business that shoots for growth, making sure that your copy gets published regularly and right at the perfect time is a matter of life and death. And that’s where calendars help.
Many companies are still relying on basic to-do lists and task management solutions in this matter. But it’s in vain. A content calendar gives you a visual map of your strategy. Thus, unlike lists and tasks, it helps you see the big picture of what, where, and why you should post.
This is a more structured approach that lets you optimize the workflow and boost productivity. It’s especially pivotal when you decide to bring together your SEO and content marketing efforts because search engine optimization takes ongoing and timely commitment.
Here are the benefits it can give you:
- Ensure copy diversity
- Ease resource management
- Simplify collaboration and copy creation
- Create a steady workflow
- Avoid delays in publishing
In the long run, a planned and organized workflow that you create with the help of scheduling will help you create a truly effective SEO strategy that brings big wins.
How to Create a Content Calendar: 7 Steps for Maximum Output
Step 1: Clarify Your Big Goals
Start by determining your primary objectives. Consider both big and long-term business goals and smaller SEO objectives that will help you move forward. Doing so is important for understanding what you need to focus on in your SEO content marketing strategy.
If you aren’t sure how your goals and strategy are connected. Let us give you a few examples:
- Let’s say you have a physical store or office and want to drive more people to it. If that’s the case, you may want to focus on local SEO in your tactics. Then, copy formats that work for local optimization, such as local landing pages and location-specific blogs, should be at the heart of your schedule.
- If your big goal is generating more leads, you may want to build your strategy around high-value, long-form copy, such as case studies, white papers, ebooks, and other formats that can serve as a lead magnet.
Step 2: Research Keywords
Look for relevant and trending keywords with an outlook on the goals you’ve defined earlier. Keywords will build the foundation for your SEO content creation process and will hint at fresh topics that you want to cover in your copy. Equip yourself with advanced keyword research tools to make this stage simpler.
You can look at big, agency-level solutions like Semrush or consider cheaper or more versatile Semrush alternatives to choose software that will fuel your strategy.
Additionally, conduct intent research to know why your prospects are looking for specific queries and what kind of copy they expect to find. Overlooking this might be a big SEO mistake. However, if you attribute clear search purposes to every article you publish, it can bring you higher rankings and improve conversions.
Step 3: Map Funnel Stages to Suitable Keywords to Formats
Every stage of the funnel implies different audience interests, search purposes, and pain points. When you consider these specs in your SEO content marketing tactic, you can make your customer journey more straightforward. Respectively, your efforts will likely pay off more efficiently.
Hence, before you organize your calendar, you want to create clusters that connect the right keywords and formats to the respective stages of your funnel.
Step 4: Identify the Optimal Publishing Cadence
The main things to keep in mind when selecting the frequency for your content calendar include:
- Business goals
- Niche competitiveness
- Audience behavior and needs
- Current copy performance
After reflecting on these factors, determine how frequently you need to publish your copy to stay at the top of your audience’s mind and resonate with it. Additionally, consider the perfect publishing cadence for each particular kind of copy.
Step 5: Build Your Schedule
When you’ve gone through all the preparatory steps, you can finally create your publishing framework. Jump-start the process by picking the most convenient calendar tool. A few popular options to consider include:
- Google Sheets
- Google Calendar
- Microsoft Excel
- Notion
- Loomly
- Coschedule
When customizing your calendar, define the details you want to include for maximum productivity. Apart from the basic information slots like article title/topic, publish date, status, participants, and others, consider including SEO-specific details that will help you stay on the right track in your strategy, such as:
- Funnel stage
- Primary keyword
- Secondary keywords
- Meta title and description
- URLs
- Title and meta description
- Featured images with alt texts
Adding these extras will help you ensure that nothing important is missed out of sight when you publish your copy.
Step 6: Schedule Update & Optimization Cycles
For maximum output, consider adding a few extra slots to your calendar for updates and optimization cycles. No secret, you need to run these processes regularly to keep your copy fresh and high-performing. However, when you have lots of commitments, it can be hard to keep this in mind all the time.
That’s why you should plan these processes in advance and integrate them into your schedule. This way, you will know in advance when a new optimization or update is due.
Besides, it’s a great way to keep the entire team informed on the important processes you have on the agenda.
Step 7: Analyze Performance and Improve
Before you start following your framework, be sure to measure your point A and detect the primary KPIs and metrics that will show you whether you are going in the right direction. Then, start implementing your publishing schedule and run occasional result measurements.
The reason you need it is to measure the output of your efforts and learn what to improve. For example, if your primary SEO content marketing goal is a traffic surge, measure your monthly traffic volumes to see how they change after implementing your calendar.
If the difference is not tangible, it’s your sign to increase publishing frequency, rethink your keywords or topics, or diversify copy forms. Analytics can also hint you when you need to implement additional, advanced SEO tactics to enhance traffic.
Conclusion
An SEO content calendar gives structure and organization to your workflow. It helps you create a visual map of your strategy and communicate its specs, such as publishing frequency within your team.
It can also help you diversify your copy, allocate resources, and link copy to the right keywords and funnel stages with more precision. As a result, your SEO wins can excel at a rapid pace.
After reading this guide, you know what an editorial calendar is and why it matters for business. You also have step-by-step instructions on how to build your own framework. Implement it in the shortest time to boost your ROIs and attain big goals more easily.
Image Source: Freepik
