Are you a blogger writing content for web media? Then you definitely need a content calendar. If you’re new to blogging or freelancing as a writer and need to know what a content calendar is, this article is for you.

In this article, we are going to explain everything you need to know about a blog content calendar. By the end of this, you will be able to create a well-planned and organized content calendar for your blog. 

As this is a beginner’s guide, we will explain everything from the basics. Starting from the basics, let’s address the very basic question in the room.

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar is a documented plan that contains information about your future blog publications and a timeline of events to be conducted for improving your blog’s performance. Performance here means ranking higher on search results and getting more clicks. 

Content calendar helps writers plan and manage their article publication date and reduce the pressure of writing articles quickly. Planning always helps you do better. The very purpose of a content calendar is also the same. It’s more than just a calendar, it helps you develop your blogging strategy.

Why do you need a content calendar for your blog?

Ever faced running out of ideas for blogs? Or can’t publish your blog on time? That’s a call for content planning for your blog. Whether you write for yourself or for your clients what you need is a detailed plan for managing your blogs.

Writing about topics that just occur to you may save you for a while but to build authority over your niche, you need better planning. Having a content calendar can help you plan and build your content strategy. 

No matter whether you are a blogger, freelancer, or business person, if you write for blogs, you can’t skip the need for a content calendar.

Here are some of the major benefits of having a content calendar for your blog. 

Keep consistency – A content calendar can help you keep consistency on your blog posts. You can plan and schedule the publish date for blog articles. Publishing fresh and unique content regularly can help improve your SEO performance. It helps Google notice your blog site, and the search algorithm ranks your articles higher on search results.

Proper research – Having a content calendar can help you plan your content strategy so that you will get enough time to research. Writers often compromise on research to keep up with deadlines. You can’t ignore research especially when you are writing a new topic on your blog. Allocate enough time for research on your calendar.

Increase productivity – Planning does increase your productivity, and that’s a no-brainer. With a proper plan and a schedule in place, there will be no wasting of time or rushing at the last minute.

Keep track of your progress – With a content calendar, you can track your progress by analyzing whether you are going as per the plan or not. It’s always a reminder about what you’ve left to do and will motivate you to complete your to-do lists.

Never miss a deadline – When you have a planned calendar for your blog, you will never miss out a deadline. Always be aware of your deadlines and make sure you can meet your deadlines.

How to create a blog content calendar?

Now that you know what is a content calendar and why you need one, let’s see how you can create a content calendar for your blog. 

Follow the below steps to create a blog content calendar.

Step 1: Identify your goals

This is the first step before you plan for your blog content calendar. You have to identify your objectives. Don’t be ambitious with your goals. List out achievable goals that you can set to reach in a specific timeframe.

When finding goals, you can list out your short-term and long-term goals. Make sure your short-term goals contribute to your long-term goals. This will help in creating a successful actionable content plan for your blog.

Step 2: Do your research

Research is very much essential when creating a content calendar for your blog. You have to do proper research to identify potential topics and keywords. In this stage, you may have to do keyword research, competitor analysis, and find out potential keywords that can bring traffic to your blog site. 

Identify topics that your target readers are interested in and are relevant to your business. Let’s say, for example, that you sell motorcycle riding gears, so your target audience might be interested in motorcycle maintenance tips, best riding gears for winter, etc.

You can also rely on keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or RankRanger for finding potential keywords and topics your competitors are ranking for.

If you want to improve your writing for SEO, check out our detailed article on ‘How to Write an SEO-Friendly Article in WordPress?

Step 3: Plan your schedule

Once the research part is over, the next step is to plan your schedule. Whether you’re planning a calendar for a month, quarter, or year, you should create one that will help you reach your goals. 

When you are planning for your blog calendar, always remember, consistency is the key that will take you to success. You can plan to publish your blog on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis depending on your niche. Stick to a fixed schedule for publishing your blog posts. 

If you are publishing on a weekly basis, let’s take Thursday as your publishing day. Likewise, you can take any day for publishing your articles. But you should never miss a publish date, even if that’s a holiday. Your readers are eagerly waiting for your new blog, so keep them posted.

Your schedule should also include the plans for other days as well. You may choose a day for research, proofreading, email campaigns, etc. Find an example below:

  • Sunday: Topic Research
  • Monday: Keyword analysis and competitor research
  • Tuesday: Writing the article
  • Wednesday: Proofreading, On page SEO, and drafting
  • Thursday: Publishing the article
  • Friday: Sent emails and newsletters to subscribers
  • Saturday: Track the performances of previously published articles

SEO is not a one-time practice, so it is important that you should update your articles regularly depending on their performances. 

Here is an article on seo tips to optimize your blog posts.

Step 4: Prepare your calendar

Now, lace up your shoes, it’s time to prepare your blog content calendar. (🥁 drum roll 🥁)

You can use any spreadsheet software like Google sheets or Excel or even Google calendar for creating your blog calendar.

Reaching this step, you have identified your goals, conducted research on how to meet your goals, and developed a plan to meet your goals. You only need to do is to add the data in a document for your reference.

Sometimes you may need to update your calendar, the only way to create a successful calendar is by trial and error method. You can make changes accordingly by analyzing the results of your blog performance. 

Following are some of the fields you may include in your content calendar. 

  • Topic: The actual topic of your blog post. ( eg: X best Motorcycle riding gears for winter)
  • Primary keyword: The main keyword you are focusing to rank for ( eg: Winter riding gears)
  • Secondary keywords: Keywords related to your primary keyword ( eg: Motorcycle riding gears, riding gears for winter, etc)
  • Status: The status of the article ( In progress, Written, In review, Drafted, Published)
  • Scheduled date: Planned date for publishing the article (Dec 12)
  • Published date: In case you missed your scheduled date, mention the date you published the article. (Dec 13)
  • Author: If you have multiple authors on your blog, add a column for mentioning the author’s name.
  • GDocs link: Link to the Google docs. (master copy)
  • Word count: Add the word count of the article.
  • Clicks: Add the number of clicks for the article over a period of 1 month. (Obtain data from Google Search Console)
  • Impression: Add the number of impressions for the article over a period of 1 month. (Obtain data from Google Search Console)

Here is a sample template of our blog content calendar.

Sample Blog Content Calendar

Conclusion

When you have a content calendar for your blog, you can efficiently manage your blog posts without having a rush. The purpose of this article was to help you create a successful blog content calendar so that you can stay ahead of your competition. 

You may also use our free content calendar template for your blog. If you find this article to be helpful, please let us know in the comments. We value your feedback. 

Thanks for reading!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

How Can I Optimize eCommerce Product Pages for Increased Conversions?

The eCommerce landscape is booming, and online shopping is becoming an...

Email Marketing Strategies for WordPress to Drive Audience Growth and Engagement

Email marketing involves sending messages to a group of people using e...

SureCart Review: The New Way to Sell on WordPress!

Creating and maintaining an online store can be hectic when you have a...