Using Content Calendars to Plan SEO Blogs

Business owners often find themselves overwhelmed with the content required to keep up on the web. Whether you’re creating blog content for your business website to improve search engine optimization (SEO), filming short videos for social media, or creating any other type of content, it can be easy to lose track when juggling dozens of pieces of content each month.

Thankfully, creating a content calendar can be a great way to keep all your team members on the same page and your content organized. If you’re wondering what a content calendar is and how to use a content calendar for SEO, we’ve got answers for you below:

What is a Content Calendar?

A content calendar functions like an editorial calendar and lists the publication date, publication platform, and other vital information needed to post each piece of content your business creates. You can also use a shared content calendar among your marketing team so that everyone knows when a particular blog was posted and who posted it.

Simply put, whether you’re using a content calendar for your SEO strategy, a dedicated content marketing strategy, or something else entirely, this vital tool can help ensure that your content gets posted at the right time and place without hassle.

Pro Tip: Put Someone in Charge of Managing Your Content Calendar

Before getting into how to use a content calendar for SEO, you need to know that it can’t do its job if you don’t have someone in charge. Merely creating a content calendar and then filing it away somewhere on your computer means you won’t reap the benefits. We suggest placing someone or a team in charge of creating, updating, and implementing your content calendar so that it doesn’t go to waste.

How Do You Create an SEO Content Calendar?

The first step in creating a content calendar is to set goals and create a plan. For SEO purposes, this usually means conducting keyword research to find out what keywords your business should target to match search queries from potential customers. During your research, you’ll want to use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner or paid tools like those offered by SEMrush or Ahrefs.

These tools can help you narrow down the best keywords to target based on metrics like search volume and intent, which are crucial to any comprehensive SEO strategy. You can also research how competing content performs by checking search engine results pages (SERPs). This means searching for a specific keyword or phrase and evaluating the top results.

Create Your Content Plan

Once you know what keywords to target, you can begin brainstorming content ideas and creating the content. During this phase, you should always keep your target audience in mind and write blog posts for customers, not search engines.

You can also take into consideration your timeline for content creation. Are there any holidays or special events coming up? Do you have any news about your business, employees, services or products? Have there been any exciting developments in your industry that you want to share with customers?

This information can be used when planning your content calendar, as you’ll want to create content that offers value. Think about what your target audience cares about and then align those topics with your keyword research.

Post Your Content

Once you’ve identified the right content to include in your calendar and have noted what content will be posted where and when, it’s time to post your content, while you can certainly post your SEO content on the appropriate day according to your calendar, you may find it more helpful to schedule posts ahead of time.

Most web development platforms offer options for this, and if you’re working with a digital marketing agency like E-Marketing Associates, we can also take care of scheduling and posting for you. Scheduling SEO blog posts and marking them as complete on your content calendar makes the process more efficient.

Monitor Your Progress

Lastly, monitor your progress. Have your blog posts gained traction or garnered clicks? How long does the average visitor spend on each blog post? What search terms caused someone to arrive at a piece of SEO content?

The answers to these questions can help you refine your content calendar by showing what content people engage with the most. This information can then help you create a stronger content calendar going forward. You might also gain some new keyword ideas based on your analytics.

What Types of Content Should Be Included in Your Calendar?

For SEO content, you’ll want a mix of topical and evergreen content. Topical content is content that is relevant to current events, and evergreen content is content that will provide value regardless of changing circumstances like seasons or trends.

Evergreen content is still valuable content, but these days, artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can answer basic questions. Instead of writing SEO blog posts that contain general information, you’re encouraged to write content that goes deeper and provides a personalized look at topics that AI can’t easily replicate.

You can also repurpose content from other parts of your content strategy. For example, many content repurposing strategies rely on turning video content into blog content. You can either write a blog post about a video topic you’ve already covered on a streaming platform like YouTube or break out more nuanced topics from a main topic you’ve covered in a video.

Build Flexibility Into Your Content Calendar

Lastly, if you really want to know how to use a content calendar for SEO effectively, make sure to build in some flexibility. While the purpose of the calendar is to map out what content to post on a specific date to achieve objectives along a timeline, you don’t want to miss opportunities by being too rigid.

For example, if a major news story breaks in your area or industry, it would make sense to consider creating content about it. Doing so may allow your business to ride the hype surrounding the story and gain online visibility in search results.

If you haven’t left any wiggle room in your content calendar for changes, you may miss out on this short window of opportunity while your competitors take advantage of it. You might consider adding one topical piece of SEO content to your calendar each week or bi-weekly. Then, follow industry and local news to create something engaging based on current events.

Get Expert Solutions for SEO, Content, and More - Contact E-Marketing Associates Now!

If you’re finding it harder and harder to keep up with SEO content production, content calendars, and other aspects of your digital marketing strategy, E-Marketing Associates can help. We provide a range of solutions using the best SEO practices for small business websites, and our team of experts can take care of all the hard work for you. If you’re ready to gain visibility in search results, contact E-Marketing Associates to schedule your personalized consultation.