Content Planning: How to Create a Blog Calendar That Drives Traffic

Publishing blog posts without a strategy is often considered by those in the field to be a waste of time. It also means that you can miss growth opportunities. A strong content calendar turns random ideas into a strategic publishing system that attracts search traffic, builds authority and supports business goals over the course of time. 

Whether you’re running a personal blog or running one for another company as part of a digital marketing agency, like us here at Kumo, you’ll find that the right blog calendar helps you to stay consistent, target the right keywords and publish content that people actually want to read. With this in mind, here’s how to create a blog calendar that drives traffic.

 

What is a blog calendar?

A blog calendar does what it says on the tin. It’s a calendar developed by a content creator that contains a wealth of blog post titles and content ideas that have been planned and mapped out for the year. It helps content creators to see what needs to be published at a specific time of the year. It usually holds a mixture of both seasonal, trending and evergreen content. But why does it matter to have a blogging calendar? 

 

Why does a blog calendar matter?

Many blogs will fail if content creation is reactive. If you want to make sure you’re planning, creating and publishing content in a professional capacity, then a blog calendar is the way to go. It enables writers to publish quality content consistently, whether it be evergreen or seasonal content. A content calendar aims to prevent the following problems:

• Inconsistent publishing
• Low-quality content
• Topic duplication
• Poor balance between trending/seasonal and evergreen content
• The inability to create accountability across teams and departments
• Poor performance measuring 

Consistency alone can improve search visibility. Search engines reward websites that regularly publish useful, relevant content. Bus consistency without a strategy is not enough, and that’s what a blog calendar does – it provides content creators with a content strategy. The real value comes from planning content around audience intent and business objectives.

How to create a blog calendar that drives traffic

Now that we’ve touched on what a blog calendar is and why it’s important, it’s time to go through how you can create a blog calendar that will drive traffic and provide you with the performance and engagement results that you need. From defining your goals to carrying out keyword research, and everything in between, here’s how you can make a blog calendar that works wonders for your traffic aims:

 

Define your traffic goal

Before taking a blog calendar and filling it with ideas, you should first clarify the kind of traffic you want. Different goals will require different content strategies, so look closely at your goals and think carefully about the best strategy to use in order to achieve them. 

 

Identify your core content pillars

Content pillars are major themes that your blog will consistently cover. Without content pillars, blogs will often become scattered and difficult for both readers and search engines to understand. Examples of content pillars when creating a blog schedule for marketing purposes include: SEO, content marketing, email marketing, social media strategies and analytics and reporting, for good measure. Each pillar can generate dozens of article ideas while reinforcing topical authority. Typically, 3-5 core pillars are chosen that will closely align with your expertise and audience needs. 

 

Carry out keyword research

When planning your blog content using a blog calendar, you need to first understand what people are searching for. This is where keyword research comes into play. You need to focus on keywords that match: audience problems, search intent and domain authority level. There are also some keyword types that you need to prioritise, including: low competition keywords, long-tail keywords, evergreen keywords and seasonal keywords.

 

Map content to search intent

You need to think about why someone is searching for specific terms online before developing the content you want to add to a blogging calendar. Generally, search intent falls under four different categories: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional. 

To do well, your blog calendar should have a mixture of all of those content types planned in. However, informational and commercial content arguably drives the most organic traffic, which is important if this is your number one aim. 

 

Build a blogging schedule that you can sustain

Many blogs will start aggressively, but they can burn out within months of launching, simply because they’ve devised a content publishing schedule that just isn’t sustainable long-term. Instead of publishing every day for two weeks and then disappearing, create a schedule that’s realistic. This includes publishing content at a rate between once and five times a week. Consistency matters more than volume in the beginning. It also keeps content quality high and prevents missed deadlines.

 

Make the blog structure simple

Keeping the blog calendar structure simple and easy to follow is always a good place to start. This helps to avoid confusion and allows for consistent content creation without feeling burnt out or overwhelmed. 

Choose some simple calendar fields, such as blog post title, research links, word count, links to content written, links to published articles, dates content was both written and published, and so on. 

However, there may be some fields that your company require you to use and fill out. A blog calendar needs to be something that someone else can pick up and immediately know what’s going on, including tracking content progress from start to finish. 

 

Balance both trend & evergreen content

Choosing just either evergreen content or only trending content isn’t something that’s going to drive traffic to your blog. So, when it comes to creating a blog calendar that will drive traffic, try to mix in both trend and evergreen content, balancing the two perfectly. 

Evergreen content, for instance, is articles that are created to generate traffic consistently over time. Evergreen content pieces include: tutorials, beginner guides, definitions, resource lists and general listicles. Trend content, on the other hand, captures spikes in interest. 

This includes industry news, algorithm changes, new platform features and viral discussions. Generally, there is a practical ratio for both evergreen and trending content. Typically, the ratio is either 70-80% evergreen content and 20-30% trend-focused content.

 

Don’t forget to repurpose content across other platforms

A blog, whether it’s your own or for a client, shouldn’t exist purely on its own. Instead, every blog post can become: social media content, email newsletters, LinkedIn posts, video scripts, infographics and podcast topics. Planning repurposing opportunities when it comes to content will directly increase return on investment (ROI) significantly. For instance, a single “ultimate guide” article could generate:

• 10 LinkedIn posts
• 5 short videos
• 1 newsletter
• 3 infographic slides

 

Review performance on a monthly basis

A blog content calendar is not static. It always needs a scope to be able to adapt and change with the times. This is why a lot of content creators will review the following things on a month-by-month basis: 

• Top-performing posts
• Traffic trends
• Keyword rankings
• Conversion rates
• Bounce rates 
• Internal linking opportunities

All of this should then be adjusted with any future content in mind. For instance, if comparison posts consistently outperform general education content, then increase that category in your next planning cycle. Data should shape future editorial decisions.

 

Plan content out in quarterly cycles

Quarterly planning is something that enables flexibility without becoming overwhelming. It encourages consistency and prevents burnout. It also allows you the time needed to come up with quality content as opposed to rushed, low-quality content that simply will not drive traffic. You can develop a practical quarterly planning system quarter by quarter. Let’s break down one quarter of the year into three months:

• Month one – do keyword research, analyse what the competitors are doing and define any campaign goals
• Month two – publish core pillar content, update older articles and promote existing posts
• Month three – review analytics, refresh underperforming content and prepare next quarter’s topics

Once one quarter has been completed, start the following quarter again, and so on, until the year has concluded. It’s a structure that keeps your blog content calendar adaptable, all while maintaining strategic direction.

 

Mistakes to avoid when creating your blog calendar

If you want to create and follow a blog calendar that drives traffic, then you need to make sure that you’re doing it right. This involves avoiding some of the most common blog calendar mistakes that someone can make. 

It’s more likely that you’re going to make mistakes if you aren’t a seasoned content creator, like the ones we have here at Kumo. If you find yourself needing some support when it comes to content creation, including devising a blog calendar, then look to the professionals to help. 

In the meantime, however, here are some blog calendar content mistakes that you need to avoid, from publishing without doing any SEO research to creating too much content in a short amount of time:

• Publishing content without doing any SEO research
• Choosing topics that don’t generate any interest or traffic
• Ignoring content updates
• Creating too much content in a short amount of time
• Choosing quantity over quality
• Focusing on trend content only
• Not tracking content results

 

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Kumo is a results-driven digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses grow online. Our team of SEO professionals, PPC specialists, content creators, and expert web designers works collaboratively to boost your brand visibility and give you a competitive edge. To find out more about our marketing services, contact our friendly and experienced team today – we’re always here to help.