Content Marketing | How to Build an SEO-Focused Content Calendar Plan

Content marketing plans are the best way to get your brand out there. Building a content calendar is an essential part of every SEO strategy. Planning content in advance allows you to create appealing and relevant content that will engage and grow your audience.

Build a Calendar into Your Content Marketing Plan

At iProv, we like to think of SEO content in terms of a snowball effect. For your content calendar, that means that you should plan ahead so that you stay on message, your keywords gain traction, and you gradually increase your credibility in search engines like google.

You can do this by creating a calendar—we advise creating a three-month calendar. This helps you create thoughtful content and keeps your content on a set schedule so that there are no surprises.

Preparing your content calendar with your SEO strategy in mind ensures you provide a diverse mix of content to your prospects and readers. Content created at the last minute is rarely the same quality as strategically planned and thoughtfully crafted pieces. An effective content calendar will address your SEO strategy and needs, include topics and posts that resonate with your audience, and are realistic for your team to execute.

Key Factors to Consider When Building Your Calendar

1. Decide on your keywords – This is an important part of creating your calendar, because keywords are the framework around which you can build your calendar. If you do your research and decide on your keywords, it gives you a structure that you can build around using different kinds of content.
2. Choose a Format – Use an Excel sheet, online calendar or printed document to plan your calendar. Your content marketing agency can help develop a format that will suit your team’s needs.
3. Get Creative – Brainstorm with your team and discuss the topics you haven’t covered yet, the ones that are most popular with your followers, and those that represent your brand and culture. Your content can questions, share news, or simply entertain provided it is relevant to your target audience and reflects your brand.
4. Consider Seasonal Factors – Depending on the topics you’ve created and frequency of your posts, fill out one to three months of your calendar. Remember not to overlook national holidays or events that are important to your brand or industry. Add the topic, the format, such as a blog post, infographic, video, or social media post – and the person responsible for posting.
5. Match Keywords and Phrases – Incorporate your preferred keywords into your content calendar, assigning one or more to each piece of content to maximize your SEO.
6. Execute Your Plan – Delegate tasks, and work with your team to plan how much lead time is needed for each type of content. Plot time to review, edit and approve content before it goes live. Make sure all content pieces meet your brand guidelines and is pertinent to the calendar topic.
7. Measure Results – Track your analytics, and determine which topics and types of content resonate most with your audience for help planning future calendars.

Are you interested in learning how to build a content calendar that will improve your SEO, engage your audience, and grow your business? Contact the content strategy experts at iProv online, or call 501-235-8194 today to get started.