Editorial calendar

An editorial calendar lists each page, its target query, its author, its date, and its status. It covers both new pages and refreshes of existing ones.

For a small product, keep it lean. Plan a few pages a month, each with one chosen query from your research. Schedule a quarterly refresh for pages that lost clicks.

A row could read: /guides/getting-started, query "how to use YourProduct", author A. Patel, due 12 Oct, status drafting. A refresh row could read: /pricing, query "YourProduct pricing", owner you, due 5 Nov, status refresh after click drop.

It turns strategy into work you can ship each week. It also blocks two failure modes: writing whatever comes to mind, and never refreshing what already ranks.

Each entry forces a decision on search intent and avoids duplicate topics. A clear target query per page reduces keyword cannibalisation and scattered drafts.

Refresh slots keep winning pages in the results. A planned revisit often beats a brand new idea for impact on your signups and demos.

Start with two to four new pages a month. Add one refresh slot for every three or four live pages that bring search clicks. Keep one buffer slot for quick wins.

• Core pages: product, pricing, features. Refresh these when they lose clicks or fall in average position.
• Evergreen guides: plan one or two a month with clear queries like "YourProduct alternatives" or "how to do X with YourProduct".
• Comparisons or alternatives: ship when search demand and intent fit your offer.
• Updates: schedule quarterly refreshes for posts with content decay or a drop in clicks.

1. 1

   Pick slots and dates

   Choose your monthly cadence, for example four slots. Fix publish days. Add one refresh slot per quarter for each key page.

2. 2

   Choose target queries

   From your research, assign one query per page. Example: /blog/compare-abc-vs-you, query "abc vs YourProduct".

3. 3

   Write the brief

   Add intent, outline, internal links to and from related pages, primary URL, and owner. Keep briefs to one screen.

4. 4

   Track status

   Use simple states: idea, drafting, editing, scheduled, live, refresh due. Keep one column for blockers.

5. 5

   Review and roll

   Each month, move shipped rows to an archive. Pull the next items from the backlog. Keep the calendar short and current.

A fixed page looks like this when shipped: title set for the query, headers map to subtopics, internal links added, and the publish date set. The refresh keeps the same URL.

Use Search Console’s Performance report to judge if the calendar is paying off. Look at clicks by page and query for the last 28 days and compare to the prior 28 days.

• Coverage: how many planned queries now have a live page.
• Time to ship: idea to live in days. Shorter beats perfect.
• Hit rate: shipped pages with any clicks after 28 days.
• Refresh impact: clicks before vs after on refreshed URLs.
• Striking distance: count pages now in positions 11 to 20 to line up next refreshes.

If a row does not move, change the plan. Swap in a lower difficulty query, improve internal links, or bring a refresh forward.

• Too many rows. A calendar stuffed with 30 ideas will slip. Keep the backlog separate.
• Vague targets. "Write about security" is not a plan. "YourProduct security" for /features/security is.
• No refreshes. Pages decay. Schedule quarterly checks on pages that lost clicks.
• Split sources of truth. One sheet, not a mix of docs, tickets and chat.
• Idea chasing. If a topic does not map to search intent, it goes to social, not the calendar.