editorial calendar Archives

As much as we bloggers love to focus on it, SEO is really a small consideration for us – or should be.

The heck, you say! Getting found is the paragon of publishing success!

Yes. It is. But let me explain.

Search Engine Optimization, as a process, is fairly straightforward. It’s about giving a robot, like Google, a very precise, very clear view of what your content is, how it relates to the rest of the web, and why you deserve more points for quality and relevance on certain subjects than other websites do. It’s an almost religious-scale obsession for some web workers, because we know so little about how the robot works, and what really has an effect on the rankings.

Bloggers have it fairly easy. Where some sites struggle for rankings on their own business names, we have an opportunity to work both towards our readers’ benefits, and align our sites with the robots’ required signs of quality. How? Because we know the following;

The robot loves content. New, fresh, refreshed sites draw the robot back for more. If we’d just write our darn blogs, we can already have a head start over other classes of website.

The robot loves consistency. If we make sure our content is on purpose, rather than shooting off on tangents, we’re sending signs that we’re worth authority.

The robot LOVES consistency! Schedule, will you? Keeping on top of our internal calendars gives us yet another advantage.

People love taking action, and the robot loves seeing action taken. Bookmarking, revisiting – any actions the robot can tell are available to the visitors of a site send signals that interactivity is available. It’s good for the people, thus good for the robot.

People like to share – and when sharing happens (in certain ways) the robot takes notice. Having your pieces passed on, or passing on the work of others, sends yet more signals that your site is worth paying attention to – not just to the robot, but to the people who are looking for something to pay attention to!

We all love to talk, especially to each other. Content is relevance. Updated content is increased relevance. Discussion on, around, or about your site is a huge indicator that you may be engaging with people, and the robot loves signs of interactivity. So do people, by the way. don’t we?

Back up and thing about that for a second. Content is relevance.

Bloggers have unique opportunities. Where business, individuals, and all manner of website creators have to think about information architecture, content strategy, and minutiae of all kinds, for the blogger, the content IS the strategy. We can say whatever we like, sure, but building a set of guidelines for ourselves, encouraging people to get on board with what we’re saying, and over all making our blogs useful, puts us far ahead of the game.

How can you put this into action for yourself?

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Or, read the entire SEO for Bloggers series from the start to see where we’re coming from.

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The Editorial Calendar
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I’d like you to join the conversation. What have we missed so far? What needs revisiting? What kind of opportunities can we take from developing our content intentionally?

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Once we’ve had done with our writing, and ensured that we’ve kept with our purpose, we need to make sure we’re also keeping a schedule. While posting daily can be the bane of bloggers everywhere, that’s not what we need.

Blogging success is the descendant of consistency, not overload.

One of the big mistakes neophyte bloggers make is diving in full bore and establishing a five-to-ten posts per week schedule, expounding on everything they know without holding back. While this is certainly a good way to get noticed fast – some people just love having more and more in their readers – unless you’re ready to keep pace, it’s a trap. Falling into the daily post oubliette means, in many cases, that as soon as you lose one day, you lose stride entirely.

Missing your schedule can be catastrophic – once you’ve created an expectation, it’s hard to step down from it.

Aside from combating this simple problem by posting less (which is also a dangerous road to walk), one of the best tools to add to your kit is an editorial calendar. I don’t mean “Post about blue widgets every third Monday.” As much as strict scheduling can be helpful for some, it’s possible to take a more organic approach to the EdCal than this process.

I use a process called the Touchstone Calendar. Basically, since i know I’ll be posting between 3 and 5 articles per week for the entire month, I plan for the lower number (which would be roughly 12 posts per four week period). Knowing I need 12 topics, I’ve broken down my writing plan into between 10 and 15 broad categories. On my whiteboard, I have this list – and as I post, I erase each topic and call it addressed for the month. When I run out of pillar topics – up goes a new, fresh list.

The Touchstone Calendar allows me to keep up with my topics, without the danger of feeling constrained to a schedule. For me, at least, this is hugely beneficial to my stress level and maintaining my interest in my own projects.

Ensuring you not only keep up your relevance by posting to your blog, but also keep your topics tight and following your purpose means your direction, tone, voice and have a far better chance of remaining sustainable.

Image by taberandrew.