Many SEOs worry about content length, keyword density, duplicate content penalties and backlink profiles, but without an SEO calendar and its attendant implications, all of these tactics will underperform.

If you're trying to grow your SEO traffic, you will need an SEO-sensitive editorial calendar to implement and measure all tactical and strategic inputs.

Some of the components of SEO Content calendarization are;

• Topic selection: using art & science to brainstorm topics
• Principled Content prioritization based on the power-law
• Keyword to page alignments & Content types

Topic selection: How to brainstorm topics using art & science Topic selection is the foundation for an effective SEO calendar. It begins with the creation of a seed keyword list with considerations for search intent, search volume, traffic potential, percentage of searches without clicks, the potential for query modification & ranking potential, etc.

In building a list of seed terms and topics, the first step involves mind mapping. This is done by placing the chosen seed terms at the center of the mind map and then brainstorming various modifying phrases with which the seed term or topic can be expanded to generate new keyword ideas.

Then the next stage involves coming up with a content competitor's list. This is important because, with a list of seed terms and competitors, it becomes possible to mine for keywords that best align with searcher behavior, as well as target different stages of your funnel. E.g. For awareness positions in your funnel, you'll use competitor research to come up with high volume and broad intent topics, while for purchase or referral objectives, you'll select low volume but narrow intent topics.

Characteristics of a content competitor

• A content competitor should be a niche website
• A content competitor should not necessarily be a site that offers your exact product or services
• The content competitor should have identifiable weaknesses in relation to the website you'll be publishing with e.g It should have a relatively lower domain rating, poorer UX, have articles of lower quality or that are outdated, etc.

Some of the extensions required to achieve a comprehensive seed term and content competitors list are

• Keywords everywhere
• Moz bar plugin

As stated earlier, seed terms or topics are selected based on traffic & ranking potential. To estimate ranking potential, we must first analyze the SERPs for gaps like;

Relevance gaps: These are assessed by finding incomplete matches between query intent and the content served from the highest-ranking pages for that query.

Domain authority gaps: These are assessed through proprietary formulas from a number of SEO tools including SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, etc. Domain authority is a rough estimate for PageRank, while is Google's measure for the backlink quality of a domain.

Quality gaps: These are assessed by observing for shortcomings in content expertise, outdated nature of the content, bad UX of the page, narrow as opposed to the comprehensive character of the content, etc

Topical Authority Gaps: These types of gaps refer to SERPs that have ranking pages that do not have sufficient numbers of pillar or cluster pages around the seed topic. When such a SERP is observed for a particular keyword, a topical authority gap has been identified.

Process of uncovering specific topics from seed keywords

A topic opportunity arises when a clear content direction develops out of a seed keyword idea. This is helpful because the seed topic would usually have a larger search volume but narrower intent than the seed term it arose from. One of the easiest ways to convert seed terms into topic opportunities is by using

• Using search operators or Google's advanced search tool to find ranking pages for your seed term within specific sites (usually sites that you have selected as content competitors).
• Using entity cards from image results arising from the seed term.
• Using Google autosuggestions: This can be done by typing the seed term into google search and scraping out the suggested searches that google has anticipated based on the seed term.
• Using Google's "People also ask" & Related searches box

Content prioritization

The Parieto principle says that 80% of results come from at most, 20% of inputs. This means that of all the seed terms and seed topics that are generated, only 20% of them would produce 80% of the SEO result. This exact phenomenon is what creates the need for content prioritization.

To prioritize content, we would need to organize our seed topics based on not just search volume or ranking potential, but business value. Business value can vary from one website to another. For an eCommerce blog, the business value is derived from a keyword's contribution to the checkout process. For a saas business, the business value would be based on the relationship between the targeted keywords and overall lead quality.

Another consideration for content prioritization is the ease with which an article can be generated from a seed topic i.e Even if a seed topic has high business value and search volume, the level of expertise required to produce the write-up may be so high, that it would make sense to prioritize another seed topic.

Read: SEO driven editorial calendar Aligning Keywords & Topics to Page & content Type

There is a type of content and page that best fits with the intent of different keywords and topics as they appear in a searcher's query. Google touched on this in their website vectors' patent.

To align our seed topics with the appropriate content type, we must first evaluate content types and their characteristics which are listed below;

a ) Topic, subject, or concept types:

• No intent specified -- but we know it’s not transactional.
• User is in “unknown territory” - they don’t know what they don’t know and are looking for google and content to guide them
• Usually necessitates a Custom Outline via Research Examples of Topic, subject, or concept type Keywords
• Marketing
• Privileged access management
• Spot price
• Audiogram

Rules of Thumb for Topic, subject, or concept type Seedterms

• Start with definition as these are commonly searched with “what is” or “definition”
• Use google and topic research to determine structure and sections (see behavioral segmentation ) Might be a candidate for multi-page section “hub”

b) Informational/Concept Lists Content Types

The plural word is the ‘noun’ - the searcher generally wants information organized in that way.

Examples

• Digital marketing strategies
• Facebook ad tips
• Cybersecurity best practices
• Preschool curriculum ideas
• Customer service tools (you have to figure out what “tools” means)
• ...examples
• ...techniques
• ...skills
• ...traits The post should generally be listed and organized by a noun.

Vs variants could be

• Silver bars vs coins
• Keto vs paleo
• Hearing aid vs sound amplifier
• VPN vs Proxy

General guidelines are

1) Set content

2) Include pros and cons

3) Charts help and should be added

c) Object/Thing Lists Content Types

• Piano Apps
• Business Podcasts
• Marketing Books
• Data and research

d) "How To" Content Types

• How to jump a car
• How to cook on the grill
• How to ask a girl out

Some are clearly very step oriented (how to cook a chicken)

Some are more prose/personal (how to be happy)

But they all should focus on the how - and teach.

e) Yes / No Questions Content Types

• Is facetime safe
• is butter dairy
• Is piano hard to learn

Follow up/expanding can be thought of as asking “why”... and answering “because”...

More follow up can be “here’s what else you need to know...”

f) Medical Condition

• Hidden hearing loss Common sections are: what is, symptoms, causes, treatments,

f) Drug or Supplement Content Types

• ashwagandha Common sections are: definition, uses, benefits, forms, how to take, cons

g) More explicit intent queries Content Types

• History
• Timeline
• Pros and cons
• Facts
• Quotes
• Recipes
• Biography
• Job requirements
• Review

Content Best Practices for SEO, Click worthiness & UX

After content types have been mapped to keywords and seed topics, the next task is to improve the implicit user feedback that your content will send to google’s algorithm. All of these issues spread from readability, ctr. Formatting & on-page SEO are discussed in this resource

Conclusion The structure is more important than any SEO tip or tactic you can find. If you employ an SEO-driven content calendar based upon traffic potential and search opportunity, then you will be on the path to really start growing your traffic. So I really wish you luck with these things and I hope you can execute on these and start to see your traffic grow.