Do you wish your blogging schedule from start to finish didn’t take so long? It used to take me forever to create a blog, create graphics, and market my content. Not because of all the little tasks in between, but because I was spending too much time re-inventing instead of repurposing. In this post, I’m sharing what I did step-by-step to create a streamlined blogging schedule and workflow as well as a content strategy for SEO in LESS time.
Creating a Realistic Blogging Schedule
When you’re initially starting a business, it’s easy to justify wanting to show up everywhere. Be on every single platform possible and dominate the online space. In a way, it makes sense to be everywhere. But this kind of blogging schedule and strategy won’t help you grow any faster than someone showing up consistently once a week.
The only thing this does is create frustration for you, and discouragement because your excessive hard work isn’t paying off (*Cue the instant gratification). It’s understandable that you want to see success right away. I’m guilty of wanting those same things! But slow growth long-term is the best strategy for growing a successful, thriving business. That includes having a simple, stress-free workflow and blogging schedule you can easily show up for.
The key to a simple blogging and content schedule is to be realistic with how much content you are creating and at what frequency without stretching yourself too thin. If you realistically only have time to create one piece of content every week, do that! You are in total control of your blogging schedule.
Blogging Schedule Tasks & Workflow
The best thing for a lot of these tasks is to plan them ahead of time. I’m all for batching content whenever and however you can. I don’t know about you, but some tasks (if done last minute) seem like they take longer than necessary. Here’s a little breakdown of the tasks that go into a successful blogging schedule:
- Keyword research
- Title creation & ideas
- Writing, editing, and publishing, of course
- Creating graphics – This not only means for your blog posts but the 1-2 platforms you are showing up for your audience
When it comes to creating social media posts, you do NOT need to re-invent posts from scratch. You can use pin descriptions or break up paragraphs from your posts.
FIND THE PODCAST:
APPLE | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY | iHEART
Consistency is the biggest priority in building a blogging schedule. It’s the number one factor for growing your online business. Being consistent doesn’t mean having such a wild schedule that you constantly feel chained to your computer. Consistency means creating a schedule that works within the timeframe you have so you can keep showing up consistently for your audience.
Breaking Blogging Schedule & Tasks Down
Tasks you can plan ahead of time
- Researching keywords
Pick one day each month to research keywords that relate to your topic categories. If you can’t find a keyword that fits the current content piece you are working on, research keywords before you start writing your content.
- Title & topic ideas
It helps to have a Google sheet of each category and title ideas at least a month ahead of time. Anytime that I’m reading or listening to something and it gives me an idea for a post, I take note of it and apply it to my title ideas. So, depending on the frequency of your blogging schedule, try to come up with 4-8 title ideas for your content.
- Have pre-made graphic templates ready
However many you decide on having, have a set amount of default branded templates created and ready for you in Canva. Copy the bundle for your new piece of blogging content and just swap the image, colors, and text. Boom. Graphics are done.
My Step-By-Step Blogging Schedule & Content Strategy for SEO
Fridays
Writing my content outline
As I’m writing my outline, I start writing the “How-to” steps first. This is the easiest part of the content to write first and takes me less time to write. Keeping my content strategy for SEO in mind, I try to add the keywords as I type where they naturally fit. Subheadings are added last so I know how to title them based on the paragraph topic (It helps to see visually).
Mondays
Edit, revise, & upload
After outlining the content, on Monday, I re-read and edit for punctuation (with Grammarly) and check to see if my keyword has been added enough. After the content has been edited and revised, it’s time to copy it into my website.
When my content is copied into my site, I check it with Yoast and make any SEO changes or improvements. It’s not necessary to make sure every single light turns green. You’ll drive yourself mad if you try to do that.
Linking is another important part of your content strategy for SEO. In another tab, I bring up my blog archive page and link to similar pieces of content within the post I’m working on.
It’s also important to remember that an SEO plugin is only a guide. It doesn’t guarantee your content is going to rank on search engines.
Tuesdays
Create graphics for content
Tuesdays are graphic days. As mentioned earlier in the post, it’s a huge timesaver if you have templates that are pre-made and ready for you to use. Especially if you create a good amount to market your content.
Wednesdays
Publishing day
Remember, your content marketing strategy is going to look completely different than mine. I have chosen what platform I want to show up for and created the graphics to schedule ahead of time. So Wednesdays are a busy day for me. Not only am I scheduling posts for my blog posts, but I’m also scheduling posts for my podcast episodes.
The amount of work you want to spend creating and scheduling content is totally up to you. My publishing day includes:
- A final look-over of my post and links before publishing
- Pinning graphics directly into Pinterest
- Scheduling pre-made graphics into Tailwind
- Scheduling graphics into Facebook
- Sharing my episode and scheduling posts in my Facebook group
Besides Pinterest, I have decided to only show up on Facebook. Truly, it takes a lot of time to schedule and post. Focusing on one social media platform is the max capacity of time (and patience) I have. Unless you have a clone or a team, start very small.
Content Strategy for SEO & Content Corrections to Make
- Subheading Distribution
Part of the content strategy for SEO is to add subheadings between every third paragraph. Try to add the keyword in the subheadings, even if you’re using an H3.
- Consecutive Sentences
These are so very common and very easy to miss when you’re editing. Change the wording around in the sentence, or change the beginning of the sentence.
- Paragraph Length & Skimmability
Always make sure that your content is created for user experience. What your audience experiences matters the most. Paragraph length is important, too. Paragraphs shouldn’t be any long than 4-5 sentences, or even less than that. There also shouldn’t be any more than 3 paragraphs under a subheading.
- Keyword Density
SEO plugins will tell you if your keyword is in the subheadings and text enough. If it marks the keyword not being used enough, try and add it to a couple more places throughout the text or even in subheadings. You always want to make sure your keyword or phrase is in the title the exact way it is researched.
Your Blogging Schedule and Content Strategy Matters
What it really comes down to is creating a blogging schedule and content strategy for SEO that you can show up for consistently without burning yourself out. It also helps if you have templates ready. Not just graphic templates, but any kind of templates that will simplify the process, like blogging outline template.
Don’t forget to plan ahead! All those small tasks that take extra time like keyword research, creating graphics, and a content calendar.
Do you feel like you’re wasting time creating content?
My custom content marketing strategy has literally helped me grow my audience and visibility. If you’re struggling to understand where to put keywords in website content, or what keywords you should be using, book an UNstuck session with me right here.
I’d also love for you to come and join my private community where you can get help to grow your visibility and website traffic with organic marketing. We have daily prompts, Q&A’s, and live trainings in the group to teach you how to optimize website content & website copywriting. We also have weekly accountability and support threads. Click to join and hope to see you there!
Hey there skimmer
Wanna listen instead of read? Listen to episode 27 // My Content Strategy Formula – My Step-By-Step Tutorial on Blog Post Page Layout for SEO + Keyword Optimization.
CHECK OUT RELATED POSTS
4 Things to Immediately Disregard as a Christian Entrepreneur
How to Crush Content Creation With Targeted Keywords & SEO
The Best Content Mapping Secrets for Strategic Content Marketing
Automate Your Business Model With These 3 Content Strategy Tips
