The Only Content Calendar Template You Need
With this free content calendar template download for Excel, you can organize your ideas and keywords in one place. Designed with organic SEO in mind, there are columns for every important element of your content strategy.
Why You Need a Content Calendar to Create Content That Ranks
As someone who has managed content for over a decade, I can't function without a comprehensive content calendar. If you work with a team, it's even more crucial to your digital success.
Still need some convincing about why you need a calendar to manage your content strategy?
team meeting around a wooden table
Don't take my word for it. Plenty of resources tout the benefits of using a content calendar. Here are a few of the benefits I have seen in my own experience:
5 Benefits of Using a Content Calendar
Organization
This one's fairly obvious. But it's worth noting that having all of your content (including social media and ads) in one place can help keep things in order.
Efficiency
Sick of getting messages from your team about posts, dates, keywords and content status? Having a comprehensive calendar can cut those emails down significantly.
Teamwork/Cooperation
This calendar is also a great centerpiece for content meetings and updates - especially if you're working with a content creator that isn't always available onsite.
Analysis
Being able to sort each column of the template will allow you to quickly scan keywords, campaigns, platforms and more. This is the perfect way to compare calendar content with analytics.
Prioritization/Flexibility
Sorting columns and color coding also allows you and your team to move things around. This comes in handy when things change in the middle of the month and you have to switch things up with content.
photo of a designer drafting
Content Calendar Template Design
This is one of those documents that you will have to look at a lot. There are a few design elements that make this calendar easier to look at every day.
5 Featured Design Elements
Large Font Size
This becomes especially important when you're sharing the calendar during a video conference. You want everyone to be able to read everything and leave no room for confusion.
Gray Color
Looking at black and white spreadsheets all day can get boring. A lighter gray tone makes the sheet easier on the eyes.
Frozen Panes
I like to keep the dates and campaigns frozen so that when I scroll to the end of the sheet I still know what I'm looking at.
Contrasting Title Cells
The titles are also frozen on this template with contrasting colors to make them easier to reference.
Color Coding
You can further customize this content calendar by adding specific colors to either team members, content types, personas, dates, etc.
screenshot of alton road digital content calendar template for excel
Aside from aesthetic and ease of use, the most important part of this content calendar is the information you can add to each row or column. If you don't think you'll use a column, just remove it. This template is fully customizable to the way you work.
Template Column Organization
Launch date
It makes sense to organize the rows by launch date first, seeing as how this is a calendar and all.
Campaign
I also froze the campaign column along with the date because within one day there can be many executions across campaigns. So this way it's easy to see what you're doing on any given day.
Platform
The term content is not limited to just blogs and landing pages. You might need to assign ad copy to a creator or social media posts to your community manager. There's room for all that here - just specify the platform.
Content Type
There can be several different pieces of content launching on the same dates and platforms. Specify the content type here to make things crystal clear.
Working Title
Sometimes optimizing the title is the last thing you do before you hit publish. You can add your working title here in the meantime.
Focus Keywords
It's important that everything you publish is focused on keywords that form part of your content strategy. If you're not optimizing your content for keywords, why are you even creating content?
User Intent
Once you've settled on a focus keyword, you have to ask yourself what the user you target is actually looking for with that key phrase. That's what Google's algorithm is trying to figure out, so the more you help demystify user intent, the better your content will rank.
Goal/Call to Action
Once you know the intention of the person that's searching for your content, you can offer them a call to action to keep connected. For best practices, give them a free download or something that will bolster the content you provide.
Working Document
If you're using Google Docs or a content management system, you can add a link to the working document to share with your team in this column. It's pretty straightforward, just add a location for quick access and organization.
Target Persona
Who are you trying to reach with this content? Who is your ideal client? It's important to speak directly to your target customer profile in your brand communications.
Creator
In this column you would assign ownership for each piece of content to team members.
Deliverables
You can list all of the deliverables for each post in this column and create a checklist for launch.
Comments
It's important to be able to add notes, questions, or comments when you're working with a team that may not be in the same office. This section centralizes all of them and creates a record for reporting.
Links
Link the final product here wherever it's published. If you're color coding, go ahead and gray out the row or mark it as completed if that helps.
Did you find this content calendar template useful? If so, check out our Brand Pro Tips blog for more marketing tips like this.