In short: A blog content calendar is a table with date, topic, keyword, goal, author, reviewer and status for every post. To build one, pick a publishing rhythm you can keep, enter the fixed dates of the year first, fill the gaps with evergreen topics, and decide who writes and who approves each post. Plan one quarter in detail and the rest of the year only roughly. Below you will find a ready-made 2027 plan.
What is a blog content calendar?
A content calendar (also called an editorial calendar) is the planning sheet for your blog. For every post it answers four questions: what goes live, when, who is responsible, and how far along is it? For a company blog, a shared spreadsheet is enough.
It does two jobs. It makes sure seasonal posts are ready in time, so the post about servicing your heating goes live before autumn, not in the middle of winter. And it makes responsibilities visible, so a post does not stall because nobody knew it was their turn.
The columns your content calendar needs
Seven columns cover most company blogs. Anything else can go into a notes column.
| Column | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date | planned publishing day | Tue, 12 Jan 2027 |
| Topic | the question the post answers | How much does a boiler service cost? |
| Keyword | the main search term, one per post | boiler service cost |
| Goal | what the post should achieve | enquiries for service contracts |
| Author | who delivers the draft | Lisa Brandt |
| Reviewer | who approves the facts | Tom Weber, master plumber |
| Status | idea, draft, in review, approved, published | in review |
The goal column is the one people skip. It forces an honest answer to why a post exists at all: more enquiries, job applications, fewer support calls, or information for existing customers? A post without a goal is usually the first one to be pushed back.
The keyword column prevents double work. If two rows carry the same keyword, you are writing about the same question twice. Merge them into one post.
How to build a content calendar in 6 steps
1. Choose a rhythm
Decide how often a post should go live and pick fixed days, for example every other Tuesday. A rhythm you can hold for a year is worth more than an ambitious plan that ends in March.
2. Enter the fixed dates of the year
Start with everything tied to a date: public holidays, the start of your busy season, trade fairs, deadlines, company anniversaries and closing days. These topics get a slot first because they cannot move. The 2027 plan further down helps with this.
3. Fill the gaps with evergreen topics
Fill the remaining dates with questions your customers ask again and again: processes, costs, comparisons, checklists. These posts are still read two years later. Good sources are e-mails, phone notes and quotes you have sent. If you run out of ideas, the blog topic generator suggests topics for your industry.
4. Set a goal and a keyword for each post
Give every topic one goal and exactly one keyword. You will see early whether a topic is just nice to have or actually leads to what you sell.
5. Assign authors and reviewers
Note for each post who writes the draft and who reviews it. For expert topics, the reviewer should know the subject: a lawyer at a law firm, the master craftsman at a trade business, the doctor at a practice. This matters even more when drafts are written with AI. Google advises checking AI content by hand for accuracy before publishing, see Does Google penalize AI content?.
6. Build in a buffer
Set the draft deadline well before the publishing date. That leaves time for questions, photos and corrections. Seasonal posts should be online before demand starts, not on the day itself.
Plan by quarter: in detail for 3 months, roughly for 12
A year planned down to the day goes stale quickly. Two levels work better:
- Year (rough): for each month, the fixed occasions and one or two focus topics. Nothing more.
- Quarter (detailed): for the next three months, every post has a date, keyword, goal, author and reviewer.
At the end of each quarter, take an hour: what went live, what slipped, which new questions came from customers? Then plan the next quarter in detail. Until then, collect new ideas on a separate sheet without dates so the calendar does not overflow.
For your first twelve weeks you can start with the free content calendar template. Pick a start date, weekdays and topics, then download the plan as a CSV for Excel or Google Sheets, or as an ICS file for your calendar app.
Blog content calendar 2027: holidays and topics by month
The table below is written for businesses in Germany. It lists the public holidays that apply in every German state in 2027, plus seasonal hooks that suit many company blogs. Nationwide holidays are New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, the Day of German Unity and both Christmas days, as the overview of the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility (external link) shows. The 2027 dates come from the holiday list of the State of Berlin (external link). If your blog serves another country, take the dates from that country's official list.
| Month 2027 | Nationwide public holidays (Germany) | Seasonal hooks for company blogs |
|---|---|---|
| January | New Year's Day (Fri, 1 Jan) | planning the year, looking back, resolutions, start-of-year questions |
| February | none | getting ready for spring, booking early, questions from the winter |
| March | Good Friday (Fri, 26 Mar), Easter Monday (Mon, 29 Mar) | Easter, spring cleaning, garden season, start of the building season |
| April | none | spring, renovation, apprenticeships starting in autumn |
| May | Labour Day (Sat, 1 May), Ascension Day (Thu, 6 May), Whit Monday (Mon, 17 May) | bridge days, holiday planning, Mother's Day, outdoor topics |
| June | none | start of summer, heat, holiday cover, half-year review |
| July | none | summer holidays, announcing closing days, travel |
| August | none | end of the school holidays, new apprentices, preparing for autumn |
| September | none | autumn check, heating and energy, back to routine |
| October | Day of German Unity (Sun, 3 Oct) | autumn, getting ready for winter, starting year-end planning |
| November | none | year-end business, Black Friday, Christmas preparations, next year's budget |
| December | Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Sat, 25 Dec and Sun, 26 Dec) | Christmas, opening hours over the holidays, year in review, outlook on 2028 |
Three things stand out in 2027: Easter is early, at the end of March. 1 May, 3 October and both Christmas days fall on a weekend. And May has three holidays close together, with Ascension Day on a Thursday inviting a bridge day. Posts about Easter and holiday planning should therefore be ready earlier than in some other years.
Regional holidays and school holidays
Some holidays apply only in certain German states, for example Corpus Christi (2027: Thu, 27 May), Reformation Day (Sun, 31 Oct) or All Saints' Day (Mon, 1 Nov). Which states observe them is set in each state's holiday law, so check the state where your business is based.
School holidays vary by state. The states set them, and the Standing Conference of education ministers (KMK) publishes all dates in its holiday overview (external link). If most of your customers live in one state, add its school holidays to the plan. Family topics, holiday cover and closing days often depend on them.
Trade fairs and industry dates
For many businesses, a trade fair is the most important fixed date of the year, but every industry has its own. You can look them up in the AUMA trade fair database (external link), run by the association of the German trade fair industry. One post before the fair ("What to expect at our stand") and one after ("The most important new products") are two obvious entries.
When to publish seasonal posts
A post about spring cleaning that goes live on the first warm day is too late. Google Trends shows when interest in a topic rises during the year. The numbers there are relative: Google says they are "scaled on a range of 0 to 100 based on a topic's proportion to all searches on all topics" (Google Trends Help (external link)). So they tell you when a term is more popular, not how often it is searched. Schedule the post so it is online before that rise.
Example: the first quarter of 2027 for a plumbing business
This is what a filled-in calendar can look like. The business publishes every other Tuesday.
| Date | Topic | Keyword | Goal | Author | Reviewer | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, 12 Jan | How to protect pipes from frost | protect pipes from frost | fewer emergency calls | Lisa Brandt | Tom Weber | approved |
| Tue, 26 Jan | How long does a bathroom renovation take? | bathroom renovation time | renovation enquiries | Lisa Brandt | Tom Weber | draft |
| Tue, 9 Feb | Walk-in shower: what the building needs | walk-in shower requirements | renovation enquiries | Jan Hoffmann | Tom Weber | idea |
| Tue, 23 Feb | Apprenticeship as a plumber with us | plumber apprenticeship | applications | Jan Hoffmann | owner | idea |
| Tue, 9 Mar | Checking your outdoor tap after winter | outdoor tap after winter | service bookings | Lisa Brandt | Tom Weber | idea |
| Tue, 23 Mar | Our opening hours over Easter | (no keyword, info) | customer information | office | owner | idea |
| End of March | Update: refresh the post on boiler service costs | (existing post) | keep it accurate | Jan Hoffmann | Tom Weber | idea |
Note two rows: the Easter notice goes out the week before Good Friday, not after. And the last row plans no new post but an update of an existing one. That belongs in a content calendar too.
Common content calendar mistakes
- Too much at once: a calendar with a post every week that nobody has time to write ends after a few weeks. Start smaller.
- No time for review: reviewers need time. If they are not in the calendar, the review gets skipped or the date slips.
- Dating every idea right away: collect ideas separately and schedule them in your quarterly planning.
- Only new posts: old posts with outdated facts do more harm than a missing new one. Plan updates as well.
- The calendar lives in one inbox: a plan only one person can open is not a content calendar. Put it where the whole team can see it.
How Blog Automation helps with your content calendar
When the spreadsheet gets too small, you can run the plan in Blog Automation. On the idea board you collect topics with priority, keyword and website, and turn an idea into a post. Every post goes through the statuses draft, in review, approved, scheduled and published, and only approved posts can be scheduled. The content calendar shows scheduled, published and failed posts in month and week view, with one colour per website. Calendar and auto-posting are included from the Starter plan at $20 per month. For the whole workflow from idea to WordPress, see how to automate blog posts.
Frequently asked questions
What should a content calendar include?
At minimum: date, topic and who is responsible. In practice, seven columns work well: date, topic, keyword, goal, author, reviewer and status. Add notes for photos, sources or internal links if you need them.
What does a content calendar look like?
Usually a table with one row per post, like the plumbing example above. Some teams also keep it as a calendar so the dates show up next to their other appointments. The free content calendar template gives you both: a CSV table and an ICS calendar file.
How far ahead should I plan my blog content?
One quarter in detail and the year roughly is a good middle ground for most company blogs. Enter fixed occasions such as holidays, trade fairs and the start of your season for the whole year, and individual posts only for the next three months.
How do I make a content calendar in Google Sheets or Excel?
Create one column for each of the seven fields above and one row per post, then share the file with everyone who writes or reviews. If you want to skip the setup, the content calendar template creates a twelve-week plan as a CSV file that opens in both.