blog-calendar · diff

git:20260708.5c21c90 to git:20260723.bab0d5c

42 added, 40 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: blog-calendar

description: >

Generate editorial calendars for blogs with topic clusters, publishing

- schedules, content decay detection, freshness update plans, seasonal

+ schedules, material-change reviews, update plans, seasonal

opportunities, content mix formula, template integration, and distribution

- scheduling. Plans monthly or quarterly calendars optimized for SEO topic

- authority and freshness signals based on content priority.

+ scheduling. Plans monthly or quarterly calendars around reader needs,

+ evidence changes, and sustainable publishing capacity.

Use when user says "editorial calendar", "content calendar", "blog calendar",

"publishing schedule", "blog plan", "content plan", "what should I write".

user-invokable: true

argument-hint: "[<niche>]"

license: MIT

---

# Blog Calendar: Editorial Planning

Generates editorial calendars with topic clusters, publishing cadence,

- freshness update schedules, content decay detection, template recommendations,

- distribution planning, and seasonal hooks. Optimized for building topical

- authority (Google) and maintaining citation freshness for AI surfaces.

+ material-change reviews, content-decay investigation, template recommendations,

+ distribution planning, and seasonal hooks. It does not treat publication or

+ update frequency as a ranking or citation signal.

## Cross-reference

This skill operates at the FLOW Find stage. Before selecting topics, run

`/blog flow find` for keyword discovery, content prioritization, and audience

avatar prompts that should inform cluster selection and topic sequencing.

## Workflow

### Step 1: Understand the Blog

Gather context:

1. **Niche/industry**: What is the blog about?

2. **Existing content**: Scan for existing blog posts (Glob for *.md, *.mdx, *.html)

3. **Publishing cadence**: How often can they publish? (default: 2x/week)

4. **Timeframe**: Monthly or quarterly calendar?

5. **Business goals**: What should the blog drive? (traffic, leads, authority)

### Step 2: Topic Cluster Design

Design 3-5 topic clusters (pillar + supporting content):

```

Cluster: [Pillar Topic]

├── Pillar Page: [Comprehensive guide - 3,000+ words]

├── Supporting: [Subtopic 1 - 2,000 words]

├── Supporting: [Subtopic 2 - 2,000 words]

├── Supporting: [Subtopic 3 - 1,500 words]

├── Comparison: [X vs Y - 1,500 words]

└── FAQ: [Common questions - 1,500 words]

```

Each cluster should:

- Target a primary keyword theme

- Cover the topic comprehensively for topical authority

- Include varied content types (guides, comparisons, how-tos, listicles)

- Support internal linking between cluster pages

### Step 2.5: Content Decay Detection

- Scan existing blog posts for `lastUpdated` or `date` fields in frontmatter.

- Classify each post by staleness using these thresholds:

+ Scan existing posts for material change signals. Dates are inventory metadata,

+ not proof that content is stale or fresh.

- | Traffic Level | Stale Threshold | At-Risk Threshold |

- |---------------|----------------|-------------------|

- | High-traffic posts | >30 days since update | >90 days |

- | Medium-traffic posts | >90 days since update | >180 days |

- | Low-traffic posts | >180 days since update | >365 days |

+ | Signal | Review Question | Priority Effect |

+ |--------|-----------------|-----------------|

+ | Query or fact volatility | Have prices, laws, products, events, or guidance changed? | Raise when the changed fact is material |

+ | Performance trend | Is there a sustained decline after controlling for seasonality and Search surface? | Investigate before rewriting |

+ | Source availability | Are important sources outdated, contradicted, or unavailable? | Raise when claims lose support |

+ | Reader intent | Does the page still solve the current task? | Raise when intent materially shifted |

- Reference: some practitioner AI-citation SEO datasets report a freshness skew toward recently updated content. Treat this as a directional signal, not a universal rule, unless the dataset, method, and date are available.

+ Do not prioritize an update solely because a frontmatter date is old or a

+ vendor sample observed recently updated citations.

Output a decay report:

```

## Content Decay Report

- |------|-------------|-----------|----------|--------|

+ |------|--------------------------|---------------------|----------|--------|

```

Priority levels:

- - **Critical**: High-traffic post stale >30 days: refresh immediately

- - **High**: Any post stale beyond its threshold: schedule this month

- - **Medium**: Posts approaching their threshold: schedule this quarter

- - **Low**: Posts within threshold: no action needed

+ - **Critical**: Materially wrong or harmful information needs correction

+ - **High**: Confirmed fact, source, product, or intent change affects usefulness

+ - **Medium**: Sustained performance change warrants investigation

+ - **Low**: No material change; monitor without editing the date

### Step 3: Freshness Update Schedule

- AI citation surfaces often favor fresh content, but the 30-day signal is directional and methodology-dependent, not a universal rule.

+ Plan review triggers around the topic:

+ - **Fast-changing topics**: Review when the governing facts or official sources change

+ - **Seasonal topics**: Review before the relevant season using current evidence

+ - **Product or pricing content**: Review after documented product changes

+ - **Evergreen topics**: Review when evidence, intent, or performance indicates a need

- Plan update cycles:

- - **High-priority posts** (traffic drivers): Update every 30 days

- - **Medium-priority posts**: Update every 90 days

- - **Low-priority posts**: Update annually

- - **Evergreen posts**: Update when data changes

+ Change `lastUpdated` only after substantive content changes.

### Step 4: Seasonal & Trending Hooks

Research seasonal opportunities:

1. **Industry events**: Conferences, product launches, algorithm updates

2. **Seasonal trends**: Use Google Trends UI, API, or exported data when available; if relying on WebSearch only, mark trend timing as unverified

3. **Annual reports**: When do major studies release new data?

4. **Algorithm updates**: Validate the current Google update timeline against the Google Search Status Dashboard before scheduling update content. Do not rely on a static list.

#### Seasonal Trends Integration

- Map seasonal peaks to content production schedule

- Plan content 4-6 weeks before seasonal peaks for indexing lead time

- Create "evergreen with seasonal hook" content (e.g., "X Guide [Year]" updated annually)

- Track industry report release cycles:

- Ahrefs Annual State of SEO (typically Q1)

- Google Year in Search (December)

- HubSpot State of Marketing (Q1)

- Gartner Hype Cycle (August)

- Major conference dates in the niche

- Use WebSearch to validate timing of trends before scheduling

### Step 5: Generate the Calendar

#### Content Mix Formula

Start from this planning heuristic, then adjust for decay risk, authority gaps,

team capacity, and available source material:

**60% new content / 30% freshness updates / 10% repurposed content**

|---------|-------------|-----|-----------|------------|

| 2 posts/week | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 |

| 3 posts/week | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 |

| 4 posts/week | 16 | 10 | 5 | 1 |

| 1 post/week | 4 | 2-3 | 1 | 0-1 |

Within new posts, aim for content type diversity:

- **Guides/How-tos**: 30-40% of new content

- **Comparisons/Alternatives**: 15-20%

- **Listicles/Roundups**: 15-20%

- **Case studies/Data research**: 10-15%

- **Thought leadership/News analysis**: 10-15%

#### Template Integration

For each new post entry, recommend a content template from these 12 available:

`how-to-guide`, `listicle`, `case-study`, `comparison`, `pillar-page`,

`product-review`, `thought-leadership`, `roundup`, `tutorial`,

`news-analysis`, `data-research`, `faq-knowledge`

Reference: `skills/blog/references/content-templates.md` for full template details.

#### Monthly Calendar Format

```

# Editorial Calendar: [Month Year]

## Publishing Cadence: [N] posts/week

## Content Mix: [N] new / [N] refreshes / [N] repurposed

### Week 1: [Date Range]

|-----|------|-------|----------|---------|---------------|--------|

### Week 2: [Date Range]

|-----|------|-------|----------|---------|---------------|--------|

### Week 3: [Date Range]

[...]

### Week 4: [Date Range]

[...]

## Content Mix This Month

- New posts: [N]

- Freshness updates: [N]

- Repurposed content: [N]

- Content types: [guides, comparisons, how-tos, listicles, ...]

## Freshness Update Queue

|------|-------------|----------|-----------|

## Seasonal Hooks

- [Event/trend and how to leverage it]

```

#### Quarterly Calendar Format

```

# Quarterly Editorial Plan: Q[N] [Year]

## Content Strategy

- Topic clusters: [N] active

- New posts planned: [N]

- Freshness updates planned: [N]

- Repurposed content: [N]

- Total content actions: [N]

## Month 1: [Month]

### Focus: [Primary cluster or theme]

|------|------|-------|----------|---------|---------|

| W1 | New | ... | how-to-guide | ... | ... |

| W1 | Update | ... | - | ... | ... |

| W2 | New | ... | comparison | ... | ... |

[...]

## Month 2: [Month]

### Focus: [Primary cluster or theme]

[...]

## Month 3: [Month]

### Focus: [Primary cluster or theme]

[...]

## Quarterly Goals

- [ ] Publish [N] new posts

- [ ] Update [N] existing posts for freshness

- [ ] Complete [Cluster] pillar + [N] supporting pages

- [ ] Achieve [metric target]

```

### Step 5.5: Topic Cluster Progress Tracking

Track the build-out state of each topic cluster. Prioritize completing

partially-built clusters over starting new ones.

```

## Topic Cluster Progress

|---------|--------|-----------------|----------------|----------|

```

Rules for cluster prioritization:

- Clusters at 50%+ coverage: highest priority to complete

- Clusters with published pillar but few spokes: second priority

- New clusters: only start when existing clusters reach 75%+ coverage

- Never have more than 3 clusters in active build-out simultaneously

### Step 5.6: Distribution Scheduling

For each new post, plan distribution across channels. Include distribution

timing in the calendar output.

```

## Distribution Schedule

|------|-------------|----------|--------|-------|---------|

```

Channel timing rules:

- **LinkedIn**: Same day as publish (share key insight + link)

- **Reddit**: 2-3 days after publish (share genuine insight, not a link drop)

- **Email newsletter**: Batch weekly (include 2-3 posts per newsletter)

- **YouTube**: Plan companion video for pillar posts only (resource-intensive)

- **Twitter/X**: Same day as publish (thread key takeaways)

Reference: `skills/blog/references/distribution-playbook.md` for detailed channel tactics.

### Step 5.7: Freshness Automation

Set up a system for ongoing freshness maintenance:

```

- ## Freshness Schedule: Next 30 Days

- |------|-------------|-------------------|----------|-------|

+ ## Material-Change Review Queue

+ |------|----------------|----------|----------|-------|

```

Automation recommendations:

- - Set calendar reminders for 30-day review cycles on high-traffic or fast-changing posts

- - List posts by "next refresh date" in ascending order (most urgent first)

- - Prioritize refresh order by traffic/importance

- - After each refresh, update the `lastUpdated` frontmatter field

- - Track refresh history to measure freshness impact on rankings/citations

- - Suggest running `/blog rewrite` for each scheduled refresh

+ - Monitor official sources or product changes for fast-changing topics

+ - Sort the queue by material risk and reader impact

+ - Use traffic only as context, not proof that an update is needed

+ - Update `lastUpdated` only after substantive content changes

+ - Track what changed and compare relevant Search surfaces separately

+ - Suggest `/blog rewrite` only when a substantive review finds work to do

### Step 6: Save & Next Steps

Save to `calendars/[yyyy-mm]-editorial-calendar.md` unless the user specifies

another path. Create `calendars/` if it does not exist.

Suggested workflow:

1. Run `/blog strategy` when positioning or pillars are unclear

2. Run `/blog cluster plan <seed-keyword>` for cluster-heavy calendars

3. Use `/blog brief <first-topic>` or `/blog outline <first-topic>` for the first scheduled item

4. Use `/blog write` to generate articles from approved briefs or outlines

5. Use `/blog rewrite` for freshness updates on existing content

6. Re-run `/blog calendar` next month/quarter for the next plan

7. Review the Content Decay Report weekly and address Critical items first

8. Track Topic Cluster Progress monthly to ensure clusters reach completion