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How To Choose Content Topics for
Your Content Calendar
Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content , with 750K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.
Posted 11.25.25
How do you choose content topics for your upcoming content calendar?
If you write with regularity, a content calendar helps you stay organized so you can produce your material on schedule — whether you’re a solopreneur or you work on a team. My content calendar includes …
- Topics (what I’ll publish)
- Dates (when I’ll publish)
- Platforms (where I’ll publish)
Dates? No problem. I publish weekly.
Platforms? Check. I publish on my website, send out the new post in my newsletter, and write a blurb for my social media platforms.
But topics? For too many years, the “what-do-I-write?” conundrum made my fingers freeze on the keyboard. Deadlines loom. What should I tackle this week?
The content planning problem is universal
Planning content is a perpetual quandary, no matter where you are in your writing journey.
If you’ve got a new website or blog, you wonder how to prioritize content topics. Which subjects should you cover first? How deep should you go?
If you’re a seasoned writer, you have the same problem — just in a different form. Case in point: I’ve got 800+ articles on my writing website. What should I spotlight next? Can I find fresh ideas and unused keywords that interest my readers?
Absolutely!
How to choose content topics for your content calendar: a step-by-step guide
When I couldn’t stand the “what-do-I-write?” frustration any longer, I developed a way to gather a list of content topics for my content calendar. It took a couple of tries to make the process simple. Since then, this approach has saved me oodles of time.
I hope you try it. No matter what your content writing goal or the size of your completed content inventory, these steps will make choosing content topics for your content calendar easier.
Step 1: Audit your content
At least once a year, I look at the content I have already created. And I take notes.
A content audit is a lot like checking your pantry before you go grocery shopping. You want to have plenty of staples on hand (the topics that your readers read and use the most) as well as extras (the topics that readers need but use less often, yet are still important).
Tips
- Which articles get the most traffic and the most comments? Use your stats in Google Analytics to find out. These are content topics that interest your readers the most. In a recent content audit, I found that my posts on “writing devotionals” generate a high number of clicks. How can I provide even more depth about this subject?
- What subjects have you only touched on lightly (or not at all) that readers in your niche need to be fully informed? These are content topics that make your body of work well-rounded. Here’s where I dig more deeply so I can …
Step 2: Find content gaps
I look for topics my audience finds useful but are not yet covered in my content.
Recently, one of my subscribers asked me a specific question about freelance writing. “Everyone explains how to approach a prospective client,” he asked. “But where do I find those people in the first place?” That led to a very practical post — one that had been missing from my tips on building a freelance content writing business.
Tips
- Are there questions your readers ask in comments or emails that aren’t fully answered?
- Are there new trends, tools, or news in your niche that your existing articles don’t address?
- What are your competitors writing about in your niche that you haven’t yet covered?
- What keyword topics have you left untouched?
- Have you acquired a special insight or method you can share with your readers?
Use this worksheet to find keywords for your content.
Step 3: Analyze keywords
Once I have a big-picture idea of subjects that interest my readers most and the areas where I lack content, I target my keyword research to those topics. I look for phrases and terms that search engines use to guide readers. Again, I take notes.
Then I group keywords. For each piece of content, I identify one primary keyword and a couple of secondary keywords. I keep extras and add them to my “topic vault” (see “Extra tip,” below.)
For instance, keyword research into the term “content calendar” led me to these keywords:
- Content topics
- Content topics ideas
- Content calendar template
- Content calendar example
- What is in a content calendar?
- How to create a content calendar
- How to choose content topics
- Content writing topics for beginners
- New content topics
- Content audit
- Content topics to write about
Tips
- Look for keywords with good search volume and low to medium competition.
- Consider long-tail keywords — they’re easier to rank for and often attract highly interested readers.
- Don’t just choose keywords for traffic. Look for keywords and topics that align with what your readers need and want.
Step 4: Update your existing content
During my content audits, I flag my oldest pieces of content. How can I refresh or repurpose them?
Tips
- Update prior articles with new info, stats, examples, visuals, and internal links.
- Merge similar articles to create a “super guide.”
- Create spin-offs from popular posts. “Top 10 tips” can lead to “Top 5 advanced tips.”
Use this helpful worksheet as you plan your content calendar.
Step 5: Make your content plan
By now, if I’m doing my annual content audit, I’ve got at least 50–100 topics, keywords, or previously written pages I can work with.
It’s time to prioritize. I choose which topics or keywords will have the most impact on my readers. Then, I plug them into a content calendar.
Tips
- Which topics are most requested by your readers?
- Which are easiest for you to write or produce?
- Which fit into your seasonal content schedule?
Voila! You have a plan. You can adjust it as needed. But the “what-do-I-write?” keyboard panic has been silenced.
Extra tip for collecting content topics
Keep a running “topic vault.” Anytime a new idea pops up, jot it down. By the time you conduct a content audit, you’ll have a ready-to-go list to help you get started.
How often should you update your content topics?
Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow:
- Review your content topics monthly for maintenance.
- Review your content topics quarterly to stay on track and refresh your strategy.
- Review your content topics annually with a thorough content audit.
The best reason to plan content topics for your calendar
Choose your content topics willy-nilly? No more.
Planning your content topics on a schedule allows you to write content your readers need and want. They read your articles and think, “This writer gets me.”
It takes just a little bit of time to purposefully identify what to write next week … and the week after that … and the week after that. In the process, you solve your weekly “what-do-I-write?” problem.
But more importantly, you become what your readers crave: a friend who points the way in your niche.
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