Hey Reader,

Happy New Year!

As a certified content and SEO nerd, I love January, because it's a time of opportunity, planning, and creativity.

This month is when most businesses and solopreneurs put together their content calendars for the whole year.

Ah, who am I kidding? Most people never get around to putting together a content calendar for the month, let alone the whole year.

That's unfortunate, because a well-organized, sharable, visual plan of your content and SEO campaigns makes a huge difference when it comes to your ultimate success. How do I know that? Because every year, I make multiple SEO strategies and calendars for my clients, and every year, they succeed where their competitors fail.

So why isn't everyone planning their content in advance? Well, for one thing, it's hard! It requires a lot of time and effort to put your ideas down on paper.

On top of that, plans change. What you want to do now might not be what you want to do next quarter or even next month. This is why a good content plan isn't just detailed and thorough, but also flexible and malleable.

The other reason many folks fail to put together a solid content plan is because they don't know where to start. What is a content calendar supposed to look like? How do you set one up? What should it include?

I've got the answer to all of those prickly questions, right here in my Content Calendar Template, updated for 2026. Because you're already subscribed to my newsletter, it's ready for you. Just open this up and make a copy:

What's new for 2026?

This year, my main focus was making it easy to incorporate AI search in your content calendar. To that end, I've added two new columns to the monthly content planning sheets:

1. A column to collect AI prompt examples and sources frequently linked in AI search
2. A column to track whether you are targeting one of Google's AI overviews for this particular topic

This helps you plan content that stays visible as search evolves - not just for traditional Google, but for the AI-powered results that are increasingly driving traffic. I've already been tracking this data for my clients since earlier this year, when I updated my strategy methodology and released the Search Evolution Strategy to help people capture more valuable traffic from AI search tools.

I also moved the status column forward to make it easier to keep track of where your content is in the production process, and made some other cosmetic tweaks.

That's really all I changed, because the simplicity of this calendar is what I love most about it.

How do you use the content calendar?

The content calendar is pretty intuitive, and you may want to just open it up and try using it on your own. But if you'd like more guidance, check out these resources:

• ​Blog: How to use this content calendar (updated for 2026) ​
• ​Video training for content calendar​

Need help planning your content for 2026?

I'd be happy to hop on a free 30-minute strategy call with you to answer any questions you have and help you get in the right mindset for your best strategy.

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If you have any questions for feedback on the template, you can always just reply to this email (or any email I send you). I always respond.

Once again, Happy New Year to you, and happy content planning!

-- Liam