Start with money keywords, not 'ideas'
Forget brainstorming. List the 20 phrases a paying customer types into Google the week before they buy. "[service] [town] cost", "[service] vs [alternative]", "best [service] for [use case]". That's your editorial calendar for the next 6 months.
Publishing cadence
- One excellent 1,500–2,500 word post per week beats 5 thin posts.
- Spend half your time on writing, half on promotion (links, social, email).
- Refresh older posts every 6 months — Google rewards freshness on commercial queries.
Formats that actually convert
- Comparison posts: "X vs Y" — high commercial intent, easy to rank.
- Cost / pricing posts: bottom-of-funnel readers, ready to buy.
- Checklists & frameworks: highly linkable, frequently cited by AI engines.
- Case studies: trust + long-tail keywords for free.
Distribution beats production
A post nobody reads is just a Word document. For every hour writing, spend 30 minutes promoting: email it, post it on LinkedIn, repurpose it for Instagram carousels, pitch it to one journalist, drop it into one relevant Reddit thread.
Measurement
- Track organic traffic per post in Google Search Console.
- Track assisted conversions in GA4 — content rarely closes on first visit.
- Every quarter, kill or rewrite the bottom 20% of posts. Compounding sites prune.