SEO

A Marketing Calendar Template To Plan Your Content For 2023

Published

1 year ago

December 25, 2022

A Marketing Calendar Template To Plan Your Content For 2023

The days have grown shorter, and the weather has grown colder, which can only mean one thing: The end of the year is upon us.

How did you do in 2022? Did you hit all your professional goals? Or did you fall short in some areas?

Take some time to celebrate your successes, but then it’s time to put that behind you and look ahead to 2023.

Seizing the new year and setting yourself (and your organization) up for success means having a solid marketing plan.

You need a detailed strategy that identifies specific holidays and events you can leverage to maximize the impact of your brand.

But it’s so much work to create.

If only there were some incredible resources you could use. Like a ready-made calendar with all the holidays in one convenient, customizable, and easily referenceable table you could use to help you create your own 2023 marketing calendar…

Just think of how convenient it would be to identify National Weed Your Garden Day (June 13), Better Breakfast Month (September), or International Firefighters Day (May 4) with just a quick glance.

Maybe you didn’t even know holidays like NASCAR Day (May 19), World Tourism Day (September 27), and Meat Week (January 29-February 5) exist.

While you could run successful marketing campaigns without acknowledging these events, they provide a great chance for you to target leads and customers in a fun and engaging way.

And you’re in luck – we’ve done all the work to create a marketing calendar template for you. And best of all, it’s free.

Free Marketing Calendar And Template For 2023

Some marketers are like the ant in Aesop’s famous fable, planning for the coming year to ensure they’re moving into a new year with a defined and well-thought-out strategy.

And then there are the grasshopper types, who will suddenly recall mid-Christmas break that they don’t have anything on the calendar for 2023.

No matter which one you are, we’re here to help.

2023 Marketing Calendar

Here is your marketing calendar for 2023. We’ve created a list of events, holidays, and celebrations, plus a handy template to help you market more effectively this year.

Much of the calendar is focused on the U.S. and Canada, with some major international and religious holidays.

Use the tab titled “All Holidays + Google Calendar” to Google Calendar.

Your 2023 Holiday Marketing Calendar

This calendar is separated by month, so you can jump to whichever month you need:

January

A new year means a new start.

Whether your goal is to stop smoking, lose those pounds you’ve accidentally packed on since Thanksgiving, or take a more positive view of the world, this is the time when it all starts.

And outside of new resolutions, you also have college football bowl games, the Sundance Film Festival, and National Hat Day to look forward to.

Monthly Observances

Weight Loss Awareness Month
National Blood Donor Month
National Thank You Month
National Hobby Month
National Hot Tea Month
Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month
National Slow Cooking Month
National Skating Mont

Weekly Observances

January 1-7 – Diet Resolution Week
January 1-7 – National Thank Your Customers Week
January 8-14 – Home Office Safety and Security Week
January 15-21 – Hunt For Happiness Week
January 16-22 – Sugar Awareness Week
January 22-28 – National School Choice Week
January 23-27 – Clean Out Your Inbox Week
January 29-February 4 – Meat Week

Days

January 1 – New Year’s Day
January 1 – National Hangover Day
January 1 – Outback Bowl
January 1 – Rose Bowl
January 1 – NHL Winter Classic
January 2 – Science Fiction Day
January 3 – Festival of Sleep Day
January 4 – Trivia Day
January 5 – National Bird Day
January 5-8 – PGA Tournament of Champions
January 6 – National Bean Day
January 6 – Cuddle Up Day
January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
January 8 – Elvis’s Birthday
January 9 – College Football Playoff National Championship
January 10 – Golden Globes
January 10 – National Bittersweet Chocolate Day
January 10 – Houseplant Appreciation Day
January 10 – National Clean Off Your Desk Day
January 12 – Stick to Your New Year’s Resolution Day
January 13 – National Rubber Ducky Day
January 14 – Dress Up Your Pet Day
January 15 – National Hat Day
January 17 – Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
January 17 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 18 – Winnie the Pooh Day (Author A.A. Milne’s birthday)
January 19 – National Popcorn Day
January 19-29 – Sundance Film Festival
January 20 – Penguin Awareness Day
January 20 – National Cheese Lover’s Day
January 21 – National Hugging Day
January 22 – Chinese New Year
January 23 – National Pie Day
January 24 – Compliment Day
January 24 – National Peanut Butter Day
January 24 – Community Manager Appreciation Day #CMAD
January 25 – Opposite Day
January 26 – Spouse’s Day
January 27 – Chocolate Cake Day
January 27-29 – Winter X Games
January 28 – Data Privacy Day
January 29 – National Puzzle Day
January 31 – Backward Day

Popular Hashtags For January:

#NewYearsDay
#ScienceFictionDay
#NationalTriviaDay
#NationalBirdDay
#NationalStickerDay
#GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
#CheeseLoversDay
#MLKDay
#NationalHuggingDay
#PieDay
#NationalComplimentDay
#OppositeDay
#CMAD
#PrivacyAware

February

Though it’s only 28 days long, February is jam-packed with events you can leverage for your marketing campaigns.

Spread the love on Valentine’s Day, celebrate the end of winter (or lament its continuation) on Groundhog Day, and do some good deeds for Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Need a few more ideas to flesh out your calendar? Scroll on.

Monthly Observances

Black History Month
American Heart Month
National Heart Month
National Weddings Month
National Cherry Month

Weekly Observances

February 5-11 – Children’s Authors and Illustration Week
February 9-15 – New York Fashion Week
February 12-18 – Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
February 12-18 – International Flirting Week
February 19-25 – National Pancake Week
February 14-21 – Condom Week
February 14-20 – Random Acts of Kindness Week

Days

February 1 – National Freedom Day
February 2 – Groundhog Day
February 3 – Give Kids a Smile Day
February 3 – Bubble Gum Day
February 3 – Wear Red Day
February 4 – World Cancer Day
February 5 – World Nutella Day
February 5 – National Weatherperson’s Day
February 6 – National Chopsticks Day
February 7 – Send a Card to a Friend Day #SendACardToAFriendDay
February 8 – Boy Scout’s Day
February 9 – National Pizza Day
February 10 – Umbrella Day
February 11 – Make a Friend Day
February 12 – Lincoln’s Birthday
February 13 – Super Bowl Sunday
February 14 – Valentine’s Day
February 15 – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
February 15 – Singles Awareness Day
February 17 – Random Acts of Kindness Day
February 18 – Drink Wine Day
February 20 – Love Your Pet Day
February 20 – Presidents Day
February 21 – Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras
February 22 – Ash Wednesday
February 22 – Washington’s Birthday
February 22 – Margarita Day
February 22 – Walk Your Dog Day
February 24 – National Tortilla Chip Day
February 26 – National Pistachio Day
February 28 – Floral Design Day

Popular Hashtags For February:

#GroundhogDay
#WorldCancerDay
#NationalWeatherpersonsDay
#SendACardToAFriendDay
#BoyScoutsDay
#NationalPizzaDay
#ValentinesDay
#RandomActsOfKindnessDay
#PresidentsDay
#LoveYourPetDay

March

The beginning of spring, March Madness, and, of course, St. Patrick’s Day – who doesn’t love March?

Okay, that whole coming in like a lion thing is a little rough, but even on the coldest days, you can take heart that the worst is almost over.

Here are some holidays and events you can use to make your brand’s March a great one.

Monthly Observances

Women’s History Month
Nutrition Month
Peanut Month
Music in Our Schools Month
Craft Month
Irish Heritage Month
American Red Cross Month
March for Meals
The Great American Cleanup
Ramadan begins on March 22

Weekly Observances

March 6-12– Girl Scout Week
March 12-18 – Campfire Birthday Week
March 13-19 – National Sleep Awareness Week
March 27 – Apr 2 National Cleaning Week

Days

March 1 – Peanut Butter Lover’s Day
March 2 – National Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss Day)
March 3 – World Wildlife Day
March 4 – Grammar Day
March 4 – Day of Unplugging
March 4 – Employee Appreciation Day
March 6 – Dentist’s Day
March 6 – Oreo Day
March 7 – Cereal Day
March 8 – International Women’s Day
March 10 – Popcorn Lover’s Day
March 12 – Daylight Savings
March 12– Girl Scout Day
March 12 – 95^th Academy Awards Ceremony
March 13 – National Good Samaritan Day
March 13 – Napping Day
March 14 – Pi Day
March 15 – The Ides of March
March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
March 17 – World Sleep Day
March 18 – Awkward Moments Day
March 20 – First Day of Spring
March 21 – World Down Syndrome Day
March 21 – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
March 22 – World Water Day
March 22 – Ag Day (Agriculture Day)
March 22 – American Diabetes Association Alert Day
March 22 – First day of Ramadan
March 23 – Puppy Day
March 26 – Purple Day for Epilepsy Awareness
March 26 – Earth Hour Day
March 29 – Mom & Pop Business Owners Day
March 30 – National Doctor’s Day
March 30 – Baseball Opening Day
March 31 – Crayon Day
March 31 – Transgender Day of Visibility

Popular Hashtags For March:

#PeanutButterLoversDay
#EmployeeAppreciationDay
#ReadAcrossAmerica
#DrSeuss
#WorldWildlifeDay
#NationalGrammarDay
#BeBoldForChange
#DaylightSavings
#PiDay
#StPatricksDay
#FirstDayofSpring
#WorldWaterDay
#NationalPuppyDay
#PurpleDay
#AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay
#NationalDoctorsDay
#EarthHour
#TDOV

April

Just listen to those birds singing and the bees humming – April is a time of natural rejuvenation.

Give your targets and customers a laugh with an April Fool’s prank, schedule an event around the Master’s tournament (or hit the links yourself), and show your love for our planet on Earth Day. Just don’t forget taxes are due on the 15^th.

For more ideas, we’ve provided a list below.

Monthly Observances

Earth Month
National Volunteer Month
National Autism Awareness Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
National Garden Month
Stress Awareness Month
National Poetry Month
Ramadan ends on April 21

Weekly Observances

April 17-23 – National Volunteer Week
April 17-23 – Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week
April 24-30 – Administrative Professionals Week
April 24-30 – National Princess Week
April 25-29 – Every Kid Healthy Week

Days

April 1 – April Fool’s Day
April 2 – Palm Sunday
April 2 – Equal Pay Day
April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day
April 2 – National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
April 3 – Don’t Go To Work Unless it’s Fun Day
April 3 – Find a Rainbow Day
April 4 – School Librarian Day
April 3-9 – Masters Tournament PGA
April 6 – National Walking Day
April 7 – Good Friday
April 7 – National Beer Day
April 7 – World Health Day
April 9 – Easter Sunday
April 9 – Winston Churchill Day
April 10 – Golfer’s Day
April 11 – National Pet Day
April 12 – National Grilled Cheese Day
April 15 – National Titanic Remembrance Day
April 15 – Tax Day
April 14-23 – Coachella Music Festival
April 17 – Boston Marathon
April 18 – Patriot’s Day
April 20 – Lookalike Day
April 21 – National High-Five Day
April 21 – Last day of Ramadan
April 22 – Earth Day
April 27 – Denim Day
April 27 – Administrative Professionals Day
April 28 – Take Your Daughter and/or Son to Work Day
April 28 – National Superhero Day
April 28 – Arbor Day
April 30 – National Honesty Day
April 30 – National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day

Popular Hashtags For April:

#AprilFools
#WAAD
#FindARainbowDay
#NationalWalkingDay
#LetsTalk
#EqualPayDay
#TaxDay
#NH5D
#NationalLookAlikeDay
#AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
#DenimDay
#EndMalariaForGood
#COUNTONME
#ArborDay
#NationalHonestyDay
#AdoptAShelterPetDay

May

School is winding down, temperatures are heating up, and barbecue grills are being lit – it can only mean the arrival of May.

Make your brand a Mayflower (insert terrible pilgrim joke here) by taking advantage of Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day as marketing themes.

Monthly Observances

ALS Awareness
Asthma Awareness
National Celiac Disease Awareness Month
Clean Air Month
Global Employee Health and Fitness Month
National Barbecue Month
National Bike Month
National Hamburger Month
National Salad Month
National Photo Month
Gifts from the Garden Month
Lupus Awareness Month
National Military Appreciation Month

Weekly Observances

May 1-7 – National Pet Week
May 1-7 – National Travel & Tourism Week
May 1-7 – Drinking Water Week
May 2-6 – Teacher Appreciation Week
May 6-12 – Nurse’s Week
May 8 – May 14 – Food Allergy Awareness Week

Days

May 1 – May Day
May 1 – Mother Goose Day
May 3 – Thank A Teacher Day
May 3 – National Teacher’s Day
May 4 – Star Wars Day
May 4 – National Firefighters Day
May 5 – Cinco De Mayo
May 5 – World Password Day
May 6 – National Nurses Day
May 6 – Military Spouse Appreciation Day
May 6 – Kentucky Derby
May 8 – World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
May 10 – National Receptionists Day
May 11 – Eat What You Want Day
May 14 – Mother’s Day
May 14 – World Fair Trade Day
May 15 – National Chocolate Chip Day
May 16 – Love a Tree Day
May 18-21 – PGA Championship
May 19 – NASCAR Day
May 20 – National Bike to Work Day
May 20 – Be a Millionaire Day
May 20 – Armed Forces Day
May 22 – Victoria Day (Canada)
May 25 – Red Nose Day
May 25 – Geek Pride Day
May 25 – National Wine Day
May 26 – Sally Ride Day
May 28 -June 11 – French Open
May 28 – Indianapolis 500
May 29 – Memorial Day
May 31 – World No-Tobacco Day

Popular Hashtags For May:

#RedNoseDay
#MayDay
#WorldPasswordDay
#StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
#InternationalFirefightersDay
#CincoDeMayo
#MothersDay
#BTWD
#MemorialDay & #MDW
#NoTobacco

June

Summer, summer, summertime. June is the month when it finally starts to feel like summer.

Make your brand a must-have companion for planning a beachside vacation or hosting a cookout.

And don’t forget it’s also the month for LGBTQ+ Pride, Flag Day, and Father’s Day, along with all the other events listed here.

Monthly Observances

Men’s Health Month
National Safety Month
Acne Awareness Month
LGBTQ Pride Month
National Adopt a Cat Month
Aquarium Month
Candy Month

Weekly Observances

June 4-10 – Pet Appreciation Week
June 12-18 – Men’s Health Week
June 19-25 – National Camping Week
June 23-26 – Watermelon Seed Spitting Week

Days

June 1 – Global Parents Day
June 2 – National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day
June 3 – National Donut Day
June 3 – Belmont Stakes
June 4 – Hug Your Cat Day
June 4 – National Cheese Day
June 5 – World Environment Day
June 7 – National Chocolate Ice Cream Day
June 8 – World Oceans Day
June 8 – National Best Friends Day
June 9 – Donald Duck Day
June 10 – Iced Tea Day
June 13-15 – Bonnaroo Music Festival
June 13 – National Weed Your Garden Day
June 14 – Flag Day
June 15-18 –U.S. Open PGA
June 18 – National Splurge Day
June 18 – World Juggler’s Day
June 19 – Father’s Day
June 21 – First Day of Summer / Summer Solstice
June 21 – National Selfie Day
June 22 – National Kissing Day
June 25 – National Take a Dog to Work Day
June 29 – Camera Day
June 30 – National Handshake Day
June 30 – Social Media Day

Popular Hashtags For June:

#NationalDonutDay
#FathersDay
#NationalSelfieDay
#TakeYourDogToWorkDay
#HandshakeDay
#SMDay

July

From pet safety tips for the Fourth of July to Amazon Prime Day, July presents lots of opportunities for savvy marketers.

So, celebrate your independence, gorge yourself on too many hotdogs, and celebrate your friends with one of many July-themed events.

Monthly Observances

Family Golf Month
Ice Cream Month
National Grilling Month
National Picnic Month
National Independent Retailer Month
National Blueberry Month

Weekly Observances

July 17-23 – Capture the Sunset Week

Days

July 1 – National Postal Worker Day
July 1 – International Joke Day
July 1 – 23 – Tour de France
July 2 – World UFO Day
July 3-16 – Wimbledon
July 4 – Independence Day
July 4 – Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest
July 5 – National Bikini Day
July 7 – World Chocolate Day
July 8 – National Video Games Day
July 11 – National 7-Eleven Day
July 12 – Pecan Pie Day
July 13 – Rock Worldwide Day
July 13 – French Fry Day
July 16 – World Snake Day
July 17 – World Emoji Day
July 17 – National Ice Cream Day
July 19 – National Daiquiri Day
July 20 – Hot Dog Day
July 20 – National Moon Day
July 21-25 – Summer X Games
July 24 – Amelia Earhart Day
July 24 – Parents’ Day
July 26 – Aunt and Uncle Day
July 28 – World Hepatitis Day
July 28-30 – World Lumberjack Championships
July 30 – Father-in-Law Day
July 30 – International Day of Friendship
July 30 – Friendship Day

Popular Hashtags For July:

#NationalPostalWorkerDay
#WorldUFODay
#WorldEmojiDay
#DayOfFriendship

August

August means the hottest days, back-to-school and the return of football.

Whether you’re celebrating the end of summer or trying to finish your tan in the dog days, August means lots of opportunities for fun.

Here are some holidays and celebrations you can use for your August marketing calendar:

Monthly Observances

Back to School Month
National Golf Month
National Breastfeeding Month
Family Fun Month
Peach Month

Weekly Observances

August 1-7 – International Clown Week
August 6-12 – National Farmers’ Market Week
August 14-20 – National Motorcycle Week (Always 2nd full week of August)
August 14-20 – Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week (Always 2nd full week of August)

Days

August 1 – National Girlfriends Day
August 2 – National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
August 3 – Hall of Fame Game/ NFL Preseason begins
August 4 – National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
August 5 – International Beer Day
August 8 – International Cat Day
August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
August 10 – National S’mores Day
August 11 – National Son and Daughter Day
August 12 – Middle Child’s Day
August 13 – Left-hander’s Day
August 16 – National Tell a Joke Day
August 18 – Bad Poetry Day
August 19 – World Photo Day
August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
August 20 – National Lemonade Day
August 21 – Senior Citizens Day
August 26 – National Dog Day
August 26 – Women’s Equality Day
August 30 – Frankenstein Day
August 31 – National Trail Mix Day

Popular Hashtags For August:

#InternationalCatDay
#NationalBookLoversDay
#WorldElephantDay
#LefthandersDay
#WorldPhotoDay
#WorldHumanitarianDay
#NationalLemonadeDay
#NationalDogDay
#WomensEqualityDay

September

The heat has finally broken, and Autumn has started to roll in – what better reason for dancing in September?

There are a lot of popular holidays and events you can leverage for marketing this month, including the kickoff of Hispanic Heritage Month, Grandparents Day, and, of course, Labor Day.

And if you forget to include National Talk Like a Pirate Day in your marketing calendar, someone may make you walk the plank, matey.

Monthly Observances

Wilderness Month
National Preparedness Month
National Food Safety Education Month
Fruit and Veggies—More Matters Month
National Yoga Awareness Month
Whole Grains Month
Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)
Little League Month
Better Breakfast Month

Weekly Observances

September 10-16 – National Suicide Prevention Week
September 19-25 – Pollution Prevention Week
September 18-24 – National Indoor Plant Week
September 20-27 – National Dog Week

Days

September 2 – World Beard Day
September 3 – International Bacon Day
September 4 – Labor Day
September 5 – Cheese Pizza Day
September 5 – International Day of Charity
September 6 – Read a Book Day
September 10– Grandparents Day
September 11 – 9/11
September 12 – Video Games Day
September 13 – Uncle Sam Day
September 15 – Greenpeace Day
September 15-17– Rosh Hashanah
September 16 – Constitution Day
September 17 – Citizenship Day
September 17 – Oktoberfest Begins
September 17 – Boys’ and Girls’ Club Day for Kids
September 18 – Wife Appreciation Day
September 19 – International Talk Like a Pirate
September 22–25 – Presidents Cup PGA
September 21 – International Day of Peace
September 22 – Car-free Day
September 22 – First Day of Fall
September 22 – Native American Day
September 23 – Checkers Day
September 27 – World Tourism Day
September 27– National Voter Registration Day
September 28 – World Rabies Day
September 28 – National Good Neighbor Day
September 29 – World Heart Day
September 30 – International Podcast Day

Popular Hashtags For September:

#LaborDay
#NationalWildlifeDay
#CharityDay
#ReadABookDay
#911Day
#NationalVideoGamesDay
#TalkLikeAPirateDay
#PeaceDay
#CarFreeDay
#WorldRabiesDay
#GoodNeighborDay
#InternationalPodcastDay

October

Get your trick-or-treat bags ready, fill up that pumpkin spice latte, and light up the bonfire – it’s October.

There’s so much more to this month than just Halloween. It also has Teacher’s Day, International Coffee Day, and the beginning of the World Series.

Take a look at some other marketing themes for this month:

Monthly Observances

Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Bully Prevention Month
Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
Halloween Safety Month
Financial Planning Month
National Pizza Month

Weekly Observances

October 2-8 – Great Books Week (always the first full week)
October 2-8 – National Work From Home Week (always the first full week)
October 16-22 – Mediation Week (third week in October)
October 16-22 – National Business Women’s Week (third week in October)
October 23-31 – National Red Ribbon Week

Days

October 1 – Coffee Day
October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
October 2 – Name Your Car Day
October 2 – Brow Day
October 3 – Oktoberfest Ends
October 3 – National Techies Day
October 3 – National Boyfriends Day
October 4 – National Taco Day
October 4-5 – Yom Kippur
October 5 – World Teacher’s Day
October 7 – National Kale Day
October 7 – World Smile Day
October 9 – Leif Erikson Day
October 9 – Columbus Day
October 9 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
October 9 – Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
October 10 – World Mental Health Day
October 11 – It’s My Party Day
October 14 – World Egg Day
October 15 – Sweetest Day
October 16 – World Food Day
October 16 – Boss’s Day
October 17 – Spirit Day (anti-bullying)
October 22 – Make a Difference Day
October 24 – United Nations Day
October 28 – MLB World Series begins
October 30 – Mischief Night
October 30 – Checklist Day
October 31 – Halloween

Popular Hashtags For October:

#InternationalCoffeeDay
#TechiesDay
#NationalTacoDay
#WorldSmileDay
#WorldTeachersDay
#WorldHabitatDay
#WorldMentalHealthDay
#BossesDay
#UNDay
#ChecklistDay
#Halloween

November

Smell that crisp air, take in the beauty of changing leaves, and warm up around the fire pit this November.

The month in which we all give thanks, it’s also Peanut Butter Lover’s Month and Movember.

Kick off your marketing calendar with a Day of the Dead celebration, honor those who served on Veteran’s Day, and get ready for the big sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Monthly Observances

Movember
National Healthy Skin Month
Gluten-Free Diet Awareness Month
National Adoption Month
National Gratitude Month
Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month
National Diabetes Awareness Month

Weekly Observances

November 7-13 – World Kindness Week (second week: Monday – Sunday)
November 13-19 – American Education Week
November 20-26 – Game and Puzzle Week

Days

November 1 – Day of the Dead
November 1 – All Saint’s Day
November 1 – World Vegan Day
November 2 – Day of the Dead Ends
November 3 – Sandwich Day
November 4 – King Tut Day
November 6 – Daylight Savings Time ends
November 8 – Cappuccino Day
November 8 – STEM Day
November 10 – Marine Corps Birthday
November 11 – Veterans Day
November 12 – Chicken Soup for the Soul Day
November 13 – World Kindness Day
November 13 – Sadie Hawkins Day
November 14 – World Diabetes Day
November 15 – America Recycles Day
November 15 – National Entrepreneurs Day (third Tuesday of November)
November 16 – International Tolerance Day
November 17 – Homemade Bread Day
November 20 – Transgender Day Of Remembrance
November 23 – Thanksgiving Day
November 24 – Black Friday
November 25 – Small Business Saturday
November 27 – Cyber Monday
November 28 – Giving Tuesday

Popular Hashtags For November:

#WorldVeganDay
#NationalSandwichDay
#DaylightSavings
#CappuccinoDay
#STEMDay
#VeteransDay
#WKD
#WDD
#BeRecycled
#EntrepreneursDay
#Thanksgiving
#ShopSmall

December

The end is in sight – you’ve made it to the last month of the year. But you know what that means, right? 2024 is right around the corner.

Send your year off in style with marketing campaigns dedicated to more than the holiday season. This is also the month featuring Nobel Prize Day, Bill of Rights Day, and the first day of winter.

And don’t forget to check back here for a handy guide to 2024 marketing content.

Monthly Observances

National Human Rights Month
Operation Santa Paws
Bingo Month

Weekly Observances

December 7 – December 15 – Chanukah
December 26 – January 1 – Kwanzaa

Days

December 1 – World AIDS Day
December 1 – Rosa Parks Day
December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
December 4 – Cookie Day
December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
December 9 – Christmas Card Day
December 10 – Nobel Prize Day
December 12 – Poinsettia Day
December 14 – Roast Chestnuts Day
December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
December 15 – National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day (Third Friday in December)
December 18 – Free Shipping Day
December 18 – Bake Cookies Day
December 20 – Go Caroling Day
December 21 – First Day of Winter / Winter Solstice
December 23 – Festivus
December 24 – Christmas Eve
December 25 – Christmas Day
December 26 – Kwanzaa
December 26 – Boxing Day
December 27 – National Fruitcake Day
December 31 – New Year’s Eve

Popular Hashtags For December:

#IDPWD
#NationalCookieDay
#NobelPrize
#WinterSolstice
#NYE

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

window.addEventListener( ‘load2’, function() {

if( sopp != ‘yes’ && addtl_consent != ‘1~’ && !ss_u ){

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);

if( typeof sopp !== “undefined” && sopp === ‘yes’ ){
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, [‘LDU’], 1, 1000);
}else{
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, []);
}

fbq(‘init’, ‘1321385257908563’);

fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);

fbq(‘trackSingle’, ‘1321385257908563’, ‘ViewContent’, {
content_name: ‘holiday-marketing-calendar-template’,
content_category: ‘digital seo’
});
}
});

Related Topics:Calendar Content Marketing Plan seo Template

Up Next

TikTok Trends Right Now: Winter 2022

Don't Miss

Mastodon Reaches 2.5 Million Users, Founder Holds Reddit AMA

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

SEO

An In-Depth Guide And Best Practices For Mobile SEO

Published

11 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Max

Mobile SEO: An In-Depth Guide And Best Practices

Over the years, search engines have encouraged businesses to improve mobile experience on their websites. More than 60% of web traffic comes from mobile, and in some cases based on the industry, mobile traffic can reach up to 90%.

Since Google has completed its switch to mobile-first indexing, the question is no longer “if” your website should be optimized for mobile, but how well it is adapted to meet these criteria. A new challenge has emerged for SEO professionals with the introduction of Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which replaced First Input Delay (FID) starting March, 12 2024.

Thus, understanding mobile SEO’s latest advancements, especially with the shift to INP, is crucial. This guide offers practical steps to optimize your site effectively for today’s mobile-focused SEO requirements.

What Is Mobile SEO And Why Is It Important?

The goal of mobile SEO is to optimize your website to attain better visibility in search engine results specifically tailored for mobile devices.

This form of SEO not only aims to boost search engine rankings, but also prioritizes enhancing mobile user experience through both content and technology.

While, in many ways, mobile SEO and traditional SEO share similar practices, additional steps related to site rendering and content are required to meet the needs of mobile users and the speed requirements of mobile devices.

Does this need to be a priority for your website? How urgent is it?

Consider this: 58% of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile devices.

If you aren’t focused on mobile users, there is a good chance you’re missing out on a tremendous amount of traffic.

Mobile-First Indexing

Additionally, as of 2023, Google has switched its crawlers to a mobile-first indexing priority.

This means that the mobile experience of your site is critical to maintaining efficient indexing, which is the step before ranking algorithms come into play.

How Much Of Your Traffic Is From Mobile?

How much traffic potential you have with mobile users can depend on various factors, including your industry (B2B sites might attract primarily desktop users, for example) and the search intent your content addresses (users might prefer desktop for larger purchases, for example).

Regardless of where your industry and the search intent of your users might be, the future will demand that you optimize your site experience for mobile devices.

How can you assess your current mix of mobile vs. desktop users?

An easy way to see what percentage of your users is on mobile is to go into Google Analytics 4.

Click Reports in the left column.
Click on the Insights icon on the right side of the screen.
Scroll down to Suggested Questions and click on it.
Click on Technology.
Click on Top Device model by Users.
Then click on Top Device category by Users under Related Results.
The breakdown of Top Device category will match the date range selected at the top of GA4.

Screenshot from GA4, March 2024

You can also set up a report in Looker Studio.

Add your site to the Data source.
Add Device category to the Dimension field.
Add 30-day active users to the Metric field.
Click on Chart to select the view that works best for you.

A screen capture from Looker Studio showing a pie chart with a breakdown of mobile, desktop, tablet, and Smart TV users for a site

Screenshot from Looker Studio, March 2024

You can add more Dimensions to really dig into the data to see which pages attract which type of users, what the mobile-to-desktop mix is by country, which search engines send the most mobile users, and so much more.

How To Check If Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

Now that you know how to build a report on mobile and desktop usage, you need to figure out if your site is optimized for mobile traffic.

While Google removed the mobile-friendly testing tool from Google Search Console in December 2023, there are still a number of useful tools for evaluating your site for mobile users.

Bing still has a mobile-friendly testing tool that will tell you the following:

Viewport is configured correctly.
Page content fits device width.
Text on the page is readable.
Links and tap targets are sufficiently large and touch-friendly.
Any other issues detected.

Google’s Lighthouse Chrome extension provides you with an evaluation of your site’s performance across several factors, including load times, accessibility, and SEO.

To use, install the Lighthouse Chrome extension.

Go to your website in your browser.
Click on the orange lighthouse icon in your browser’s address bar.
Click Generate Report.
A new tab will open and display your scores once the evaluation is complete.

An image showing the Lighthouse Scores for a website.

Screenshot from Lighthouse, March 2024

You can also use the Lighthouse report in Developer Tools in Chrome.

Simply click on the three dots next to the address bar.
Select “More Tools.”
Select Developer Tools.
Click on the Lighthouse tab.
Choose “Mobile” and click the “Analyze page load” button.

An image showing how to get to Lighthouse within Google Chrome Developer Tools.

Screenshot from Lighthouse, March 2024

Another option that Google offers is the PageSpeed Insights (PSI) tool. Simply add your URL into the field and click Analyze.

PSI will integrate any Core Web Vitals scores into the resulting view so you can see what your users are experiencing when they come to your site.

An image showing the PageSpeed Insights scores for a website.

Screenshot from PageSpeed Insights, March 2024

Other tools, like WebPageTest.org, will graphically display the processes and load times for everything it takes to display your webpages.

With this information, you can see which processes block the loading of your pages, which ones take the longest to load, and how this affects your overall page load times.

You can also emulate the mobile experience by using Developer Tools in Chrome, which allows you to switch back and forth between a desktop and mobile experience.

An image showing how to change the device emulation for a site within Google Chrome Developer Tools

Screenshot from Google Chrome Developer Tools, March 2024

Lastly, use your own mobile device to load and navigate your website:

Does it take forever to load?
Are you able to navigate your site to find the most important information?
Is it easy to add something to cart?
Can you read the text?

How To Optimize Your Site Mobile-First

With all these tools, keep an eye on the Performance and Accessibility scores, as these directly affect mobile users.

Expand each section within the PageSpeed Insights report to see what elements are affecting your score.

These sections can give your developers their marching orders for optimizing the mobile experience.

While mobile speeds for cellular networks have steadily improved around the world (the average speed in the U.S. has jumped to 27.06 Mbps from 11.14 Mbps in just eight years), speed and usability for mobile users are at a premium.

Best Practices For Mobile Optimization

Unlike traditional SEO, which can focus heavily on ensuring that you are using the language of your users as it relates to the intersection of your products/services and their needs, optimizing for mobile SEO can seem very technical SEO-heavy.

While you still need to be focused on matching your content with the needs of the user, mobile search optimization will require the aid of your developers and designers to be fully effective.

Below are several key factors in mobile SEO to keep in mind as you’re optimizing your site.

Site Rendering

How your site responds to different devices is one of the most important elements in mobile SEO.

The two most common approaches to this are responsive design and dynamic serving.

Responsive design is the most common of the two options.

Using your site’s cascading style sheets (CSS) and flexible layouts, as well as responsive content delivery networks (CDN) and modern image file types, responsive design allows your site to adjust to a variety of screen sizes, orientations, and resolutions.

With the responsive design, elements on the page adjust in size and location based on the size of the screen.

You can simply resize the window of your desktop browser and see how this works.

An image showing the difference between Web.dev in a full desktop display vs. a mobile display using responsive design.

Screenshot from web.dev, March 2024

This is the approach that Google recommends.

Adaptive design, also known as dynamic serving, consists of multiple fixed layouts that are dynamically served to the user based on their device.

Sites can have a separate layout for desktop, smartphone, and tablet users. Each design can be modified to remove functionality that may not make sense for certain device types.

This is a less efficient approach, but it does give sites more control over what each device sees.

While these will not be covered here, two other options:

Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which can seamlessly integrate into a mobile app.
Separate mobile site/URL (which is no longer recommended).

Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

Google has introduced Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a more comprehensive measure of user experience, succeeding First Input Delay. While FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with your page (e.g., clicking a link, tapping a button) to the time when the browser is actually able to begin processing event handlers in response to that interaction. INP, on the other hand, broadens the scope by measuring the responsiveness of a website throughout the entire lifespan of a page, not just first interaction.

Note that actions such as hovering and scrolling do not influence INP, however, keyboard-driven scrolling or navigational actions are considered keystrokes that may activate events measured by INP but not scrolling which is happeing due to interaction.

Scrolling may indirectly affect INP, for example in scenarios where users scroll through content, and additional content is lazy-loaded from the API. While the act of scrolling itself isn’t included in the INP calculation, the processing, necessary for loading additional content, can create contention on the main thread, thereby increasing interaction latency and adversely affecting the INP score.

What qualifies as an optimal INP score?

An INP under 200ms indicates good responsiveness.
Between 200ms and 500ms needs improvement.
Over 500ms means page has poor responsiveness.

and these are common issues causing poor INP scores:

Long JavaScript Tasks: Heavy JavaScript execution can block the main thread, delaying the browser’s ability to respond to user interactions. Thus break long JS tasks into smaller chunks by using scheduler API.
Large DOM (HTML) Size: A large DOM ( starting from 1500 elements) can severely impact a website’s interactive performance. Every additional DOM element increases the work required to render pages and respond to user interactions.
Inefficient Event Callbacks: Event handlers that execute lengthy or complex operations can significantly affect INP scores. Poorly optimized callbacks attached to user interactions, like clicks, keypress or taps, can block the main thread, delaying the browser’s ability to render visual feedback promptly. For example when handlers perform heavy computations or initiate synchronous network requests such on clicks.

and you can troubleshoot INP issues using free and paid tools.

As a good starting point I would recommend to check your INP scores by geos via treo.sh which will give you a great high level insights where you struggle with most.

INP scores by Geos

Image Optimization

Images add a lot of value to the content on your site and can greatly affect the user experience.

From page speeds to image quality, you could adversely affect the user experience if you haven’t optimized your images.

This is especially true for the mobile experience. Images need to adjust to smaller screens, varying resolutions, and screen orientation.

Use responsive images
Implement lazy loading
Compress your images (use WebP)
Add your images into sitemap

Optimizing images is an entire science, and I advise you to read our comprehensive guide on image SEO how to implement the mentioned recommendations.

Avoid Intrusive Interstitials

Google rarely uses concrete language to state that something is a ranking factor or will result in a penalty, so you know it means business about intrusive interstitials in the mobile experience.

Intrusive interstitials are basically pop-ups on a page that prevent the user from seeing content on the page.

John Mueller, Google’s Senior Search Analyst, stated that they are specifically interested in the first interaction a user has after clicking on a search result.

Examples of intrusive interstitial pop-ups on a mobile site according to Google.

Not all pop-ups are considered bad. Interstitial types that are considered “intrusive” by Google include:

Pop-ups that cover most or all of the page content.
Non-responsive interstitials or pop-ups that are impossible for mobile users to close.
Pop-ups that are not triggered by a user action, such as a scroll or a click.

Structured Data

Most of the tips provided in this guide so far are focused on usability and speed and have an additive effect, but there are changes that can directly influence how your site appears in mobile search results.

Search engine results pages (SERPs) haven’t been the “10 blue links” in a very long time.

They now reflect the diversity of search intent, showing a variety of different sections to meet the needs of users. Local Pack, shopping listing ads, video content, and more dominate the mobile search experience.

As a result, it’s more important than ever to provide structured data markup to the search engines, so they can display rich results for users.

In this example, you can see that both Zojirushi and Amazon have included structured data for their rice cookers, and Google is displaying rich results for both.

An image of a search result for Japanese rice cookers that shows rich results for Zojirushi and Amazon.

Screenshot from search for [Japanese rice cookers], Google, March 2024

Adding structured data markup to your site can influence how well your site shows up for local searches and product-related searches.

Using JSON-LD, you can mark up the business, product, and services data on your pages in Schema markup.

If you use WordPress as the content management system for your site, there are several plugins available that will automatically mark up your content with structured data.

Content Style

When you think about your mobile users and the screens on their devices, this can greatly influence how you write your content.

Rather than long, detailed paragraphs, mobile users prefer concise writing styles for mobile reading.

Each key point in your content should be a single line of text that easily fits on a mobile screen.

Your font sizes should adjust to the screen’s resolution to avoid eye strain for your users.

If possible, allow for a dark or dim mode for your site to further reduce eye strain.

Headers should be concise and address the searcher’s intent. Rather than lengthy section headers, keep it simple.

Finally, make sure that your text renders in a font size that’s readable.

Tap Targets

As important as text size, the tap targets on your pages should be sized and laid out appropriately.

Tap targets include navigation elements, links, form fields, and buttons like “Add to Cart” buttons.

Targets smaller than 48 pixels by 48 pixels and targets that overlap or are overlapped by other page elements will be called out in the Lighthouse report.

Tap targets are essential to the mobile user experience, especially for ecommerce websites, so optimizing them is vital to the health of your online business.

Prioritizing These Tips

If you have delayed making your site mobile-friendly until now, this guide may feel overwhelming. As a result, you may not know what to prioritize first.

As with so many other optimizations in SEO, it’s important to understand which changes will have the greatest impact, and this is just as true for mobile SEO.

Think of SEO as a framework in which your site’s technical aspects are the foundation of your content. Without a solid foundation, even the best content may struggle to rank.

Responsive or Dynamic Rendering: If your site requires the user to zoom and scroll right or left to read the content on your pages, no number of other optimizations can help you. This should be first on your list.
Content Style: Rethink how your users will consume your content online. Avoid very long paragraphs. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” to quote Shakespeare.
Image Optimization: Begin migrating your images to next-gen image formats and optimize your content display network for speed and responsiveness.
Tap Targets: A site that prevents users from navigating or converting into sales won’t be in business long. Make navigation, links, and buttons usable for them.
Structured Data: While this element ranks last in priority on this list, rich results can improve your chances of receiving traffic from a search engine, so add this to your to-do list once you’ve completed the other optimizations.

Summary

From How Search Works, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

If Google’s primary mission is focused on making all the world’s information accessible and useful, then you know they will prefer surfacing sites that align with that vision.

Since a growing percentage of users are on mobile devices, you may want to infer the word “everywhere” added to the end of the mission statement.

Are you missing out on traffic from mobile devices because of a poor mobile experience?

If you hope to remain relevant, make mobile SEO a priority now.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

SEO

HARO Has Been Dead for a While

Published

15 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Every SEO’s favorite ~~link-building~~ collaboration tool, HARO, was officially killed off for good last week by Cision. It’s now been wrapped into a new product: Connectively.

I know nothing about the new tool. I haven’t tried it. But after trying to use HARO recently, I can’t say I’m surprised or saddened by its death. It’s been a walking corpse for a while.

I used HARO way back in the day to build links. It worked. But a couple of months ago, I experienced the platform from the other side when I decided to try to source some “expert” insights for our posts.

After just a few minutes of work, I got hundreds of pitches:

So, I grabbed a cup of coffee and began to work through them. It didn’t take long before I lost the will to live. Every other pitch seemed like nothing more than lazy AI-generated nonsense from someone who definitely wasn’t an expert.

Here’s one of them:

Example of an AI-generated pitch in HARO

Seriously. Who writes like that? I’m a self-confessed dullard (any fellow Dull Men’s Club members here?), and even I’m not that dull…

I don’t think I looked through more than 30-40 of the responses. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt like having a conversation with ChatGPT… and not a very good one!

Despite only reviewing a few dozen of the many pitches I received, one stood out to me:

Example HARO pitch that caught my attention

Believe it or not, this response came from a past client of mine who runs an SEO agency in the UK. Given how knowledgeable and experienced he is (he actually taught me a lot about SEO back in the day when I used to hassle him with questions on Skype), this pitch rang alarm bells for two reasons:

I truly doubt he spends his time replying to HARO queries
I know for a fact he’s no fan of Neil Patel (sorry, Neil, but I’m sure you’re aware of your reputation at this point!)

So… I decided to confront him 😉

Here’s what he said:

Shocker.

I pressed him for more details:

I’m getting a really good deal and paying per link rather than the typical £xxxx per month for X number of pitches. […] The responses as you’ve seen are not ideal but that’s a risk I’m prepared to take as realistically I dont have the time to do it myself. He’s not native english, but I have had to have a word with him a few times about clearly using AI. On the low cost ones I don’t care but on authority sites it needs to be more refined.

I think this pretty much sums up the state of HARO before its death. Most “pitches” were just AI answers from SEOs trying to build links for their clients.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not throwing shade here. I know that good links are hard to come by, so you have to do what works. And the reality is that HARO did work. Just look at the example below. You can tell from the anchor and surrounding text in Ahrefs that these links were almost certainly built with HARO:

Example of links build with HARO, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

But this was the problem. HARO worked so well back in the day that it was only a matter of time before spammers and the #scale crew ruined it for everyone. That’s what happened, and now HARO is no more. So…

If you’re a link builder, I think it’s time to admit that HARO link building is dead and move on.

No tactic works well forever. It’s the law of sh**ty clickthroughs. This is why you don’t see SEOs having huge success with tactics like broken link building anymore. They’ve moved on to more innovative tactics or, dare I say it, are just buying links.

Sidenote.

Talking of buying links, here’s something to ponder: if Connectively charges for pitches, are links built through those pitches technically paid? If so, do they violate Google’s spam policies? It’s a murky old world this SEO lark, eh?

If you’re a journalist, Connectively might be worth a shot. But with experts being charged for pitches, you probably won’t get as many responses. That might be a good thing. You might get less spam. Or you might just get spammed by SEOs with deep pockets. The jury’s out for now.

My advice? Look for alternative methods like finding and reaching out to experts directly. You can easily use tools like Content Explorer to find folks who’ve written lots of content about the topic and are likely to be experts.

For example, if you look for content with “backlinks” in the title and go to the Authors tab, you might see a familiar name. 😉

Finding people to request insights from in Ahrefs' Content Explorer

I don’t know if I’d call myself an expert, but I’d be happy to give you a quote if you reached out on social media or emailed me (here’s how to find my email address).

Alternatively, you can bait your audience into giving you their insights on social media. I did this recently with a poll on X and included many of the responses in my guide to toxic backlinks.

Me, indirectly sourcing insights on social media

Either of these options is quicker than using HARO because you don’t have to sift through hundreds of responses looking for a needle in a haystack. If you disagree with me and still love HARO, feel free to tell me why on X 😉

SEO

Google Clarifies Vacation Rental Structured Data

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Max

Google updates their vacation rental structured data documentation

Google’s structured data documentation for vacation rentals was recently updated to require more specific data in a change that is more of a clarification than it is a change in requirements. This change was made without any formal announcement or notation in the developer pages changelog.

Vacation Rentals Structured Data

These specific structured data types makes vacation rental information eligible for rich results that are specific to these kinds of rentals. However it’s not available to all websites. Vacation rental owners are required to be connected to a Google Technical Account Manager and have access to the Google Hotel Center platform.

VacationRental Structured Data Type Definitions

The primary changes were made to the structured data property type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.

The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.

The primary changes were made to the structured data type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.

The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.

Address Schema.org property

This is a subtle change but it’s important because it now represents a recommendation that requires more precise data.

This is what was recommended before:

“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.”

This is what it now recommends:

“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Unit 6E”

Address Property Change Description

The most substantial change is to the description of what the “address” property is, becoming more descriptive and precise about what is recommended.

The description before the change:

PostalAddress
Information about the street address of the listing. Include all properties that apply to your country.

The description after the change:

PostalAddress
The full, physical location of the vacation rental.
Provide the street address, city, state or region, and postal code for the vacation rental. If applicable, provide the unit or apartment number.
Note that P.O. boxes or other mailing-only addresses are not considered full, physical addresses.

This is repeated in the section for address.streetAddress property

This is what it recommended before:

address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing.

And this is what it recommends now:

address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing, including the unit or apartment number if applicable.

Clarification And Not A Change

Although these updates don’t represent a change in Google’s guidance they are nonetheless important because they offer clearer guidance with less ambiguity as to what is recommended.

Read the updated structured data guidance:

Vacation rental (VacationRental) structured data

Featured Image by Shutterstock/New Africa