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What Matters In SEO As AI Accelerates Rapid Change

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What Matters In SEO As AI Accelerates Rapid Change

SEO is, by default, a longer-term digital marketing channel, and this can challenge the patience of SEO professionals – and that of important stakeholders.

Discipline and a high level of knowledge are often needed to see it through to success for companies and their clients.

I can’t understate the importance of being patient, disciplined, and focused right now.

With news emerging weekly about new ways search engines are integrating AI technology and how it will reshape search, SEO pros have a lot to think about.

And we should think about them, and start incorporating AI into our SEO strategies and processes!

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But until AI fully takes over the algorithms and search results, we also need to stay focused on what works today – and that’s not a basic or simple checklist of things to do.

Getting our strategies right, aligning with our own goals, knowing our audiences and competitors, and focusing on the top priorities of what matters most right now for our SEO plans is still very much important.

Whether you’re concerned about being able to keep up, what the future of SEO might look like, whether it’s still worth investing in, or just want some perspective on what to do right now, I hope this article helps provide some reassurance.

I will unpack eight things right now to focus on and prioritize as we balance the AI boom with our current environment and reality.

1. Know Your Goals & Objectives

SEO can be a big waste of time and resources if it isn’t guided toward specific goals.

There are so many tactics and things to “do,” but it can all be done in vain if you don’t know what you’re targeting and why you’re doing it.

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You can spend less time doing things manually and turn your processes over to AI, but if they are misguided or misaligned with your goal outcomes, then you run the risk of not achieving the results you want.

Whether it is a set of goals tied to conversions, traffic, exposure, or aligned with thought leadership and a customer journey – you want to set goals so you can work toward them in an organized fashion.

2. Have A Set Process & Standard Operating Procedures

If you’re integrating AI deeper into your methodology, you’re now introducing new technology and processes.

Innovation is great, and I support it 100%.

However, you can get loose with processes and practices if you don’t have a set process from which you’re starting.

My team is working on enhancing our standard processes and operating procedures, not just in how we do SEO, but across our entire agency.

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We’re utilizing Systemology for this, but there are a number of different ways and approaches.

Regardless of how much you’re adjusting and adapting, if you have a team of more than one, or want to be able to hand off or delegate in the future, you should have things documented and standardized as much as possible.

Plus, you’ll want to have a handle on what’s working and what isn’t.

3. Be Adaptable & Embrace Change

If you’ve been doing SEO for a long time, you know that change is a constant.

From big algorithm or ranking factor updates to ongoing core updates to machine learning being built into the algorithm, changes will occur, and you will inevitably need to pivot – even when you’re firmly established where you want to be in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Even if you’re skeptical or want to take a “wait and see” approach to how AI will truly impact the SERPs and change SEO in the bigger picture and longer term, I encourage you to use AI today to automate processes and leverage those increased abilities to increase efficiencies.

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4. Leverage What Works Today

It can be all-consuming to test new things, adapt processes, and engage AI within them.

While my point above encourages such exploration, don’t take your focus too much off of what works today and what the current ranking factors are.

Keep a human, user-first approach when it comes to using AI to generate content.

Yes, you can use multiple AI tools to get a good score, regardless of whether the content was generated by AI or a human.

However, even if you get rankings and traffic to your site, if your goal is conversions or something deeper than that, you may not be hitting the right level of resonance with your audience.

Focus on your user, even if you’re using AI, to ensure that you stand apart from any level of commoditized AI-generated content or low-quality content (even if human-generated) in your industry.

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Focus on solid technical, on-page, and off-page ranking factors that are tied to strong SEO strategies and tactics right now.

5. Implement Today With An Eye On The Future

Am I contradicting myself at this point? I don’t think so.

While you focus on what works today, my message and recommendations are all about balance. While you’re implementing your current strategy, you can’t fall behind.

Know how ChatGPT, Bard, and other aspects of AI are being used by search engines and integrated into search results. Develop an understanding of how SERP feature changes are going to influence how we do SEO.

Be ready and willing to adapt and adjust as you go.

We’re definitely in a balancing act right now; Those that don’t adapt will be left behind.

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Those that get distracted by the new shiny object today and stop doing what works today will lose ground and momentum.

6. Stay Active & Keep Momentum

A constant since the beginning with SEO is the need to take a long-term and ongoing approach to it.

Sure, you might see a bump from doing a round of optimization tactics.

Yes, you can stop actively working on SEO and might not see an immediate or drastic drop in traffic.

However, my recommendation hasn’t changed: You need to have a plan – phased out, ongoing optimization built into it – and stay the course.

Even if the SERPs change and the things that work today are totally different in SEO next year, you want to keep going and not get lax. Momentum is important in SEO strategies and in getting where you want to be with your goals.

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The search engines aren’t the only things changing.

Your marketplace and competitors are extra variables to contend with.

7. Don’t Write Off SEO Easily

SEO has gotten harder in some ways over the past few years.

As the ongoing squeeze of real estate continues at the top of the organic results, we can see high rankings but lower traffic from those.

Looking at my historical Google Search Console data, I can attest to that.

SEO can be hurt by not having the resources – internal or external, soft or hard costs – beyond people with SEO titles to see success. Content is fuel for SEO; Dev, UX, and IT teams all have a part to play.

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Your overall marketing strategy and ensuring things work together across multiple marketing channels can provide insights and lifts in SEO.

There are a lot of reasons why SEO doesn’t work.

Don’t silo it and have unfair expectations.

Don’t write it off without fully trying it.

A three-month investment isn’t enough. It takes time and additional resources, but if the return on investment (ROI) math works, it is worth sticking with so you really know whether it can be successful or not for your brand.

8. Keep SEO Integrated With Other Channels & Efforts

Naturally, SEO and paid search have a lot in common, seeking the same audiences and trying to land traffic coming to a SERP.

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Other digital and traditional marketing channels that involve content, websites, and customer journey mapping can provide insights and work “with” SEO, versus separately from it.

Don’t set SEO apart from the overall marketing plan and strategy. It can benefit greatly from being plugged in.

And as you work on leveraging new technologies, it can be a testing ground to find areas where previously time-consuming and inefficient processes can be improved.

Conclusion

I’m excited about how technology will improve SEO.

My team is fully testing and already leveraging AI for internal processes and content outputs.  We will continue to do this.

However, we’re still in the day-to-day process of optimizing client sites and implementing strategies within what works today to reach goals.

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The key to any big change in SEO has always been to balance the here and now versus what is to come.

This might be one of the biggest waves of distraction and disruption we’ve seen, but the need for balance remains – and might also be more important than ever as we rapidly advance tech and AI.

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Featured Image: Treecha/Shutterstock



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SEO

Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content

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Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content

Setting yourself and your organization up for successful marketing means understanding the interesting dates, holidays, and events throughout the year that you can leverage for your brand.

Pulling that information together takes time and effort, so we’ve done the legwork for you.

Our complete marketing calendar for 2024 with a template gives you all the information you need to plan your content.

You can customize this easily referenceable table and pull out the relevant dates for your business to create your own 2024 marketing calendar.

For planning content and social media campaigns, using a marketing calendar gives you insights and opportunities to tie your content into well-known events in engaging ways.

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These range from big sporting events to awareness months that you can plan content around, to public holidays so you can leverage them for engagement.

Free Marketing Calendar And Template For 2024

Below, we have listed some of the major holiday highlights for 2024. We have also compiled a free spreadsheet that lists many obscure awareness days to help you plan content in any niche.

The full 2024 marketing calendar and template are available at the end of the article, with a breakdown of each month.

This calendar focuses mainly on the U.S. and Canada, with some major international and religious holidays included.

Your 2024 Holiday Marketing Calendar

January

January is a time of resolutions and fresh starts, with many picking a goal for the year or looking to make a change.

It can be a slow start, given that many people are still recovering from the end of last year, but that gives you time to plan your calendar and ease into a new year of content.

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There are plenty of broad activities to lean into, like Veganuary and National Hobby Month, to connect with audience lifestyles.

Events in January always have all eyes on them, too, like the Golden Globes and Winter X Games, so content around them can kickstart your 2024 engagement.

Monthly Observances

  • International Creativity Month
  • National Blood Donor Month
  • National Braille Literacy Month
  • National Hobby Month
  • Dry January
  • Veganuary

Weekly Observances

  • January 1-7 – New Year’s Resolutions Week
  • January 1-7 – Celebration of Life Week
  • January 1-7 – Diet Resolution Week
  • January 8-14 – Home Office and Security Week

Days

  • January 1 – New Year’s Day
  • January 1 – Mexican Independence Day
  • January 1 – Global Family Day
  • January 2 – National Science Fiction Day
  • January 4 – World Braille Day
  • January 6 – Epiphany
  • January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
  • January 10 – Golden Globes
  • January 13 – Korean American Day
  • January 13 – Stephen Foster Memorial Day
  • January 14 – Orthodox New Year
  • January 14 – Ratification Day
  • January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • January 15 – Civil Rights Day
  • January 17 – Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
  • January 17 – Benjamin Franklin Day
  • January 18-28 – Sundance Film Festival
  • January 20 – World Religion Day
  • January 24 – Tu BiShvat
  • January 26-29 – Winter X Games
  • January 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
  • January 28 – Data Privacy Day

Popular Hashtags for January:

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

February

Despite being the shortest month, February is full of interesting events you can leverage for your marketing campaigns.

The colder days can leave people looking for things to get involved with from the comfort of their homes. So, make sure your content is working in line with popular days to attract people to your organization’s content.

Spread the love on Valentine’s Day, celebrate the Lunar New Year, and embrace Black History Month as we enjoy a slightly longer February with 2024’s Leap Year.

Monthly Observances

  • Black History Month
  • American Heart Month
  • National Heart Month
  • National Weddings Month
  • National Cancer Prevention Month
  • National Library Lovers Month
  • Celebration of Chocolate Month

Weekly Observances

  • February 7-13 – African Heritage and Health Week
  • February 9-14 – New York Fashion Week
  • February 11-17 – Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
  • February 11-17 – International Flirting Week
  • February 11-17 – Random Acts of Kindness Week
  • February 18-24 – Engineers’ Week
  • February 19-25 – National Pancake Week
  • February 28-March 5 – National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Days

  • February 1 – First Day of Black History Month
  • February 1 – National Freedom Day
  • February 1 – National Change Your Password Day
  • February 2 – Groundhog Day
  • February 4 – Rosa Parks Day
  • February 4 – World Cancer Day
  • February 4 – The Grammy Awards
  • February 7 – National Girls and Women in Sports Day
  • February 10 – Lunar New Year
  • February 11 – Super Bowl Sunday
  • February 11 – International Day of Women and Girls in Science
  • February 12 – Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday
  • February 12 – Red Hand Day
  • February 12 – Georgia Day
  • February 12 – Darwin Day
  • February 13 – Mardi Gras
  • February 13 – International Pancake Day
  • February 14 – Valentine’s Day
  • February 14 – Ash Wednesday
  • February 14 – Arizona State Day
  • February 15 – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
  • February 18 – NBA All-Stars
  • February 18 – Daytona 500
  • February 19 – Presidents’ Day
  • February 22 – George Washington’s Birthday
  • February 29 – Leap Day

Popular Hashtags for February

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

March

March marks the beginning of spring, and the days start to get longer. Whether March Madness turns up the heat or Easter is on its way, there are plenty of exciting events to get your content involved with.

Some of the monthly observances, such as Women’s History Month or The Great American Cleanup, can serve as great causes for regular engagement this month.

Monthly Observances

  • Women’s History Month
  • Nutrition Month
  • Music in Our Schools Month
  • Craft Month
  • American Red Cross Month
  • The Great American Cleanup
  • Ramadan begins on March 10

Weekly Observances

  • March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
  • March 10-16 – National Sleep Awareness Week
  • March 17-23 – National Agriculture Week
  • March 24-30 – National Cleaning Week

Days

  • March 1 – Employee Appreciation Day
  • March 1 – Zero Discrimination Day
  • March 1 – Global Unplugging Day
  • March 3 – World Wildlife Day
  • March 3 – National Anthem Day
  • March 4 – International HPV Awareness Day
  • March 8 – International Women’s Day
  • March 10 – Daylight Savings
  • March 10 – Ramadan
  • March 12 – 96th Academy Awards Ceremony
  • March 14 – Pi Day
  • March 15 – The Ides of March
  • March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
  • March 17 – NCAA March Madness
  • March 17 – World Sleep Day
  • March 18 – Global Recycling Day
  • March 19 – Nowruz
  • March 19 – Spring Equinox
  • March 22 – World Water Day
  • March 24 – Palm Sunday
  • March 24 – Purim
  • March 26 – Epilepsy Awareness Day
  • March 27 – World Theatre Day
  • March 28 – MLB Opening Day
  • March 28 – Maundy Thursday
  • March 29 – Good Friday
  • March 30 – Holy Saturday
  • March 31 – Easter Sunday

Popular Hashtags for March

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

April

April is probably best known for April Fools’ Day, and a chance to get creative with parody and spoof content for your calendar that can make your customers smile.

Earth Month also means you can make more eco-friendly posts about your organization’s commitment to reducing its impact on the planet.

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You also might want to get your cape out of storage on April 28th for National Superhero Day.

Monthly Observances

  • Earth Month
  • National Autism Awareness Month
  • Parkinson’s Awareness Month
  • Celebrate Diversity Month
  • Stress Awareness Month
  • Ramadan ends on April 8

Weekly Observances

  • April 15-21 – Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week
  • April 21-27 – National Volunteer Week
  • April 21-27 – Administrative Professionals Week
  • April 22-26 – Every Kid Healthy Week

Days

  • April 1 – April Fool’s Day
  • April 1 – Easter Monday
  • April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day
  • April 2 – International Children’s Book Day
  • April 5 – Lailat al-Qadr
  • April 6 – National Walking Day
  • April 7 – National Beer Day
  • April 7 – World Health Day
  • April 8 – Total Solar Eclipse
  • April 10 – Eid-Al-Fitr
  • April 11-14 – Masters Tournament PGA
  • April 11 – National Pet Day
  • April 12-21 – Coachella Music Festival
  • April 13 – Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
  • April 13-15 – Songkran
  • April 15 – American Sign Language Day
  • April 15 – Tax Day
  • April 15 – Boston Marathon
  • April 15 – Patriots’ Day
  • April 16 – Emancipation Day
  • April 21 – World Creativity and Innovation Day
  • April 22 – Earth Day
  • April 22 – Passover starts
  • April 26 – Arbor Day
  • April 27 – World Design Day
  • April 28 – National Superhero Day
  • April 30 – National Honesty Day
  • April 30 – Passover ends

Popular Hashtags For April:

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

May

May brings a lot of variety with it as there are plenty of good causes to raise awareness for, plus major sporting events and unique celebrations you can join in with.

Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day are just a few examples of events that will have lots of people paying attention and can make for great marketing themes.

Monthly Observances

  • ALS Awareness
  • Asthma Awareness
  • Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
  • Jewish American Heritage Month
  • National Celiac Disease Awareness Month
  • Clean Air Month
  • Better Sleep Month
  • Lupus Awareness Month

Weekly Observances

  • May 5-11 – National Pet Week
  • May 19-25 – National Travel & Tourism Week
  • May 5-11 – Drinking Water Week
  • May 6-12 – Nurse’s Week
  • May 12-18 – Food Allergy Awareness Week

Days

  • May 1 – May Day
  • May 1 – Law Day
  • May 1 – Lei Day
  • May 2 – World Password Day
  • May 4 – Star Wars Day
  • May 4 – International Firefighters Day
  • May 4 – Kentucky Derby
  • May 5 – Cinco De Mayo
  • May 5-10 – French Open
  • May 6 – National Nurses Day
  • May 6 – Yom HaShoah
  • May 8 – World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
  • May 10 – World Lupus Day
  • May 11 – World Fair Trade Day
  • May 12 – Mother’s Day
  • May 13-19 – PGA Championship
  • May 14 – Yom Ha’atzmaut
  • May 15 – International Day of Families
  • May 17 – NASCAR Day
  • May 17 – Malcolm X Day
  • May 17 – Internet Day
  • May 19 – HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  • May 20 – World Bee Day
  • May 20 – Victoria Day (Canada)
  • May 21 – World Meditation Day
  • May 25 – Geek Pride Day
  • May 26 – Trinity Sunday
  • May 26 – Indianapolis 500
  • May 27 – Memorial Day
  • May 28 – World Hunger Day
  • May 29 – Memorial Day

Popular Hashtags For May:

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

June

Once June has arrived, it’s finally starting to feel like summer. Everyone wants to make the most of the sunshine, and the positive energies are flowing.

Given that June also marks Great Outdoors Month, this is a great opportunity to make your brand a must-have companion for planning a beachside vacation or hosting a cookout.

You can also show your support for LGBTQ+ Pride, Flag Day, and Father’s Day, along with all the other events listed here.

Monthly Observances

  • LGBTQ Pride Month
  • Caribbean-American Heritage Month
  • Great Outdoors Month
  • Men’s Health Month
  • National Safety Month
  • National Zoo and Aquarium Month

Weekly Observances

  • June 2-8 – National Garden Week
  • June 2-8 – National Headache Awareness Week
  • June 10-16 – National Men’s Health Week
  • June 16-22 – National Roller Coaster Week

Days

  • June 1 – Global Parents Day
  • June 5 – Hot Air Balloon Day
  • June 5 – World Environment Day
  • June 6 – D-Day
  • June 8 – Belmont Stakes
  • June 8 – World Oceans Day
  • June 8 – National Best Friends Day
  • June 9 – Donald Duck Day
  • June 10 – Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
  • June 11 – Kamehameha Day
  • June 12 – Shavuot
  • June 13-16 – Bonnaroo Music Festival
  • June 14 – Flag Day
  • June 14 – Flag Day
  • June 16 – Father’s Day
  • June 16 – Tony Awards
  • June 13-16 – U.S. Open PGA
  • June 19 – Juneteenth
  • June 20 – Summer Solstice
  • June 23 – International Widows Day
  • June 29 – July 21 – Tour de France
  • June 30 – International Asteroid Day

Popular Hashtags For June:

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

July

July presents lots of opportunities for savvy marketers, from the 4th of July to the International Day of Friendship.

As we enter the summer slow-down period, there’s lots to celebrate that can help to feed your social media content to keep customers engaged.

So celebrate your independence, indulge in a little ice cream, and bring people together with one of the many events in July.

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Monthly Observances

  • Family Golf Month
  • Ice Cream Month
  • National Parks and Recreation Month
  • National Picnic Month
  • National Independent Retailer Month
  • National Blueberry Month

Weekly Observances

  • July 15-21 – Capture the Sunset Week

Days

  • July 1 – International Joke Day
  • July 1-11 – Wimbledon
  • July 2 – World UFO Day
  • July 4 – Independence Day
  • July 6 – International Kissing Day
  • July 7 – World Chocolate Day
  • July 8 – National Video Games Day
  • July 11 – World Population Day
  • July 12 – Pecan Pie Day
  • July 16 – Moon Landing Anniversary
  • July 16 – MLB All-Star Game
  • July 17 – World Emoji Day
  • July 17 – Ashura
  • July 18 – Nelson Mandela International Day
  • July 20 – International Chess Day
  • July 20 – National Moon Day
  • July 21 – National Junk Food Day
  • July 24 – Amelia Earhart Day
  • July 26 – Aunt and Uncle Day
  • July 26 – August 11 – Summer Olympics
  • July 28-30 – Summer X Games
  • July 28 – Parents’ Day
  • July 28 – World Hepatitis Day
  • July 30 – International Day of Friendship
  • July 31 – World Ranger Day

Popular Hashtags For July:

  • #NationalPostalWorkerDay
  • #WorldUFODay
  • #WorldEmojiDay
  • #DayOfFriendship

August

We’ve hit the hottest days by August as back-to-school looms, and we welcome the return of football.

While many are topping up their tans and making the most of the final Summer days, August still provides lots of opportunities to align your content with wider events.

Make sure you’re using your marketing calendar to the fullest extent to post any sunny seasonal content promptly before fall arrives.

Monthly Observances

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

Weekly Observances

  • August 1-7 – International Clown Week
  • August 4-10 – National Farmers’ Market Week
  • August 25-31 – Be Kind to Humankind Week

Days

  • August 1 – National Girlfriends Day
  • August 1 – NFL Hall of Fame Game & Preseason
  • August 2 – International Beer Day
  • August 4 – National Friendship Day
  • August 7 – Purple Heart Day
  • August 8 – International Cat Day
  • August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
  • August 11 – National Son and Daughter Day
  • August 12 – Victory Day
  • August 13 – Left Hander’s Day
  • August 15 – Assumption of Mary
  • August 17 – National Honey Bee Day
  • August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
  • August 19 – Raksha Bandhan
  • August 20 – National Radio Day
  • August 21 – Senior Citizens Day
  • August 26 – Women’s Equality Day
  • August 30 – Frankenstein Day
  • August 30 – National Beach Day

Popular Hashtags For August:

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

September

As fall begins, some of the bigger events happening in September are Hispanic Heritage Month, Grandparents Day, and, of course, Labor Day.

There are also plenty of other events to inspire you, from Oktoberfest to National Yoga Month. Plus, a National Coffee Day for those who struggle to start their day without a caffeine fix.

Monthly Observances

  • Wilderness Month
  • National Food Safety Education Month
  • National Yoga Month
  • Whole Grains Month
  • Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)

Weekly Observances

  • September 8-14 – National Suicide Prevention Week
  • September 15-21 – National Indoor Plant Week
  • September 16-22 – Pollution Prevention Week
  • September 24-30 – National Dog Week

Days

  • September 2 – VJ Day
  • September 2 – Labor Day
  • September 4 – National Wildlife Day
  • September 5 – International Day of Charity
  • September 6 – National Fight Procrastination Day
  • September 8 – Pardon Day
  • September 8 – National Grandparents Day
  • September 11 – 9/11
  • September 11 – Patriot Day
  • September 12 – Video Games Day
  • September 13 – Uncle Sam Day
  • September 15 – Greenpeace Day
  • September 17 – Constitution Day
  • September 21 – Oktoberfest Begins
  • September 21 – International Day of Peace
  • September 22 – World Car-Free Day
  • September 22 – September Equinox
  • September 24 – World Bollywood Day
  • September 24–29 – Presidents Cup PGA
  • September 27 – Native American Day
  • September 27 – World Tourism Day
  • September 29 – National Coffee Day (US)
  • September 29 – Confucius Day
  • September 29 – World Heart Day

Popular Hashtags For September:

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

October

It’s that time of year when pumpkin spice lattes roll around again.

While October is known as the spooky season to many, there’s much more to this month than just Halloween – there’s Teacher’s Day, World Mental Health Day, and Spirit Day, to name a few, around which your organization can look to create content.

Monthly Observances

  • Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Bully Prevention Month
  • Halloween Safety Month
  • Financial Planning Month
  • National Pizza Month

Weekly Observances

  • October 8-14 – Fire Prevention Week
  • October 13-19 – Earth Science Week
  • October 20-26 – National Business Women’s Week

Days

  • October 1 – International Coffee Day
  • October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
  • October 3 – National Techies Day
  • October 5 – World Teacher’s Day
  • October 6 – Oktoberfest Ends
  • October 7 – Child Health Day
  • October 10 – World Mental Health Day
  • October 11 – National Coming Out Day
  • October 12 – Yom Kippur
  • October 14 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
  • October 14 – Columbus Day
  • October 14 – Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
  • October 16 – World Food Day
  • October 19 – Sweetest Day
  • October 20 – Spirit Day (Anti-bullying)
  • October 22 – Make a Difference Day
  • October 24 – United Nations Day
  • October 30 – Mischief Night
  • October 31 – Halloween

Popular Hashtags For October:

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

November

During the month in which we all give thanks, there is also a wide range of causes you can help out with or raise awareness for, like Movember and America Recycles Day.

You should also mark your marketing calendar for arguably the biggest sales events of the year – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) – which are sure to be on everyone’s radar.

Monthly Observances

  • Native American Heritage Month
  • Movember
  • World Vegan Month
  • Novel Writing Month
  • National Gratitude Month

Weekly Observances

  • November 11-16 – World Kindness Week (second week: Monday – Sunday)
  • November 18-22 – American Education Week
  • November 18-24 – Game and Puzzle Week

Days

  • November 1 – Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
  • November 1 – All Saint’s Day
  • November 1 – World Vegan Day
  • November 2 – Melbourne Cup
  • November 3 – Daylight Savings Time Ends
  • November 5 – Election Day
  • November 8 – STEM Day
  • November 9 – World Freedom Day
  • November 10 – Marine Corps Birthday
  • November 11 – Veterans Day
  • November 13 – World Kindness Day
  • November 14 – World Diabetes Day
  • November 15 – National Entrepreneurs Day
  • November 24 – Evolution Day
  • November 28 – Thanksgiving Day
  • November 29 – Native American Heritage Day
  • November 29 – Black Friday

Popular Hashtags For November:

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

December

December is here, and the end of the year is in sight.

Although 2025 is right around the corner, and you might want to start planning your content calendar for next year, don’t neglect your content in the run-up to the holidays.

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Send your year off in style with marketing campaigns dedicated to events like Nobel Prize Day, Rosa Parks Day, Green Monday, and more.

You can even do a content wrap-up of your best moments from the year – and make sure to get your 2025 marketing calendar sorted early before the post-Christmas wind-down.

Monthly Observances

  • Human Rights Month
  • Operation Santa Paws
  • Safe Toys and Gifts Month
  • World Food Service Safety Month

Weekly Observances

  • December 9-15 – Human Rights Week
  • December 25 – January 2 – Hanukkah (Chanukah)
  • December 26 – January 1 – Kwanzaa

Days

  • December 1 – World AIDS Day
  • December 1 – Rosa Parks Day
  • December 2 – Cyber Monday
  • December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
  • December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
  • December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
  • December 7 – National Letter Writing Day
  • December 8 – Feast of the Immaculate Conception
  • December 9 – Green Monday
  • December 10 – Nobel Prize Day
  • December 10 – Human Rights Day
  • December 11 – UNICEF Anniversary
  • December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
  • December 18 – National Twin Day
  • December 21 – Winter Solstice
  • December 22 – Forefathers Day
  • December 23 – Festivus
  • December 24 – Christmas Eve
  • December 25 – Christmas Day
  • December 25 – Hanukkah
  • December 26 – Kwanzaa
  • December 26 – Boxing Day
  • December 31 – New Year’s Eve

Popular Hashtags For December:

  • #IDPWD
  • #NationalCookieDay
  • #NobelPrize
  • #WinterSolstice
  • #NYE

The Complete Marketing Calendar And Template To Plan 2024

You can find the link to our complete marketing calendar and template for 2024 right here.

By having a content plan set out months in advance, you can rest assured that you’ll have great ideas to work with throughout the year.

And just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you can’t adapt if something interesting happens later in the year.

Simply rearrange your calendar and work your trending content around key dates.

Keep track of what ideas work throughout the year and use them to help guide your marketing calendar for 2025, so you can double down on successful content ideas.

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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?

In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.

Price: Free

Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.

Most common reporting use case

GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.

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As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:

  • Total Impressions
  • Average CTR
  • Average Position
gsc-performance-overviewgsc-performance-overview

Tip

If you’ve signed up for AWT using Google Search Console, you can view your GSC performance data in Ahrefs by clicking “GSC Performance” from the main dashboard.

But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.

organic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-yearorganic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-year

Favorite feature

One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.

google-search-console-indexed-pages-reportgoogle-search-console-indexed-pages-report

If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.

Price: Free

Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.

Most common reporting use case

Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.

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Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.

Such as:

  • Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
  • Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
  • Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
  • Social media platformsFacebook, Reddit, and Twitter
  • Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage

Sidenote.

If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks

google-looker-studio-partner-connectorsgoogle-looker-studio-partner-connectors

Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:

ahrefs-seo-audit-dashboardahrefs-seo-audit-dashboard
Ahrefs Google Looker Studio integration

With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.

Favorite feature

The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.

Price: Free for 500 URLs

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.

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Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.

screaming-frog-user-interface-screenshotscreaming-frog-user-interface-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.

Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.

Favorite feature

Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs. 

If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.

screaming-frog-api-accessscreaming-frog-api-access

Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.

Price: Free

Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.

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when-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustrationwhen-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustration

For example, you could use our:

Most common reporting use case

One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.

With AWT, you can:

  • Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
  • See the performance of your website
  • Check all known backlinks for your website
ahrefs-overviewahrefs-overview

Favorite feature

Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.

If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).

Price: Free

Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.

Most common reporting use case

For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.

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ahrefs-seo-toolbar-overviewahrefs-seo-toolbar-overview

With the free version, you get the following features:

  • On-page SEO report
  • Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
  • Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
  • SERP positions
  • Country changer for SERP

The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.

If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.

severity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbarseverity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Favorite feature

The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.

indexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbarindexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.

Price: Free

Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.

google-analytics-screenshotgoogle-analytics-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.

Favorite feature

You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.

Price: Free

Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.

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Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.

google-slides-screenshotgoogle-slides-screenshot

Most common reporting use cases

The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.

Favorite feature

One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.

share-video-chat-google-slidesshare-video-chat-google-slides

This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.

Price: Free

Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.

Most common reporting use cases

Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.

Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.

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Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.

bbq-google-trends-graphbbq-google-trends-graph

Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.

Favorite feature

Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.

google-trends-comparison-examplegoogle-trends-comparison-example

Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.

You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.

regional-trends-via-google-trendsregional-trends-via-google-trends

Final thoughts

These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.

The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.

Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂

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