Three Top Blog Planning Tips for 2026

Three Important Things to Consider When Planning Your Blog for 2026

You know how brilliant a blog can be for your business – I’m always banging on about it – and getting your topics planned in advance is a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting it done. Lots of you take some time at this point in the year to plan what yours is going to look like (I’ve been running the Blog Challenge this month to help with that too), so while you’re pondering what to write about this year, I thought it might be helpful to throw out three important things to consider when you’re coming up with your topics.

 

1 – What Do You Enjoy Writing About?

Essential, or this whole business is going to be a massive chore for you, and your blog is just not going to work all its magic for you if you clearly don’t love your topic. Think about the aspects of your work that you love the most, and make sure you get as much of that into your blog as possible this year, because that passion will shine out so clearly to your readers as well.

One way to do that is to shift your posts’ focus when you’re planning and writing them. So if you’re thinking about introducing a new service and writing a blog about that, focus on what you love most about it – the brilliant outcomes your customers will get, how it will solve their problems, how you will deliver it to them – rather than the nuts and bolts of how it works. You’ll have a lot more fun writing it, and that will come through so clearly for your readers.

I’d highly recommend throwing in the odd post about something you love away from business, as well – it’s a great idea for a more personal About Me post, and gives some real colour and personality to your readers’ understanding of who’s behind the business.

 

2 – What Do Your Customers Want to Read From You?

This one’s often overlooked, so I deliberately make it part of the Blog Challenge. Actually asking the question and finding out what your customers value from you can be very revealing, and you might discover that a particular part of your expertise holds a value for someone that you didn’t even consider.

So go out and ask that question. Single out some of the customers you really love working with – some of the sort you’d love to get more of – and find out what blog posts they’ve enjoyed most from you in the past, and what nuggets of wisdom they’d love you to share this year. You may be surprised by the results!

 

3 – What Does Google Need to See From You?

Ah, the dark art of SEO – you knew we’d get here eventually! Blogging has always been a brilliant way to boost your SEO with least expense and maximum impact, by increasing your keyphrase opportunities and ticking all the boxes that Google looks at when deciding how to rank you in a search.

So when you’re planning your posts for this year, think about what you want to be found for. What are your ideal customers putting into Google that should return you as the answer to their problem? You’ve probably got that largely covered in broad terms on your website’s main pages, but your blog is your chance to mention specifics, especially if you want to feature with search terms about your local area. These sorts of post are likely to be less well covered, so you’ve got a higher chance of ranking when someone is looking for them.

For example, if you are a local physiotherapist whose main website keyphrase is ‘Northampton physio’, you might also want to be found for something like “post natal physio Northampton” – your blog is a great place to put up a post that allows you to focus on that. It’s the chance to use a keyphrase that you haven’t assigned to one of your main website pages, and means you can be found for it by people who are looking.

 

Planning is at least half the battle for having a successful blog that works so hard on your behalf all year round, and year after year. If you know what you’re going to write each month, setting the time to sit down and do it feels much more achievable. So if you haven’t done yours yet for the year, put aside 15 minutes this month and see what you can come up with – and think about some of the above when you do!

(If by any chance you haven’t heard my thoughts on why your blog is one of your business’s greatest assets, have a look at this: https://rlcwords.co.uk/2025/12/29/reasons-to-blog-in-2026/ )