Use Blog & Editorial Plan to decide who your articles serve, what they should help readers understand, and how your team will produce and improve them. The result should be a practical brief for choosing topics, writing useful articles, reviewing the evidence, and keeping published content current.
This guide uses an illustrative bicycle-repair business. Adapt the examples to your own customers, services, evidence, and publishing capacity.
Open the plan and define the reader's goal
Open Assistant → Strategy → Plans → Blog & Editorial Plan. Choose Fill it in myself for an empty plan, or Add details, Edit, or Review suggestions on a section. Select Save after editing each section; you can save work in progress.
Your Customer Profiles and Marketing Strategy must be ready before this plan can show Ready to use. Use them to identify the reader, business purpose, and approved offers your articles should support.
The four essential decisions are What the blog should drive, Topic clusters & connected articles, Editorial standards & review, and Publishing rhythm & ownership. Start with these, then add content goals, distribution, and a review process.
In Purpose & Readers, use What the blog should drive to name the priority reader, their need, the business outcome, and a useful next action. For example: “Help everyday cyclists understand repair options and arrive prepared for a suitable service booking.” That is more useful to a writer than “publish more content.”
For shared editing and answer states, see Setting up your business strategy in Cedros. Saving this plan does not schedule or publish posts.
Choose the jobs your articles should do
In Content Goals & Topic Clusters, use Blog content goals to select the purposes that fit your readers and business. The choices are grouped under Recommended goals and Optional goals. Click a goal to select or deselect it.
For the repair business, a focused selection might include:
- Explain our product or service: help readers understand what a repair service includes and when an assessment is needed.
- Help buyers compare options: explain how to choose an appropriate service without making unsupported claims about alternatives.
- Give practical playbooks: provide a useful preparation checklist for a booked visit.
- Support existing customers: explain what happens after collection and how to ask a follow-up question.
Review the suggested selections rather than assuming every recommended goal belongs in your plan. If you choose Review suggested starting point, adjust the choices, select Accept reviewed answer, then Save.
Use Blog formats to choose suitable forms, such as an Explainer, Comparison, How-to guide, or Checklist. Funnel stages describe where the reader is in their relationship with you, from learning about a need to becoming or remaining a customer. Choose the stages your content should serve.
A goal explains why an article exists; its format explains how you will present it. For example, helping readers compare options is the goal, while a checklist is one possible format. These selections guide planning; they do not create articles on their own.
Build a useful topic cluster
A topic cluster is a group of connected articles about one reader need. Its main guide is sometimes called a pillar, and the focused supporting articles are sometimes called spokes.
In Topic clusters & connected articles, select Add first topic cluster. Complete the card:
- Topic cluster name: give the group a clear name, such as “Preparing for a bicycle repair.”
- Scope of this topic: define what belongs in the group and what does not. For example, cover choosing a service and preparing for a visit; leave detailed mechanical repair instructions outside this group.
- Main guide title and URL or planned slug: name the main guide and its address. Clearly mark a planned address when the page does not exist yet.
- What the reader needs to understand: describe the question or decision the group should help resolve.
- Relevant pages to link to: list existing URLs or clearly marked planned pages, with a reason each helps the reader.
- Useful next action: identify a suitable step, such as comparing the available services or preparing information for an assessment. Preserve the terms of any named offer.
- Supporting article ideas: add specific angles, such as “What to tell the workshop when requesting an assessment” and “What to bring to your repair appointment.”
Each card needs a name, a reader need or scope, and at least one supporting article idea before the cluster field counts as answered. Adding an empty second card leaves the field incomplete even when the first card is ready.
Use Add another topic cluster when you have enough capacity to support another group. The editor allows up to five clusters. Use Remove on the relevant card to take it out of the plan, then save the section. Removing a planning card does not delete published articles.
Use Search Strategy for search-led topics and priority page links. Keep the main guide and supporting articles coordinated so readers can follow the subject without encountering duplicate explanations or links to unfinished pages.
Set the standard for a publishable article
In Evidence & Editorial Quality, use Editorial standards & review to make your expectations clear to writers and reviewers:
- State the useful takeaway each article should deliver and the reader it should serve.
- Identify acceptable sources and how claims, quotations, examples, and current service details will be checked.
- Name who drafts, reviews accuracy, and approves the article for publication.
- Describe the structure, relevant links, image descriptions, and final checks you expect.
- Explain how corrections and outdated information should be handled after publication.
Follow your Brand Guidelines for voice and presentation. If an article mentions a price, service promise, or promotional offer, check it against the current approved information.
For the repair business, a reviewer might confirm that a preparation checklist reflects the actual booking process and that service descriptions match what the workshop provides. An invented customer story or an unattributed “expert quote” is not evidence. Label illustrative examples and obtain a real source before presenting a result as fact.
When the plan is included as a source for a supported drafting workflow, these decisions can guide topic ideas and drafts. Review the resulting article before publishing. Optional assistant work uses your configured AI service; see Understanding AI usage and costs.
Set a publishing rhythm your team can sustain
In Publishing, Distribution & Reuse, use Publishing rhythm & ownership to record how work moves from idea to reviewed article. Include who chooses topics, who writes, who checks the facts, who publishes, and the time each step needs.
For a small workshop, one carefully reviewed article a month might be a sensible starting plan. The owner could choose the reader question first, a writer could prepare the draft, and a service lead could check accuracy before publication. Use a pace that fits your team; the example is not a required Cedros schedule.
Plan the main guide before or alongside the supporting articles. Give each piece a clear reader need, role in the cluster, evidence to gather, links, owner, and next action. A planned publication date should leave time for review and any missing information.
Carry the approved brief into the article workflow. See Writing and publishing a blog post for creating the actual post, previewing it, and publishing it. Writing dates or responsibilities in this plan does not create posts, assign work, or activate a publishing schedule.
Plan distribution and useful reuse
Use Distribution and reuse to explain how each type of article will reach readers after publication. Record the destination, owner, adaptation needed, and intended next step.
For example, a preparation guide could supply a short newsletter item linking to the full article, a concise social post, or a useful reference for staff answering a customer's question. Choose destinations your business actually uses and has capacity to maintain.
Keep the facts, advice, and offer terms consistent across versions. A short summary should still make sense on its own and lead to the correct article. Check that the destination is live before sharing it.
Saving the reuse plan does not send a newsletter or publish a social post. Prepare and review each version through the channel you use, then record what was actually shared.
Review results and refresh older content
In Measurement & Improvement, use Results, refresh & retirement to choose what you will measure for each goal or topic cluster. Useful measures may include relevant visits, subscriptions, suitable inquiries, purchases, or reader feedback. Record the source, reporting period, and baseline when known; keep targets separate from results.
Name the review owner and cadence, then define when to act:
- Update: service details, examples, links, or instructions are out of date.
- Expand: readers keep asking a relevant question the article does not answer well.
- Consolidate: several pieces repeat the same material and would be clearer as one coordinated resource.
- Retire: an article no longer serves a useful purpose and should be reviewed for removal from publication.
Low traffic and poor results after a visit are different problems. If few people reach an article, investigate its discovery and distribution. If readers arrive but cannot find a useful next step, review the content and destination. Avoid assuming a single metric explains the whole result.
These are decisions to record and carry into the publishing workflow. They do not automatically update, combine, or unpublish articles. Check links and related content before changing what readers can access.
Review the saved plan before commissioning articles
Before starting the next article:
- Confirm the intended reader, useful outcome, and next action.
- Review the selected content goals, formats, and reader stages. Give the article a clear role in a topic cluster.
- Check the main guide, supporting ideas, sources, and links. Separate planned pages from working destinations.
- Confirm the writer, reviewer, publication plan, distribution owner, and review cadence.
- Save each edited section and check readiness. Ready to use means the essential decisions and prerequisite plans are addressed; it does not confirm that articles exist or have passed editorial review.
Use Not known yet for unresolved decisions, or Not applicable with a reason where appropriate. If someone else has changed the shared plan, keep a copy of your unsaved wording before choosing Reload latest plan, then compare the latest decisions before editing again.
Keep the plan close to the work: update it when reader questions, service changes, or published results show that a topic or approach needs attention.