Topic Plan

1---
2name: content-topic-plan
3description: >
4  Decide what a small business writes next and build an editorial calendar the owner can
5  keep: real customer questions, ranked by the leads they can bring, each tied to a service page
6  and to one first-hand asset. Use this skill when the user asks what to blog about, wants
7  content ideas, a content plan, an editorial or content calendar, topic clusters, small-business
8  keyword research, blog topics, or more traffic from search and AI answers (AI Overviews,
9  ChatGPT, Perplexity). Exports the calendar as CSV and ICS.
10---
11
12# Topic Plan: Know What to Write Next
13
14**RULE: Every topic is a real question a customer asked, tied to one service page, with one
15first-hand asset only this business has. No city-swap pages, no bulk batches.**
16
17Small businesses do not win search with volume. They win with answers to the questions their
18own customers ask, written by someone who did the work. Google's spam policies name "scaled
19content abuse": many pages made mainly to rank, by people or by AI. A plan of two good posts a
20month beats fifty thin ones, and it is a plan the owner can keep.
21
22Load the content kit first (`content-voice-and-proof`). The readers, places and proof bank
23decide which topics this business can write well.
24
25## 1. Collect questions from real sources
26
27Collect questions in the customers' own words. Use `references/question-sources.md` for where
28to look and how to export each source.
29
30| Source | What it gives |
31|---|---|
32| Lead forms and emails | The exact words people use before they hire |
33| Call notes, the owner's memory | The questions asked on every job |
34| Reviews (the business's and competitors') | Worries and outcomes that matter |
35| Google Business Profile | Public questions on the profile, and the search terms in Performance |
36| People Also Ask, autocomplete | How people phrase the question in search |
37| Search Console, Queries report | Questions the site already shows for, with clicks and position |
38| Seasons and local events | Freeze warnings, storm season, school start, tax deadlines |
39
40Aim for 30 to 60 raw questions. Merge duplicates that ask the same thing in different words.
41
42## 2. Tag each question by intent
43
44| Intent | The reader wants to | Example | Best format |
45|---|---|---|---|
46| `learn` | Understand a problem | "Why is my water heater making noise?" | Blog post |
47| `do` | Fix it themselves | "How to relight a pilot light" | Blog post with steps and a safety limit |
48| `compare` | Choose between options | "Tankless vs tank water heater" | Blog post with an honest comparison |
49| `hire` | Pick a business now | "Water heater repair Mount Pleasant" | Service page, not a post |
50
51`hire` questions belong on service pages (see `launch-local-seo`). A post that targets a
52`hire` query competes with the business's own service page.
53
54## 3. Map each topic to a service page
55
56Each post supports one service page, its hub. The post links to the hub, and the hub links
57back to its best posts (see `content-blog-post`, step 4).
58
59- A topic with no matching service is off-plan unless the owner wants to add the service.
60- Group topics by hub. A hub with no posts is a gap. A hub with ten posts and no leads needs