Blog · Niches and Planning

How to Plan Your First 30 Blog Posts

The fastCMS team · 23 October 2026 · 6 min read

A list of 30 post ideas is worth more than any amount of motivation. With one, you sit down each week knowing exactly what to write. Without one, you lose an evening deciding, then write whatever's easiest, and six months later your blog is a random pile of posts that don't link to each other.

Here's how to build a blog content plan that gives a new site a fair chance of ranking.

Start with 3 to 5 pillar topics

Pillars are the main subjects your blog covers. Each one should be big enough to support several posts but still sit firmly inside your niche.

For a blog about growing vegetables on a balcony, the pillars might be containers and soil, what to grow, watering and feeding, and pests and problems. Four pillars, each obviously connected to the reader's situation.

Fewer than three and the blog feels thin. More than five and you'll spread yourself across too many subjects to cover any of them properly. If you haven't settled your niche yet, sort that first with how to find a blog niche.

Under each pillar, list the questions

Every pillar gets one big guide (the pillar post) and a set of smaller cluster posts. Each cluster post answers one specific question someone would actually type into Google.

Find those questions the free way: type your pillar topic into Google and read the autocomplete suggestions, open the "People also ask" boxes, and search forums for what beginners ask over and over. Write each question down as it's phrased. "Why are my tomato leaves turning yellow" is a post. "Tomato leaf problems" is a vague category.

Aim for five to eight cluster ideas per pillar. With four or five pillars, that gets you comfortably past 30.

Mix quick wins with bigger guides

Not every post should be a 3,000-word epic. A good plan has two kinds:

• Quick wins: narrow questions with an obvious answer and little competition. Often 600 to 1,200 words. When you search them, you see forum threads or thin pages rather than big brands, which is a sign a clear, dedicated answer could rank.
• Pillar guides: broad, thorough posts that cover a whole topic and link to every related cluster post. Often 2,000 words or more.

Roughly, a 30-post plan might be 4 or 5 pillar guides and 25 or so cluster posts. The cluster posts do most of the early ranking. The pillars tie them together and become your strongest pages over time.

Publish in the right order

Order matters more than most beginners realise.

1. Start with five to ten quick wins. They're faster to write and have the best chance of picking up search traffic while your site is new.
2. Write your first pillar guide once a handful of its cluster posts exist, so it has something to link to.
3. Go back and add links from those cluster posts up to the pillar.
4. Repeat for the next pillar.

This builds what's often called a topic cluster: a group of posts that clearly belong together and point to one another. It helps readers find the next useful thing, and it helps search engines understand what your site covers. There's more on why this matters in SEO for new blogs.

A simple spreadsheet layout

You don't need a planning app. A spreadsheet with these columns does the job:

Keep the status column honest (Idea, Drafting, Published, Needs update) and sort by it each week. Add a column for the date you last updated each post once you have a few months of posts behind you.

An example plan: beginner sourdough baking at home

Here's how the first part of a plan might look for a blog aimed at people baking sourdough for the first time in a normal home kitchen.

Pillars: the starter, ingredients and kit, the bake, and troubleshooting.

Ten of the first 30 titles:

1. How to make a sourdough starter from scratch (pillar)
2. How do you know when your sourdough starter is ready to use?
3. Sourdough starter not rising: the usual causes and fixes
4. Can you use plain flour for sourdough?
5. Do you need a Dutch oven to bake sourdough?
6. A beginner's sourdough loaf, step by step (pillar)
7. How long to prove sourdough in the fridge
8. Why is my sourdough dense? (and how to fix it)
9. How to feed a sourdough starter when you only bake once a week
10. Sourdough troubleshooting: every common problem in one place (pillar)

Notice the shape. Most titles are specific questions a beginner would actually search, the pillars come later in the list so they have posts to link to, and every title sits clearly inside the niche. Nothing about bread machines, nothing about pizza (yet).

Set a cadence you can keep

One or two posts a week, every week, beats ten in the first fortnight and then nothing. A steady schedule keeps you writing long enough for anything to rank, and that usually takes months rather than weeks. We explain the typical timeline in how long it takes a new blog to get traffic.

At one post a week, 30 posts is roughly seven months of work. At two a week, about four. Pick the pace that fits your real week, not your most optimistic one. If a post takes you five hours, plan for five hours.

Batching helps. Some people research three posts in one sitting, then write them on separate days. Others draft at the weekend and edit during the week. Find what suits you and protect the time.

Refresh, don't just add

After three to six months, your plan needs a new column: what to update.

Open Google Search Console and look at the Performance report. Posts that show lots of impressions but few clicks, or that sit on page two for a useful search, are often worth more attention than a brand new post. Improve the title, answer the question sooner, add what's missing, and update any facts or prices that have changed.

A healthy plan after the first six months is often something like three new posts for every one refresh.

FAQ

How many blog posts should I plan before starting?

Plan around 20 to 30 titles before you publish anything. You don't need to write them all first, but having the list means you always know what's next and how the posts connect.

What is a pillar post?

A pillar post is a long, broad guide on one of your main topics that links to all the smaller, more specific posts on that topic. It acts as a hub for readers and helps search engines see how your content fits together.

How long should each blog post be?

As long as it takes to answer the question well. Quick-win posts are often 600 to 1,200 words and pillar guides often 2,000 or more, but padding a post to hit a word count makes it worse, not better.

Should I change my content plan once I start publishing?

Yes. Search Console will show you which searches your posts actually appear for, and that often reveals better post ideas than your original list. Treat the plan as a living document.

Your next step

Open a spreadsheet, add the columns above and write down your pillars. Then fill in five quick-win questions under each one, and start writing the easiest of them this week. When you sit down to write it, how to write a blog post people read to the end will help you get the structure right.