I’ve been in marketing for coming up to ten years now (*internal scream at the passing of time*) and, while I like to think I have a bit of savvy when it comes to content marketing, I still sometimes find myself hunting for the kinds of content templates I used in back in 2015, when I was all but an SEO baby.
Whatever level you’re at—a bit of ‘best practice’ never goes amiss!
Below, you’ll find our gold standard content templates— some for blog post creation, some for SEO reporting, and some for everything in between.
Each one has been specially developed by our team and the Ahrefs community to save you time, and help you create content that actually works.
So, get your bookmark buttons at the ready…
If your job is creating content, then I’m sure you’ll have hit one or two creative walls in your time.
Content templates can pull you out of that rut, giving you ideas on the formats your audience expect to see when they’re searching certain kinds of queries.
1. Blog formats
We’ve put together six blog post templates to help you move past the blank-page. Unless you’re writing a free-flowing think piece, or a piece of deep-research, chances are your content will follow a certain kind of format.
Grab your six content templates here:
- The list post template
- The competitor comparison template
- The expanded definition template
- The contrarian thought-leadership template
- The beginner’s guide template
- The step-by-step guide template
2. Content briefs
When it comes to planning, having examples of different outlines and briefs is like having a buffet of content components—you can mix and match the most valuable parts to create your ideal content template.
Bookmark these six content brief templates:
- Ahrefs’ content brief template
- Draft.dev’s technical content brief template
- Freshpaint’s product-focused content brief template
- Fio Dossetto’s ABCD content brief template
- Deel’s marketing-focused content brief template
- Omniscient Digital’s conversion content brief template
3. Content outlines
Download Bill Widmer’s content outline template shown below. It maps out everything from keyword targeting, content structure, and USPs, to other crucial elements like search intent.
4. Content plans
Rabbit-holes, tangents, analysis paralysis—I’m guilty of them all.
If you’re like me, developing a plan for your content can be made a whole lot easier with a step-by-step content plan template. Luckily Josh has made a great one for you to follow.
Content strategy templates
Building a content strategy isn’t a one-and-done job. Brands, audiences, algorithms—they all change. With everything shifting around you, having reliable frameworks is a must. They can help you focus, and put your energy into the areas that actually matter.
5. Content marketing strategies
I’ll be honest. Coming up with BuzzSumo’s content strategy every quarter used to give me minor heart palpitations. “You’re just selling SaaS, you’re not saving lives.” I’d chant, as I cobbled together some KPIs. If I’d had Josh’s content marketing strategy template on hand, I’d have felt a lot more confident in my strategizing.
6. Content audits
One of the best things you can do for your content is give it a second (or third, or fourth) chance at ranking. But first off, you need to find which articles are worth resurrecting. Follow Josh’s content audit template to prioritize your content efforts.
You can also follow his nifty, content audit quiz below.
7. Content maps
A content map is a menu for your buyer’s journey (first buffets, now menus… can you tell how hungry I am whilst writing this?)—it shows you exactly what content to serve up at each stage, for every type of customer.
Get super targeted with persona-specific copy, or create content that speaks to everyone—just follow Mattheusz’s content map template for more ideas below.
8. Content gap analysis
There’s nothing better than finding out that your top competitor has dropped the ball. Swoop in on content gaps with Despina’s awesome content gap analysis template.
To get the absolute most out of this content template, watch Despina’s handy walkthrough:
9. Marketing plans
Marketing plans can quickly snowball into large, unwieldy, directionless documents—if you’re not careful. That’s why Josh built this incredibly simple one-page content marketing plan template.
10. Keyword strategy
Having a keyword strategy is critical for staying on task, and not getting caught in choice overload. Take it from someone who does a lot of keyword research. Josh has got you covered with a simple keyword strategy template that will keep you on top of the most important metrics.
11. Keyword mapping
When you keyword map, you group keywords into topics and assign them to pages. It’s like the content mapping we covered earlier—only through the lens of SEO.
Grab our content template, where you can map your keywords, record your actions, and tag in your team mates to collaborate.
12. SEO plan
Download our proven SEO plan, based on how we do things here at Ahrefs. It’ll help you find the right keywords, build links, and track your results all in one place.
Here’s Josh walking you through how to use it:
13. SEO strategy
Creating an SEO strategy is another one of those tasks that can be intimidating to tackle–even for marketers that have been around a while. Download our template, and follow along with our blog for tips on how build your SEO strategy from the ground up.
14. SEO checklists
My partner and I have waged an ongoing war over to-do lists. He despairs at the fact I don’t keep an ongoing list, but I don’t see the value in having a list that never ends. Where is the structure? What do you prioritize? And, most importantly, how do you get any satisfaction if the list is never done?!
I feel the same about most SEO checklists out there. They’re a jumble of tasks that can multiple into a forever-list if not personalized, and prioritized.
This is exactly why we created something better—a fully customizable SEO checklist.
It’s designed to adapt to your site, not the other way around. If you agree then…
Grab the Google Sheets template
(p.s. when it comes to #todolistgate, your template downloads would help my case no end)
15. Competitive analysis
While it’s not always good to be looking over your shoulder, keeping watch on your competition can give you pointers on which direction to take your strategy in.
My favorite part about this competitor analysis template is the “Ghost shopping” element. In a former job, my colleagues formed a team and went undercover to demo competitor products and create comprehensive “battle cards”. It was full-on SaaSpionage.
You don’t have to go creating a fake name or backstory like my ex-colleagues (that last bit was most definitely unnecessary), but periodically updating this information can help you fill the gaps, and get ahead of the market.
Content distribution templates
Distribution is one of the most fundamental parts of content marketing. One of my favorite quotes on content distribution comes from Andy Crestodina:
Every piece of content should be created with a promotion plan…with every piece of content, you need to have some concept of how it’s going to get traction. If it’s not search, it should be something else. Not every topic is being searched for. But with whatever you’re making, don’t wait until it’s live before you start thinking about how to promote it. That’s too late.
I think we can all agree that distribution is also one of the hardest parts of marketing. For that reason, we’ve tried to simplify things for you with the following two content marketing templates.
16. Press releases
This content marketing template makes it easy to create a professional press release with a clear, structured format that covers all the essentials—from headline to boilerplate. It also helps you share your news in a no-nonsense way, with a template and example outreach email, which will grab the attention of both media outlets and your audience.
17. Outreach
Our link prospecting template will help you keep on top of your SEO outreach efforts. You’ll have the name, email, domain rating, and campaign on file so you’ll know as and when to check back in with collaborators.
Content measurement templates
Numbers. Ew. Who actually likes them? There’s a reason I went into content people! Measuring the success of your work can be a slog. Luckily the rest of the Ahrefs team—and the Ahrefs community—have your back with easy reporting templates…
18. SEO reporting
Good SEO reports give you clear insights and a logical summary of the work. After reviewing and discussing SEO reports from consultants, in-house teams, and agencies with experts in the Ahrefs Insider community, the Ahrefs team created an SEO report template. It’s designed to be a solid starting point that you can tweak and expand to fit your needs.
19. SEO audits
Looking to improve your website’s SEO but don’t know where to start? Use our free SEO audit template to find SEO issues that need fixing.
20. PR report
This content marketing template comes from yours truly. I spoke with a group of bread-and-butter PRs about what it takes to create a great PR report, and they were kind enough to share some examples and content templates. In this blog, you’ll find eight different templates, including:
- Exec-friendly one-pagers
- PR supplement templates
- Monthly deep-dive templates
- Campaign wrap-ups
- Live coverage dashboards
- Ongoing coverage templates
- Quarterly report templates
Plus our very own template, which amalgamates all of the best bits from the Ahrefs community.
21. SEO reporting dashboards
Creating an SEO reporting dashboard is often an easier way to share your SEO performance results than a text-heavy SEO report. Here are three live Looker Studio templates you can rely on to communicate the positive impact of your content and SEO.
Grab Ahrefs Site Explorer dashboard template
Copy Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker dashboard template
Grab John Reinesch’s brand traffic template
Wrapping up
The more energy you pour into reinventing the wheel for every piece of content, the less you have for the creative work that actually makes an impact. That’s why content marketing templates are a must—not just a shortcut.
Grinding through tedious, repetitive tasks is no badge of honor. Using these content templates, you can streamline the busywork, reclaim your time, and refocus on creating more of the good stuff.
