If you're tired of guessing what content to prioritize next, you're not alone. Editorial calendars are supposed to bring order to the chaos, but deciding what to actually work on is where most teams still get stuck. Tools like MarketMuse promise to help by scoring your content for quality and opportunity—but only if you use them right. This guide cuts through the noise and lays out clear, practical steps for using content scoring in MarketMuse to make your editorial calendar work for you, not the other way around.
Who This Is For
- Content leads juggling too many topic ideas and not enough data
- SEO pros who want to go beyond keyword stuffing and "gut feel"
- Teams that already have MarketMuse, but aren't sure what to do with its content scores
- Anyone tired of chasing shiny objects and looking for a real, repeatable process
Step 1: Actually Understand What MarketMuse Scores Mean
Before you start sorting your calendar by any number, make sure you know what you're looking at.
The basics: - Content Score: How well your page covers a topic, based on the presence and depth of relevant terms. Higher is better, but don't obsess over 100. - Target Content Score: What MarketMuse thinks is a "good enough" score to compete for the topic—usually based on the top performers in search results. - Topic Authority/Opportunity Scores: How likely your site is to rank for a topic (authority) and how much potential gain there is (opportunity). These are useful, but they're not magic.
What matters:
Don’t treat any score as gospel. MarketMuse is good at surfacing gaps, but it can't predict your audience or business priorities. Think of the scores as decision aids, not final answers.
Ignore:
- The urge to always chase a perfect 100. Diminishing returns are real.
- Scores for topics that don't fit your audience, even if they're "easy wins." Relevance beats ease.
Step 2: Audit Your Existing Content — Ruthlessly
Dump your current URLs into MarketMuse. Let it crawl and score everything that's remotely relevant to your editorial goals.
What to look for: - Pages with low Content Scores but high Opportunity Scores (these are your low-hanging fruit) - Pages that almost hit the Target Content Score—often just need a minor update - Old posts with decent authority, but missing major related topics or subtopics
Pro tips: - Don’t waste time scoring pages you know you’ll never update. Archive those and move on. - If a page is already ranking well and converting, don’t mess with it just because the score isn’t “perfect.”
Step 3: Score New Content Ideas Before You Write
Run your target keywords/topics through MarketMuse before you start writing. This helps you avoid creating content that’s already overserved or out of your reach.
What to prioritize: - Topics with high Opportunity and reasonable Target Content Scores, but where you’re not hopelessly behind in authority - Ideas where your site has some topical strength, even if the overall competition is high - Gaps in your content map—areas your audience cares about, but you haven’t touched
Warning signs: - If the Target Content Score is sky-high and all the top results are giant, established brands, think twice. - If the Opportunity Score is low, it probably means the topic is saturated or not worth the effort.
Step 4: Build a Simple, Score-Driven Editorial Calendar
Now, turn all this data into a calendar you’ll actually use.
How to organize: 1. List all candidate topics/pages — both updates and new ideas. 2. Add columns for Content Score, Target Score, Opportunity, Authority (whatever your team values). 3. Sort by a mix of: - Pages with the biggest gap between Content Score and Target Score (quickest wins) - New topics with high opportunity and within your authority range - Business priorities (Don’t let the algorithm drive all decisions) 4. Flag “no-go” topics — high effort, low reward, or not a fit for your audience.
Pro tips: - Don’t over-engineer this. A shared Google Sheet works fine for most teams. - Revisit your calendar quarterly. MarketMuse scores (and Google’s SERPs) shift over time.
Step 5: Use Scores to Guide, Not Dictate, Your Content Briefs
MarketMuse can spit out content briefs, but they're only as good as your inputs and judgment.
What to do: - Use the top related topics MarketMuse suggests as a checklist, not a script. - Aim to hit or slightly exceed the Target Content Score, but don’t shoehorn in keywords unnaturally. - Layer in your own expertise, examples, and audience insights. That’s what separates you from generic content.
What to skip: - Chasing word count for its own sake. Longer isn’t always better. - Blindly following “gap” terms if they don’t make sense for your voice or reader.
Step 6: Track Results—And Be Ready to Adjust
Don’t just move on after you hit publish. Watch how your updated or new content performs.
What to watch: - Rankings for your target terms (use Search Console, not just MarketMuse) - Actual traffic and engagement (are people sticking around?) - The effect of improving Content Scores—sometimes you’ll see quick wins, sometimes… nothing.
If something flops: - Check if you actually addressed the topic in a useful, thorough way—or just ticked boxes. - Consider whether your site lacks the authority to compete (not every opportunity pans out). - Be willing to kill or rework content that isn’t working, even if the scores looked good.
Honest Takes: What Works, What Doesn't
Works well: - Using Content Score gaps to find easy update wins - Prioritizing new topics your site can realistically rank for - Letting scores highlight real gaps, not just echo your existing calendar
Doesn’t work: - Treating MarketMuse’s numbers as infallible—use them to inform, not dictate - Chasing high scores on irrelevant topics - Assuming hitting a Target Content Score guarantees rankings (it doesn’t)
Ignore: - The urge to “optimize everything” at once. You’ll burn out and dilute your efforts. - Any pressure to game the system—Google is always smarter than the tools.
Keep It Simple: Iterate, Don’t Overthink
Content scoring tools like MarketMuse are great for cutting through the guesswork, but they’re not a replacement for knowing your audience and business goals. Use the scores to find your biggest opportunities and quick wins. Don’t get lost in the weeds or obsess over perfection. Start small, review what works, and keep your editorial calendar flexible enough to adjust as you learn.
You’ll move faster, get better results, and—most importantly—spend less time arguing about what to publish next.