How to Create a Content Tracker in Google Sheets

Having brilliant content ideas is one thing, getting them published consistently is something else entirely. Without a system, topics get lost, deadlines are missed, and your whole content process feels chaotic. This guide will walk you through exactly how to build a powerful and flexible content tracker from scratch using nothing more than Google Sheets.

Why Use Google Sheets for a Content Tracker?

You might be tempted by fancy project management software, but these tools can often be overly complex and expensive. A Google Sheet, on the other hand, gives you everything you need to build a system that works for you, and it has some huge advantages:

It's free: There’s no subscription required. All you need is a Google account.
It's collaborative: You can easily share the sheet with your team, assign tasks, and leave comments in real time. Everyone is always looking at the most up-to-date version.
It's fully customizable: You're not locked into a specific workflow. You can add or remove columns, create new tabs, and set up automations that fit your exact process.
It's accessible anywhere: Since it’s cloud-based, you can access and update your content plan from any device, anywhere you have an internet connection.

It's the perfect middle ground between a simple to-do list and a bulky, expensive piece of software.

Laying the Foundation: Setting Up Your Content Tracker

Let's start by creating the basic structure. Open Google Sheets and create a new blank spreadsheet. The first thing we’ll do is define the columns that will act as the backbone of our workflow. Each row in our sheet will represent a single piece of content.

Choosing Your Core Columns

Naming your columns clearly is the first step to an organized tracker. At a minimum, every content tracker needs columns that cover the 'what,' 'who,' 'when,' and 'where.' Start with these essential fields. You can rename the tab at the bottom from "Sheet1" to something like "Content Pipeline."

Topic / Title Idea: The working title or a brief description of the content piece.
Content Type: Are you creating a blog post, a YouTube video, a newsletter, or a social media update? This helps you manage a diverse content mix.
Status: This tracks where the content is in your workflow. We’ll make this really powerful later, but for now, you can just type in statuses like 'Idea,' 'Writing,' 'Review,' or 'Published.'
Assignee: Who is responsible for moving this piece of content forward?
Draft Due Date: The deadline for completing the initial draft.
Publish Date: The date the content is scheduled to go live.
Live URL: Once published, drop the link here for easy reference.

Adding More Detail with "Nice-to-Have" Columns

Once you have the basics down, you can add more columns to bring more strategic clarity to your planning. These aren't necessary for everyone, but they can be incredibly helpful.

Primary Keyword: The main SEO keyword you're targeting.
Audience / Persona: Who is this specific piece of content for? This helps keep your writing targeted.
Funnel Stage: Where in the customer journey does this content fit? (e.g., Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel).
Call to Action (CTA): What do you want the reader to do after consuming this content? (e.g., Sign up for our newsletter, book a demo).
Notes: A catch-all column for any random thoughts, links to research, or communication with team members.

Your blank sheet should now have a solid header row. Don’t worry about perfection here, you can always add or remove columns as your process evolves.

Making Your Tracker Dynamic and Easy-to-Use

This is where we turn a static grid of text into a dynamic tool that makes managing your content simple and visual. These small adjustments have a huge impact on day-to-day usability.

Create Drop-Down Menus for Clean Data

If you have different people typing into the 'Status' column, you’re bound to get inconsistencies like "In Progress," "in progress," and "InProcess." Data validation drop-downs solve this, ensuring everyone uses the same terms.

Click on the column letter for 'Status' (typically column C) to select the entire column.
Go to the menu and click Data > Data validation.
In the sidebar that appears, under 'Criteria,' select 'Dropdown.'
Instead of using text from a range, you can manually enter your workflow statuses. For example: Idea, Outlining, Waiting for Review, Scheduled, Published.
Make sure 'Show dropdown list in cell' is checked and click 'Done.'

Now, every cell in that column will have a neat little dropdown arrow, ensuring your status tracking is always consistent. You can do the same for the 'Content Type' and 'Assignee' columns.

Visualize Your Workflow with Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting changes a cell's color based on its content. This allows you to see the status of your entire content pipeline with a single glance.

Select the 'Status' column again.
Go to the menu and click Format > Conditional formatting.
The Conditional formatting rules sidebar will open. Under 'Format rules,' your selected range should already be there (e.g., C2:C1000).
Under 'Format cells if...,' choose 'Text is exactly...'
In the 'Value or formula' box, type one of your statuses, like Published.
Under 'Formatting style,' select a color. A nice green for published content works well.
Click 'Add another rule' and repeat the process for your other statuses. For example:
- If Text is exactly ... 'Waiting for Review' -> Set background color to Yellow
- If Text is exactly ... 'Outlining' -> Set background color to Light Blue
- If Text is exactly ... 'Stuck / Blocked' -> Set background color to Light Red

This simple visual system makes it instantly obvious where each piece of content stands and what needs your attention most.

Add Checkboxes for Tracking Sub-Tasks

Sometimes a single 'Status' isn't enough. You can add columns with checkboxes to track smaller steps within a phase, like 'Outline Complete,' 'Reviewed,' and 'Images Added.'

Create new columns for your sub-tasks.
Select the cells where you want the checkboxes to go.
From the menu, choose Insert > Checkbox.

This provides an extra layer of granularity so you know that even if a piece of content is 'In Progress,' three of the five required steps are already complete.

Advanced Tips to Level-Up Your Content Tracker

Never Lose Your Column Headers: Freeze the Top Row

As your content tracker grows, you'll have to scroll down to see all your entries. When you do that, the header row with all your column names disappears. This is an easy fix.

Navigate to the top menu and click View > Freeze > 1 row.

That’s it! Now your header row will stay visible no matter how far down you scroll, making the sheet much easier to navigate.

Create a Simple Dashboard Tab with Formulas

Want a high-level overview of your content production without all the details? You can create a simple dashboard right inside your Google Sheet.

Create a new tab by clicking the '+' icon at the bottom of the sheet. Rename it "Dashboard."
In this new tab, create some labels, like "Total Posts Published," "Ideas in Backlog," and "Articles in Progress."
Next to your "Total Posts Published" label, use the COUNTIF formula to automatically count the rows in your main sheet. The formula looks like this:

=COUNTIF('Content Pipeline'!C:C, "Published")

This tells Google Sheets to look at column C (C:C) in your 'Content Pipeline' tab and count how many cells contain the exact text "Published."

You can repeat this formula for all of your statuses:

=COUNTIF('Content Pipeline'!C:C, "Idea")

=COUNTIF('Content Pipeline'!C:C, "Outlining")

And so on.

This dashboard tab provides a quick summary snapshot, helping you understand content velocity and identify bottlenecks in your workflow without having to manually review and count every single line item.

Filter and Sort for a Calendar View

Need to focus on what’s coming up? You can easily transform your all-encompassing tracker into a focused calendar view for upcoming publications.

Click on row 1 (your header row) to highlight it.
Navigate to Data > Create a filter. You'll now see small filter icons appear in each header cell.
Click the filter icon in the 'Publish Date' column and select 'Sort A → Z.'

This instantly arranges your entire sheet chronologically by publish date, giving you a clear view of your publishing schedule. If you're working with a team, consider using a 'Filter view' (Data > Filter views > Create a new Filter view) which allows you to sort and filter your own private view without changing the view for everyone else.

Final Thoughts

Building this content tracker in Google Sheets centralizes your entire production workflow, moving your master plan from scattered notes and DMs into a single source of truth. With a clear structure, interactive features, and a high-level dashboard, you have a powerful and free tool to help you stay organized, meet your deadlines, and ultimately publish more great content.

While this custom Google Sheet is a fantastic way to manage your content workflow, understanding its performance still requires pulling data from other sources like Google Analytics or your CRM to learn what's truly working. We built Graphed to automate precisely that. Instead of spending hours exporting CSVs or cross-referencing your tracker with traffic patterns, you can connect your data sources once and use plain English to ask questions like "which blog posts from Q2 drove the most sign-up?" Graphed instantly builds the real-time dashboards you need, giving you back time to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets.