INTERNAL · noindex,nofollow · strategic roadmap · not for public distribution · last revised 2026-05-11
/expanse :: roadmap

Awards Almanac — Expansion Roadmap

The year-by-year reference is dense and valuable. Below: where it should go next — international ceremonies, deeper history, predictions infrastructure, and the data play hiding inside the almanac.

01 · Scope expansion

Where the site grows next

High-leverage scope expansions ordered by impact-to-effort ratio. Each comes with a one-line "why" rationale — the underlying audience, distribution, or content-moat hypothesis.

Idea 01

International TV awards

BAFTA TV (UK), International Emmys, C21 International Drama Awards, Asian Television Awards, ABU Prizes (Asia-Pacific), Realscreen Awards. The almanac is currently US-heavy; international coverage triples the keyword universe.

Why: Untapped long-tail SEO + a more global readership
Idea 02

Predictions infrastructure

For every covered ceremony: a /predictions/ snapshot at T-90, T-30, T-7 days. Captures Goldderby-style traffic and gives the data team a sequence to publish from.

Why: Recurring traffic; sticky compound interest from prior cycles
Idea 03

Historical archive expansion

Currently 2010-2026. Push back to 2000 for major ceremonies (Oscars, Emmys), 1990 for foundational ones (Peabody, Tony). Generates evergreen pages.

Why: Long-tail evergreen searches
Idea 04

Voting-body bio pages

A page per major voting body (TV Academy, AMPAS, HFPA successor, TCA, BAFTA TV Committee, etc.) explaining who votes, how, when, and what the body's biases are.

Why: Builds expert authority + earns external links
Idea 05

Awards-season calendar API

JSON feed of every ceremony with date, eligibility window, voting body, nomination/results dates. Other sites embed it — we get backlinks.

Why: Distribution play; backlinks compound
Idea 06

Crew categories deep-dive

/crew/ pages exist. Expand them: every below-the-line category at every ceremony, year over year. Casting, sound, makeup, music supervision, stunt coordination are all underserved.

Why: Very low-competition keyword cluster

Visual & UX polish targets

Specific design improvements that compound. Each is implementable in a single session of focused work — not full rebuilds.

UX 01

Year-page light-mode polish

awards.css has light-mode rules but the gold + cream pairing needs warming up. Match the Marquee site's cream rather than the current near-white.

UX 02

Image richness for ceremony pages

Most year pages are text-only. Add: ceremony stage still, winner-podium photo, behind-the-scenes craft photo. Three images per year page, attribution required.

UX 03

Prediction-vs-result visualizations

For our predictions tracker: a simple bar chart per category showing how our predictions evolved vs. the actual nominees/winners. Builds the data-storytelling angle.

UX 04

Search across the almanac

awardshows.com has no top-level search. Build an awards-search that filters by ceremony, year, category, and shows/winners.

UX 05

Calendar.html as the home

The /calendar.html page is the single best entry point and the most useful page on the site. Promote it visually on the home page (large card above the year list).

03 · Content gaps

Articles & pages worth filling

Content the site is missing, ordered by ease-of-implementation. Each item is a defined article or page format — not a vague "make more content" directive.

Gap 01

Predictions hub

A landing page that pulls every active prediction set (next 90 days of ceremonies) onto one canonical page.

Gap 02

Ceremony rules pages

Per ceremony: how nominations and voting work, eligibility windows, ballot mechanics. Sourced from public ceremony documents.

Gap 03

"What's changed" annual

A "rule changes for the [year] cycle" essay for each major ceremony each year. Currently ungettable from a single source elsewhere.

Gap 04

Genre-specific verticals

/comedy-awards/, /documentary-awards/, /animation-awards/ pages aggregating across ceremonies.

Gap 05

Snub-and-surprise tradition pieces

Per cycle, per ceremony: the snub piece and the surprise piece. Cheap to write, evergreen long-tail.

Where to cite from

External sources to cite, follow, and benchmark against. Click any to open in a new tab.

05 · SEO prompts

Ready-to-paste SEO prompts

Copy any prompt below into Claude (or any LLM) to generate SEO-optimized content for this site. Each prompt follows the Opus 4.7 framework — tagged context, instructions, constraints, output format. Replace the bracketed placeholders before running.

SEO Prompt 01
International expansion essay
<context>
The almanac currently covers 17 mostly-US ceremonies. We want to expand to BAFTA TV, the International Emmys, the C21 International Drama Awards, and the Asian Television Awards.
</context>
<instructions>
For [INTERNATIONAL CEREMONY NAME], write the inaugural ceremony page in our existing year-page format. Include: ceremony history (2-3 paragraphs), voting body explanation, category list, [year]'s nominees with full source-link attribution.
</instructions>
<constraints>
- Match the existing year-page HTML structure exactly.
- Source every nominee from the ceremony's own official site &mdash; no Wikipedia citations.
- Add the ceremony to /calendar.html with the right date.
</constraints>
SEO Prompt 02
Predictions snapshot generator
<context>
For a major ceremony approaching in [N days], write a predictions snapshot dated [today].
</context>
<instructions>
For each of the 8 major categories at this ceremony, list our predicted 5 nominees, ranked. For each: a 60-word case, an external source backing the prediction, and a confidence level (high/mid/low). Close with a "snub watch" and a "surprise watch."
</instructions>
SEO Prompt 03
Voting-body bio page
<context>
We're building a /voting-bodies/ vertical. The first entry is [BODY NAME].
</context>
<instructions>
Write a 1,200-word bio of this voting body: founding year, membership criteria, total voter count, voting mechanics, historical biases, recent controversies (cited), and what to watch in the upcoming cycle.
</instructions>
SEO Prompt 04
Cross-ceremony connection essay
<context>
A single show often appears across many ceremonies in the same cycle. We want to surface those connections.
</context>
<instructions>
Write a 1,500-word "From Cannes Series to the Emmys: the 2026 journey" essay following 3-5 shows from their first festival/award appearance through every subsequent recognition. Link to each ceremony page on the almanac as the show appears.
</instructions>

Ready-to-paste writing prompts

Editorial prompts — reviews, profiles, recaps, picks — each pre-structured in the framework so output drops into the site's existing voice.

Content Prompt 01
Year-page content generation
<context>
I need to fill in [CEREMONY] [YEAR] on the almanac. The official site is at [URL]. Nominees and winners are visible there.
</context>
<instructions>
Generate the year page in our existing structure. Pull nominees and winners verbatim from the official source. Add IMDB and X-search links per nominee. Match the awards.css class structure exactly (cat-card, winner-entry, nom-entry, etc.).
</instructions>
Content Prompt 02
Ceremony recap
<context>
[CEREMONY] just concluded. The winners list is at [URL]. Notable upsets: [list]. Notable acceptance speeches: [list].
</context>
<instructions>
Write an 800-word recap. Lead with the single most significant upset. Include 3-5 named highlights from speeches. Close with what this ceremony does to the rest of the awards season.
</instructions>
Content Prompt 03
Rule-change explainer
<context>
[CEREMONY] just published a rule change for the [year] cycle: [change].
</context>
<instructions>
Write a 500-word explainer: what changed, why the ceremony says they changed it, what the practical effect is on this year's ballot, and what the second-order effects might be.
</instructions>
07 · Cross-linking

Strategic internal links

Specific cross-linking targets between this site and the rest of the network. The compound effect of consistent cross-linking is the single biggest under-leveraged SEO move on the network.

Ideas you haven’t thought of yet

Unconventional moves that don't fit the standard scope-expansion taxonomy. Most won't fit. The point is to surface the option, not to force the action.

Awards-season newsletter

A weekly Sept-March newsletter rounding up every prediction shift, every speech, every rule change. Build the audience now, monetize later.

"State of the Awards" annual

An annual long-form essay on the year in TV/film awards. Published Jan 1. Citable, linkable, sets the tone for the year.

Reader-facing prediction game

A free prediction game where readers pick categories. Leaderboards by cycle. Generates email signups + repeat visits without paid infrastructure.

Open-data ballot archive

Publish historical nominee/winner data as downloadable CSV/JSON. Researchers and reporters will cite us; we get authoritative backlinks.

Cross-ceremony tracking explorer

A single interactive page where users can pick a show and see every award it's appeared at, with every nomination/win highlighted. The most defensible feature on the site.