Do you want to create better ranking and well-connected quality content? Your answer to great content creation lies in topic clusters!
Topic clusters have emerged as one of the most widely used SEO strategies to create a stronger site structure.
This approach helps search engines better understand the depth of your content and provides an informative experience for your website visitors.
So, if you want to take your SEO game to the next level, topic clusters are the fuel to reach the top search rankings.
Let’s start by understanding topic clusters and how they can improve your site architecture.
What are Topic Clusters?
Topic clusters are interlinked pieces of content that cover a single topic from different angles. They are a content organization method that revolves around a central, broad topic, usually the pillar page, and several related, more specific subtopics or cluster pages.
The pillar content provides a comprehensive overview of the main topic, while each cluster page dives deeper into a particular aspect or subtopic.
The beauty of topic clusters lies in their interconnectivity.
The pillar page links out to each cluster page with a specific and relevant anchor text, and the cluster pages, in turn, link back to the pillar page, creating a web of related content.
This interlinking helps search engines understand the relationship between the pages and makes it easier for visitors to navigate and explore the content they’re interested in.
To make it easier, you can also create a content template to follow for multiple web pages.
Impact of Topic Clusters on SEO
Topic clusters can significantly impact your SEO performance in several ways:
1. Topical Authority: By creating a comprehensive collection of content around a specific topic, you establish yourself as an authority in that subject area. Search engines favor websites that demonstrate expertise and provide valuable, in-depth information.
2. Internal Linking: The internal linking structure of topic clusters helps search engines crawl and index your pages more effectively, improving the overall visibility of your content.
3. User Experience: Topic clusters provide a seamless and organized browsing experience for your visitors, reducing bounce rates and increasing engagement metrics, which are crucial ranking factors for SERPs.
4. Keyword Targeting: By targeting related keywords across your cluster pages and long-form content, you increase your chances of ranking for a wider range of search queries.
Tip: You can use tools like SEOBoost to improve your on-page SEO score for each topic cluster page, increasing its chance to rank higher on search engine results pages. I’ll discuss how to do that in detail in the later sections.
Examples of a Topic Cluster
Let’s consider an example to understand the concept of topic clusters better.
If you run a website dedicated to digital marketing and SEO strategies, one broad topic you might want to cover is “Content Marketing.”
Your topic cluster could look something like this:
Pillar Page: “The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing”
Cluster Pages:
- How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
- Content Marketing Best Practices
- Tools for Effective Content Marketing
- Measuring the ROI of Your Content Marketing Efforts
- Content Marketing Trends in 2024
In this example, the pillar page provides an overview of content marketing, touching on different aspects such as strategy development, best practices, tools, measurement, and trends. Whereas each cluster page discusses a specific subtopic for search engine optimization. Doing so increases the chances of higher search engine rankings.
How to Create Topic Clusters in 5 Steps
Now that you understand the concept of topic clusters and their potential impact on how the algorithm perceives your content let’s explore the step-by-step process of creating them.
1. Brainstorm a List of Themes
The first step in creating topic clusters is brainstorming a list of broad themes or topics relevant to your business or website.
These themes should be broad enough for multiple subtopics but specific enough to maintain focus and capture the search intent or keyword intent.
This is where you can use SEOBoost’s Topic Reports feature. It can help you identify relevant, specific, and long-tail keywords related to any topic.
SEOBoost’s Topic Reports dive deep into the top 30 topics linked to your target keywords. They break down what your competitors are up to across 24 content metrics. We’re talking about everything from what they’re writing about to how often they use keywords and even how easy their content is to read.
Armed with this information, you can tweak your content cluster strategy and create a list of keywords to use.
2. Do Keyword Research
Once you have a list of potential themes, it’s time to conduct proper keyword research.
This step is crucial as it will help you identify the specific subtopics and related keywords to target within your topic cluster.
You can use keyword research tools like LowFruits, Ahrefs and Semrush to do this.
However, I would advise you to continue using SEOBoost’s Topic Reports feature to complete the keyword research. This feature provides valuable insights into relevant keywords and their search volumes, helping you decide which keywords to include in your cluster.
3. Create Quality and Valuable Content
With your themes and keywords, it’s time to start creating content.
When crafting your pillar and cluster pages, you must provide high-quality, valuable information that meets your target audience’s needs and interests.
To create great content pieces or even update existing content, I recommend using SEOBoost’s Content Briefs and Content Optimization features.
Combined, they can help you create well-researched, engaging, and SEO-friendly content that resonates with both searchers and engines.
Simply put the focus keyword into the content brief generator. It will analyze up to 30 website’s content related to the type of content you want to create and help you create a brief that you can use.
Once your brief is ready, use that to generate content ideas for the article or use it to write. And when you have finished writing, you can optimize the content within the same platform using the Content Optimization feature.
Let’s discuss that more in the next section.
4. Optimize Your Content for SEO Performance
While creating valuable content is crucial, optimizing your pages for better search engine visibility is equally important.
This includes incorporating relevant keywords, crafting compelling titles and meta descriptions, and following other on-page SEO best practices.
SEOBoost’s Content Optimization feature and the AIOSEO plugin can help you analyze and optimize your content for maximum SEO performance, ensuring that your topic cluster strategy is well-positioned to rank highly in search results.
SEOBoost analyzes the top 30 SERPs related to your keyword and recommends optimizations to increase conversions and quality. You get a complete list of recommendations for improving on-page SEO metrics. Using that, you can fully optimize and foolproof your SEO topic clusters.
To streamline the process, you should use our content optimization checklist for all the related subtopics and articles.
5. Link Them Properly
Finally, it’s time to establish the internal linking structure that makes topic clusters so powerful. Ensure that your pillar page links to each of your cluster pages and that your cluster pages link back to the pillar page. This interconnectivity helps search engines understand the relationship between your pages and provides a seamless browsing experience for your visitors.
You can also use AIOSEO’s Link Assistant to automate the process. It helps you identify and manage internal linking opportunities, ensuring your topic cluster is properly interlinked for maximum SEO benefit.
Key Takeaway
Topic clusters are a powerful strategy for organizing content, establishing topical authority, and improving overall SEO performance.
It is especially great for content teams who want to create high-ranking content faster!
And if you want to supercharge your topic cluster model, pair it with SEOBoost—the only SEO tool you will need in 2024!
FAQs
1. What are topic clusters?
A topic cluster is a content organization method that revolves around a central, broad topic (the pillar page) and several related, more specific subtopics (cluster pages). The pillar page overviews the main topic, while the cluster pages dive deeper into specific aspects or subtopics.
2. What is an example of topic clustering?
An example of topic clustering could be a website dedicated to digital marketing and SEO strategies, where the broad topic is “Content Marketing.” The pillar page would be “The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing.” The cluster pages could cover subtopics such as “How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy,” “Content Marketing Best Practices,” “Tools for Effective Content Marketing,” “Measuring the ROI of Your Content Marketing Efforts,” and “Content Marketing Trends in 2024.”
3. How do you identify topic clusters?
To identify a topic cluster, look for a central, broad topic (the pillar page) and a collection of related, more specific pages (cluster pages) that cover different aspects or subtopics of the main topic. These pages should be interconnected through internal linking, with the pillar page linking out to the cluster pages and the cluster pages linking back to the pillar page.
4. What is a subject cluster?
A subject cluster is essentially the same concept as a topic cluster. It refers to a collection of interlinked pages that comprehensively cover a broad subject or theme, with a central pillar page providing an overview and several subtopic pages diving deeper into specific aspects of the subject.
