How Topic Clusters Take Your SEO Strategy To The Next Level

HubSpot brought topic clusters into the collective consciousness of digital marketers in 2017 and over the past few years they have become an essential element of search engine optimization strategies across the web. In short, a topic cluster is an intelligent website architecture that allows content to be interconnected and keyword usage to be optimized. This ensures that your content strategy is operating at its most effective, and your sites traffic is boosted.

Digital marketers can’t afford to overlook topic clusters as an essential ingredient, indeed an overarching superstructure, of content marketing. In this article we’ll take a look at how topic clusters work to boost SEO, and how you can leverage them.

How Do Topic Clusters Boost Your SEO?

Topic clusters boost your SEO in a variety of ways, making them an essential component of a content marketing strategy. A cohesive network of integrated content will improve your website’s architecture, making navigation easier for your users. This improved experience will generate more traffic and strengthen your rankings. And “because your content is well connected, bounce rates will be reduced and site visitors will stay longer, exploring your linked content,” says Regina Pass, tech writer at Paper Fellows and State Of Writing. “Your traffic will be boosted organically through this process of hanging on to visitors, making a huge impression on your SEO over time.”

Topic Cluster Top Tips

1) Grasp The Cluster Structure

Before you can start using topic clusters as part of an optimized content marketing strategy, you’ll need to understand the components of a topic cluster. They break down into three parts.

Firstly, you need a pillar page. This is your starting point, where you introduce your main keywords or keyword phrases. A blog post is a perfect starting point, give it authenticity by producing 1500 words of content packed with keywords.

Once you have your pillar page setup you can start building cluster content around it. This content can take a deeper look at some of the topics introduced by your pillar page, and soon you’ll have a healthy network of content built around your chosen keywords.

Hyperlinks are the final component of a topic cluster and this is what integrates your content. Using hyperlinks throughout your pillar page to extend a network of links to your cluster content, and reciprocally linking from your cluster content back to your pillar page will create a thriving ecosystem of content. As well as this, related services on your website can be linked throughout.

2) Choose Your Keyword

Because your keyword is going to anchor your pillar page whilst allowing a network of cluster content to spread out, it needs to be broad enough that you’re not limited for ideas or content. Davin Chapin, content expert at Essayroo and Assignment Writer explains “finding a balance between a narrow keyword that chokes your content in the future and an overly broad keyword that doesn’t bring targeted traffic is key for topic clusters.”

A good analogy is how one genre of music can spill into subgenres. Your pillar page introduces the genre, take “rock music”. As a keyword, this covers a wide range of content but it’s specific enough to draw users in. Cluster content can then explore the related subgenres: garage rock, post-rock, punk rock. You’ll have an ocean of interlinked content drawing traffic to your site in no time.

3) Retrolink Your Content

If you’ve been producing content for some time, then the likelihood is you already have content clusters waiting to be integrated into your pillar page. Going back over archived content and uncovering relevant topics can allow your topic cluster to quickly expand into a healthy ecosystem. If you’ve picked “digital marketing” as a pillar page keyword, finding any blogs you’ve written about Instagram or Pinterest will allow you to convert these into readymade cluster content and your topic cluster will be good to go.

Feeling Content

A topic cluster is a fantastic way to provide a cohesive marketing identity to your page and a well-integrated network of content, built around the right keywords will boost your SEO. Topic clusters are easy to use, and you may already have content for your clusters in your archival blogs. Get started on topic clusters today!

Katherine Rundell is a content writer at Academic Writing Service and Ukwritings services and a blogger for Best Essay Writing Service. She finds the digital marketing landscape a thrilling environment to work in and loves chasing leads, creating content and watching sites find success under her leadership.