Like in any good SEO strategy, content is king, right?
This is something that is constantly talked about in the industry and among professionals of this ranking technique.
That’s why we are going to talk here about topic clusters or content groups.
Let’s dive into the importance and usefulness of using this SEO content strategy to gain visibility and authority online. With this, you want to position yourself as an expert on a topic for your target audiences.
When we talk about SEO content writing, this is one of the tools that require less investment and gives better results, once you give it the proper distribution.
1. What are topic clusters?
A topic cluster is a term that means a group of topics or, in this case, of contents. Topic clusters in SEO are pages that deal with common content that is connected by internal links.
The aim is to cover a general topic by means of several pages that talk about subtopics. For topic clusters to be just that, they must meet these characteristics:
- A main or core topic
- Different pages on subtopics related to that core topic
- Links between these pages
Topic clusters help search engines like Google better understand how content is structured on your website.
Even if Google itself has never officially declared that its algorithms value this approach better than others, it has been proven to be a very effective way to gain online visibility and authority.
After all, what search engines want is for users to find the best possible answers to their queries. That way, if you build a web of interconnected and highly valuable content, it is logical to think that Google will see that with great eyes.
1.1 Why are topic clusters useful for SEO?
The main reason why this ranking technique is used through SEO content writing is that it is an effective way to cover general topics that are interesting to our audiences. They are able to find all the information they are looking for in the same place.
It is an exciting and organic way of creating internal links between the pieces of content you create, so you offer an image of authority about a generic topic and make it easy for your users to move from one piece of information to another quickly.
After all, one of the SEO techniques that best help rank organically is a good strategy for internal links.
For a particular topic, Google will see that you offer a wide variety of subtopics that cover it. This is what adds value to the user experience.
2. How are topic clusters created? 4 easy steps to start with one
Now that we know how topic clusters are structured, you can start to create our own in a very simple way.
How is it done? Follow these 4 easy steps:
2.1 Choose a generic topic that you want to talk about.
Ideally, it should be directly related to your brand or business. For example, if your brand specializes in fitness or sports nutrition, a topic to develop in several pages or articles could be an exercise guide for beginners.
The content guide formula is often very useful for creating topic clusters.
Pick a topic that is broad enough to expand into further topics. Search for content and keyword ideas that’ll guide you on what subtopic to cover around your selected central topic.
2.2 Define which subtopics will make up your cluster.
Following the example above, you could create articles such as “how to warm-up”, “5 basic floor exercises” or “basic stretching after work out”.
These are just 3 ideas for subtopics, but there are guides that contain more than 700 articles. This gives you an idea of the potential of this SEO strategy.
Think of questions and how-to’s people usually look for about the topic you wish to cover and perform a little keyword research to find out if those keywords or phrases have ranking potential.
You can use specific tools to do this, some for free and others for free.
If you are willing to pay for a complete and in-depth tool that’ll give you the insights you need, tools like Semrush or Ahrefs are some of the most popular in the market. They have different price plans depending on your specific needs.
If you prefer free options, sites like Wikipedia, Quora, Reddit, or Google’s People Also Asked section are amazing places to find out what topics and questions people are interested in.
2.3 Review the content that already exists on your website or blog.
Working on an interesting cluster? If you can, use articles and links you already have. It’s a great way to avoid having to create content from scratch or adding more value to the cluster you are working on.
Review it and see how you can link it to your new content cluster.
2.4 Create internal links between all your cluster articles.
Once you have your central topic defined and your subtopics in place, it’s time to link them all together.
Take each one of your articles and identify where in the content there’s an opportunity to link to the other related articles.
That way, following the above example, when one article mentions that “it is possible to work out at home“, there’s your chance to add a link to the article that fully covers that topic.
3. Why are internal links relevant?
Once you select your main topic and all of your subtopics are clear and created, how do search engines understand that these articles are all related? Via internal links.
As mentioned earlier, that’s when you introduce all the relevant links in all of your articles, always making sure that the pillar page, which is the parent topic site, is at the top of the cluster.
This is how Google understands that you cover one big broad topic and expand into additional in-depth ones.
This is highly valuable in terms of online visibility, as it provides:
- Structure
- Relationship
- Trustworthiness
- Authority
- Importance
- Expertise
4. Examples of topic clusters
One of the most popular and recognized SEO portals today is the SEO tool Ahrefs. This website has a very comprehensive guide to the basic fundamentals of SEO. It is the perfect example of what a topic cluster looks like:
Here’s another example of a guide that covers “best workouts”. You can see how that cover a lot of different topics on one page and link to other subpages with related topics.
5. Start with your first topic cluster
Topic clusters are a highly valued strategy in the world of SEO and content marketing. It is a fairly simple way to build more authority and, most of all, an online visibility in search engines.
It is an ideal way to create content focused on your target keywords, build a brand image that is perceived as an expert on a specific topic, make it easy for users to navigate and find specific content, and organically generate internal links between our pages.
A win-win strategy.
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