Once more, we venture into the realms of SEO; as digital marketers, we spend a lot of time in this particular place. SEO is a constantly evolving aspect of marketing, much like many others. Almost every day, we read of new ways to enhance our SEO or to optimize it to pander to the needs of ever-changing search algorithms. Well, today, let’s take a look down one of the many pathways in the world of SEO, one that is, in our opinion, truly a piece of art – Content Clusters.
What are Content Clusters?
The term content clusters refers to a whole new way of organizing and structuring your content that creates multiple SEO benefits. This topic-based strategy involves the use of pillar pages that create a directory for your user. A pillar page will cover a large topic – SEO, for example, in a way that touches lightly upon individual aspects of the topic. A topic such as SEO has so many different aspects that if you tried to cover every single one in one article in depth, it would be far too much to sit down and read in one sitting. So, instead, the idea is to use this page to link to other pages on the various sub-sections, creating an internal linking system with individual articles linking back to the main page and sometimes to each other as well.
How Do Content Clusters Improve SEO?
Improved Site Structure and Navigation
Everyone loves organization. It’s such a relief, especially when you search the internet, to find the information you are looking for easily and quickly. With a structure such as this present on your site, you can help your users find exactly what it is they need to know. The case is much the same with search engines. Search engines want to be able to understand your site and its content so that they can provide the best results they can to their users. Using internal linking from relevant pages allows the search engines to not only crawl the site better but also understand better how one piece of content is related to another. Even you can benefit from this kind of structuring, allowing you to quickly and easily search through your content to see what you have covered previously. So it’s a big win all round! Having a good structure in place is also a great way to increase session times for users on your website; if they can find everything they need to know on your site alone, why would they leave your site to go elsewhere? So, say hello to lower bounce rates and the enhanced probability of higher conversion rates.
Enhanced Keyword Strategy
Keywords are often not as simple as you would think. The idea is simple, use words that people will be searching for in your industry, and they will find your content. Those would be an example of high-traffic keywords. However, people are also searching for more specific keywords and phrases that will still relate to your content, sometimes even more so. So, this is where the content cluster structure comes in. The pillar page will allow you to target the big hitters and direct people to your website; however, the linked pages or cluster pages will be aiming towards more specific keywords and long tail keywords/phrases. This way, you are not only picking up a general crowd but also those who want to learn more about specific details of your industry. Since keyword stuffing has long since met its demise, content clusters are a great way of covering the same amount of ground but in a more relevant way. People and search engines alike will thank you for this.
Increased Authority and Relevance
What’s that saying now? Some people know a little about a lot, and some people know a lot about a little. Well, with content clusters, you can demonstrate to the world that you know a lot about a lot. If you apply this structure to every topic you approach, people will see you as a great source of wisdom. Search engines, too, will recognize that you have comprehensive information about different topics on your website, leading to your pillar pages ranking higher, and with the internal linking system you have developed, the same will apply to your cluster pages. Everyone strives to be an industry leader in their own line of work, and with this method, you can climb one step closer to that goal.
How to Create Effective Content Clusters
It’s all in the planning. Say goodbye to writing a blog out of the blue without any real planning behind it. Content clusters require planning, and lots of it. Let’s go through the process.
Identify Core Topics
Start by researching different topics in your industry and making a list. The more topics you can think of, the better, as planning begins here and is integral to the process of creating effective content clusters.
Research Keywords
This is where we want to look for the big hitters, the high-traffic keywords that will attract the majority of the audience you seek. Find the best keywords for each of the topics you want to cover, and then move on to step 3.
Build Pillar Pages
For each of the topics you have researched, you will need a pillar page. This will be your audience’s one-stop shop for the topic at hand. Break each topic down into sections and organize each section into the pillar page. Now, whilst the idea of the pillar page is to broadly touch on each section of the topic, you don’t want the information to be too broad. Make sure you have enough information on each of the sections to provide your users with high-quality content; if you hold back too much, they may feel that the associated content on your cluster pages could be too broad and not bother following the links. Try to find a good halfway point between providing value and leaving them wanting to know more.
Create Cluster Content
Now, take each of the subsections on your pillar page and populate cluster content with more extensive knowledge about that topic. Grow your cluster page content by providing real-world examples, tried-and-tested methods, etc. Always remember to make your cluster pages just as structured as your pillar pages with titles and subtitles to provide your users with the best experience they can have.
Strategic Interlinking
And here is where the magic happens; now, although I have added this stage quite far down the process, this is something you should be thinking of all the way through your Content Cluster creation process. Something you would have already had some idea of from the previous step, it’s time to start linking those articles together inside an impressive and somewhat beautiful network of content. Once you are finished linking the obvious pages, e.g. the sections, to their respective cluster pages, you can then go a bit deeper and see if any of the cluster pages relate to one another. You could even go one step further and link each pillar page to a master pillar page, such as creating a definitive guide to marketing in which your SEO pillar page would then become both a pillar page and cluster page at the same time. The possibilities are endless. It all depends on how much time you have to dedicate to your content strategy and how much planning you are willing to do.
Monitor and Optimize
Yes, that’s right, nothing in the marketing world is ever truly finished on the last step. Everything requires ongoing monitoring and optimization. But what exactly are we monitoring, and how do we track it? Content clusters primarily seek traffic from search engines, so in our CRMs, marketing software, or Google Analytics, we need to track the organic traffic that leads to our pages. You also want to tag your content inside your website CMS so that you know which content is a part of which cluster and perhaps even define whether that is a pillar or cluster page.
You may reach a situation in which your pillar page is performing quite well in the search engine results. However, your cluster pages are falling behind; in this case, you would want to look at the content of / keywords associated with your cluster page. If the keywords are bringing in traffic but then you are seeing a high bounce rate, you need to optimize your content, and if vice versa – you will want to look at your keywords. Always remember that we are constantly learning new things; pillar pages will need to be updated, and content on those related pages will be updated. Seem like too big a job? Well, if everything is planned and tracked well enough, it really will be simple to find a problem and deal with it in a timely manner.
Key Takeaways
- Content clusters are a structural strategy in which content is organized into pillar pages with linked cluster pages. Pillar pages cover a large topic fairly briefly, whilst cluster pages concentrate on more specific sections of the topic.
- Content Clusters provide multiple SEO benefits allowing search engines to crawl and index your site better and users to find the content they are looking for.
- Content clusters can help you to be viewed as an authority on a topic by providing comprehensive information that spans the entirety of the topic.
- Content clusters help you to cover more ground in regards to keywords and in a more relevant way.
- Creating a content cluster requires thorough planning and ongoing monitoring and optimization but is well worth the work.