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Before we dive into why a topic cluster plan is essential to any content marketing strategy, let’s start with some seo statistics that demonstrate the critical role of organic search.
Organic search units more than 50% of all website traffic. Paid search only contributes 10% and social media 5%. The first five search engine results receive almost 68% of all clicks. Google dominates the search engine market share, controlling almost 87%.
Since organic search is the main driver of web traffic to B2B and B2C websites, it’s clear that SEO should be a central strategy in your content marketing efforts. And since Google controls about 90% of the market share, the primary focus of SEO should be Google.
So what can you do to make sure you’re taking advantage of it? more than 3.5 billion searches every day and not give away revenue to competitors?
Enter topic clusters, one of the most powerful SEO weapons in your toolbox.
What are thematic groups?
Topic clusters, also known as content clusters, are not a new concept for content marketing, but they are more relevant now as search engine algorithms have become more complex. A topic cluster is a group of content assets (web pages) focused on a topic.
There are three main components to consider when creating a topic cluster:
Pillar content Cluster content Hyperlinks
Each topic cluster is built around pillar content or a pillar page (or power page). The pillar page serves as a authority page by the topic you want to rank for.
Pillar pages should focus on broader subject areas and target keywords with higher search volumes. Two examples of asset types that could become pillar pages are an educational resource page and a service page.
For example, let’s say your business offers content marketing services and your goal is to rank for “content marketing” (which has an average monthly search volume of 14,800). Your pillars page would be an in-depth resource that covers the basic questions on this topic. In this example, your content marketing services page could be your pillar page.
Next is the accompanying cluster content, which should focus on longer-tail queries that relate to the main topic. These are usually blog posts that explore a broader topic in more detail and specificity. The topic cluster as a whole should answer all the questions a searcher might have about a particular topic.
All subtopic pages will link to the pillar page, indicating to search engines that the pillar page is the authoritative resource on your main topic.
Using the same example as before, you can create the following cluster content to narrow the focus of the “content marketing” pillar page:
Writing (6,600 average search volume) Blog Writing (720 average search volume) Ebook Writing (90 average search volume) White Paper Writing (50 average search volume)
How topic clusters improve SEO
So how do topic clusters improve search engine optimization?
How search engine algorithms become more complex as a result of the rapidly evolving search landscape, you need to change the way you develop and organize your content strategies to achieve high-performing results.
Topic groups tell Google that your site is authoritative on your top topics. Putting information on your website in this architectural format improves your SEO by…
Allow Google to understand the hierarchy of your website and how your content is interrelated. Allow readers to delve deeper into the topic through interlinked content, therefore staying on your site and increasing their time spent there. Save time compared to the original optimization model for each post, because the pillar page is optimized for conversions and the cluster content is optimized for traffic (plus, every time the landing page is updated pillar, Google is served fresh content, which results in a better ranking). pillar page whenever one of these cluster pages has particularly high performance
How to get started with a topic-based approach
Ready to improve your content strategy with a topic cluster approach?
Follow these steps to get started:
Align your core business offerings with your target audience. Start by mapping out what problems your audience has. You can use surveys, research online communities, and similar sources for your particular industry.
Group each main topic into broad topic areas. Highlight how your product or service provides a solution to each problem.
Build the core topic and subtopics using keyword research, competitor analysis and listening to what topics your target audience is talking about on social media.
Create and develop your pillar pages and related blog posts. As you link your content, make sure the pillar page stays at the top of the link hierarchy.
Map out your content strategy and track your documents, which can help organize your process and ensure that all of your content is properly linked.
Here’s an image of what your website might look like with multiple content pillars.
Source: linkgraph.io
Changing your approach to creating content with a topic-based approach will not only improve your organic search traffic, but it will also help you create better content and provide a more positive experience for your visitors.
Start with the topic cluster framework on the next batch of content you plan to develop so that search engines and readers recognize you as an expert in your niche.
More resources on topic-based content strategy and topic groups
How to find the perfect content curation topics for your content strategy
So you’ve got your topic, now we’re going to show you how to create rankable content
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