If you work with SEO or have an agency affiliated with you, you may have already come across the concept of “topic clusters”. But what does it really mean? And what does it involve working with topic clusters? Read on below for help building the best structure for your website.
Before 2013, one could “get by” by stuffing a bunch of keywords into a text, after which the page would most likely start ranking on Google. But then Google introduced Hummingbird, which marked the beginning of a new algorithm – and thus also a new way to get content to rank.
Now Google began to match the search intent behind the keywords, where the method now had to organize knowledge and help Google understand how multiple topics were related. Topics were organized into a vast network consisting of topic clusters, which brought together all topics and subtopics.
Since Google began to understand the intent behind the search, they could now also present better content to the user. Ever since, many SEO experts have actively worked with topic clusters to create better visibility for the pages they work on.
When you work with topic clusters, you are telling Google that you have a handle on a given topic and are willing to share your knowledge. It’s a long-term strategy and not low-hanging fruit when you work with topic clusters, but can nevertheless still be part of a strategy that also yields short-term results. But how?
If it’s a new website, it will have a low Domain Rating/Domain Authority and will have a very hard time ranking for competitive keywords. Even if the content is of very high quality.
Topic clusters can therefore help the site rank for long-tail keywords and less competitive keywords, so traffic begins to flow to the site, which helps build the site’s authority, allowing it to rank for better keywords with higher search volume.
With topic clusters as part of your SEO strategy, you can therefore:
In addition to helping build your site’s authority, topic clusters are also a way to help Google read and understand your site more easily.
E-E-A-T is an extremely important concept that you should work intensively with when working with SEO – and topic clusters are actually a small part of E-E-A-T.
Do you want to read more about what E-E-A-T entails? Fortunately, we have also written a detailed blog post about this very thing.
A stands for “Authority” and consists of being the go-to place for users when they search for information on a given topic or product. “Authority” can be divided into two ways; on a personal level and on a page level. The latter entails that your website builds a strong authority, but this can be difficult if it is a newer website or if the keywords are competitive with high search volume. But this is where topic clusters come into play.
With topic clusters, you can build what is called “topical authority” or “content topical authority” within SEO. This can be achieved by covering all aspects of a given topic on the website, using properly structured topic clusters, and ensuring that this content is regularly updated and published, as well as answering all the questions that users have. Google will thus see the content and the sender as authoritative and may reward it with better rankings.
Content that is regularly updated and published, and also answers all questions about the topic, also tends to receive more external links, which Google also sees as authoritative, as others want to share and link to your content.
Topic clusters consist briefly of three parts:
A supporting page is an individual page within a topic cluster that elaborates on a single aspect of the overarching topic. A supporting page is thus thematically related to your pillar page and is connected to it through an internal link.
When building a topic cluster, you must not underestimate the importance of internal links, as they help tell Google how the pages are related and which pages are supporting pages versus the pillar page.
Your supporting pages should be linked to your pillar page. This way, supporting pages live up to their name and support your topic cluster’s pillar page.
It’s crucial that you link the pages together in this way, but many mistakenly believe that it’s also a requirement for your pillar page to link to all your supporting pages. This is not the case. However, you can certainly link from your pillar page to individual supporting pages if it makes sense, but not all supporting pages need to be linked.
You can also advantageously link across your supporting pages where it makes sense.
A topic cluster can consist of many different types of pages, such as category pages, product pages, and articles, and therefore does not necessarily reflect your website’s navigation structure. Therefore, you should think beyond your navigation structure and link the pages in a way that makes the most sense for both your SEO and the user experience.
While it’s crucial to work on internal links in your topic cluster, you shouldn’t overlook the value of outbound links. When it comes to outbound links, these are links that point away from your own website and towards other websites.
Everyone naturally wants to keep the user on their own website, but you shouldn’t see your website as a “final destination”. If there’s an opportunity to help the user find useful information that you don’t cover yourself, you can benefit from using outbound links that refer to good, authoritative sources.
When you use outbound links to external pages with very high relevance from both your pillar page and supporting pages, you can further strengthen your topic cluster by connecting it to a multitude of other related topics.
If topic clusters are built correctly, there will be an increase in the number of keywords driving traffic to your website. But, like so much else, an incorrect structure can do more harm than good.
If topic clusters are not optimized correctly or if the topics in your supporting pages are too close, you may end up with pages cannibalizing your keywords.
If there is cannibalization, it is because Google has difficulty understanding your content and figuring out which page is most relevant to a given keyword.
You should have a clear plan for the structure of your topic cluster before you start, as this will save you a lot of cleanup afterwards.
If it still happens that your pages and keywords are cannibalizing each other, you can start by looking at the following:
Topic clusters are created by uncovering all subtopics related to a given overarching topic.
Here’s how to get started:
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