How to Create a Topic Cluster Content Strategy

Are you looking for ways to boost your content strategy search engine optimization (SEO) efforts? If so, it may be time to switch to a topic cluster content strategy instead.

Topic clusters are groups of interlinked pages on a website that center around a particular subject.

They can do wonders for your online authority, site organization, and search engine rankings. Besides, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, working them into your content strategy is easier than you may think.

Read on to learn more about topic clusters, why they matter, and how you can create an effective topic cluster content strategy for your brand.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

• Topic clusters are groups of related content pages that link together.
• The benefits of topic clusters include adapting to search engine algorithms and improving user experience and authority.
• Creating a topic cluster content strategy involves identifying your core topic, conducting keyword research, planning cluster subtopics, creating and linking content, optimizing content, and monitoring its performance.

What Are Topic Clusters?

Topic clusters, also known as content hubs, hub and spoke, or content clusters, are groups of related web pages that link to each other to cover a broad subject area. 

It’s essentially a content organization model that consists of three main elements:

1. A pillar page that touches on various areas of a topic.
2. Cluster content, or supporting pages that cover the different aspects of that topic in more depth.
3. Internal links that link all of these topic-focused pages together.

Example: Let’s say you want to cover a topic like content marketing. 

Your pillar page could be something like “The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing”, and provide an overview of the subject. 

It could touch on how content marketing differs from traditional marketing, its benefits, and how generative AI can help you streamline your strategy.

Within this pillar page, you would include links to other pages that dive deeper into specific areas (your cluster content). 

Your other pages may have titles like “What is Content Marketing?”, “5 Benefits of Content Marketing”, and “Generative AI for Content Marketing” to provide more context for the subjects you touched on in the pillar page.

As you can probably imagine, creating a topic cluster content strategy can be a lot of work, especially if you’re starting from scratch. However, it's worth it considering the benefits.

What Are the Benefits of Topic Clusters?

A hub and spoke strategy may sound like a better fit for a bicycle wheel, but it can do a lot of good for your content marketing efforts. 

Here are some of the benefits of topic clusters:

Adapt to search engine algorithms

Starting with its Hummingbird update in 2013, Google’s search algorithms have slowly shifted their focus. 

With search engines prioritizing comprehensive content over keyword stuffing, a topic cluster strategy can help improve your rankings.

Better user experience

When a pillar page acts as a central hub for content, both Google and users can find related content more easily. 

About 94% of users report that easy navigation is the most important feature of a website, so organized topic clusters may just be the thing to keep people coming back for more.

Improve authority

It’s much easier to call yourself a subject matter expert when you cover topics in-depth on your site. 

Establishing topical authority through content clusters can help to satisfy Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) requirements. 

Further, it’s a great way to attract users looking for expert advice, which is great for both rankings and repeat visitors.

Ready to see how you can start reaping these benefits yourself? Let’s get into it.

How to Build a Topic Cluster Content Strategy

In the following steps, we’ll provide some tips on using AI tools to help create your topic cluster content strategy so you can implement it as soon as possible.

Step 1: Identify the core topic for your pillar page

The first step is to decide on a topic for your pillar page. 

Try to find a sweet spot here: it needs to be broad enough (think short-tail keywords) to support several other content pages, but narrow enough so the focus is still clear.

There are several ways you can identify your pillar page topic:

• Have a brainstorming session. What topics are most relevant to your brand and target audience?
• Ask the audience. Ask your ideal customers to complete surveys or attend interviews. Additionally, you could search social media to see what topics are trending.
• Use AI. With the right prompt, AI tools like ChatGPT can provide topic ideas. For example, you can ask it to generate a list of trending topics in your niche based on search engine queries or even social media conversations.

Once you have your topic, it’s time to start researching your cluster.

Step 2: Conduct keyword research

It may not be the focus of a cluster strategy, but keyword research is important in building out the subtopics for your core topic. 

After all, you still need to create content surrounding relevant, popular search queries, and keywords to rank on search engines.

With so many keywords out there, AI keyword research is one of the quickest and easiest ways to identify the best ones for your clusters. 

You can use AI-powered keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz to:

• Find related keywords to use as subtopics for your broad topic.
• Understand user intent of keywords.
• Perform a competitor analysis to find untapped opportunities.

If you don’t have access to these tools, try searching for a broad topic on Google’s “People also search for” section on their search results pages.

Step 3: Plan your cluster subtopics

Now that you have a bunch of related short and long-tail keywords, your next step is to group them into clusters. You can do this manually, or automate the process by throwing your keywords into an AI tool.

How many pages you create for each cluster is up to you. Some marketers work with only a few pages, while others do well with hundreds. 

The main thing is to ensure you have enough to cover the topic fully while avoiding keyword cannibalization, as you don’t want your keywords competing against each other.

Step 4: Create and link content

High-quality content writing is essential to back up your topic cluster content strategy. 

Even though you may have search engines in mind, creating people-first content is often key to higher rankings, so don’t be tempted to take any shortcuts here. For example, Google may penalize AI-generated content if it seems spammy or unhelpful.

• It can help to start with your pillar page because it provides a broad overview of your topic. 
• Then, go into more detail with each of your supporting pages.
• Finally, link to the related topics throughout your pillar page and vice versa.

These internal links are key to your entire cluster strategy, so use descriptive anchor text to show how everything links together. 

For example, instead of hyperlinking something like “Click here” or “Read more,” use natural anchor text that describes the content on the linked page.

Step 5: Optimize content for quality and originality

After creating and linking your pillar and supporting pages, you should optimize them for readability and SEO before they go live. 

Sometimes, a little tweak here and there can make all the difference, especially when you’re dealing with algorithms.

Fortunately, AI and content optimization tools can help speed up the content optimization process:

• You can use a readability checker to improve the clarity of writing.
• A content optimizer to boost SEO.
• Use an AI grammar checker to catch spelling and grammar mistakes.
• AI content detection tools to verify content originality.

Pair these tools with a solid content organization structure, like headings, bullet points, and visuals, and it should be ready to go.

Step 6: Monitor performance and update regularly

Since there’s no singular approach to climbing to the top of the search results pages, you must monitor the performance of your cluster if you want to make the most of it. 

By identifying what’s working and what isn’t, you can implement changes to improve your rankings.

To measure the success of your clusters, there are two important things to watch:

• SEO metrics: Track keyword rankings, organic traffic, and backlinks with tools like SEMrush and Google Analytics.
• User engagement: Analyze metrics like time on page, pages per session, and bounce rate for insights into user behavior.

With this information, you can make thoughtful updates to your clusters to boost their performance. 

For example, if traffic is low to a particular supporting page, you can review, optimize, and update it accordingly.

Final Thoughts

Implementing a topic-cluster content strategy (supported by keyword research) is a great way to continue adapting content to the latest search engine algorithms, which is key to SEO success. 

Fortunately, AI can help streamline the process and give you the competitive edge you need to get ahead and get results.

Learn more tips on how to improve your content marketing strategy:

• What Is a Content Brief? 13 Essentials to Include in Content Briefs
• 7 Benefits of Lead Magnets in Content Marketing
• What Is Predictive SEO?