Developing a content strategy is a vital part of SEO Editing.
If you want to rank in search engines, you can’t just create a random collection of blog posts.
Instead, you need to create a focused plan that establishes you as an expert within your niche.
Luckily, SEO topic clusters can help you organize your content creation process and develop a cohesive content marketing strategy.
- What is an SEO Topic Cluster?
- Why are SEO Topic Clusters Important?
- How to Create SEO Topic Clusters
- Conclusion: Using SEO Topic Clusters Is A Great Strategy For Creating Hyper-Focused Content
What is an SEO Topic Cluster?
SEO topic clusters are a system of topically relevant content.
You create content that focuses on one particular topic, and then create supporting articles related to it.
This creates an effective site structure and helps Google understand what your site is about.
A topic cluster will consist of one main article and several related articles.
The main article is your cornerstone content.
This post will be the longest and most important content on your site.
The related articles will be your supporting articles.
These will be shorter posts which provide more information on topics you covered in your cornerstone piece.
Why are SEO Topic Clusters Important?
SEO topic clusters are important because they establish topical relevance for your site.
This means they help Google understand the content on your site.
In turn, this helps you rank higher for you targeted keywords.
Additionally, SEO topic clusters help you create more focused content.
This helps establish you as an expert in your niche.
It also helps build your authority and trustworthiness to readers.
How to Create SEO Topic Clusters
Creating SEO topic clusters will require quite a bit of planning.
You’ll need to perform some research and really focus in on your niche.
However, as always, an effective SEO strategy is worth nothing without engaging and useful content to back it up.
So, always be sure to prioritize creating truly great content.
SEO topic clusters are just a strategy to create more useful and focused content for your audience.
Decide On Your Main Topic
The first step in creating topic clusters for SEO is to decide on what your main topic will be.
This will be the topic you write your cornerstone content on, and will be supported by shorter articles that delve into subtopics related to it.
To choose the right topic, there are a few things you’ll want to consider.
First, you’ll want to make sure you choose a topic that’s related to your business or brand.
The content you are writing is building brand awareness and helping people enter your marketing funnel.
You’ll also want to to consider what problems, questions, or concerns your audience might have in regards to your niche.
Always remember to put yourself in your audience’s place.
Think about what they would be searching for, and create content that is relevant to their possible search queries.
Remember, when creating content, your goal is to provide value to your potential audience.
By providing them the content they are looking for, you begin developing a relationship with them.
Research Keywords
Once you have an idea of your main topic, you’ll want to perform some keyword research.
This will give you an idea of how competitive your topic is and if you have a chance at ranking for it.
If there’s too much competition, you may want to consider writing about a more specific topic within your niche.
Keyword research will also give you an idea of the search volume of your topic.
While it’s a good idea to begin by targeting keywords with low competition and low search volume, targeting keywords with no search volume is pointless.
After all, the goal of SEO content creation is to show up in search results.
If people aren’t searching for the topics you’re covering, nobody is entering your marketing funnel or being exposed to your brand.
Use Internal Links to Build Site Structure
When it comes to links for SEO, external links tend to get most of the attention.
However, effective internal linking helps build your site structure and communicate to search engines what your site is about.
You’ll want to make sure each of your supporting articles is linking to your cornerstone content and vice versa.
This way, Google understands that this is the main topic on your site.
The supporting posts are subtopics that are related to it.
Think about Wikipedia: within one broad topic, there internal links to a lot of other topics.
For example, at the beginning of the SEO wikipedia page, there are links to broader topics like “web page” and “search engine.”
However, as you read a little further, you reach subtopics of SEO, like “keywords” and “search engine results page.”
This is why you should always point the first link in your supporting article to your cornerstone content (ie. your broader topic overview), and then link to other supporting articles (more in-depth subtopic overviews) later in the post.
Divide and Conquer
If your SEO efforts are successful and you’re ranking at the top of search engine results pages for your main topic, you may want to begin branching out into other topics.
This would entail creating new topic clusters.
For example, if you started ranking number one for the term “SEO”, you may want to start creating related topic clusters for “content marketing” or “social media marketing.”
(Keep in mind this is a hypothetical example: ranking for the term “SEO” would be far too difficult for a new site.)
Once you begin ranking for your original topic, you’ll likely build your site’s authority and become capable of ranking for more competitive keywords.
Which new topics you want to focus on, if any, will depend on the needs of your business or brand.
Conclusion: Using SEO Topic Clusters Is A Great Strategy For Creating Hyper-Focused Content
SEO topic clusters are vital for establishing the topical relevance of your site.
When search engines see topical relevance, they understand your site is an authority on the topic.
This helps you rank higher in search engines.
Better yet, you create hyper-focused content for your audience and help them find the content they are looking for.
However, without high-quality content and an effective plan, your content marketing efforts will fall short.
If you’re looking to create hyper-focused content for your audience (and search engines), consider working with a content creator or SEO editor like myself.