Before we get started, two things:
- I used a clickbait headline and I did so for my own amusement.
- The featured image contains cereal because for some reason I think topic clusters sounds like a (lame) cereal.
Now that is out the way:
This is a quick primer on topic clusters for SEO. This isn’t an ultimate guide or bait to get you to pay me money to reveal the secret sauce of topic clusters.
(spoiler: there is no secret sauce)
You won’t learn everything you need to know about topic clusters here.
But you will learn enough to be useful, like:
- what topic clusters are + how to use them
- some examples of clusters in the wild
- how they help with SEO
Topic Clusters
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A Short Topic Cluster Disclaimer
Alrighty, first things first:
- Topic clusters are not a magic fix for SEO.
- They don’t guarantee rankings (or anything)
- You can get results without using them
I just wanted to say that upfront.
I’m not going to hype up a pretty straightforward tactic & finish with a CTA to sign up for my email list, buy my SEO course, listen to my podcast or build play-dough statues in my honour.
Nothing wrong with those things but not my style.
So, WTF are topic clusters?
SEOs really love to create multiple terms for the same thing:
…topic clusters, content hubs, pillar pages, hub & spoke… whatever you call them, they are all essentially the same thing:
Topically grouped pages w/ internal links designed to rank.
Topic cluster examples
Want to see some examples in the wild?
This (by @KaneJamison) is very nice & useful and I wish I thought of creating it myself.
Go check it out. I refer back to it lots: Types of Content Hubs: 5 Approaches & 30+ Examples
So are topic clusters good or not?
Yes (in my opinion). But maybe not in the ways you’re thinking…
Most SEO articles about topic clusters list benefits like:
- Grouping relevant content together makes it easier to find (for users + Google)
- Helps build topical relevance/authority for your site by fully covering a topic
- Helps to naturally create relevant internal links
And while I agree with the above…
…for the sceptics out there, it’s hard to prove these as actual benefits without relying on anecdotal evidence.
Like, you could achieve the benefits above without touching a topic cluster.
1) Grouping relevant content together makes it easier to find (for users + Google)
Clusters are definitely not a requirement to rank or do well with SEO.
Google doesn’t really say anything definitive about them other than:
“Design your site to have a clear conceptual page hierarchy.”
Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/webmaster-guidelines
(Which is open to interpretation but yeah, topic clusters can help IMHO)
2) Helps build topical relevance/authority for your site by fully covering a topic
Again, another vague-ish one. I think it helps, but this is purely anecdotal evidence.
Example below…
In December ’21, I created a cluster of 100 pages on a new site, each targeting sub-topics of a larger topic.
Each sub-topic:
- mapped to longtail keyword
- followed a similar structure
- met search intent
- basic on-page (title, meta, H1, internal links, 800 – 1200 words)
So while I cannot definitively say:
YES TOPIC CLUSTERS ARE AWESOME FOR BUILDING AUTHORITY
…the results from my very unscientific experiment were positive.
But I could probably have got the same results by just posting 100 well researched articles 🤷
3) Helps to naturally create relevant internal links
Clusters do make it easier to build internal links…
…but it’s not like it’s the only way to build them.
So why bother using a topic cluster strategy?
It’s just about creating content that’s related to each other.
Clusters are just a framework to help produce content by covering a topic and interlinking related pages.
There’s a lot of discussion in the SEO world about whether this works.
I’ve seen some SEOs getting angry at yet more ‘overly complicated’ tactics or that it doesn’t work as described or that’s it’s the latest thing for fake gurus to push.
And in the other camp, some SEO’s are singing it’s praises like it’s the greatest discovery of the 21st century.
(maketers gonna market)
Like many things in SEO, when faced with a tactic:
Just go test it yourself.
(For topic clusters; pick a topic, split it into pages, get them live and see what happens.)
Summary
If you takeaway nothing else, take this:
- Build sites w/ content that relates to other content
- Write useful content + optimise it
- Interlink wherever appropriate + relevant
- Build links to it
- Call them topic clusters if you want
Then move on with your life.
Of course, if you don’t agree & think topic clusters are SEO snake oil and/or the best thing ever, please feel free to go have an argument on the internet about it.
I won’t be joining in but please don’t let that stop you.
Want more info + practical steps? I go into more detail on Topical Authority & Topic Clusters over on the Ahrefs blog.