The most effective approach to structuring your content for SEO is using topic clusters and pillar pages. While this isn’t new, many businesses are now starting to realise how beneficial this can be. If you haven’t used this content structure before, keep reading to find out how to get started.
What are topic clusters?
Topic clusters are a group of thematically related pages that are all interconnected. These are sometimes referred to as content clusters or cluster pages. Using topic clusters is a widely used content strategy approach for establishing authority on a certain topic.
This topic will usually be the focus of a pillar page or hub page. Effective topic clusters will answer all the questions a user has on a specific topic or subject area within your given niche. Every topic cluster will be based on a long-tail keyword relevant to the central topic.
Usually, this is a much more effective and efficient way to organise and structure content on your website as opposed to individual and loosely related content.
What is a pillar page?
A pillar page (sometimes referred to as a hub page, skyscraper content, or pillar content) is a lengthy and detailed page that covers a topic in-depth. As opposed to topic clusters that focus on one small aspect, a pillar page will cover all the relevant information on a given topic.
As such, a user is far more likely to stay on a page by providing all the information and answers that may be looking for. A hyperlinked table of contents and a good internal linking structure with topic clusters will add further value to the reader.
Covering a topic in such depth also makes it possible to gain high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. The more high-quality backlinks you naturally gain from a pillar page, the stronger your authority on a subject will be (not to mention higher rankings).
The hybrid approach
A hybrid approach to creating pillar pages and topic clusters involves combining the two methods and interlinking all pages together, as shown below:
How long should topic clusters and pillar pages be?
There is no single answer to how long your topic clusters and pillar pages should be. Setting an exact word estimate can do more harm than good. Instead, you should ensure your pillar pages cover a topic as fully and comprehensively as possible.
While your pillar pages will naturally be on the longer side, this is not a bad thing. Providing the page is well-written and provides value to your readers, the length shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure the page is well-structured and easy to navigate.
As for topic clusters, there is no exact length for them either. As with the pillar page, you should ensure they are long enough to provide value to your target audience. While they won’t be as long as a pillar page, the main focus is on what you write, not how much.
The exact number of topic clusters you will need to create for any ranking boost can vary widely. Different topics, websites, and keywords will all affect how many topics to create. Some websites can manage it with only 4 or 5 whereas another site may need more than 10.
What are the benefits of topic clusters and pillar pages?
Developing an effective topic cluster strategy can be beneficial for your SEO strategy. Using a hybrid approach of a pillar page and linking to relevant topic clusters provides the most benefit. Here are some of the major benefits it provides for boosting your SEO performance:
- The more quality content you publish on your site, the greater the opportunity of ranking for more keywords or search queries.
- It helps to build your authority for a given topic by covering it in depth and showcasing your expertise.
- Properly structuring and linking pillar pages with relevant pages simplifies navigation making it easier for users and search engines to navigate and discover content.
- Avoid keyword cannibalisation (multiple pages ranking for the same keyword) by avoiding creating two pages on a similar/same topic.
- Stronger internal linking structure that makes it much easier for search engines to navigate and determine content relevance.
- Pages covering a topic in much more depth are more likely to naturally gain backlinks from third-party sites.
- It helps to improve the user experience by providing valuable content that keeps users engaged and on your site for longer.
- Well-structured websites with topic clusters and pillar pages are far more likely to be less affected by algorithm changes.
How to create pillar pages for your website
Now that we’ve covered what pillar pages and topic clusters are, alongside the benefits, it’s time to look at how to create pillar pages for your website.
1) Identify some topic ideas
The first step to creating pillar pages is coming up with some ideas for topics. These topics should be relevant to your website and audience. However, these topic ideas mustn’t be too broad allowing you to focus and better manage content creation.
There are a couple of ways you can come up with some topic ideas, including:
- Topics core to your business
- Topics with a high conversion rate or drive sales
- Topics that your competitors haven’t explored
- Topics that your audience is interested in
2) Keyword research
Once you have identified some topic ideas, it’s time to dive deeper. The next step is conducting keyword research to find relevant keywords that will shape your topic clusters. The right choice of keywords is crucial for creating SEO-friendly content that appeals.
You can use a keyword tool like Semrush to find terms that are relevant to your business yet broad enough to create additional topic clusters. Ideally, the keyword you pick should have a strong search volume, match the user’s search intent, and isn’t too difficult to rank for.
Using this keyword, you will then want to search for related long-tail keywords that will form the content to cover on your pillar page as well as the corresponding topic cluster. If you struggle with keyword research, check out our guide.
3) Plan out your pillar page and topic clusters
Once you have settled on a suitable keyword, you can use this to plan out your pillar page and topic clusters. Your pillar page will focus on the broad, high-volume keyword you first identified. Then, the related long-tail keywords will be your major subheadings.
Here is an example of a pillar page and topic clusters for a web design topic using the keyword “SEO web page design”.
The pillar page “The complete guide to SEO web page design” would cover each of these topics based on relevant long-term keywords:
- What is SEO in digital marketing?
- Organic SEO
- Advantages of SEO
- SEO tips
- Getting started with SEO on your website
- On-page optimisation
- How to get your website to the top Google search
Underneath the content in each subheading, you would link to a topic cluster that covers each point in more depth. Make sure you link back to the pillar page in each of the topic clusters using the appropriate anchor text.
4) Writing the content
Once you have your plan all sorted out, it’s time for the hardest part – writing high-quality content. The content you write needs to be relevant, accurate, organised, clear, and optimised. Most importantly, you need to remember you are writing for people first and foremost.
There are a few ways you can help ensure the content you create is valuable to your users, including:
- Understanding your customer’s needs, pain points, and interests.
- Research to make sure your content is accurate, reliable, and appealing.
- Make sure that readers can take something of value from reading.
- Consider using an emotional appeal to make it more engaging and interesting.
- Check the readability of your writing so that it can be easily understood.
- Use a clear structure with subheadings and a clear structure/flow.
Find out more about creating high-quality content using our guide.
Given the size of the pillar page, some points are worth considering:
- Add a linkable table of contents at the top.
- Use chapters and subheadings to break down large pieces of content while making it easier to skim.
- Use a Q&A style where possible, with a subheading being a question and the body text as the answer.
- Proofread and review the content before publishing it.
5) Measure performance
Once you finished creating your pages and you’ve added them to your site, you need to monitor how well they perform. This lets you see what is working well and what is working not so well. From there, you can make any necessary changes.
For pages performing well, see if you can expand on them by adding additional content. If pages are not performing as well, consider reviewing and improving the content. Also, if you find new relevant topics to cover, create new content.
The best way to determine the success of your pillar pages and topic clusters is keyword ranking. Tracking the performance of the individual keywords for each of these pages is a good way to determine how successful they are. The higher the ranking, the more valuable it shows your content is.
Using pillar pages and topic clusters is a great way to structure your content SEO. By creating content that is grouped thematically, you’ll be in a good position to create valuable content that appeals to your users and ranks highly in searches.
