What are topic clusters, and how can you use them for your blogging content strategy?

As I've said before, and will say many, many times again, blogging is one of the most effective things you can do for your website's SEO. It provides Google with fresh content, which it loves, it allows you to write posts that answer people's queries, which Google loves, and it positions you as an expert in your field, which, you guessed it, Google loves.

If you want to get strategic with your blogging, then one technique that can really help you plan out your posts is using topic clusters. While this sounds like some kind of granola-ish cereal with extra chocolate bits, it's actually a clever way of organising your blog posts that helps signal to search engines that you really know your onions when it comes to that topic.

So what exactly are topic clusters?

Topic clusters, also known as content clusters, are a content marketing strategy that's used to organise your blog posts. You have a central 'pillar' post on a topic, then have multiple 'cluster' posts that are subtopics related to the main topic. These link back to the pillar, as well as to each other.

Let's take the example of a physiotherapist who specialises in working with women. You'd have a pillar page (either a core website page or a blog post) with that as the main topic, then you'd write a series of related blog posts on that topic. Using internal links in the text, these cluster posts all link back to the pillar page, as well as linking to each other where relevant.

This is how it looks like in a diagram:

It looks a bit like the Atomium in Brussels!

Why should I use topic clusters in my blogging content strategy?

By organising your content and blog posts in this way, you're signalling to Google that you're a real authority on this topic. And as Google rates your website on its E-E-A-T criteria (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), this is a really great way to fulfil this and help boost your rankings.

Topic clusters are also really helpful in the new era of AI search. When people use AI programmes such as ChatGPT to search for something, they tend to use much more conversational prompts compared with traditional search engines.

Whereas a 43-year-old woman with a dodgy knee (hello, it's me) might type 'physiotherapist specialise women over 40' into Google, she may well write something much more chatty into ChatGPT, along the lines of 'I'm looking for a phsyiotherapist in Bristol who specialises in working with women over 40'. ChatGPT will then spit out a list of recommendations, but then prompt to go further, asking something her like 'Is there something specific you'd like help with?' She would then write 'I have a knee injury and would like some help in rehabbing it'. ChatGPT will then further refine its search, looking amongst the content of the sites it's already recommended to see if any of them reference knees.

If your website can demonstrate this deeper level of knowledge on a topic, it's going to be one of the sites that's recommended by AI search. It may also help in showing up in Google's AI overview panel.

How to get started on topic clusters for your creative or purpose-led business

1. Think about your main topics

   The first step is to find topics for your pillar pages that you feel are relevant to your business and will help drive warm leads to your site. Sometimes these topics will be obvious, other times you might like to use tools such as Ahrefs to do some keyword research. Things to consider are posts that answer questions your customers often ask, what your competitors are talking about, and topics that are important to your target audience.

2. Identify the subtopics

   Once you've got your core topic, think about all the related posts that explore this in more detail. Again, keyword tools can be handy for this, as is the 'People Also Ask' section in Google.

3. Create quality content

   You'll then need to create the pillar page first, then its related subpages. Make sure your content is really good quality: it's not enough to do a sloppy rehash of other people's posts. Use your own experience, knowledge and insights to create something unique and valuable. If you've got data, use it. If you've got opinions, state them. Go deep, make it relevant, make it worthwhile to read.

4. Link your posts

   Once you've written the pillar page and are working on the subpages, make sure you use hyperlinks in each post to cluster them all together.

If you'd like a much more detailed analysis of this process, check out this article by SEMrush.

Creating a blogging strategy for your creative or purpose-led brand

Want to get more strategic with your blogging? I'd love to help! I can create you a blog strategy, as well as writing blog posts -- because let's face it, you know it's important but you don't always have the time. Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat to discuss how we could work together and really supercharge your content!