The Rise of ‘Topic Clusters’: Why Google Now Prefers Context Over Keywords

Topic clusters comprise of three main elements:

• Pillar content
• Cluster content 
• Internal hyperlinks

When your content is organised it shows search engines the relevance of your website pages, helping search engines crawl and index your pages accurately. 

Topic Cluster Structure

As mentioned above, topic clusters comprise of three main elements. Let us take a closer look:

Pillar Content

This is the centre of your cluster, your main topic. It supports the structure of your topic cluster. Pillar content comprehensively covers a topic, built around a keyword that refers to a broader subject.

Pillar content must be highly relevant, helping you improve your ranking in search engine results pages (Seeps). 

Cluster Content

Your cluster content needs to align with your pillar content. It is a group of content that works together to make your pillar content relevant. While the pillar content covers a broad topic, clusters are more specific, backing up the pillar content. Cluster content should focus on a specific subject, addressing that subject thoroughly. 

Ideally, each pillar page should have ten to thirty cluster posts supporting it. Of course, this rule is not set in stone.

Internal Hyperlinks

Acquiring backlinks is an essential step in any successful SEO strategy, though many website owners forget the importance of internal linking. Internal links don't have the same value as a high quality backlink, but they do show search engines how your pages are organised, which pages are most important, along with the authority of your business.

In order to carry out internal hyperlinking accurately for your topic clusters, you will need to:

• Ensure the cluster post links back to the pillar post
• Use exact anchor text for your hyper link, using the pillar post name
• Ensure the pillar post links back to the cluster post

This helps create a web of content around your pillar page, all connected, showing search engines the importance of the page. 

Conclusion

Topic clusters are an effective part of any successful SEO strategy. With organised content, it helps Google identify the main pages to rank in search results, ensuring you are an authority in your niche, and provide users with value. As Google focuses more on user intent and less on keywords, topic clusters meets the needs of search engines and users. Do you need help with topic clusters for your website? Contact Genie Crawl now to find out more.