How to plan topic clusters

What a topic cluster is

A topic cluster is a group of pages on your site that together cover one subject well. One main page gives the overview of the subject. Several supporting pages each go deeper into one part of it. They all link to each other, so a visitor who starts anywhere can find the rest.

Take a running-shoe shop. Its subject might be “trail running shoes”. The main page is the trail shoes category, with a short guide at the top. The supporting pages answer narrower questions: how trail shoes differ from road shoes, how to choose a grip for mud or rock, how to fit trail shoes for wide feet, and when to replace them. Each supporting page links to the main page, and the main page links out to each of them.

Why clusters help

Clusters are a way of organising, not a trick. They help in three ordinary ways. Visitors find related answers without going back to Google. Search engines follow the links between the pages and understand how they relate, which helps them find new pages and see which page is the main one for the broad searches. And you can see, topic by topic, where your site is thorough and where it is thin.

A site with one strong page on a subject and nothing around it often stalls. A site that answers the main question and the obvious follow-up questions gives Google more reasons to show it, for more searches, and gives visitors more reasons to stay.

Step 1: group your keywords into topics

Start from your keyword master list. Sort it so similar searches sit together, then give each group a short name. Searches that share their main words usually belong together: “trail running shoes”, “trail running shoes for women”, “waterproof trail running shoes”.

Use the results page to settle doubtful cases. If two searches show many of the same top results, Google sees them as one subject. If the results are mostly different, they are different subjects, or different parts of one, and need different pages.

Step 2: decide the pages

1. Choose the main page. Usually the page that should rank for the broad search: a category page for a shop, a service page for a service business, or a complete guide for a publisher. Use an existing page if you have one.
2. List the supporting questions. From the narrower searches in the group, the “People also ask” questions, and what customers ask you. Each supporting page should answer one question better than a paragraph on the main page could.
3. Check what you already have. Many sites already have half a cluster scattered across the blog. Mark which supporting pages exist, which need improving, and which are missing.
4. Avoid two pages for one question. If two existing pages answer the same question, merge them before you add more. Our guide to mapping keywords to pages explains how.

Step 3: link the cluster together

Links turn a pile of pages into a cluster. Use ordinary links in the text, with words that describe the page they lead to:

• From each supporting page to the main page, near the top or where it fits the text: “see all our trail running shoes”.
• From the main page to each supporting page, where the subject comes up: “how to choose the right grip”.
• Between supporting pages where a reader would naturally go next, such as from choosing a grip to caring for the shoes.
• From your menu or category pages to the main page, so it is a few clicks from the home page.

Avoid vague link words such as “click here”, and don’t add dozens of links to every page. A handful of useful links in the right places does more. Our guide to internal linking covers this in detail.

Step 4: measure the topic, not just the page

Judge a cluster as a whole. Add up how many of the topic’s searches you appear on the first page for, and the clicks the pages get together in Search Console. A cluster can grow even while its main page stays where it is, because the supporting pages win the narrower searches.

Weight the score by how often each search is made if you can: winning the most-searched terms in a topic matters more than winning the rarest ones. Then work on one weak topic at a time, starting with the one closest to your sales.

Grow a cluster over time

You don’t need to build a whole cluster at once. A sensible order is: make the main page as useful as it can be, then add the supporting page for the question customers ask most, then the next. After each new page, link it in, and look at the topic’s numbers again a few weeks later.

New questions appear all the time. A new product, a change in the season, or a new way of talking about the subject can each add a search worth answering. Check the “People also ask” questions and your Search Console queries for the topic every couple of months, and add a supporting page when a question deserves more than a sentence. Our guide to finding content opportunities shows where to look.

Clusters also need pruning. A supporting page that never gets visits and says little may be better merged into the main page, with a redirect, so the cluster stays tidy and every page in it earns its place.

Common mistakes

• Writing thin pages to fill the cluster. Ten short pages that say little help nobody. Write a supporting page only when there is something worth saying.
• Forgetting the main page. Supporting pages that link to nothing in particular don’t form a cluster.
• Clusters that don’t match the business. A shop that writes about topics far from what it sells will attract visitors who never buy.