Your content marketing strategy can make or break your business. Content marketing can take your business to the top of the search engine rankings and build your digital brands. Thus, 80% of marketers used content marketing over the past year.
Since marketers are heavily investing in content marketing, your simple keyword-focused content may no longer deliver results.
You need to revamp your content marketing funnel with inclusive and diverse strategies. Something like a topic cluster.
The topic cluster is a content marketing strategy that helps you improve SEO ranking and simultaneously provide value to your readers.
So, let’s see what the topic cluster is and why you need it to drive results from your content marketing campaigns.
What is a Topic Cluster?
A topic cluster or content cluster is a group of content on the website revolving around a specific topic. It focuses on covering a specific topic in depth.
A cluster talks about all the relevant questions that a reader might have in mind related to a topic. The topic cluster strategy has three core elements:
A pillar page – This page is highly authoritative and covers a topic targeting different user intents. It provides readers with a value to click on the content piece irrespective of their position in the sales pipeline. This page has something for every reader landing on your website.
A cluster page – A cluster or supporting pages cover the pillar page content in depth. It takes readers to a particular point on the topic. This approach is not about taking a long-tail keyword and creating content around it. It digs deeper into the intent and pain points of your target audience.
Internal linking – Linking your cluster pages to a pillar page indicates to search engines that the pillar page is the most important in the group. It helps to build the authority of your pillar page and flow SEO juices between your internal pages and is a best practice in any content strategy. However, a proper anchor text is essential to link pages. This will help search engines understand what is behind the link.
Let’s take an example to understand the autonomy of a topic cluster better.
UnboundB2B is a B2B lead generation company that covers every topic that falls under the lead generation category.
So, they have a pillar page on demand generation. Further, the website has cluster topics like demand generation guides, tips, expert advice, and more.
When we clicked on the “Demand Generation Guide 2020 For B2B Tech Lead Buyers” topic, it showed internal linking to other related content.
So, the topic cluster is a content marketing tactic that enhances internal and external SEO strategy to improve your search engine rankings by offering more value to your customers.
Top 5 Reasons to Adopt the Topic Cluster in Your Content Plan
A Semrush survey stated that 73% of companies that spent their 10% to 70% marketing budget on content creation were highly successful in 2021.
Undoubtedly, content delivers results. But, as we all know, content marketing consists of several marketing strategies like email marketing, social media marketing, etc. So, the question is which content marketing strategy can deliver the best results for you.
To help out content creators and marketers, we will today discuss the reasons to adopt a vital content marketing strategy like the topic cluster.
1. Improve SEO flow
Today, search engines work on Web 3.0. It is a semantic and social web. It means search engines not only consider keywords to rank pages. They also count the intent and content value before indexing pages.
Suppose you want to rank on the “account software” keyword. In that case, search engines will not only see how many times you have embedded the particular keyword in your content. They will also see how well your content covers the topic and provide value to readers.
Here the topic cluster can help you cover a topic in-depth and rank your pillar content higher in the search results.
That’s not it! The cluster content can help you improve your SEO score from three different angles, such as:
- Drive traffic from long-tail and low-competitive keywords on your cluster pages.
- Rank your pillar page on highly competitive keywords.
- Build your brand authority on specific topics so that Google can consider your brand a market expert.
2. Help Google understand your content
The topic cluster not only helps to establish your brand authority on Google. But, it also helps Google understand the hierarchy of your website and the relationship between your different content elements.
This is usually helpful when you target different audiences and keywords with your content. With the topic cluster, you can help Google understand the main targeted keywords on which you want to index your website.
For example, Statusbrew is a social media analytics tool that offers four core services on all the leading social networks like Instagram, Twitter, etc.
This website targets some of the highly competitive keywords like social media analytics, influencer analytics, etc.
Targeting so many different keywords means sending mixed signals to Google. It gets difficult for Google to decide the main purpose of the website.
So, to solve this problem, Statusbrew created multiple pillar pages like social media benchmarks, social media metrics, and so on. This helps Google to understand the intent of each page on the website.
3. Improve the user experience
When the content is not organized on your website, it gets difficult for new users to find the right information. But, as we all know, today, there is no limitation on information on the web.
Users who don’t find information quickly on your website will move to your competitor’s website. This will not lose you a potential client. But, you might increase your website bounce rate.
So, the topic cluster can help you organize your content under different categories and sub-categories. This way, a user can find the right information quickly, and it can help to retain traffic to your website for a longer period.
Here you can take reference from this data management system – Coupler. The brand used relevant tags to organize the blog section, like Excel integration, Data exports, etc.
This allows customers to find the right information using the tags. They can also use the search bar to find particular information on the website using key phrases.
4. Target leads at every stage
Lead generation is the fundamental purpose of content marketing. But, it is only helpful when you create content for every lead in your sales pipeline.
At every lead generation stage, a person has different requirements to nurture. For example, when a lead enters your funnel, they are more interested in knowing your brand.
But, gradually, when leads move further in the pipeline, they want to know how your product can solve their problems. They also want to know the different benefits and the right way to use your products.
And finally, before purchasing, they want a clear call to action and personal interaction with brands.
Your content can help you convert leads at every stage in the demand generation funnel. But, you need to categorize your content for a particular lead.
But how can I do this?
Well, you can check this call center automation and speech analytics software website for reference.
The brand has created a content resource section on the website. Under this section, they have categorized content to target different leads.
For example, the blog section helps to educate and inform new leads. On the contrary, webinars and customer stories help to move them further in the pipeline.
Similarly, you can organize your content based on the position of your leads in the pipeline. This way, you can reduce the sales cycle and convert leads faster.
Moreover, you can target individual leads based on their pain points. And it is not a secret that personalized account-based marketing delivers the best result in a competitive environment.
5. Establish brand credibility
Adobe report shows that people prefer to buy from brands they can trust. In the same way, search engines rank the pages higher that are more trusted online.
Thus, you need to build your brand credibility online to impress your customers and search engines. Your valuable and organized content can help you with trust-building.
When you share insightful details on a particular topic, it helps to build brand credibility. People will consider you an expert on the topic and won’t mind using your services.
Search engines also notice when you share original and helpful cluster content on a topic.
For example, NordVPN is one of the best cybersecurity platforms. They share specific information and news related to cyber vulnerabilities to educate their users.
This helps them to inform users and establish the brand as a superior cybersecurity solution.
The Topic Cluster: Good or Bad for Your Content Marketing Strategy?
Undoubtedly, the topic cluster is one of the best solutions to skyrocket your business growth. It helps you establish brand authority, rank on search engines, and boost lead generation.
However, creating the topic cluster is an intelligent job. First, you have to find high-performing keywords to create a pillar page. Then, focus on low and long tail keywords combo to cover the topic in depth.
For the topic cluster planning, you must use content project management tools to get a clear picture. This way, you can know which keywords you have targeted, which are performing well, and so on.
So, that’s pretty much it! You can now start focusing on the content cluster to churn SEO juices on your website.
Author Bio:
Yash Chawlani is the Founder of Marveta, a result-oriented digital marketing agency. He specializes in SEO and Content Marketing and helps various B2B and SaaS companies with top-notch marketing strategies.