Topic clusters are a way of ordering all the contents of a website that are related to a main or generic topic, with the aim of concentrating the strength of that term on a specific page and thus improving its positioning in search engines. Now we will tell you more.
what are the objectives of topic clusters?
-To optimise the search engine visibility of the main topics of a website through its pillar pages.
-Improve the navigability of websites and offer a better user experience.
-Contribute to making it easier for users and search engines to find other types of content.
how to create a topic cluster or Content Stack?
When creating a topic cluster it is important to take into account a few points:
- Pillar Page: this is the main content. It covers all aspects of the topic, which should be developed more specifically by the cluster content; these will be linked by links, which in turn will allow users to go deeper into a topic. It is necessary that the pillar page broadly covers the topic that is being focused on, so that it makes sense to link it with all the related content. The pillar page allows a topic that cannot be developed in a single article to be addressed and expanded.
- Cluster content or secondary pages: these are subtopics that deal with content related to the main content. These topics should deal in depth with a specific keyword or keyword related to the topic. Cluster content should work on only one of the areas that have been mentioned on the main page.
- Hyperlinks or Hyperlinks between pages: these are all links that allow users to access all related content. These in turn transfer authority from one page to another page. And, in the event that a main page has a significant number of visits, it is very likely that the linked pages, from it, will also achieve the same or more visits.
Best practices for using topic clusters
As you know, the core of the topic clusters are the main pages; therefore, these are the ones that you should make sure to position in the search engine. And to achieve this, it is very important that you..:
- Ofrezcas una versión descargable para tu página pilar mediante un formulario. De esta forma podrás convertir el tráfico en leads. En este punto es importante que sepas que una página pilar no es una landing page. Pese a que tienen ciertas similitudes, estas páginas se diferencian principalmente, en que la landing “esconde” la información tras un formulario. Por lo tanto, los usuarios que deseen obtenerla deben completar antes el formulario, sin saber con certeza si el contenido les será totalmente útil. Por su parte, la página pilar sí pone a disposición la información desde el inicio para los usuarios y robots de búsqueda. Dicha página, ofrece una versión descargable, por lo general, en formato PDF en la que aparece el contenido. Para que los usuarios puedan obtener ese contenido, también deben llenar un formulario; pero en este caso al ver de qué trata la información tienen mayor seguridad de saber si les servirá o no. Así que al rellenar el formulario lo hacen sabiendo qué materia
- Provide unique and innovative content. The quality of the content is fundamental, so make sure you create original, useful and relevant content for the user. Also, to avoid penalties, it is important that the content you work on is not a copy of another website.
- Optimise the SEO of pillar content, remembering that the main topic must be present in the title, in the meta description, in the URL, in the H1 header, in the alternative text of the images and in the body of the information.
- Organise the information and add a table of contents. The structure of the content is usually organised by sections, each of them headed by an H2 heading. The purpose of this is to make it easier for users to go to a specific section without having to scroll. Normally, a table of contents is included at the top, which has an anchor that leads directly to each of the sections. It also has a "back to top" button that allows the user to return to the table of contents and continue browsing the content.
- Use synonyms and words related to the main topic. Implementing related terms, synonyms and variants avoids penalties for overuse of the keyword, thus increasing the search level and helping search engines to better interpret the information.
