The Next Evolution Of SEO – Content Cluster Strategy

Most of the companies you will see on the internet do “Content Marketing” to drive rich organic traffic. The blogs and guides we come across are a part of this well known digital marketing activity. As a brand, you have to provide useful content to the customers. So that they attentively listen to your offers and brand message.

Content cluster strategy is an innovative tactic to guide visitors to the central content of your website. By central content we mean, the blog or the article that deeply represents the niche of your company. It should be based on one of the important products and services you sell. In content marketing definition we call it the “PILLAR POST”. The pillar post covers a huge topic in detail. Or it has a greater capacity to convert potential customers and buyers.

Success in content marketing requires regular posts on a wide variety of topics related to your niche. So, you can’t sit back after creating a pillar post. You have to create many “CLUSTER POSTS” which explore the various subcategories of the pillar post. These posts originate from certain keywords of the pillar posts. The main motive is to drive the audience to the pillar post. This feat is achieved by placing backlinks and hyperlinks to the pillar post.

This strategy escalates your page views miraculously. As more and more cluster blogs get increased views, the google ranking of your website improves. Ultimately, more visitors find the pillar post and read it.

 The pillar posts are specifically designed to persuade readers. It is packed with every little information on a domain. Additionally, it consists of high-resolution images, quotes, videos and better formatting than the cluster posts. Ultimately, it raises a louder call of action in the minds of customers.

Examples of Pillar posts and Cluster posts

Let us suppose you are a company providing soft skills training to students and corporate employees. Then the perfect pillar post for your site will be “How to acquire the 8 crucial soft skills?” Here you will cover all the soft skills trained in your course. The cluster posts can be built on each individual soft skills. Titles for them would be like “ How to be master in communication skills?”, “How learning corporate etiquettes can shape your career?” As the topics are closely connected with each other, you can provide links to different blogs within one post.

Now that you learned the basic structure of the content clustering strategy let us jump to the steps of accomplishing it.

Step 1: First of all, select the headings and topics for your pillar posts.

Obviously, the first step in the content clustering strategy will be deciding the blog titles for your pillar posts. You can have a number of such articles which broadly highlight specific services of your brand. For example, a digital marketing agency provides a range of services to its customers. So, it can have pillar posts titled “All about content marketing”, “The beginner’s guide to email marketing”, “How to manage social media marketing”, “ The utility of analytical tools” etc.

In case you are confused to finalize a topic, we recommend you to research some relevant keywords to your niche. It is very easy to do. Just go to a free tool like Google Keyword planner and discover the most searched keywords in your niche. Research what your avatars are typing on Google to get the solutions. And on that basis frame eye-catching headlines that will attract the user to click on it.

Step 2: Choose the topics for your cluster posts

Once you decided what topic you are going to craft as the pillar post, it is easier to find what would be the cluster posts. Let us suppose you have “All about content marketing” as your pillar post. The suitable cluster posts will be “how to write viral blogs”, “how to create amazing YouTube tutorials”, “What are the steps to publish your first e-book”, “Which instruments you will require to record your own podcast” and many more. On google, the audience mainly search for their specific interests that are broadly described in the cluster posts. For example, when a content creator reads your blog on podcasts, he may be interested to know about other forms of content building. So, he will definitely click on the links to your pillar post. And in this way you give way to a fresh flow of traffic!

Always make sure that for each pillar post, you are generating at least three cluster articles.

Step 3: Start writing your pillar post

After planning the titles and concepts, it’s time to create amazing blogs. Put on your thinking caps and unleash the fountain of creativity.

Pillar post represents the soul of your business. So, make sure that it includes A to Z about a topic. For example in the pillar post titled “All about content marketing” you need to touch every aspect of it. Let the content be lengthy but it should provide the expected value to the audience. Readers will reach this article to get a broad description of your niche and service. And you should not disappoint them by keeping the information limited.

The pillars post should be the finest creation on your website. Though it is lengthy, it must not be boring. To make it gripping divide it into easily readable paragraphs. Use subheadings H1, H2, H3, H4 to make understanding comfortable. Format the font styles to the best. Utilize different structures, bold & italics texts, highlights, emoji to make the reading enjoyable.

Step 4: Generate the cluster content pieces

As previously described there should be at least 3 cluster posts per one pillar post. These should be equally engaging as the pillar posts are. The most important thing here is the hyperlinks. Highlight the keywords and provide at least 3 links in these articles to the main post. In our example, the main keyword is content marketing. You can still stress in other keywords that take the viewers to other cluster posts.

After completing all these steps one by one your content clustering strategy will be ready to launch. Now get ready to witness the magical increase in the volume of traffic flowing to your site!