What is a topic cluster? 7 steps to deploy Topic cluster for website 2021

 Is your website ranking being affected? Traffic plummeted, not as much as before?

You have tried everything you know to optimize your website, but the situation is not good!

There is a way to solve this while possible:

• Create content that is loved by Google
• build a "library" of extremely useful content for users

That is the Topic Cluster !

In this article, I will explain in detail what Topic Cluster is , its technical benefits and besides, I will also guide in detail how to implement Topic Cluster!

Wait! If you don't have much time to read the entire article, I have compiled the knowledge about this Topic Cluster! Watch it right here!

What is Topic Cluster?

Topic cluster is a group of articles or pages that are linked together and focused on a certain TOPIC, not optimized for each KEYWORDS.

Topic cluster deployment method, also known as " pillar and cluster " technique was researched and mentioned by Hubspot in 2017.

As one of the techniques following Content Marketing trends in 2021, Topic clustering is used by B2B and B2C businesses to strategize content for their businesses.

I have mentioned the Topic cluster method to optimize the depth of content in articles about " What is Onpage SEO " before. However, in this article I will share more details with you.

Structure of Topic Cluster

A topic cluster will consist of two main components: a pillar page and cluster content.

So what are pillars ? What is cluster content?

Structure diagram of a Topic Cluster

1. Pillar page is the main topic page that deals with general content.
2. Cluster content goes deeper into the details of each of the sub-contents mentioned in the pillar page.

All of these content clusters will be internally linked together and point to the same pillar page. From there, inform the search engines that the pillar page is a general information page, covering the entire topic.

For example: I have a topic about stomach pain, my Topic Cluster will include:

• Pillar page: What is stomach ache? Summary of 15 information about stomach pain you need to know
• Cluster content: includes many in-depth articles that answer each specific issue in the above topic, for example:
  • Top 5 signs of dangerous stomach disease that you did not expect
  • Causes of stomach pain in Vietnam
  • Treat stomach pain with black turmeric
  • Treat stomach pain with ginger
  • Stomach pain should eat what? Daily diet for stomach pain
  • 3 effective clinics for stomach pain

At this point, you can somewhat imagine what Topic Cluster is , right?

Are you wondering: Topic cluster and Silo: Which website structure is better?

Or wonder what is the silo structure ?

Right in the next part, I will reveal to you the detailed implementation method for Topic cluster and the benefits that this technique brings to the website!

Let's see!

Why is it necessary to deploy Topic Cluster?

To better understand this section, check out the comparison table below!

	Old Content Deployment Techniques	Topic Cluster
How to deploy	Each page is optimized for a specific keyword.	The pages are interconnected and optimized according to a theme.
Eg	Write 2 similar content for 2 keywords 1. What is stomach ache? How to treat stomach pain 2. How to treat stomach pain simply and quickly	Only write 1 content to optimize for the topic (including many keywords with the same meaning) What is stomach ache? Instructions to treat stomach pain with 3 simple steps

Since the introduction of the Google Hummingbird algorithm in 2013, the core foundations of content marketing have changed. The old way of implementing content (optimizing each page by keyword) is no longer effective.

See more:

1. 5 Common mistakes when implementing SEO for websites that you may not know.

Web structure when deployed according to the old technique

Accordingly, if you deploy the old technique, you will face the following consequences:

• Many different pages, but with similar content, provide little value to the reader
• The overview content for the entire website is not clear, the subpages have discrete content that makes it difficult to find
• Content is not in-depth, only shallow mention (Thin content) and cannot satisfy the user's search intent.

Very waste of time and effort!

So what are the benefits of deploying Topic cluster?

1. Benefits of Topic Cluster to users:

The benefits Topic Cluster brings to users

• Quickly find everything they're looking for
• Get all the questions about the problem encountered right from the first visit, satisfying their search intent.
• Users can expand their knowledge, better understand your products/services, and easily convert them into customers. From there, they spend more time on the website (of course increase the time onsite and decrease the bounce rate too!)

2. Benefits of Topic Cluster for websites:

• Rearrange the entire content & website structure in a logical and systematic order
• Build authority site authority: Deploying multiple clusters of content around a specific topic (pillar pages) helps to tell search engines that: Your website is an authority, trusted site on a topic .
• Tăng thứ hạng & traffic trên tổng thể website: Ngày nay, người dùng mong muốn tìm kiếm ít hơn nhưng lại tìm thấy nhiều hơn. Triển khai topic cluster sẽ giúp website bạn lên top không chỉ một vài từ khóa, mà là hàng loạt từ khóa liên quan đến chủ đề đó!
• Tăng trưởng doanh thu: Bằng cách sử dụng các liên kết nội bộ, dẫn dắt người dùng đến sản phẩm, dịch vụ chính của bạn, topic cluster dẫn dắt người dùng tiến vào sâu hơn trong phễu marketing, từ đó tăng trưởng doanh thu cho doanh nghiệp.

Tóm lại:

Bạn càng có nhiều chủ đề theo cụm Topic cluster, bạn sẽ càng xếp hạng cao hơn.

Theo thời gian, các công cụ tìm kiếm sẽ nhận ra việc bạn đang cung cấp tất cả các câu trả lời mà mọi người tìm kiếm. Điều này cũng giống như việc:

Bạn có thể tạo ra một cửa hàng để bạn mua được tất cả những thứ mình cần chỉ với 1 lần shopping. Thay vì bạn phải đi đến rất nhiều cửa hàng để mua nhiều thứ.

Và tất nhiên, traffic website, các chỉ số đánh giá chất lượng, thứ hạng từ khóa và doanh thu của bạn cũng ngày càng được cải thiện hơn trước!

3. Case study: Tăng 3.000 traffic chỉ trong 8 ngày sau khi triển khai Topic Cluster

Và những con số biết nói trong case study cụ thể sau đây cũng là một trong những lý do vô cùng thực tế thôi thúc bạn khai triển Topic Cluster cho website của mình.

Không quá bất ngờ! Sau khi quay video chia sẻ về việc áp dụng Topic Cluster thành công (video tôi đính kèm ở đầu bài viết), thì từ hôm đó đến nay, chỉ vỏn vẹn 8 ngày. Tuy nhiên, dự án này đã tăng hơn 3.000 traffic và có xu hướng tăng trưởng mạnh mẽ hơn nữa.

Tình hình trước đó:

• January: 850 traffic
• March 28: 6,800 traffic
• April 5th: 10,300 traffic
• And now: more than 12,000 traffic

At the same time, more than 200 keywords have grown over 100 average rankings in just 2.5 months!
All thanks to the application of Topic Cluster!

Maybe you still don't believe? Refer to some traffic growth charts of this project.

Traffic at the time of receiving the project (not yet deploying topic cluster) – January 10, 2019

Traffic increased when GTV deployed topic cluster for website – March 28, 2019

Average rank of the project – March 28, 2019

Keyword tends to increase in rankings – March 28, 2019

Website has experienced a sudden growth in rankings with topic cluster – March 28, 2019

And here is the project's traffic on April 5, 2019 (increasing more than 3,000 traffics)

Currently, the project traffic has reached more than 12,000 traffics. It's a surprise, isn't it? And this is just one of more than 150+ SEO service projects in Ho Chi Minh City that GTV's "home team" deploys and applies this model.

Now you probably have your own reasons to deploy topic clusters. Don't let you wait any longer! I will guide you in detail on how to deploy this "miracle" topic cluster.

Topic Cluster Deployment Guide

Here it is… You are probably thinking that it will take a lot of time and resources to implement topic clusters.

But no! 

You don't have to delete the entire old page and then write new content. But you just need to follow the 7 steps below in sequence!

I will guide you how to implement & optimize Topic Cluster in detail. At the same time, along with the notes in each step of the implementation, you can immediately start implementing it without any obstacles!

Get your hands on it now!

Step 1: Choose the topic you want to rank top

The first step you need to take is to decide which topic (topic) you want to rank for. From there, in step 4, you'll use these topics to create content for your pillar page.

Specifically, this theme must ensure:

• Topic must focus on a specific topic (related to your business or the content of your website).
• And the topic must be wide enough for you to cover all the issues and different aspects of the pillar page
• Topic must be enough to deploy 5-7 articles cluster content

For example, my GTV SEO website is in the field of keyword SEO services  and needs to add topics of Content marketing, onpage SEO, offpage SEO, etc.

Về topic cluster content marketing, cụm chủ đề này vừa cụ thể, lại vừa đủ rộng. Để bạn có thể tạo ra từ 5 đến 7 bài viết khác nhau xoay quanh chủ đề đó, như:

• Cách viết content marketing
• Chiến lược content
• Xu hướng content 2021
• Content facebook
• Viral content
• Content chuẩn seo

Lưu ý: Ở đây bạn nên chọn tối thiểu 3 topic cho website để từ đó triển khai các bước kế tiếp.

Và thậm chí, các topic này cũng sẽ bao gồm cả những topic cluster nhỏ hơn nữa. Tôi sẽ đề cập chi tiết hơn trong bước kế tiếp.

Bước 2: Research Keyword

Dù tôi đã từng nhấn mạnh việc Kĩ thuật Topic cluster là một cách tiếp cận mới tập trung vào tối ưu theo chủ đề rộng hơn cho topic thay vì target các từ khóa đuôi dài (long tail keyword). Nhưng điều đó không có nghĩ là việc nghiên cứu từ khóa google không quan trọng.

Bạn vẫn cần đảm bảo rằng mình chọn lựa các từ khóa một cách cẩn thận. Vì đây là những gì mà người dùng tiềm năng của bạn sử dụng mỗi khi họ search Google.

Và đây là lúc bạn tập trung vào việc nghiên cứu từ khóa để đào sâu hơn và bao phủ toàn bộ cụm topic cluster của mình.

Trình tự 2 bước thực hiện như sau:

2.1: Phân tích và liệt kê các sub topics:

Trong bài viết tối ưu Content của mình, tôi đã đề cập có 3 cách phân tích và liệt kê đầy đủ các subtopics của mình, bao gồm:

1. Tham khảo website đối thủ
2. Phân tích nội dung các website nước ngoài
3. Use your expertise

Besides, you can also choose Ahrefs > Keyword Explorer > enter the main keyword > All to see the suggested results!

After this step I have the following model:

Topic Cluster Model of Content Marketing

2.2: Research Keyword:

In this step, you just need to import all the subtopics you listed above and put them all in Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer > All .

Search for keywords from the subtopics you just wrote

To get the results you are looking for faster, you can fill in the Include your keyword box. For example, here I will enter “content” for example.

This means that Ahrefs only shows keywords that contain the word “content”!

And choose export to export the file!

Export the file and filter the appropriate keywords to create Topic Cluster

After filtering for the appropriate keywords, copy it into excel into the corresponding column like this! And don't forget to remove unnecessary columns. Just keep Keyword + Volume + Parent Keyword!

Statistics into a table for sure everything

Step 3: Group keywords by topic cluster:

In this step, you need to group keywords into detailed groups. Each group will have its own content and match the user's search intent.

And you will get the picture below.

Attach keywords to the appropriate subtopics

Of course, you don't have to implement all of these articles, but you should choose which one is right for you.

As GTV currently does not have a need to recruit content marketing staff, I will not deploy articles or post job advertisements on this part, for example.

Step 4: Check the existing content on the website

This is the most important step in the entire Topic Cluster deployment process. Because it will help you take advantage of available resources, while saving budget and time promoting your business.

Note: If you have a new website, skip this section and go to the next step.

However, if the website you have deployed has a lot of content already, you need to pay close attention in this step 4 .

Sequentially perform the following steps:

• Filter all existing website content articles (including blogs, service pages, ...)
• Arrange each of these articles into the corresponding subtopics about the content researched in the previous step 3.

At this point, I need you to answer the question:

Does the article match the content you researched?

If so, group this article with your topic cluster.

If not, edit additionally or change the content to match the user's search intent.

Start writing articles and split keywords for each URL

Above, I've noted which URLs the existing website has that match the content of the cluster content.

Articles that need to be edited and supplemented are also fully noted.

Step 5: Write Content for Pillar page & Cluster Content:

After completing the required information, the next thing you need to do is write new/add articles for a topic cluster.

When writing content, you need to ensure the following standards:

Standard pillar page:

Pillar page should have an article from 3000 to 5000 words long. The content of the pillar page must contain and cover all the cluster content contained within it.

However, the pillar page will not cover the issue in detail like each cluster content, but just stop at the introductory level of each item.

Cluster content standards:

Unlike pillar pages, content clusters must ensure:

• Focus on solving a specific problem
• Standard SEO articles target certain keywords that you want to promote to the top
• The content revolves around & additionally clarifies the main topic of the pillar page.
• Length from 1000 to 2000 words

However, the trick is to deploy the cluster content first, then the pillar.

Step 6: Link the content together

Once you've completed your pillar page and content clusters, you need to ensure that:

• Content clusters link not only to the pillar page but also to each other
• These links are 2-way links. This means that the pillar page should also have links to each of your content clusters.

Step 7: Monitor and analyze indicators

In any SEO marketing strategy, it is extremely important to monitor and measure metrics to know how effective the implementation is.

With Topic cluster, you need to wait 1-2 months to see its change. And then, let's analyze further to see which pages or topic clusters are performing the best, which pages need to be re-optimized to rank better.

Items to track include:

• Page URL (pillar page and cluster content)
• Keywords of each page
• How is each page internally linked? List the internal links inserted in that page
• List outlinks in each page

Woohoo!!!.. I know you've spent a lot of time reading and mulling this post, and as promised, I have a gift for you! That is the Topic cluster deployment flowchart.

This flowchart is applied by me to GTV's system to help SEO Manager easily track all the steps that need to be taken to get a Topic cluster. Hope you will like it!

Flow chart for creating Topic Cluster

Epilogue:

Topic Cluster is a new approach to organize and reorganize the entire content on the website. It focuses on broader topics instead of targeting individual keywords.

By focusing on developing content by topic clusters, you help both users:

• Find answers to their problems quickly
• Navigate search engines to scan your website with ease.

From there, promote website rankings, increase traffic and customers find businesses while minimizing the cost of running Google adwords ads for the website.

The pages will now no longer compete with each other and be subject to keyword cannibalization, but instead, clusters of content that support each other to create an overall effect. When a content cluster comes to the top, it will drive the overall growth of the remaining pages.

Make sure: Choose a broad enough topic, write pillar pages and cluster content according to the standards I outlined above. And finally, use internal linking to link all these pages together.

It may take some time to get a topic cluster. You should even deploy many other topic clusters for your website. But like every other marketing strategy, the best results always require an investment of time and effort.

You finally know what a Topic Cluster is , do it and let me know the results! Good luck!

Source: https://gtvseo.com/topic-cluster-la-gi/

#gtvseo #gtv_seo #topic_cluster

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GTV SEO
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