What is Content Clustering and why is it important for SEO?
Content clustering is the process of strategically grouping your site content so that all of your topics are covered in a natural, logical way. It's not just about finding outbound links to point to pages with thin content; it's about making sure you're covering all bases on all of the topics that matter most to you and your visitors.
Think of Web search engine crawlers as shoppers. Say that there are two e-commerce stores, one stocked with clothes for women and one stocked with toys for kids. The store with the toys for kids would rank better than the store with clothes for women because it has a larger focus. A store could have both but if the visitor is looking for toys, they will probably head straight to one and leave without ever knowing about the other.
Just like any good content marketing plan, content clustering helps you organize your pages around topics that matter most to your audience and concentrate your efforts on those topics.
But why is it important?
The more links you have to your site, the higher you rank in search engine results pages (SERPs), which means more traffic. If your site is focused on just one topic, then Google might overlook all of the pages that you've created that discuss another topic. You don't want to lose that traffic, so it's important to create an organized structure for your website so Google understands what your site is all about.
What will you find out in this article?
• What content clustering is and why it's important for SEO.
• How you can use the right tool to get started with content clustering.
• How to create related pages so you can get more links to your site.
• How content clustering can help you build the pages you need for increased traffic.
What is content clustering?
Content clustering is the process of strategically grouping your site content so that all of your topics are covered in a natural, logical way. A site map is similar to a road map because it helps you navigate through your website. If you have a site map, then you'll have an easier time finding any particular page or section of your site on the fly. That's why using a site map is so important for content clustering.
It's not just about finding outbound links to point to pages with thin content; it's about making sure you're covering all bases on all of the topics that matter most to you and your visitors.
Think of Web search engine crawlers as shoppers. Say that there are two e-commerce stores, one stocked with clothes for women and one stocked with toys for kids. The store with the toys for kids would rank better than the store with clothes for women because it has a larger focus. A store could have both but if the visitor is looking for toys, they will probably head straight to one and leave without ever knowing about the other.
Just like any good content marketing plan, content clustering helps you organize your pages around topics that matter most to your audience and concentrate your efforts on those topics.
How do you create content clusters?
You can manually create content clusters within the backend of WordPress, but there are more advanced tools available to automate the process. While there are a ton of options out there, I recommend Yoast's plugin. It's called the Content Clustering plugin by Yoast and it's a free tool to help you organize your content.
How will the plugin help you?
You can select a specific topic from a list of topics on your website to automatically create related pages on your site. The way that it works is that you create a cluster first, then go back and create related pages on that topic. You can also create custom clusters for your specific needs.
For example, say that you're the owner of a website about pet care. You may want to create clusters for cats and dogs, but the plugin will let you create as many as you like. Once you make one, it will pull out related terms such as cat food or dog breeds and display those as suggestions on the next page. It's a smart tool that makes content clustering easy and automated.
What kind of information should you include in your content clusters?
Content clusters should describe larger groupings of pages on your site. Here are some tips to help you create the best possible content clusters:
• Include as much as possible about each topic. You can use categories and tags to help you organize your site, but for content clustering, you need to include as much information as possible so Google's crawlers understand enough to rank your pages well.
• Include any images that are relevant to the topic.
• Give each cluster a name that's related to the topic.
• Use keywords to help with the title of your cluster pages. For example, if I was creating clusters for cat breeds, I'd use keywords like "breed" and "cat" in the page title. It helps with Google's understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. (You can find many more tips on creating content clusters here.
How can you begin creating content clusters?
To get started, go to the plugin and add it to your website. Once you do, simply click on Content Clustering in the Yoast SEO menu and select Create a new cluster. You'll be taken to a page where you can enter in information about your topic and create related pages immediately after. Then all you have left is to add inbound links and create outbound links from your other pages to the new ones that you've just created.
This is what the screen looks like after it's finished. You'll notice that I have two clusters for my WordPress site. There are more topics to go over, but this is a great place to start.
How can you use these content clusters?
• To help with SEO, you can use the search function of any of your pages on your website to find related pages of content about your topic or cluster. This is a good way of terms that you can add to your site map.
• You can also use the WordPress plugin to help manage your content. This is a good way of organizing content on your site and making sure that it's correctly categorized and presented for Google.
• If you're looking to build more authority, then consider adding related pages from other sites that have covered similar topics about your topic or cluster. You can add this content to your WordPress site and then add the URL to use in the related posts function of your content cluster.
• For even more authority, you can use some of the more advanced tools available like some of the ones I mentioned above like Yoast's plugin and Page Authority. This is a great way to get more links and build more authority on your topic or cluster pages. You can read from here how to do that from Google.
Conclusion
Are you seeing the benefits of content clusters already? Content clustering paves the way for more content marketing success on your WordPress site. While you can manually create new pages on your WordPress site, it's much easier to use a plugin like Yoast SEO to help you automate the process. It helps with search engine optimization and it can help with building authority once you start to link out from your clusters.
