You have plenty of blog posts, but they feel random. Some compete with each other, few link together, and none of them clearly shows Google what your site is about. Topic clusters fix that by giving your content a simple shape.
The short answer: pick a broad topic your business should be known for, write one main page (the pillar page) that covers it at a high level, and surround it with focused pages (cluster pages) that each answer one subtopic in depth. Then link them all together. In this guide I show you how I plan topic clusters from scratch, and how to fit pages you already have into them.
What Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters Are
A topic cluster is a group of pages about one subject, linked together around a central page. It has three parts.
The Pillar Page
The pillar page covers a broad topic, such as “email marketing” or “kitchen remodelling”. It explains the main ideas, answers the basic questions and points readers to deeper pages for each part of the topic.
It usually targets a broad, competitive search term. It does not try to say everything. Its job is to give a clear overview and send people to the right next page.
The Cluster Pages
Cluster pages go deep on one subtopic each. For an email marketing pillar, cluster pages might cover welcome emails, subject lines, list cleaning and email deliverability.
Each one targets a narrower, more specific search. These are often long-tail keywords (longer, more specific searches with less competition), so cluster pages are usually where a newer site gets its first rankings.
The Internal Links
The links are what turn a set of pages into a cluster. The pillar links to every cluster page. Every cluster page links back to the pillar. Cluster pages also link to each other when the topics are closely related.
Do Topic Clusters Still Help SEO?
Yes, but it helps to be clear about why. Google has no ranking factor called “topic cluster” or “pillar page”. These are planning ideas that content marketers made popular, not terms Google uses.
What Google does say is that links help it find pages and understand them. Its link best practices explain that internal links help people and Google make sense of your site, and that every page you care about should be linked from at least one other page. It also asks for descriptive anchor text (the clickable words of a link), not “click here”.
So topic clusters work because they make you do the things that already help:
- Complete coverage. You plan the whole topic instead of writing whatever comes to mind each week.
- Clear internal links. Related pages point to each other with descriptive anchors.
- Less overlap. Each page has one job, so two of your posts are less likely to fight for the same search (this is called keyword cannibalisation).
- Better paths for readers. Someone who lands on one page can easily find the next answer they need.
In my experience, that last benefit matters most. A site that is easy to move around tends to do better in search too.
Two Types of Pillar Page
Before you plan, decide what kind of pillar page suits the topic. There are two common formats.
| Format | What it looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Long guide | A full article, often 3,000+ words, with a short section on each subtopic and a link to the deeper page | Topics where people search for “guide”, “how to” or “what is” |
| Hub page | A shorter page with an introduction and organised groups of links, each with a one-line summary | Large topics with many cluster pages, or service and category sections |
I choose by looking at what already ranks for the broad term. If the top results are long guides, I write a long guide. If they are short overview pages or category pages, a hub page will fit the search better.
For a local business, the pillar is often a main service page, with cluster pages for each specific service, problem or area. My guide to service page SEO covers how to make those pages rank.
How to Plan Topic Clusters Step by Step
This is the process I follow. You can do all of it with a spreadsheet and free tools.
- Choose your pillar topics.
- Collect subtopics and questions.
- Group keywords by what the search results show.
- Map the topics to pages you already have.
- Pick the pillar format and write short briefs.
- Plan the internal links.
- Decide the publishing order.
1. Choose Your Pillar Topics
Start with your business, not a keyword tool. List the main things you sell or the main problems you solve. Each one is a possible pillar.
A good pillar topic passes three checks:
- It is broad enough to have at least 8 to 10 real subtopics.
- It is narrow enough that one page can give a useful overview.
- It connects to something you offer, so the traffic has value.
“Marketing” is too broad. “Welcome email examples” is too narrow, because that is a cluster page. “Email marketing for small shops” is about right.
Most small and mid-sized sites need only three to five pillars to start. I’d rather see three finished clusters than ten half-built ones.
2. Collect Subtopics and Questions
Now list everything people want to know about each pillar topic. I pull ideas from several places:
- Google itself. Search the pillar term and note People Also Ask questions, autocomplete suggestions and related searches at the bottom of the page.
- Google Search Console. In the Performance report, filter queries that contain your topic word. You will often find questions you already get impressions for but have no page about.
- Competitors. Look at how sites that rank for your topic split it up. Their headings and blog categories show common subtopics.
- Your own team. Sales and support staff know the questions customers ask before they buy. These are often the most valuable subtopics of all.
Put every idea into one column of a spreadsheet. Don’t judge them yet. At this stage a long, messy list is better than a short, tidy one.
3. Group Keywords by What the Search Results Show
This is the step most guides skip, and it is the one that prevents most problems. You need to decide which ideas deserve their own page and which belong together on one page.
The test I use is simple. Search two similar terms, such as “email list cleaning” and “how to clean an email list”. If many of the same pages rank for both, Google sees them as one topic. Put them on one page. If the results are mostly different, they likely need separate pages.
Do the same check between the pillar term and each cluster term. If a subtopic’s results look the same as the pillar’s results, cover it on the pillar page instead of creating a cluster page that competes with it.
When you finish, each row in your sheet should be one page, with one main keyword and a few close variations.
4. Map the Topics to Pages You Already Have
Before you write anything new, check what you already have. Make a list of your existing posts and pages, then match each one to a planned topic.
For each match, decide:
- Keep: the page already covers the subtopic well. It just needs links.
- Improve: the page targets the right subtopic but is thin, dated or unclear.
- Merge: two or more posts cover the same subtopic. Combine them into the best one and redirect the others to it with a 301 redirect (a permanent redirect that sends people and Google to the new address).
- Create: there is no page for this subtopic yet.
When I map an older blog, I usually find that a good share of the cluster already exists in some form. Fixing and linking those pages is faster than writing new ones, and they keep any links and history they have built up.
5. Pick the Pillar Format and Write Short Briefs
Choose long guide or hub page for each pillar, using the search results check from earlier. Then write a short brief for every page in the cluster.
A brief does not need to be long. Mine usually has:
- The main keyword and close variations
- Who the reader is and what they want to do after reading
- The questions the page must answer
- What the page should not cover, because another cluster page handles it
- The pages it must link to
The “not cover” line is the one people forget. It keeps every page focused and stops two writers from producing the same article with different titles.
6. Plan the Internal Links
Plan the links in your spreadsheet before you publish. Use these rules:
- The pillar links to every cluster page, close to the section that covers that subtopic.
- Every cluster page links back to the pillar, ideally early in the content where it is natural.
- Cluster pages link to each other only when the reader would genuinely want the other page next.
- Anchor text describes the page it links to. “Our guide to email deliverability” is better than “read more”.
Vary the anchor text a little. Using the exact same keyword phrase in every link looks forced and reads badly. Google’s guidance warns against stuffing keywords into anchors, so write anchors the way you would describe the page to a friend.
I also add links from other relevant places on the site, such as your main menu, a related service page or older posts that mention the topic. A cluster that nothing else links to is hard for both people and Google to find.
7. Decide the Publishing Order
A common question is whether to publish the pillar first or the cluster pages first. Either works. What matters is that every page links to the others once they exist.
My habit is to publish the pillar page early, even if it starts as a short hub page. That gives cluster pages a live URL to link to from day one. As each cluster page goes live, I add its link and a short summary to the pillar.
A Worked Example of a Topic Cluster
Here is how a cluster might look for a small accounting firm that wants more clients who run their own business.
Pillar page: “Bookkeeping for small businesses: a complete guide”. A long guide, because the search results for this term are mostly guides.
Cluster pages:
- How to set up a chart of accounts for a small business
- Cash vs accrual accounting: which one to use
- How to reconcile your bank account each month
- Bookkeeping software for small businesses compared
- How long to keep business records
- Bookkeeping mistakes that cause problems at tax time
- When to hire a bookkeeper instead of doing it yourself
Each cluster page goes deep on one task. The pillar has a short section on each one with a link. The last cluster page, about hiring a bookkeeper, links naturally to the firm’s bookkeeping service page. That is how the cluster turns readers into enquiries.
Notice what is not on the list. “Small business bookkeeping tips” was dropped because its search results matched the pillar’s results almost exactly. Those tips belong on the pillar page itself.
How to Write a Strong Pillar Page
A pillar page is not a long list of links, and it is not every cluster page pasted together. It should be useful on its own for someone who wants the overview.
- Answer the main question near the top. Give a short, direct answer before you go into detail.
- Use one section per subtopic. Give each subtopic its own H2 or H3 with a summary of two or three short paragraphs. My guide to heading tags explains how to structure these properly.
- Link from inside each section. Put the link to the cluster page in the summary, with a clear reason to click, such as a step-by-step guide or templates.
- Keep it current. When you publish or update a cluster page, check that the pillar’s summary still matches.
A good rule I use: if a section on the pillar grows longer than the cluster page it links to, the content is in the wrong place. Move the detail to the cluster page and keep the pillar as the overview.
URLs, Folders and Navigation
You do not need a special URL structure for topic clusters. Cluster pages can sit at /welcome-email-examples/ just as well as /email-marketing/welcome-email-examples/. The links do the work, not the folder.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide suggests grouping similar topics into folders mainly for larger sites with more than a few thousand URLs. For a small site, short and descriptive URLs matter more than folders.
Navigation still helps. Linking each pillar from your main menu or blog category pages makes the clusters easy to find. Breadcrumbs (the small trail of links such as Home > Email marketing > Welcome emails) also show readers where they are within a topic.
Common Mistakes With Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters
These are the problems I see most often when I review a site that already “has clusters”:
- One page per keyword. Writing separate posts for close variations of the same search. They compete with each other and none ranks well.
- A pillar that is too broad. A page about “digital marketing” with 40 links cannot give a useful overview of any of them.
- Missing links back to the pillar. The pillar links out, but cluster pages never link back.
- Clusters with no business link. Lots of traffic, but no path to a service, product or sign-up.
- Thin cluster pages. Short posts written to fill a slot in the plan, not to answer the question.
- Building and forgetting. New posts get published on the same topic but are never added to the cluster.
How to Measure Whether a Cluster Is Working
Judge a cluster as a group, not page by page. One cluster page may bring most of the traffic while the pillar ranks slowly, and that is normal.
In Search Console, open the Performance report and filter by pages that contain a shared word in the URL, or check each page in the cluster and add the numbers in your spreadsheet. I track:
- Total clicks and impressions for all pages in the cluster
- The number of different queries the cluster shows up for
- Average position for the pillar’s main term
- Enquiries, sign-ups or sales that start from cluster pages, using your analytics
Give it time. A new cluster on a young site can take several months to show steady results. I check the numbers monthly but only make big changes after a full quarter of data.
Conclusion
Topic clusters are a simple way to plan content: one pillar page for the broad topic, focused cluster pages for each subtopic, and clear internal links that tie them together. They help because they push you to cover a topic fully, avoid overlapping pages and give readers an easy path through your site.
Start small. Pick one topic close to what you sell, check the search results before you decide on pages, and map your existing posts before writing new ones. A good next step is to run a content gap analysis on that topic so your first cluster covers the questions your buyers actually ask.
