Google’s continuous developments in intelligence has made search engine optimization (SEO) practices pretty outdated but there are businesses that remain anchored in obsolete practices. They are fixated on conventional practice of optimizing their pages with a single keyword as the primary focus. They often fail to realize with the progress of Google’s natural language processing (NLP) abilities, past SEO practices have lost the relevance.
If you seriously aspire to level up your on-page optimizations to match Google’s technology and rank your landing pages for an extensive array of keywords, you need to revamp your on-page SEO strategy. And the most effective method for optimization efforts is keyword clustering, which allows you to get more value from each article without overloading them with unnecessary keyword repetition.
Let’s comprehend what is the keyword clustering? and why it holds importance for your SEO content strategy.
What is Keyword Clustering?
Keyword clusters comprise sets of related keywords that signify searchers sharing a shared purchase intent.
Take, for instance, “cotton curtains,” “cotton window curtains,” and “white curtains cotton.” While these may seem distinct keyword phrases, but they all represent same product category and individuals interested in purchasing cotton curtains.
One important thing you should note that creating SEO topic clusters is not about guesswork or intuition, it requires research and tools to have the right data. Tools such as:
How Keyword clusters will help you:
Crafting an SEO Strategy Using Keywords and Topic Clusters
With a better comprehension of the significance of keyword clustering for your business, let’s get into the top-notch tips for executing keyword clustering efficiently and structuring your topic clusters.
Step 1: Create a keyword list
Keyword grouping and clustering always should always start with a comprehensive keyword list.
To compile a keyword list, begin by cataloguing all your services and products and considering the words and phrases that your target audience is inclined to seek information regarding to your subject matter.
Instead of inventing entirely new keywords, focus on your competitors closely to grasp what’s currently effective for them, where they outshine in rankings, and how they employ keywords.
For a more expansive keyword list with greater specificity, take help of some keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or SEM Rush. SEMrush has an exclusive keyword tool named Keyword Magic, which presently has more than 22 billion keywords in its database and it will help you with tons of keywords. Be meticulous in documenting and organizing all your discoveries to prevent any information from sliding through the cracks.
Investing time in creating a keyword list ensures that your content consistently reaches the intended audience and maximizes the effectiveness of your SEO endeavors.
Step 2: Segment Your Keywords into Groups
After assembling a keyword list you aim to optimize for, it’s time to initiate keyword grouping. The fundamental concept behind keyword clustering is to unite a set of thoroughly related keywords. While clustering the keywords, two important things to remember one is intent and the other is relevance.
There are four kinds of search intents:
Informational Intent: Users with informational intent are seeking answers or explanations. They desire to learn something about a specific topic. For example, searching for “What is global warming?” or “What are the symptoms of COVID-19?” or “How does the human digestive system work?” reflects informational intent.
Navigational Intent: Users with navigational intent searchers seek a specific web page. They are already firm about where they want to go, and they use search engines as a shortcut. For instance, searching for “Twitter login”, “Facebook Timeline” or “YouTube homepage” shows navigational intent.
Transactional Intent: User with Transactional intent are ready to take action or make a purchase, download e-Book or any document, signing up for a service. Keywords related with transactional intent like “download”, “buy,” “order,” “subscribe,”. Examples include “Add to cart: Nike Air Max sneakers”, “book a flight to India,” “Renew my gym membership” or “Download Microsoft Office”.
Commercial Investigation (Commercial or Consideration) Intent: Users with commercial investigation intent are researching different choices before making a final decision. They are looking for product or service reviews, comparisons, or information that helps them make a right choice. Searches like “Best budget fitness trackers”, “best smartphones 2023” “Compare iPhone 13 vs. Samsung Galaxy S22” or “User reviews of Bose noise-canceling headphones” reflect this intent.
Now carefully examine your keywords and organize them based on their significance and purpose.
We can create keyword clusters for a fitness website:
Weight Loss Cluster:
Strength Training Cluster:
Additionally, you have the option to form groupings based on purpose or intent.
For a fitness program example, we can make a cluster for informational searches (“How to lose belly fat through exercise”), navigational searches (“Fitness program website”), transactional searches (“Order a 30-day fitness challenge program”) and commercial searches (“Affordable fitness trackers for beginners”).
Step 3: Work on creating pillar content
Once you’ve organized related keywords into clusters, it’s time to start creating content centered around these keyword clusters. It’s critical to establish “pillar content” for each post or page you develop on your website.
What is a pillar content?
A pillar page is a is a comprehensive content piece that provides a broad overview of a primary topic while including links to more detailed articles about specific subtopics. They are timeless reference that your blog readers can revisit repeatedly.
For instance, you can create pillar content page about Digital marketing services such as “Ultimate Guide to SEO”, “Comprehensive Social Media Strategy for Businesses”, “Email Marketing Best Practices”
For Healthcare pillar page you can create pillar content like “All About Mental Health: A Comprehensive Resource”, “The Complete Guide to Managing Diabetes”, “A-Z of Women’s Health Issues”
What are the benefits of pillar content.
Establishing Authority: Creating of thoroughly researched pillar content will help you establish yourself as an expert in a particular subject.
Evergreen Value: Due to its timeless nature, pillar content remains relevant and valuable over time. They will keep generating traffic and boosting sales.
SEO Boost: Search engines identify the depth and quality of pillar content, which can lead to better rankings for related keywords and increased organic traffic.
Structured Content Hierarchy: Pillar content serves as a foundation for organizing and linking to related and relevant subtopics and articles, which create a user-friendly content structure on your website.
Increased Engagement: Promoting pillar content effectively can lead to higher levels of user engagement in the form of comments, social shares, and backlinks.
How to create pillar content?
Creating pillar content is an important as it serves as the foundation for your blog or website. It involves creating comprehensive, authoritative, and evergreen pieces that offer value to your audience and helps improve your website’s SEO.
Start by selecting a topic that is both relevant and enduring, and one about which you possess a deep understanding. Next, invest time in thorough research and structure your content in a reader-friendly manner.
Compose a blog post that serves the both your audience’s interests and Google’s ranking criteria. Create a captivating headline, a well-organized outline, give time to write good article that covers detailed information about the topic.
Step 4: Expand Your Reach with Blogging and Additional Content
Your SEO content marketing strategy should extend beyond just pillar pages, complement your pillar content with valuable content pieces. The objective is to offer deeper insights into the subjects you’ve already addressed in your pillar pages.
Consider writing a blog post that dive into the fundamentals of health care tips with different content formats like videos, infographics, brochures, eBooks, and more. Visualize this SEO content marketing strategy as a network of interlinked content components with pillar pages. This approach will engage your readers with a comprehensive source of information and consequently it will overall improve your content marketing efforts.
Step 5: Establish Inbound Links for Your Topic Clusters
Google always rewards websites invest their time in organically acquiring backlinks from reliable sources. Such backlinking strategy will improve your website ranking. Internal linking of your pages also gives Google a signal about your website’s structure and external linking tells Google about your website’s credibility.
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