How Keyword Clustering Takes Your Content Strategy to the Next Level

Google’s engineering department has been shifting its focus on natural language processing and a more thorough understanding of how on-page content connects. Therefore, it makes sense for SEO keyword strategies to adapt and keep up with those advancements in search. One great way to improve one’s content and keyword strategy is by clustering SEO keywords.

For those tracking Google’s advancements over the years, this looks like a whole new world. But clustering keywords is not that complicated, in reality.

Keyword Clusters: What Are They?

Keyword clusters are collections of keywords representing users with similar purchase intents. For instance, the keywords linen window curtains, linen curtains, and white curtains linen represent buyers looking for linen curtains.

Let’s assume that a company sells linen curtains. If this business only focuses on “linen curtains”, they will limit their market share. However, if they use this primary keyword and long-tail variants, along with related subtopics, they will most likely rank for 10-20 times as many keywords and receive more traffic.

Creating Keyword and Topic Clusters

It’s critical to remember that this technique demands far more time and resources than a one-and-done approach to website optimisation. One would need to prioritise keyword research, content production, and strategising with SEO and marketing teams. However, by using topic clusters, websites will be Google-friendly and user-friendly in the long run. The advantages of keyword clustering include:

• higher organic traffic
• better rankings for long-tail and short-tail keywords
• faster ranking improvements in the search results
• effectively building content authority and expertise in a specific industry niche
• better opportunities for internal linking

Here’s a quick rundown of keyword clustering and creating a content strategy around the clusters.

Making a keyword list

Keyword clustering begins with a lot of keyword research. One should think of the main term they want their website to rank for, then figure out all variants, long-tail phrases, and subtopics that are associated with that term. It would also help look at their rivals’ rankings to see which SEO keywords they’re currently ranking for.

To find related keywords, complete phrases, subtopics, or questions that searchers use to locate goods and services similar, SEOs can use a keyword tool. There are several methods for keyword research tracking; the simplest approach is to use spreadsheets. One can list keywords that include the organic difficulty, search volume, and cost-per-click statistics. This data clarifies which keywords to prioritise and have the most economical value.

Many SEO experts usually discover thousands of keywords in their research. Still, for beginners in this strategy, a 100-word list should be plenty to find several distinct topic clusters for their website.

One should remember the importance of relevance and search intent while developing their keyword list. They should only include keywords that will bring the right types of searchers to their site; people who are interested in the items or services and are likely to convert.

Segmenting keywords into groups

After gathering a large keyword list, there might be certain similarities among the terms. Luckily,y finding the same words, phrases, synonyms, or subtopics that users use in their searches is easy. These patterns represent the many potential ways to group and build keyword clusters.

Below are some of the criteria that one can follow to segment their keywords into groups:

1. Semantic relevance

The cluster keywords must have the same level of search intent. Optimising a landing page for keywords that aren’t closely related will only make the content less readable, and Google will be confused as to what the page’s real purpose is.

2. Search volume and CPC

The main terms in the keyword clusters should have a reasonable search volume and conversion potential.

3. Organic difficulty

Including keywords with greater organic difficulty will depend on one’s backlink profile, site authority, and how well established their site is. SEOs should only include keywords that their business can realistically rank.

After deciding on a core keyword for a cluster, one should pair it with complementary keywords. For example, one might try adding some terms that are lower difficulty, long-tail, or lower search volume, or those that could be won by including enough information about them on the landing page.

Those confident in their niche can manually group their keywords, but one can also take advantage of tools that can automatically group keywords. But during the whole process of grouping keywords, one should note that the highest-value keywords are the most important ones to include.

Creating and optimising pillar pages

Once keywords are organised into clusters, SEOs can use them as a basis on how they will build, optimise, and arrange content on their websites. In other words, keyword clusters represent the core themes of a website. They are also known as “pillar pages”. To conduct keyword clustering properly, one should create landing pages that target each of those keyword clusters.

For instance, let’s say that the core keywords are “interview scheduling” and “virtual interviewing”. In that case, there should be a landing page per keyword cluster.

Moreover, the pillar pages for these keyword clusters should have on-page SEO best practices. When writing SEO content, it would be best to prioritise topical depth, information architecture, and page experience.

Reinforce keyword clusters with blog content

Producing blog material that supports primary keyword clusters can enhance the ranking and content authority of the pillar pages. These blogs may focus on longer-tail keywords, subtopics, or questions relating to core keywords.

As one creates more content, those web pages will look for topic clusters on the website. The content’s internal linking profile will significantly influence which landing pages rank in Google.

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