GreatCompany
More customers from Google and ChatGPT?
Join the waitlist. Your free report shows what to improve on your site and who ChatGPT mentions instead of you.
Topic clusters: how to build content clusters Google and AI trust
A topic cluster is a group of pages about one topic: one main page with the overview, and around it articles that each answer one sub-question. All pages link to each other. That way Google sees that you cover a topic fully, and knows which page belongs to which query. For a small site, it is how you get taken seriously on a topic among bigger competitors.
The idea is not complicated. The execution often goes wrong on one point: the links. A cluster without links between its pages is a pile of separate articles.
What does a topic cluster look like?
Three parts.
The main page. Also called the pillar page. It covers the topic broadly and briefly. Every sub-question gets a paragraph, with a link to the article about it.
The cluster articles. Each article answers one sub-question, thoroughly. Each article links back to the main page and to a few related articles.
The links between them. They make it one whole.
An example. A company in Raleigh installs home EV chargers.
| Role | Page | Query |
|---|---|---|
| Main page | Home EV charger installation | home ev charger installation |
| Article | What does a home EV charger cost? | ev charger installation cost |
| Article | EV charging with solar panels | ev charger with solar |
| Article | Level 1 or Level 2 charging | level 1 vs level 2 charger |
| Article | EV chargers and your electrical panel | panel upgrade for ev charger |
| Article | Charging without a driveway | ev charging without a driveway |
| Article | Tax credits and utility rebates | ev charger rebate |
Six articles and one main page. Whoever searches “ev charger installation cost” lands on the cost article. Whoever searches more broadly lands on the main page and clicks through.
Why does this work better than separate articles?
One page per query. Without a plan you write three posts that are all a bit about cost. Google does not know which is best and shows none of them well. In a cluster every question has one page.
Google sees the connection. Links between pages on the same topic show that you have a lot to say about it. A site with seven connected pages about EV chargers comes across as an expert. A site with one page does not.
Outside links carry through. If the local paper links to your cost article, your main page benefits too through the internal links.
Visitors stay longer. Whoever reads the cost article next wants to know whether their electrical panel can handle it. The link is there.
Building a topic cluster in 5 steps
Step 1: choose a topic that fits your revenue
Choose a topic you earn money on and that people have questions about. So “home EV charger”, not “the future of electric driving”.
The topic must be big enough for four to eight sub-questions, and small enough to finish. “Sustainable living” is too broad. “Home EV charger” is good.
Step 2: collect the sub-questions
Write down what customers ask before they buy. Add:
- the queries from Google Search Console you already appear for
- the “People also ask” box in Google
- what an AI assistant names when you ask which questions people have about this topic
Then group them. Questions with the same intent belong on one page. How to do that with AI is in keyword research with AI.
Step 3: see what you already have
Almost every site already has pages that fit the cluster. An old post about rebates. A service page about installation.
Make a list: per sub-question the existing page, or “new”. Have two pages for the same question? Merge them and redirect the weaker one to the stronger. Which pages your competitors have that you miss is shown by an SEO competitor analysis.
You often need to write less than you think. Say the EV charger company already has four of the six articles. Often they stand apart, without links.
Step 4: write the main page as an overview
The main page does not need to tell everything. It gives the map.
Structure:
- The answer to the broad question, in two or three sentences.
- Per sub-question a short paragraph with the core, and a link to the article.
- What you offer, with a clear next step.
A main page that covers every detail itself makes the articles redundant. Then you compete with yourself. Want to create hundreds of pages at once? Read programmatic SEO first.
Step 5: add the links, both ways
This is where it becomes a cluster.
- Every article links to the main page, with the broad query as link text.
- The main page links to every article, with the sub-question as link text.
- Every article links to two or three related articles, at the spot in the text where the reader gets that question.
Use descriptive link texts. “Read more” or “click here” tells Google nothing. “What a home EV charger costs” does. The rules are in internal links.
The four mistakes that break a cluster
Articles without a link back. It happens more often than you think. The new article links to the main page, but nobody adds the link to the new article on the main page.
Two pages for one question. “EV charger cost” and “EV charger price” are the same question. One page.
A cluster without a sale. Seven informational articles and nowhere does it say what you offer. Every page should have a logical next step.
Building and never looking again. Rebates change, prices too. A cluster with a cost article from 2023 loses the trust you built with it.
Clusters and AI assistants
For ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews, a cluster works for an extra reason.
An AI assistant that gets a question often splits it into pieces. “Can I get an EV charger if I have solar panels and an old electrical panel?” becomes three sub-questions. The assistant looks for a source per sub-question.
A site with its own page for each sub-question can serve as a source three times. A site with one long page about everything at most once. How to write pages AI picks up is in content that AI cites.
What can you automate here?
| Part | Automate? |
|---|---|
| Choosing the topic | No, it depends on what you earn on |
| Collecting and grouping sub-questions | Yes, with AI and your numbers |
| Seeing which question has no page yet | Yes |
| Writing the articles | A first draft; you supply the facts |
| Adding and maintaining the links | Yes |
| Titles and descriptions per page | Yes |
The links are where handwork falls short most often. With every new article you need to open three old pages to add a link. Everybody forgets that.
Software that reads your site sees which pages belong together and where a link is missing. In GreatCompany, internal links are one of the four items updated every week. You choose whether that runs automatically or comes to you for approval first. How it works is on WordPress SEO on autopilot.
Want to know which sub-question you are missing? Ask your SEO assistant: “What should I write a blog post about?” You get a customer question your site has no answer for yet. How to have that post written is in having AI write your blog.
The wider story of what you leave to software is in automating SEO with AI.
How long before a cluster works?
Count on three to six months before the articles have a settled place. The main page often follows later, because the broad query has more competition. The timeline is in how long SEO takes.
So start with one cluster and finish it. One complete cluster does more than three half ones.
Which questions does your site not answer yet?
Join the waitlist. When we open in the US, your free report shows for which customer questions ChatGPT names your competitor and not you. Those are the sub-questions your cluster is missing a page for.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a topic cluster?
- A topic cluster is a group of pages about one topic. At the center is a main page that covers the topic broadly, the pillar page. Around it are articles that each go deep on one sub-question. All articles link to the main page, and the main page links to each article.
- What is a pillar page?
- A pillar page is the main page of a cluster. It gives the overview of a topic and links to the articles around it for the details. It is often the page you want to be found with for the broad search query.
- How many articles does a topic cluster need?
- For a small business site, four to eight articles around one main page are enough. What matters is that the main questions on the topic are answered, not the count. A cluster of five good pages does more than one of twenty thin ones.
- Why are topic clusters good for SEO?
- For three reasons. Google sees through the links between pages that you cover a topic fully. Every page has one clear query, so your pages do not compete with each other. And links from outside to one page help the whole cluster through the internal links.
- Do topic clusters work for AI search engines too?
- Yes. An AI assistant that searches the web often splits a question into sub-questions. A site with its own clear page for each sub-question has a better chance of being used as a source than a site with one long page about everything.
See whether ChatGPT mentions your business.
Join the waitlist. When GreatCompany opens in the US, you get your first report right away: who ChatGPT recommends in your market and what to improve on your site.
Free to join. When we open in the US, your free AI visibility report is first in line.
Curious what AI crawlers see on your site? About the technical scanPro $49, you do it yourself · Or automate your SEO for $99, built for WordPress