A topic cluster is a hub page plus the supporting pages around it. The hub targets the main commercial search. Around it sit the pages that take one question each, all of them pointing back. It is a way of covering a subject properly instead of publishing pages one at a time and hoping they add up.
Briefly explained
- One hub page, several supporting pages, all linked.
- The hub sells. The supporting pages answer.
- It builds depth on a subject rather than breadth across many.
- One finished cluster beats three abandoned ones.
Why does depth matter?
Because search engines assess a site’s standing on a subject, not only individual pages.
A site with one thin page about a service competes badly against a site that also answers what it costs, how long it takes, how to tell whether you need it, and what happens while the work is going on. The second site looks like it does this for a living.
Why does it match how people buy?
Almost nobody starts ready to spend.
They arrive with a question, often a worried one. The cluster is what carries them from that question to the page that asks for the job, without making them search again and land on a competitor.
How do you build one?
- Pick a service worth the effort: high value or high volume.
- Write the hub as a real service page, not a summary of the other pages.
- List the questions customers ask before buying, in their words, from your own phone calls.
- Give each question its own page, and link it to the hub with descriptive wording.
- Link the hub back out to the supporting pages worth sending readers to.
Then stop and finish it before starting another.
How do you keep it from cannibalizing itself?
Give every page one job, written in one sentence. If two sentences match, you have built the problem described in keyword cannibalization rather than a cluster.
What do the terms mean?
- Hub: The central page targeting the main search.
- Spoke: A supporting page answering one narrower question.
- Anchor text: The wording of the link between them, which tells search engines what each page is about.
- Topical authority: The informal name for a site being treated as a credible source on a subject.
Owner questions
