Now that you know the basics, it’s time to build your strategy.
Here are five steps to get started + a template to help you follow them:
1: Identify the pillar pages of your website
Start by making a list of pillar pages – core pages on a broad topic that link to related, more specific pages.
Your pillar pages will help you create shop topic clusters , which are groups of content around specific topics. Coming up with pillar pages and topic clusters will help you build your site architecture.
Pillar pages should target broad keywords with high search volumes , rather than more specific long-tail keywords .
Think of your pillar page as the top of your marketing funnel – customers are curious and only looking for general details.
Here are some examples of pillar pages:
The Home Depot has a whole page with links to different types of washing machines. Because the keyword “washing machines” receives 18,100 searches per month.
Each section contains types of washing machines that link to more specific product categories. And those product categories link to even more specific product pages.
Just be careful not to fall into the trap of identifying pillar pages that are too niche. Otherwise, you won’t have enough content (grouped pages) to house under your pillar page.
2: Create topic clusters using internal links
Now that you’ve identified your pillar here is what they had to say—in their own words. pages, it’s time to develop more specific topic clusters for each of them.
Think of your pillar as the main topic and the groups as more specific supporting topics.
So, if your pillar page is about “copywriting,” your clusters might include “What is copywriting?” and “Copywriting tools.”
You can even create more groupings for your clusters. For example, support your “email writing” group with pages about subject lines and calls to action (CTAs).
These pages should link internally to the pillar page to show topical relevance and indicate that the pillar page is the main page.
To get started, map out your topic clusters and brainstorm ideas for relevant support pages.
An easy way to do this is to fill out a spreadsheet for each topic group:
If you’re not sure how to come up with topic clusters or supporting pages, use a keyword generator like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool .
Enter a general keyword like “copywriting.”
You can search through the results or sault data use the left column to find groups of related keywords.
In this example, look at different topics related to copywriting like “course” and “email.”
Click on “course” or “email” in the left column to find more specific related keywords.