It might sound like a breakfast cereal marketed to copywriters, but a content cluster is actually a topic modelling structure whereby related content is ‘clustered’ around a central pillar page. Organising your content in this way can help Google to understand the relationship between pages — and build your authority around a topic, not just a single keyword. The benefit? Increased search visibility, and a better ROI from your content marketing efforts. Discover more at: https://www.selesti.com/knowledge-hub/a-brief-introduction-to-content-clusters

1. Keyword Research OUT,
Content Clusters IN
Seb Atkinson - Search Marketing Manager

2. KEYWORD RESEARCH
IS DEAD!
KEYWORD RESEARCH
IS DEAD!

3. The Evidence?

4. GOOGLE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO
DO KEYWORD RESEARCH

7. HUMMINGBIRD

8. RANKBRAIN
• Designed to understand the meaning behind phrases
• Uses AI to become more accurate over time
• Recognises search patterns and revises search
results based on new knowledge

9. CONTEXT + CONTENT =
BETTER SEARCH RANKINGS

10. CONTEXT
Search
history
Related
entitiesSimilar
searches by
other users
Time of day
User’s
location
User’s
preferences
User’s
intent
User’s
device

11. Google Understands Context
• Awareness of entities: Search for “first
console by Sony”
• Awareness of location and intent: Search
for “pizza”
• Awareness of intent: Search for a hard to
spell word

12. WHAT IS YOUR SITE ABOUT?

15. Are you an authority in your niche?
And do other people think you are?

16. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

17. RESTRUCTURE
YOUR
CONTENT

18. Stay focussed to your niche
Write for your audience

20. Google Analytics Affinity Category
• What are your users interested in?
• Go to Audience, Demographics
• Apply Affinity Category as a secondary
dimension

21. Are you the best person to write this content?
If not, how can you be?

23. Measure your success
• You can still track keywords, but group them by topic
• Measure your visibility by topic
• Group your content in Google Analytics, track traffic to these topic groups

24. What can a blog post achieve?
• “5 benefits of teaching with an
interactive projector”
• Not targeted at any specific key
• 3-4 months before traffic took off
• Now the 2nd highest-traffic landing
page (after homepage)
• Why? The post is relevant to what users
want to know within that topic

25. To summarise
1. Identify topics you want to be visible for
2. Restructure your content around central pillar pages
3. Research & write genuinely useful content within each topic that people want to see
4. Build your reputation & credibility within those topics
5. Measure results by topic

26. seb@selesti.com
THANK YOU
STRATGIES,
TECHNOLOGIES
AND CAMPAIGNS
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