topic Re: Content Clusters - What now???? in Content Strategy & SEO

Content Clusters - What now????

KeyWestScott — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 20:09:13 GMT

Ok, got some clusters built, added my subtopics. Now what???? How does Google/Bing/etc discover that all these things are now related? How does doing this inside of HS actually make things happen??

Inquiring minds want to know....

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

edjusten — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 20:23:51 GMT

Hi @KeyWestScott The next step is to build out your pillar page with the content you've identified. Find out more about how to build a pillar page using clusters and sub-topics here.

INBOUND 2017 is just around the corner. Find out more at inbound.com or check out the post on the main Community page and check out the upcoming AMA with Deb Calvert.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

KeyWestScott — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 13:42:59 GMT

As I'd mentioned, I have all that done. NOW WHAT??? What does it do? How do we leverage it? How do we know that anything is working?

Need information......

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

Phil_Vallender — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 23:34:39 GMT

Hi @KeyWestScott

As you suggested, the new tool is a strategy and organisational aid, and does not actually implement any of the SEO steps required to benefit from the topics/clusters approach.

If you have identified your pillar page and supporting pages, the next step is to go and link all the supporting pages to the pillar page - while making sure that all are optimised for their target keyword.

If this works then you should see improved search engine rankings for the topic and increased traffic.

Since search is all encrypted, HubSpot cannot tell us which visits are from which keyword, so we still need to rely on other indicators to assess performance.

Hope this helps.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

KeyWestScott — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 16:22:38 GMT

Yes, the explanation helps. Though it seems like it's a tool that really doesn't do much of anything. Kind of like a "left-handed screwdriver".

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

Phil_Vallender — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 23:30:06 GMT

Hi @KeyWestScott

I see where you are coming from.

Once you have selected a topic, the pillar page and some subtopics, the tool will tell you if a link exists between the subtopic and the pillar page, which is a useful check to have.

I think that documenting, sharing and implementing a keyword strategy has been a challenge for lots of organisations. The strategy tool does simplify SEO into a presentable format, so that could help some teams to get better results.

Let me know how you get on.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

NikkiG — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 19:12:00 GMT

@Phil_Vallender - So is it more of a system check than an actual system tool? I know that's dumbing it down WAY further than it deserves because it is super helpful - but I'm with @KeyWestScott in that this one is throwing me for a bit of a loop too.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

KeyWestScott — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:18:59 GMT

Nikki, I think you're basically hitting it on the head. It's a "tool" (used lightly) to assess if you did your job correctly, and nothing more. No real / tangible value to be added.

Seems like something that was "developed" as someone's pet project that and someone thought "cool, let's see if anyone uses it...".

I spent the time doing one and haven't been back to it again..... Useless for me.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

Jeffrey — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 21:04:13 GMT

Hey, @KeyWestScott. Thanks for starting the conversation here.

Before we answer the "what now" part of your question, let's back-up a bit. For many marketers today, their content and SEO strategy revolves around keywords. While that's worked for the past ~5-10 years, we know that Google now values topic-based content. With that in mind, Content Strategy is effectively a tool that helps organize existing content and create new content based on this approach.

Speaking of the new approach, the Content Marketing certification was recently updated and has a section dedicated to pillar content and topic clusters. If you're interested more in the methodology it's worth checking out.

Ok, now back to the Content Strategy tool. In my experience, the tool can help you with:

Choosing topic, and sub-topic content to write about: We have billions of topic suggestions in our machine learning model that we aim to tailor, and offer relevant suggestions. You can use these ideas as a way to answer questions like "what do I write about" or "what should my next piece of content be on this topic".
Easily creating pillar content: We've built 6 free pillar page templates that can help guide you through the creation of this new long-form page. All 6 are available directly through the Content Strategy tool, or you can access them from the marketplace here.
Optimization of your cluster: In the upper right-hand side of Content Strategy you'll see an "Optimizations" tab that provides advice about linking content together, word count, and the quality of links. This can be helpful just to ensure that your overall cluster is setup properly and all of the sub-topic content is linking back to the pillar page.
Get a sense of which topic clusters are driving customers: To directly answer your "what now?" question (assuming all of the links have been figured out in your cluster, the pillar page is optimized, etc.) this is where I would focus. As @Phil_Vallender said, since search is now encrypted we can't get keyword-specific data, but with using this Content Strategy model (and the tool) you can begin to once again see which overall content is generating leads and customers.

Hopefully, the above helps but for anyone else reading that wants to shed more light on Content Strategy here's a post that is worth reading.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to send me a message or just post it here.

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

adele-zlien — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 18:03:18 GMT

We actually determined a way to make this tool useful in tracking the value of the content that we publish via our Wordpress site. The limiting factor to what could be a phenomenally useful tool would be as follows:

- Allow an unlimited number of topics/subtopics

- Allow an import of content to associate with topics

We have over 1500 articles that were posted outside of Hubspot, and can only assume that as others migrate from different content publishing platforms to Hubspot from the likes of Wordpress, Marketo and others, they will also want to connect the dots on this information.

While it is likely not the only way to connect and track content outside of the Hubspot platform to show conversion to contact and ultimately to customer, it appears to be the absolutely easiest way to do it. If it did not limit the endusers ability to add all of the links.

Very frustrating!

Re: Content Clusters - What now????

NikkiG — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:17:03 GMT

Agreed - the inability to link outside content was the most frustrating part for me. I also found it difficult to link even HubSpot content. I kept getting the "no internal links found on this page" message when there were in fact, internal links on the page. I stopped using it after my second try and just built a spreadsheet for myself that's been working quite well.