The topic cluster methodology was first detailed by HubSpot Research in 2017. At its very essence, it’s a way to organize a site’s content pages using a clear, deliberate site architecture. Topic clusters rearrange the architecture into clusters of related content linked to a central content pillar. Each content pillar should provide a comprehensive overview of the topic you’re writing about. By linking all of your site’s content within that topic to a content pillar (and vice versa, when it makes sense and provides value), search engines like Google can easily scan your content and understand there is a semantic relationship between the content of the cluster’s pages. The cluster setup also signals to search engines a real breadth and depth in the content, giving the content pillar more authority on the topic. Algorithms like Google’s RankBrain reward this orderly linking with higher search placement.
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