Link-building is a vital part of SEO. Links can be created either internally where you can link the content of a page to another page or image within the same website or externally as backlinks. Backlinks are those links coming from sources outside your website, can be from social media pages or from other peoples blogs ect. Links acts as a silent node or upvotes your content or website get . Quality links from authoritative sources can improve your sites domain and page authority, links are also a measuring factor for Google while determining which website it should display first for the user query. While quality links can positively boost your SEO, spammy or low quality links do the opposite. Cluster blogging is one among the most effective strategies to create high quality internal links

What is cluster blogging?

Cluster blogs will have a pillar blog/ post and various cluster blogs/posts. The pillar posts will be on a broader topic and cluster posts will be on sub topics that come under the main topic of the pillar post. For example, if you are planning to publish a pillar post on “Beginners guide to Indian cooking” , “Indian spices 101” and “How to cook a perfect dosa” can be your cluster posts. Each cluster post links to the pillar and pillar post links back to its clusters creating strong internal linking.

Why do cluster blogs matter?

Builds authority

Google has various guidelines or rules to rank a web page. These guidelines or rules are known as algorithms, which get updated frequently. So a lone post on a particular subject does little compared to a group of structured posts . If a website has cluster posts on a specific subject google will consider that site as a “subject expert on that topic” and assign it more authority.

If you have a blog on “beginners guide to Indian cooking” the users who are sent by google to that page are most likely to search for related sub topics like Indian spices or how to cook a dosa. So cluster posts not only are search engine friendly, they are also user friendly since the customer can navigate to related topics without leaving the main website or blog.

image of pillar blog and its blog clusters

Helps rank for a multitude of keywords

Pillar posts based on broader topics usually consist of highly competitive keywords with higher search volume and competition. You are likely to encounter a thousand if not more posts on the internet on such keywords. So a structured cluster post is more likely to rank higher than a single post.

On the other hand the long-tail keywords for cluster posts will likely have less competition but more specific. These keywords are more valuable as the user searching for them is closer to taking an action, hence highly valuable. By interlinking pillar and cluster you are likely to bring in a consistent stream of targeted audience and rank higher for long tail keywords.

Improve user experience

Clustered blogs/posts keep the audience on the same site for a longer time than single posts. If the user can navigate from one sub topic to another without exiting the website, it is highly convenient from the user’s perspective. If the user doesn’t have to click back or move outside the website, that is a lesser bounce rate for the website. Think about going to the apple store to buy a new apple iphone, you are not shopping for just the iphone. iphone charger and headphone are the most basic accessories you need along with your phone. Nobody wants leaves the store with just the phone and shop for its charger somewhere else

Stronger links

When it comes to backlinks, if the cluster post earns a backlink it benefits the pillar and vice versa. So both the cluster and pillar grow in authority together. In other words, authority flows and doesn’t stay isolated. As the cluster posts are interlinked, the authority passes from one linked page to another through juice passing.

CLUSTER BLOGGING: AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY TO CREATE QUALITY LINKS