Webmasters pay a lot of attention to link building, outreach, and earning external links. However, some websites already had their high authority and relevant pages in the top-10 might. Interlink them with new pages or pages that have organic traffic. I usually open the Google Search Console, find pages that rank from top-4 to top-30. Then I use combinations: the main keyword + domain. com in order to find pages that Google is considering relevant to these pages. The final step is to link from relevant pages to the promotional ones. I also use Ahrefs to interlink authoritative pages with external links to promotonal.
Great video Sam, I used to create content hubs for clients (I'm in a slightly different field now), but there's heaps of insights in here which I hadnt even thought about before but will definitely be using in the future!
Hi! Thank you for this information. I just had one question. Does the cluster and pillar strategy apply to a blog on a certain product and then case study blogs linking to that product?
Excellent technology, but at times it can be overwhelming. For instance, while reading Content A, links to Content B suddenly appear, leading me to explore additional links such as Content C, D, E, and so on. Upon completing this "links" tour, I realized I had completely forgotten my initial reading intention, and Content A had disappeared amidst the multitude of links. Consequently, I am curious to know if there is a method to minimize these distractions while maintaining the inherent relationships among all the contents.
I think ahrefs has a mind reading tool. Just when I get stucked with something or have an idea they upload a video answering my questions a few days (or hours) after.
What if my Cluster Content pages can fit under multiple Pillar hubs? Should I link them to multiple Hubs if I can? Or might this dilute their value? This is an excellent video...Thanks!
Yet another awesome piece. Your videos provide a TON of value to the average viewer. Job well done, my friend! Keep cranking out these types of videos.
Great video! I am bit confused with the approach, could you please clarify my query: For example: If I want to rank for "keto diet keyword" (considering competitors also have similar backlinks and authority) Which approach would be better? a) Create a pillar page, provide a brief description, and link to the related sub-topics (as in drift) b) Create a lengthy page covering all the sub-topics as subheadings? (provide table of contents) My goal is to rank for both the "pillar page keyword" and the "sub topic keywords" And, If I go by approach (b) can I create individual pages related to subtopics? won't it cause duplication of content?
It depends. There's no 100% sure way to say whether a long-form content or a hub page works. You can create a hub page if you think there's enough sub-topics under that main topic. - SQ
Ahrefs is the Best TH-cam channel for learning SEO. Your videos helped me to learn SEO and become SEO manager being a undergraduate student. I made a simple tool website by manually coding it. It is one page website with 550 word content. Can I rank it without creating any other sub-pages? I'm targetting low competition medium volume keyword.
Thank you and congratulations :) As for ranking, it depends -- no simple answer to say yes or no. Analyze all the different factors (we teach about these in a ton of our videos) and take your best guess. Best of luck. -Sam
Can you give an example of Content Hub for Affiliates Sites? Like best gaming monitor. Also Can we link the sub pages to each other too? Like for best gaming monitor the money keywords for sub pages are best monitor for Xbox, best monitor for ps4
Hey Sam! I’ve been using ahrefs for about a year now, great product. Where should the pillar page link to? I understand it needs to link to all the sub topic pages, but which higher DA page should it link back to? Aka which page that is higher in the food chain.
As for me am slightly consufused, I have started a new site on bikes niche and I want to use content hub method or rather silo structure. I am stuck I don't know what type of categories I should choose and how I should begin with the hub. Help me please Sam🧐
I'd recommend consulting an SEO or watching this video again to figure out how to do it. There's no "right" way to do it - it's all experimentation. - SQ
In wordpress, My Pillar posts and supportive posts should be under a same wordpress category to qualify for a hub? or few of my posts can be from another category as well?
@@AhrefsCom Alright. Means for example 2 posts from my Category A, 3 posts from my Category B and 2 post from my Category C can combine to make 1 Hub. Also, my pillar post can either be in any of these categories or can also be a simple WordPress Page without any category. Right?
In my (Sam) opinion, a lot of it is jargon. I've heard other names for content hubs like content silos, topic clusters, category pages, whatever. I don't think it's important to get crazy technical on the word itself, but the main point is that it helps build good site architecture. -Sam
Question: If we go with "Yoga Poses" as the Pillar page and then have our subtopics be the actual yoga poses, would that allow us to be considered an expert on yoga poses? It generally seems too broad to focus on each pose. I was thinking your sub-topics would be on "Most popular yoga poses", "Different types of Yoga poses", "x vs y yoga poses". Not sure if my question is super clear, but I find your approach to maybe be too broad in scope to allow search engines to consider your pillar page as "expert" on everything yoga poses. Not bashing, I genuinely am curious if I am thinking about this correctly.
Content hub example here is pretty clear - types of yoga poses and its description. Should work well for pillar page as well as subpages. If you change the angle for each page, it will be too hard to narrow down the main ideas within the pillar page as it will cover too many different things. Just a personal opinion, do not treat it as a way to go ;) - Max
What‘s your recommendation for the „depth“ of the sub pages? Should a sub page be able to rank on its own (with a minimum number of words in it etc.)? Or can it also just be a fairly short page?
Subpages should have valuable content and it will have all chance to rank for topic keywords it covers. I do not think depth will matter, just make sure it is easy to navigate within your content hub. - Max
Good insight, I'm just wondering do you need to write 2000++ words for your pillar content and cluster content? So in the pillar content, you write 2000++ words, and when users click the cluster content it will also have 2000++ words. Does it work like that?
You do not have to stick to 2000+ words. I am afraid I am not able to tell you the best amount of words, just cover the topic in full, make it readable, so it sounds natural and easy-going... You do not want people to give up on half way reading your posts. - Max
Hi Sam, great video as always! You don't mention this in the video or the blog post, but should the subpages link to the other subpages as well, and are other pages/subpages allowed to link to any parts of the content hub? Thanks!
You may include some inlinks between some pages where it makes sense. You may link to content hub from other pages, again where it makes sense to promote it. It should positively influence authority of the hub with some extra inlinks. - Max
This is internal link, but does it really bring value? Not sure. You might want to link to a content hub from a couple of strong authoritative pages to help it rank better when you just created it. - Max
Awesome video! I only have one question. Is it a good idea to copy parts from the subpages and paste it into the main pillar page when writing about that particular topic? For example, when writing about benefits of keto on the main pillar page on keto dieting, can I use the same content that's on the subpage about the benefits of keto, or do I need to write something else from scratch? Thanks :-)
Thank you so much sir. Greeting from INDIA. This is really helpful and informatic video. I was just brainstorming ideas for my blog structure and now you gave a direction to my mind.
Hey Sam O! thanks for the tips. Wondering is a topic like speed your websites suitable for the content hub method? Or the topic fits better with Step by step guide.
Hi, Sam I have been building content hub for my bike niche. Kindly is it advisable to use to static pages for pillar content and the other topics as blogs
I am not sure what kind of results you will get. Make sure it is not treated as link schema. Tips in this video are related to content hub within one domain. - Max
Should my pillar page / content hub link to all the smaller articles? I thought the whole point of the sub-pages was to help rank the pillar page. Will this happen if my pillar page links to all of the smaller ones?
In my opinion, it is better to link in both ways. Subpages will improve pillar's page authority, while pillar page will help subpages to rank for some specific keywords. I do not see any issues that will hurt rankings for pillar page as some internal outlinks should not be a bad sign for Google. - Max
Hey Tan, just analyze urls of this blog thoroughly 24hoursofbiology.com you will get more indepth detail over content clustering, i hope this will help.
Hello, can i make my largest pillar content as a website home page?? I think making it as a home page will help me to rank it higher and faster, to earn links quicker and increase in Dr faster What do u think???
Emm 🤔 You can call it a category, I guess. In our sample - categories of yoga poses. But I would treat it as overview post with outlinks to indeep reviews of each specific aspect of the main topic. - Max
In my opinion, it is always worth sharing your content. Anybody can use your ideas, no matter if you share it or not, so I do not think this should be the reason to stay quite about it. - Max
There’s slightly different nuances. People have all sorts of names for it and it just adds to the confusion. So Sam chose to just call them content hubs and also suggested an article that breaks down different formats there too. It is in video description, if you want to dive deeper into it. - Max
Please tell me how to fix this problem? I have this problem I do not know how to fix, would you kindly tell me what I should do? I have created a new website with Squarespace, then created a new gmail for it and managed to set up Google My Business for it. It got verified and is up and running. Then I connected the website to Google Analytics and Search Console using an old gmail. Then I set up Google Merchant with that old gmail because for verification it needed Google Analytics. Now I have this problem that my Google My Buisness is with new gmail and all my Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Merchant are with the old gmail. Now I want to remove those ( Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Merchant) and transfer it to the new gmail where My Google My Business is . How should I do this without creating more mess consider I have already submitted sitemap and Google has Crawled the website?
If I'm understanding your question correctly, the fix isn't that difficult and all you need to do is to add your new gmail account as an admin/owner to GA, search console and google merchant and thereafter you can login using the old gmail account and have access to all of those. However there maybe an issue with Squarespace after you make this change (I haven't worked with Squarespace) but if the platform isn't able to correctly identify the new connections you just made, then you need to try disconnecting GA, Search console etc and re-connecting it again which should fix the problem. Hope it helps, and let me know how it goes
What exactly would you like to know about anchor text? Btw, we have an article about anchor text and how to use it: ahrefs.com/seo/glossary/anchor-text Hope it helps 🙌 -Helen
Ahrefs TH-cam Channel is the best in SEO industry IMO. Really professional and interesting videos.
Thank you! Glad you're enjoyed our videos :)
-Sam
I think so
Webmasters pay a lot of attention to link building, outreach, and earning external links.
However, some websites already had their high authority and relevant pages in the top-10 might.
Interlink them with new pages or pages that have organic traffic.
I usually open the Google Search Console, find pages that rank from top-4 to top-30.
Then I use combinations: the main keyword + domain. com in order to find pages that Google is considering relevant to these pages.
The final step is to link from relevant pages to the promotional ones.
I also use Ahrefs to interlink authoritative pages with external links to promotonal.
SEO Tools TV what is the purpose? You want to link externally to newer pages and not the top 3 right?
Hi UNmiss, may I ask why you link relevant pages to promotional ones not the other way around? Just curious
Great video Sam, I used to create content hubs for clients (I'm in a slightly different field now), but there's heaps of insights in here which I hadnt even thought about before but will definitely be using in the future!
Jenna, thank you for watching. I am glad we managed to provide additional hints and cover a topic from a different angle😊
- Max
@@AhrefsCom where Sam?
Hi! Thank you for this information. I just had one question. Does the cluster and pillar strategy apply to a blog on a certain product and then case study blogs linking to that product?
I'm not an expert by any means but I would like to know when to use hubs vs a very comprehensive guide all in one post. Thank you. Great content.
Great insight and tips. We're working on developing our hubs now, and this came as perfect timing to keep us on the straight and narrow. Thanks!
Glad it came at the right time! Best of luck.
-Sam
Hi
Have you tried content hub strategy, if yes can share the results.
Excellent technology, but at times it can be overwhelming. For instance, while reading Content A, links to Content B suddenly appear, leading me to explore additional links such as Content C, D, E, and so on. Upon completing this "links" tour, I realized I had completely forgotten my initial reading intention, and Content A had disappeared amidst the multitude of links. Consequently, I am curious to know if there is a method to minimize these distractions while maintaining the inherent relationships among all the contents.
We've been doing this for years for both ourselves and for our clients. Thanks for the video!
You're welcome. Hope we manage to cover the topic with a slightly new angle ;)
- Max
Actually yes! So much new info here. Especially in the links below the video.
Dustin, it is a great pleasure to hear that =)
Good luck with your marketing efforts! ;)
- Max
I think ahrefs has a mind reading tool. Just when I get stucked with something or have an idea they upload a video answering my questions a few days (or hours) after.
Hope it helps you get started! Best of luck!
-Sam
What if my Cluster Content pages can fit under multiple Pillar hubs?
Should I link them to multiple Hubs if I can?
Or might this dilute their value?
This is an excellent video...Thanks!
Excellent breakdown! I needed visuals to fully understand this and you did that. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
-Helen
Ahref always provide great tips in an easy way that's why I`m a fan of your content
Thank you😊
Yet another awesome piece.
Your videos provide a TON of value to the average viewer.
Job well done, my friend! Keep cranking out these types of videos.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Great video!
I am bit confused with the approach, could you please clarify my query:
For example: If I want to rank for "keto diet keyword" (considering competitors also have similar backlinks and authority)
Which approach would be better?
a) Create a pillar page, provide a brief description, and link to the related sub-topics (as in drift)
b) Create a lengthy page covering all the sub-topics as subheadings? (provide table of contents)
My goal is to rank for both the "pillar page keyword" and the "sub topic keywords"
And,
If I go by approach (b) can I create individual pages related to subtopics? won't it cause duplication of content?
It depends. There's no 100% sure way to say whether a long-form content or a hub page works. You can create a hub page if you think there's enough sub-topics under that main topic.
- SQ
Ahrefs is the Best TH-cam channel for learning SEO. Your videos helped me to learn SEO and become SEO manager being a undergraduate student.
I made a simple tool website by manually coding it. It is one page website with 550 word content. Can I rank it without creating any other sub-pages? I'm targetting low competition medium volume keyword.
Thank you and congratulations :) As for ranking, it depends -- no simple answer to say yes or no. Analyze all the different factors (we teach about these in a ton of our videos) and take your best guess. Best of luck.
-Sam
Thanks for this video! I always love your content!
I appreciate that!
-Sam
A good coach you are.Thank you so much.l have not yet started but will.
Best of luck! ✌
-Helen
Can you make a a video about the rankmath ai content plugin please?
Does it have a positive or negative impact on ones SEO.
Killer info, Sam! I'm definitely going to do this. 👍
Jana, glad you enjoyed this one. Good luck with your content hubs, feel free to share it with us later on;)
- Max
Is it allowed/good to link between cluster content as well? Or only between pillar and cluster content? Looking forward to hear from you.
Why not?
- SQ
@@AhrefsCom As it will become harder for Google to identify cluster pages? But I am not sure, that's why I was asking :) Cheers
Can you give an example of Content Hub for Affiliates Sites? Like best gaming monitor. Also Can we link the sub pages to each other too? Like for best gaming monitor the money keywords for sub pages are best monitor for Xbox, best monitor for ps4
Hey Sam! I’ve been using ahrefs for about a year now, great product. Where should the pillar page link to? I understand it needs to link to all the sub topic pages, but which higher DA page should it link back to? Aka which page that is higher in the food chain.
If you're a hub and multiple pillar pages, they should link to each other?
- SQ
As for me am slightly consufused, I have started a new site on bikes niche and I want to use content hub method or rather silo structure. I am stuck I don't know what type of categories I should choose and how I should begin with the hub. Help me please Sam🧐
I'd recommend consulting an SEO or watching this video again to figure out how to do it. There's no "right" way to do it - it's all experimentation.
- SQ
In wordpress, My Pillar posts and supportive posts should be under a same wordpress category to qualify for a hub? or few of my posts can be from another category as well?
A hub page has nothing to do with category pages on WordPress.
- SQ
@@AhrefsCom Alright. Means for example 2 posts from my Category A, 3 posts from my Category B and 2 post from my Category C can combine to make 1 Hub. Also, my pillar post can either be in any of these categories or can also be a simple WordPress Page without any category. Right?
Awesome video Sam. How are these hubs different from creating silos? Are silos and hubs the same thing?
Cheers🍺 Adrian
In my (Sam) opinion, a lot of it is jargon. I've heard other names for content hubs like content silos, topic clusters, category pages, whatever. I don't think it's important to get crazy technical on the word itself, but the main point is that it helps build good site architecture.
-Sam
@@AhrefsCom Great stuff. Thanks for your input😀🍺
Adrian
So for example, start blog might be a good hub page with sub topics like blog name guide, hosting, niche, and some tips 💡 Right?
Not looked into the topic ourselves, but just from the surface, it seems like a good start 🙂
Question: If we go with "Yoga Poses" as the Pillar page and then have our subtopics be the actual yoga poses, would that allow us to be considered an expert on yoga poses? It generally seems too broad to focus on each pose. I was thinking your sub-topics would be on "Most popular yoga poses", "Different types of Yoga poses", "x vs y yoga poses". Not sure if my question is super clear, but I find your approach to maybe be too broad in scope to allow search engines to consider your pillar page as "expert" on everything yoga poses. Not bashing, I genuinely am curious if I am thinking about this correctly.
Content hub example here is pretty clear - types of yoga poses and its description. Should work well for pillar page as well as subpages. If you change the angle for each page, it will be too hard to narrow down the main ideas within the pillar page as it will cover too many different things. Just a personal opinion, do not treat it as a way to go ;)
- Max
What‘s your recommendation for the „depth“ of the sub pages? Should a sub page be able to rank on its own (with a minimum number of words in it etc.)? Or can it also just be a fairly short page?
Subpages should have valuable content and it will have all chance to rank for topic keywords it covers. I do not think depth will matter, just make sure it is easy to navigate within your content hub.
- Max
Great work Sam. Best explanation of this topic for sure. The examples and diagrams really clarified this for me. Off to do some restructuring :-) Thx.
Thanks, Mark! Glad you enjoyed it.
-Sam
Good insight, I'm just wondering do you need to write 2000++ words for your pillar content and cluster content? So in the pillar content, you write 2000++ words, and when users click the cluster content it will also have 2000++ words. Does it work like that?
You do not have to stick to 2000+ words. I am afraid I am not able to tell you the best amount of words, just cover the topic in full, make it readable, so it sounds natural and easy-going... You do not want people to give up on half way reading your posts.
- Max
Hi Sam, great video as always!
You don't mention this in the video or the blog post, but should the subpages link to the other subpages as well, and are other pages/subpages allowed to link to any parts of the content hub?
Thanks!
You may include some inlinks between some pages where it makes sense. You may link to content hub from other pages, again where it makes sense to promote it. It should positively influence authority of the hub with some extra inlinks.
- Max
@@AhrefsCom can any part of the Content hub link to any other pages outside the Content hub?
Just wondering if you are referencing your content hub in the footer of every page does that count for backlinking?
This is internal link, but does it really bring value? Not sure. You might want to link to a content hub from a couple of strong authoritative pages to help it rank better when you just created it.
- Max
This video was very informational we can considerthis as content and link wheel strategy
Awesome video! I only have one question. Is it a good idea to copy parts from the subpages and paste it into the main pillar page when writing about that particular topic?
For example, when writing about benefits of keto on the main pillar page on keto dieting, can I use the same content that's on the subpage about the benefits of keto, or do I need to write something else from scratch?
Thanks :-)
Don't think it's a good idea - there's a risk that Google might consider it a duplicate content
-Helen
Thank you so much sir. Greeting from INDIA. This is really helpful and informatic video. I was just brainstorming ideas for my blog structure and now you gave a direction to my mind.
Glad it came to you at the right time. Best of luck.
-Sam
Excellent video, could you go further on how the URL structure could be, blog / topic cluster / blog post.
I guess your suggested way of structure will work totally fine ;)
- Max
Hey Sam O! thanks for the tips. Wondering is a topic like speed your websites suitable for the content hub method? Or the topic fits better with Step by step guide.
I personally look at content hubs as more of a structure rather than a single page. You'll need to do your own research on the specific topic :)
-Sam
Awesome video...will definitely use this! Any good examples of U/X or layouts to make it easy to navigate?
Check a post from Kane Jamison linked in a description. It covers some content hub types as well as some examples.
- Max
Hi, Sam I have been building content hub for my bike niche. Kindly is it advisable to use to static pages for pillar content and the other topics as blogs
Don' see why not?
- SQ
what would be better direction Content Hubs - Topic Pages, or strict Silo structures?
It depends. Try whatever makes the most sense for your site.
Is it good to create hubs across domains? I have two domains in similar niche.
Will google can ban it by considering it PBN?
I am not sure what kind of results you will get. Make sure it is not treated as link schema.
Tips in this video are related to content hub within one domain.
- Max
Awesome article thanks, how do you feel about using a category page in WordPress as a pillar page? cheers Nico
If this page meets search intent of a target keyword and can be structured well to be used as pillar page - why not?
- Max
Can I use ahrefs tool in mobile?? Ans me plz
Should my pillar page / content hub link to all the smaller articles? I thought the whole point of the sub-pages was to help rank the pillar page. Will this happen if my pillar page links to all of the smaller ones?
In my opinion, it is better to link in both ways. Subpages will improve pillar's page authority, while pillar page will help subpages to rank for some specific keywords. I do not see any issues that will hurt rankings for pillar page as some internal outlinks should not be a bad sign for Google.
- Max
@@AhrefsCom Thank you so much!
Great video!
What was that back end product he was getting all those metrics from in the video?
007
Ahrefs.com
Can you make an in-depth tutorial using category pages to be Content Hubs for Blog?
Hey Tan, just analyze urls of this blog thoroughly 24hoursofbiology.com you will get more indepth detail over content clustering, i hope this will help.
Hello, can i make my largest pillar content as a website home page??
I think making it as a home page will help me to rank it higher and faster, to earn links quicker and increase in Dr faster
What do u think???
Is this the same thing as creating a category page?
Emm 🤔 You can call it a category, I guess. In our sample - categories of yoga poses. But I would treat it as overview post with outlinks to indeep reviews of each specific aspect of the main topic.
- Max
Should i give social signals to a micro niche blog. Because if i share then people may find that niche and compete with me...
In my opinion, it is always worth sharing your content. Anybody can use your ideas, no matter if you share it or not, so I do not think this should be the reason to stay quite about it.
- Max
@@AhrefsCom Ok thanks dear Max
😉
Hi Sam oh i am a huge fan of you never miss your videos, please uploade a video about "Google ad campaign for affiliate product"
We most likely won't do anything like that for paid arbitrage as it's not exactly in-line with our contact. But who knows? Maybe in the future.
-Sam
I've got most of my cluster content but all the posts are in a blog. Can I make them into pages?
Do you mean as a Wordpress page, rather than a blog post?
- SQ
@@AhrefsCom yes
Excelent
Thanks! :)
-Helen
Hey, is this strategy going to work for new websites too? who cover broader topics.
Looking forward for your response 📩
Love from India ❤️
Yes.
- SQ
Great content as usual!
Thank you!
Thank you soo much sir from india
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
Great idea
When you use the image from hubspot why you change the name to content hub and also not calling it like they call it Topic Cluster?
There’s slightly different nuances. People have all sorts of names for it and it just adds to the confusion. So Sam chose to just call them content hubs and also suggested an article that breaks down different formats there too. It is in video description, if you want to dive deeper into it.
- Max
Great!
Thank you!
thankyou sam
You're welcome!
Thanx
You're welcome!
Please tell me how to fix this problem? I have this problem I do not know how to fix, would you kindly tell me what I should do? I have created a new website with Squarespace, then created a new gmail for it and managed to set up Google My Business for it. It got verified and is up and running. Then I connected the website to Google Analytics and Search Console using an old gmail. Then I set up Google Merchant with that old gmail because for verification it needed Google Analytics. Now I have this problem that my Google My Buisness is with new gmail and all my Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Merchant are with the old gmail. Now I want to remove those ( Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Merchant) and transfer it to the new gmail where My Google My Business is . How should I do this without creating more mess consider I have already submitted sitemap and Google has Crawled the website?
If I'm understanding your question correctly, the fix isn't that difficult and all you need to do is to add your new gmail account as an admin/owner to GA, search console and google merchant and thereafter you can login using the old gmail account and have access to all of those. However there maybe an issue with Squarespace after you make this change (I haven't worked with Squarespace) but if the platform isn't able to correctly identify the new connections you just made, then you need to try disconnecting GA, Search console etc and re-connecting it again which should fix the problem. Hope it helps, and let me know how it goes
What's about anchor text sir?
What exactly would you like to know about anchor text? Btw, we have an article about anchor text and how to use it: ahrefs.com/seo/glossary/anchor-text Hope it helps 🙌
-Helen
Best video
Thanks!
is CORONA VIRUS also comes in CONTENT HUB LOL..... Great knowlegde Max, Cheerssss
After pressing Publish you have to wash your hands.
@@MartinZanichelli and while watching performance, wear mask... If any corona virus keyword ranked so
Where is the link to content Harmony post???
Looks like we forgot to add it. Here it is: www.contentharmony.com/blog/content-hubs/
@@AhrefsCom Thanks:)
Please Sam Oh, how can I Increase Traffic On Blogspot Please?
I wouldn't bother using it :) Self-hosted would be a better option.
-Sam
Sounds good.
Keep your content with you and use senetizer and mask to avoid corona virus
Hope you're staying healthy too.
-Sam