Topic clusters and pillar pages

Topic clusters shows your site the way Google sees a subject: each topic, the pages it needs, and which of them you already have. A topic is a set of keyword groups about one thing, and each keyword group is a page: searches Google answers with mostly the same results, so one page can cover them. A topic with 4 or more pages has a pillar page, the one broad page on the topic that the others link to.

How topics are made

When CitedSEO researches searches for your site, each week on its own or when you search in Keywords, it puts each search with the searches that share at least 4 of the same top 10 results, or that use the same words in another order. Then it puts each new group in one of your topics by what it's about, or starts a new topic with a short name.

A search, once placed, stays in its group, and a group stays in its topic. So the cards, articles and facts tied to a group stay with it. A new search joins a group or starts one; nothing is regrouped.

Where each page stands

A planned page with a card has In the queue, which opens it in Opportunities. A page that covers several keyword groups is one page here, with their searches added up.

The two views

Pick a topic from the list on the left. It's ordered by Clicks, last 28 days, or by how many pages each topic has while your site has no clicks yet. Past 12 topics, Find a topic searches the list.

• Cluster map: a wheel with your topics inside and their pages around the outside, each page shaded by where it stands. The middle says how many pages are in place ("21 of 31 pages in place"). It shows the 11 most important topics and puts the rest in one slice, "15 more topics", which you open from the list.
• Pages: the topic opened. It says where the topic stands ("7 of 12 pages in place. 2 more are planned."), its clicks against the 28 days before, and See its keywords, which opens Keywords on that topic. Each page shows its address and its clicks with where it ranks, Showing up when it has no clicks yet, or No page yet with how many searches it would cover ("3 searches, 6,100 a month"). A big topic shows its first 12 pages, and a button to show all of them.

The pillar page

A pillar page covers its topic broadly and links to every other page in it, like a guide to CRM software with pages on CRMs for nonprofits, startups and consultants around it. A topic needs 4 or more pages before it has one; a smaller topic has none, and nothing reads as missing.

• CitedSEO finds it first. The pillar is the page you have in place for the topic's most searched search, then the one with the most times seen and clicks. It can be any page of your site, not only one CitedSEO wrote. It's listed first, marked Pillar, and drawn taller on the wheel ("Taller: the pillar page").
• When there isn't one yet, the page for the topic's most searched search is marked as where it will be, and the topic says "Its pillar page isn’t written yet." When CitedSEO writes that page from its content gap card, it knows it's the pillar, and if the pages ranking for the search don't settle what kind of article to write, it writes a guide.
• Links follow the topic. CitedSEO's internal links cards link its articles up to the pillar page, and the pillar down to them when it's an article CitedSEO wrote.

Topic clusters is for reading: it has no write buttons. To have CitedSEO write a page that isn't planned, press Write this on its row in Keywords.

Related

• Research a search, and how winnable it is
• Write new articles for searches you have no page for
• Internal links between your articles
• Two of your articles competing for one search