SEO online training-Topic Clusters
There is lots of seo online training available. Most of the bulk mail services like MailChip, Get Response and GlobalNPN provide training for free. But their is a new kid on the block call TOPIC CLUSTERS. New search engine algorithms are are looking for groups of similar information commonly called topic clusters.
Clusters have been around since birds started laying eggs and fish began spawning.
Clustering happens naturally when you create an outline and group similar subjects together.
But topic clusters are relatively new to SEO. Sure we have been advised to link similar blog posts but topic clusters brings a website into focus for both for the visitor and for the search engines. The first thing you must do is organize your website. I like Cloud Outliner Pro as my goto program to organize my thoughts and my life. I use a plugin called weDocs for my change log and sitemap. A sitemap is nothing more than an outline of my site with each element of the outline linked to the appropriate page. I also have a document that indexes each post on my website. The post index includes the title of the post, the primary keyword assigned to that post and the permalink of that post.
Don’t confuse the site map used to outline your content with the site map you submit to Google. The serve two different puposes.
Having a post index helps me know what similar posts to link to and how to group my keywords so the search engines know the post is part of a topic cluster.
In summary:
- Create a sitemap with links to the elements in the site map. (A site map is for pages.)
- Create a post index which lets you keep track of the key words used in posts about similar topics. (A post index helps you track and organize you posts.)
- Write your page or post. At the end of the page/post include links to other relevant pages/posts.
- In each page or post incorporate you primary key word in the title and within the first 160 characters of you opening paragraph.
- Group the keywords used in a topic cluster and use that grouping of key words in each element of the topic cluster.
By creating internal links and by using the same group of key words in each post/page you are telling the search engines that the posts are each part of an indepth study of a topic. New search engine algorithms are trying to group topics and the more help you can give the search engines in indexing your site the better you will rank.
From a readers point of view, the better you organize your site the easier your site will be to use. From your point of view, the better organized your site the easier it will be to see where you need to add information.
Recent Comments
3
I am certainly trying to understand the concept.
Perhaps a training should be created for this with a bit more in-depth explanation could be done?
I am in the process of doing this now. I have finally gotten the core information (articles) written for my site and now I can do this more effectively. Thank you for your post!