Every day, Google is getting smarter. The engineering team behind the search engine is making great strides to improve Google’s natural language processing. Currently, Google algorithms understand on-page content better. This applies to prepositions and synonyms, amongst others. Amidst this great change, many site owners are still optimizing for a few keywords. This practice is not only outdated, but it’s no longer effective. If you want to match Google’s recent technology, your best bet is to use keyword clusters.
The Definition of Keyword Clusters
These are a set of keywords that showcase searchers who have the same purchase intent. For instance, buyers can use search phrases like ‘the best mattress’ or ‘comfy beds’. The search phrases are different, but the intent is the same. All these people are looking for a mattress.
If you have a store that sells mattresses, and you only focus on one keyword, such as the best mattress. You will be limiting your market outreach. However, when you use keyword clusters, you will rank for various search phrases, and as a result, your site will get more traffic.
How to Come Up with Keyword Clusters
Generating keyword clusters isn’t a procedure one should take lightly. The reason being, it’s something that requires a lot of research and resources. To get more desirable results, it is advisable to hire a marketing agency that will help you discover the ideal keyword clusters for your brand and niche. Below is an overview of how you can create keyword clusters.
1st Step – Come Up with a Keyword List
The first thing you have to do is research. You must identify the primary keyword you want your site to rank for. From there, find out the relevant variations of that keyword, including long-tail phrases. A good place to gain inspiration is from your competitors’ websites.
There are several keyword tools that can help you identify keywords related to the one you would like to rank for. Once you have access to all the above, open a spreadsheet and note down all these variations. Don’t forget to include the search volume, organic difficulty, and cost per click metrics alongside the keyword variations. These metrics give insight into which keywords offer more value.
Depending on your niche, you may get lots of keywords. Please stick to the ones that are more relevant to your clients’ search intent.
2nd Step – Divide the Keywords into Groups
As you create your keyword list, you will realize a pattern. This calls for you to divide these keywords into groups. Here are some tips on how to categorize your keyword list into clusters;
- Semantic Relevance – Group keywords that have a similar search intent. If you mix up keyword clusters with varying meanings, this can confuse Google and affect your rankings.
- Search Volume – The other way to group keywords is through search volumes. Always go for keywords with high search volumes because that’s where all the traffic is.
- Organic Difficulty – It is also imperative that you weigh out whether to add keywords that have a higher organic difficulty or not. Before making this decision, evaluate your backlink profile and site authority.
We can’t emphasize enough the importance of relevance when developing keyword clusters. In your cluster, you would rather have keyword variations that have a lower volume but have a semantic similarity. Some tools can help with this. Alternatively, you can always seek the expert opinion of a reputable digital agency.
3rd Step – Optimize Pillar Pages for Your Keyword Clusters
In most cases, keyword clusters guide you on the important topics you should discuss on your site. Most commonly referred to as pillar pages. For every keyword cluster, you can create a landing page. When developing pillar pages, adhere to all SEO best practices.
4th Step – Integrate Keyword Clusters with Blog Content
When you integrate keyword clusters into blog content, you complement the efforts of pillar pages. Make sure that you link these pages as that can improve rankings. The keyword clusters can guide you in creating blog topic ideas.
Is Keyword Clustering a Strategy Worth Implementing?
Absolutely! It allows you to upgrade your content to match Google’s new technology in natural language processing. Not many site owners may have the time or experience to engage in such an advanced SEO technique. Marvel Marketing is here to help with keyword clustering. We have SEO specialists that will perform keyword research for your brand, identify the ideal clusters and integrate them into your content marketing strategies.
