A cluster is one substantial page covering a topic, supported by several pieces answering the specific questions around it. Choosing one topic and finishing it establishes credibility on that subject, whereas publishing scattered articles across unrelated subjects produces a set of pages with nothing reinforcing anything else.
Why scattered posts underperform
The usual pattern is writing whatever comes to mind that month: a seasonal tip, a note about a new service, something a customer asked. Each piece is fine and none of them adds up.
Search engines assess whether a site demonstrates depth on a subject. Twelve articles across twelve unrelated subjects demonstrate breadth without depth. Twelve articles on one subject demonstrate that this site knows that subject, and the whole group benefits rather than each piece standing alone.
For a small business with limited writing capacity, this is the difference between a blog that eventually produces enquiries and one that produces a sense of obligation.
Choosing the hub
The hub is the substantial page at the centre. For a service business it should almost always be your most profitable service rather than your most common one.
Three tests. Is it work you want more of. Is there genuinely enough to say, meaning customers ask multiple distinct questions about it. And is it something you have real evidence for, in the form of completed jobs and photographs.
If a service fails the second test, it is not a cluster. It is a page, and that is fine.
Finding the supporting questions
The supporting pieces answer questions a person has while deciding about the hub topic. The sources are the same ones that produce everything else useful.
- What people ask on the phone before committing to this service.
- What they ask during the job, which is often about maintenance and what happens next.
- The objection that stops quotes becoming work.
- Search Console queries where the hub page already gets impressions for something it does not properly answer.
- The decisions customers have to make before choosing, such as material, timing, or scope.
Eight to twelve questions is a cluster. Three is a page with an FAQ section.
The order to write in
- The hub page first. Everything else points at it, so it needs to exist and be good before the supporting pieces are written.
- The commercial questions next. Cost, timing, and how to choose. These are closest to a decision and produce enquiries soonest.
- The problem questions after. Symptoms and diagnosis, which attract people earlier in the process.
- The maintenance and aftercare questions last. Useful, lower priority, and they hold existing customers.
Writing in this order means the pieces most likely to produce work exist first, which matters when the whole exercise is competing with running a business.
Connecting them
Each supporting piece links up to the hub, and the hub links down to the supporting pieces. That is the entire structure, and it is what makes the group function as a set rather than as a pile.
Getting the linking right is a discipline of its own, and it is covered in internal linking. The point relevant here is that the links have to be planned as part of the cluster rather than added afterwards, because retrofitting them across twelve pieces is a job nobody gets round to.
Knowing when it is finished
A cluster is done when the obvious questions are answered and the next piece you would write is one nobody actually asks.
That is usually six to twelve pieces for a service business. At that point the correct move is to stop and start the next cluster, rather than continuing to write increasingly marginal articles on a subject that is already covered.
The mistake worth avoiding
Starting five clusters at once, one for each service, and finishing none of them.
Five clusters at two pieces each demonstrates depth on nothing. One cluster of ten demonstrates it on one subject, and that subject then ranks, which produces the results that justify doing the second one. Sequence beats coverage every time at small scale, and the temptation to spread runs in exactly the opposite direction.
A realistic pace for a small business is one cluster a year, at one piece a month. That sounds slow and it produces a genuinely authoritative section on your most profitable service within twelve months, which is considerably more than most competitors will have.
Frequently asked questions
What is a content cluster?
One substantial page on a topic, supported by several pieces answering the specific questions around it, with links connecting them. The group demonstrates depth on a subject rather than each piece standing alone.
Which topic should I start with?
Your most profitable service rather than your most common one, provided customers ask several distinct questions about it and you have real evidence in the form of completed jobs and photographs.
How many articles make a cluster?
Usually six to twelve for a service business. It is finished when the obvious questions are answered and the next piece you would write is one nobody actually asks.
What order should I write them in?
The hub page first, then the commercial questions about cost and choosing, then the problem and symptom questions, then maintenance. That sequence puts the pieces most likely to produce enquiries first.
Should I work on several clusters at once?
No. Five clusters at two pieces each demonstrates depth on nothing, whereas one finished cluster ranks and justifies doing the next. Sequence beats coverage at small scale.
How fast should a small business publish?
One piece a month is realistic and produces an authoritative section on your most profitable service within a year, which is more than most local competitors will have.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.
Blog full of unrelated posts that go nowhere?
We plan the cluster around your most profitable service and write it in the order that produces enquiries soonest.
Start a Conversation