01
The pillar
The page that covers the broad topic for someone new to it.
Grow · 03.4
Cover a topic so thoroughly you become the source.
One-off articles aren't a strategy. A cluster, a pillar page plus linked supporting pieces, helps search and answer engines recognize your site as the reference on a topic.
Pillar
01 / How it works
The four parts of a cluster.
Pick where you need help.
02
The supporting pieces
Eight to fifteen pieces, each fully answering one question and linking back to the pillar.
03
The links
Internal linking that shows which pages are related and which one leads.
04
The schedule
A pace your team can keep up for a year, not a month.
02 / Included
What we do and what you do.
We plan and edit. The subject expert usually writes best.
Topic chosen on evidence
Based on customer questions, competitors and gaps you can win.
A brief per piece
The topic, the question to answer, the links and the length.
Editing for citation
Self-contained passages, clear headings and the answer up front.
Structured data per piece
Article, FAQ or HowTo markup generated from the content.
Linking maintained
Two-way links, updated as the cluster grows.
Performance piece by piece
Which pieces earn traffic and citations, and which need work.
03 / What to watch
Why content programs stall.
Each risk, and how we avoid it.
×An ambitious pace, abandoned by month three.
A schedule set by your team's real capacity.
×Pieces chosen one at a time.
The whole cluster planned before the first piece.
×Shallow writing.
A brief per piece naming the question it must answer.
×No internal linking.
A link map updated with each new piece.
×Content never revisited.
A quarterly performance review and refresh.
04 / How it works
How it works.
Our usual way of working. The quote sets the real dates before work starts.
Plan
Topic chosen, cluster mapped and a brief written for each piece. Deliverables: cluster map and brief set.
Pillar
The pillar page is written, edited and published. Deliverable: pillar page live.
Publish
Supporting pieces at the agreed pace. We brief, edit, structure and link; your team writes. Deliverables: published pieces and updated links.
Review
Traffic and citations analyzed, updates made and the next cluster decided. Deliverables: performance review and next plan.
05 / Questions
Questions we get asked
We plan, brief and edit, and we can also write it.
Usually a pillar plus eight to fifteen supporting pieces.
At a pace you can sustain for a year. Consistency matters more than a strong start.
A single piece can rank within weeks; a cluster usually takes about six months to read as authority.
AI can help draft from a brief, but unedited text rarely includes the specifics that make content citable.
Find out where you stand.
Send us your URL. We'll tell you which searches to own, which answers leave you out and what it would take to change that.