A content hub is a way of organising a site so that Google, and your readers, can see what you know about one subject. You write one long, thorough page on the subject (the pillar), then a set of shorter pages on the parts of it (the clusters), and link them all together. That is the whole idea. Here is how I’d build one, and one thing I’ve seen on a 32,000-post radio station website that makes me careful about it.
The shape of a hub
- One pillar page. It covers the big question in full and links down to every cluster.
- 5 to 10 cluster pages. Each answers one narrower question and links back up to the pillar.
- A few links sideways between clusters that are closely related.
The pillar passes readers down to the detail, and the clusters pass them back up. That is useful to a person, and it also gives Google a clear map of which of your pages matters most for the subject.
How to build one
- Pick a subject you can cover properly. If you can’t write 5 or more separate pages on it from your own knowledge, it’s the wrong subject.
- Check what people type. Start typing the subject into Google and look at the suggestions. Each one is a candidate cluster. It shows that a phrase is searched, not how often.
- Write the clusters first. It’s easier to summarise five finished pages in a pillar than to promise five pages you haven’t written.
- Write the pillar. Say what the subject is, give the short answer to each question, and link to the full page on each.
- Link back up. Every cluster needs a link to the pillar, in the first few paragraphs, with words that describe the page.
For the links, use words that say what the page is about. Compare these two:
<!-- vague -->
<a href="/content-hub/">click here</a>
<!-- better -->
<a href="/content-hub/">how to build a content hub</a>What I’ve seen on my own site
The radio station site I run has about 32,000 posts, and most of them sit in categories, so it’s already a kind of giant hub with a category page as the pillar. It taught me the part nobody mentions. A hub is only as good as the pages inside it. Thousands of show recaps with a player, a track list and a line of text did not make a strong hub, they dragged the whole site down, and I’ve since noindexed any post with under 100 words (there is more on that in my post on pages Google crawled and didn’t index).
It does also show the other side. In Ahrefs, an interview with a named artist tends to rank at the top of page 1 for that person’s name, and one show’s category page ranks number 2 for the show’s own name. Specific pages about a specific thing do well. Vague ones don’t.
Mistakes to avoid
- Thin clusters. A cluster page of 100 words is worse than no page.
- A pillar with no links down. If it doesn’t link to the clusters, it isn’t a pillar.
- Clusters that all say the same thing. Five pages answering one question compete with each other.
- Never going back. Pages go stale, so check the pillar every few months and fix anything that’s out of date.
What about backlinks?
Other sites link to pages that are useful to them. A hub doesn’t earn links by being a hub, but a thorough pillar page is something a blogger can point to. That’s the idea behind this site’s name, and it’s why I’d put the effort into the pillar first.