Keyword Clustering in SEO
In the last few years, Google’s team of engineers has focused on natural language processing and developing a better understanding of how content on a page interrelates with it. With the help of neural matching the search engine can understand synonyms, which means with every update, users can use more literary terms for search queries. However, despite the search engine improving, most website owners tend to optimize their pages with a handful of keywords in mind.
That’s an outdated practice, especially with the knowledge that landing pages tend to rank for hundreds of keywords in search engines. With Google continuously improving, companies have to employ better SEO Strategies that will reflect those advancements in the search engine, and the best way to do that is by keyword clustering.
Keyword clusters are groups of keywords that represent users who have a similar purchase intent when searching. For example, a company that sells shoes that only tries to rank for the first keyword that people use, such as “shoes”, ends up limiting its market share. Instead of doing that, Google understands that people searching for “sandals”, “hiking boots” and other similar phrases are different, but that they all represent people who want to purchase shoes. That’s why companies that get their website ranking for a primary keyword as well as for other long-tail variants of that keyword and related subtopics, end up ranking for up to 20 times more terms than the number of keywords, which results in an increase in website traffic.
Keyword and Topic Clusters
Companies that want to utilize keyword clusters should note that this is a strategy that takes some time and resources, especially compared to the simpler approaches in website optimization. That’s because this strategy requires more content, keyword research, and more work from marketing and SEO teams. However, at the end of the day, keyword and topic clusters make a website more user-friendly and optimized for search engines.
Keyword List
The first step in keyword clustering is researching keywords, which starts with the primary keyword a website ranks for. Then, companies should identify all the different variations of that primary keyword, as well as any long-tail phrases and subtopics including that keyword that consumers might use when searching for a specific product or service. To start the process it’s important to look at the keywords that the market competitors currently rank for. A digital keyword tool can help businesses identify any related keywords, subtopics, autocompletes, and even questions that consumers are using to find those products or services.
Segmenting Keywords
The next step is to segment keywords according to the patterns that appeared during the research process. It’s easy to start noticing similar words, phrases, subtopics, or synonyms that people use in their search queries. Those patterns show companies potential ways that they can cluster and segment their keywords. The segments can be sorted according to semantic relevance. Those that aren’t included in any group end up making content less legible and confusing the search engine about what a website is actually about.
