Why is topic clustering one of the best long-term SEO strategies, especially when running into hard competition in an even harder niche?
Even though our client is considered a small fish on the market, by creating cluster-based content, we’ve managed to significantly increase the organic traffic, and successively generate more sales.
What is the website about?
Our client operates within the cosmetic industry, more specifically in the pregnancy care market. The website is a Shopify platform offering luxury products for pregnant women. Therefore the niche itself is pretty difficult. The Monthly SEO budget started at about €800 but over time increased to €1400.
The client contacted us in the fall of 2021, with the idea of using SEO to improve its overall online presence. As for the website, it’s pretty simple and consists of a web shop with 10 products in total, blog posts, and FAQ pages.
SEO goal – Increase brand awareness by writing informative content
The competition was our primary concern. Even though our client focuses on quality products, they are still a small website with little to no authority in the industry. Other competing websites are well-known brands with hundreds of products available, and they are already ranking high for commercial keywords.
So, our main SEO goal was to increase brand awareness which would then hopefully bring our client more sales.
SEO strategy – Using topic clusters to build authority
To achieve the goal, we’ve divided our strategy into three parts:
- Creating new content using clusters
- On-Page optimization of the existing blog posts
- Link building
To increase brand awareness, we focused on writing informative blog posts. But before writing new content, we’ve decided to fix the issues on the existing posts. This meant having proper post structure with H1-H3 headings, user-friendly URLs, optimized images, structured data, and generally having better and more informative content.
But the main part of our strategy was creating new content, and that was done using topic clusters. These clusters helped our client rank for less competitive, informational keywords. The idea was to build authority for pregnancy-related topics and that way introduce our clients’ brand to a larger audience.
Product pages were also organized in clusters. And to better spread the link juice, internal links from the main menu were added to those pillar pages. Below is one example of the cluster for blogs:
The first blog posts were written by non-native writers. In retrospect, that was not a good decision on our side, as the writing required knowledge of specific terms known only to domestic people. But we learned from our mistakes and quickly hired professional writers using the content writing platform iWriter.
Link building was done via guest posts and link inserts. In the beginning, we wanted new backlinks to point to the homepage, as that would increase the authority of the website.
Lately, we’re focusing on getting more links to categories and product pages.
Guest posts were done mainly on beauty and lifestyle blogs, as they are highly relevant to our client’s niche. Our strategy was to get 2 backlinks from one blog (one would go to our other client). That way we reduced the expenses as the market in question is pretty costly when it comes to guest posting.
Results
Four pillar pages were created in total, and each one includes posts (cluster pages) focused on specific pregnancy-related topics. Shortly after publishing posts (5 per month), they started generating significant traffic, about 10K clicks in the past three months. Each post has internal links to related posts and product pages, getting users one stage closer to the actual purchase.
Overall, the website’s organic traffic grew significantly. In the past three months, the website saw an increase of 150% and 550% in clicks and impressions, respectively.
We are currently optimizing product pages – the specifications for improvements are written and will be implemented soon. We will update this case study in 6 months, and show you the latest results of our SEO efforts.
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