When we discuss search engine optimisation as professionals, it’s easy to get lost in algorithms and data. As a businessowner, you just want results — a return on what you spend for someone like us to handle your SEO.
Something we place a lot of weight on is content, and you have probably heard lots of different things from lots of different people about what content does.
Content has been at the centre of how we conduct SEO for over a decade, but the role of content has changed in recent times. In fact, it plays such a role in how you rank that up to 80% of your SEO budget will be used on content.
The quality of your content, and of its placement, needs to be just right for your SEO to have a meaningful impact on your online presence. This is because low-quality content, and high-quality content in the wrong places, is worthless.
Why is it worthless? Because it will never, ever be found.
Where content hubs come in
Content hubs are pages that address the relationship between quality content and placement by providing a hub or destination for the best content you have on a topic.
A content hub is a destination (normally a page, but it can be a post) for your best content, but it isn’t a dumping ground. It is a place where your audience can find the best content published by your brand on one topic. It is a resource that points to other resources (bits of content) all over your site, sewing your content together.
Content hubs are a magnetic for your customers because Google consistently ranks content published in them. Over time, content hubs, just like blogs, become more powerful, allowing brands to dominate their chosen keywords in Google.
Using content hubs for SEO
Content hubs can be used for SEO in two ways:
- You can create your own content hub with your own content. This means creating a long piece of content (sometimes called a pillar page) that covers numerous aspects of a topic you have also covered in smaller posts.
- You can publish your content on other content hubs. This means publishing your best content on other people’s content hubs. This is useful for creating high-quality links to your website and increasing citations.
In this article, we’re sticking to the first way: creating your own content hub and using it to point to all your best content.
This has several SEO benefits:
Topical authority
Google is a topical machine. Any search you make in Google will likely result in a ‘People Also Ask’ section. Content hubs connect to your best subpages and posts, building internal links that are relevant to build semantic relationships. The bottom line: If Google can better understand how your content is related, it will rank better.
More link authority
Strategic internal links placed in hub pages can be just as powerful as external backlinks because of how Google measures relevance. If you have a content hub that links to another article you wrote as a source, this is a powerful link to make. The bottom line: Google reads internal links and passes power between pages.
More engagement
Since content hubs provide every conceivable piece of information your audience needs, they can help reduce bounce rates and increase time on site. The bottom line: content hubs are proven to give people a lot more value than individual pieces of content. This is great for user experience and establishing yourself as an authority.
Overall
You can create content hubs to establish yourself as an authority on a wide range of topics related to your profession. Google loves them because they establish topical authority and provide a logical way for people to discover your best content.
Leeds SEO Agency
I have been walking the talk with SEO for 18 years and have money-generating web businesses of my own. My background is real-world business and marketing. Search engine optimisation is not black art. If you want your website to do better, contact me.