A content plan is a list of the pages your website needs and the order in which to produce them. A topic cluster means that the pages on one subject link to each other: a main page gives the overall picture and supporting pages answer the more specific questions.
Start with the customer’s questions
Write down the questions your customers ask before buying. Ask sales and customer service, look through emails and check in Search Console which searches already bring people to the website.
Every question you answer on the phone each week is a page that should be on your website.
First see what you already have
List the existing pages and mark each one: keep, expand, merge or remove. Improving an old page often brings results faster than a new one, because Google already knows it.
Group the topics into clusters
Choose 3–5 main topics that match your services. Each gets a main page with supporting pages around it.
- Main page: Search engine optimization (service page)
- Supporting page: What determines the cost of SEO?
- Supporting page: SEO roadmap
- Supporting page: A page is missing from Google
The supporting pages link to the main page and the main page to them. The internal linking guide explains how.
Write a short brief for every page
Before anyone writes a word, record five things:
- Who the page is for and what stage they are at.
- The one question the page answers.
- What first-hand information is needed: examples, prices, stages of the work.
- Which pages it links to.
- What the reader should do next.
Agree who writes and who checks
Content plans rarely fail for lack of ideas. They fail because nobody has time to write or to check. Name a writer for each page and an expert who approves the content.
A realistic pace beats an ambitious one. One good page a month is more than four planned ones that never get done.
Update the old, do not only publish the new
Every few months, look at which pages bring visitors and enquiries. Update the ones close to the top and correct the ones whose information has gone out of date.
If you would like us to make the plan and the content with you, see SEO content and content strategy. The SEO roadmap guide helps with planning the whole.