Navigating SEO, rankings, and keywords can be overwhelming. Luckily, you’ve come to some of the top Webflow developers and SEO professionals, and we’re here to clear up any confusion. In this article, our team at Slam Media Lab (Slam) will walk you through one of the more comprehensive SEO terms you’ve probably come across if you’ve dipped your toe in SEO. That term is… keyword clustering!
Before we dive into all that, we want to clear the air. You may be asking yourself: why should I trust them?
Slam is a leading web design agency in San Francisco that specializes in SEO, Webflow design and development, content writing and strategy, and brand strategy and identity. We started back in 2021 and grew into a $2M business within three years thanks to our killer digital strategies, and now we work with mission-driven businesses to do the same for them.
Whether you’re a small business like Sprig & Sprout, a pho & Vietnamese sandwich shop, or a venture capital firm like Symphonic Capital, we have the products, tools, and resources to make your digital marketing goals a reality. Check out our other case studies to see us in action.
With 10+ years of experience, SEO is second nature to us. In fact, we have a comprehensive keyword research template that can help you off the bat! Stick around, though. We have a lot of great information about keyword clustering for you here, so let’s dive in.
What is Keyword Clustering?
First things first. What is keyword clustering? Sometimes referred to as keyword grouping, it’s the act of organizing related keywords for unique pages to improve SEO and drive traffic. There are two main types of keyword clustering you should know about:
- Semantic Clustering
- SERP Clustering
Semantic Clustering
Semantic clustering involves grouping keywords based on how closely their meanings relate to one another. This is often achieved by using natural language processing (NLP) algorithms that bridge the interactions between computers and human language, so we can understand the values of generated keyword clusters.
One of the biggest advantages of semantic clustering is it’s cost effective, or even free in some cases. Moreover, this type of clustering can be less complex than SERP clustering. However, there is a wider margin for error between how your NLP algorithm sorts keywords and how Google displays them.
SERP Clustering
With SERP clustering, keywords are clustered based on their relevance to each other on search engine results pages. If different keywords are appearing together on SERPs, it’s indicative of a clear connection between the two—a connection you can then capitalize on.
The best part about using SERP clustering is you’re catering directly to Google’s standards. You’re essentially going straight to the source and building your keyword list from that information. On the downside, this process is going to be more costly and confusing.
Implementing a Strategy for SEO Keyword Clustering
Implementing a keyword clustering SEO strategy requires in-depth keyword research and analysis throughout every step of the process. Doing any part of this blindly will ultimately be a waste of your time as there’s a lot going on in the background with search engines and how they rank sites. Here are five key steps to follow:
- Build a keyword list
- Categorize your keywords
- Plan your keyword strategy
- Create & optimize content
- Track keyword rankings
Build a Keyword List
Do you know how to choose keywords for SEO? No worries—Slam’s got your back. Building an effective keyword list starts with understanding the needs of your intended target audience. Beyond that, all you need is powerful products and tools on your side to execute your strategies. Slam’s Keyword Research Template aligns with keyword clustering tools like Keyword Insights AI, so you can gather data and easily transfer it to one organized space.
There are many different approaches to keyword research, especially when you’re in the initial stages. To get the most results, avoid using filters off the bat and extract every possible keyword. Filtering out entire clusters later will be easier than going through individual keywords right away.
For the most well-rounded results, target both short-tail and long-tail keywords in your research. Short-tail keywords are more common and have high search volumes. While they have the ability to increase your visibility, they are also far more competitive. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are more specific and can attract more targeted traffic to drive conversion.
Whether you’re using a tool or researching manually, you should cast a wide net. While it may seem overwhelming, it will be easier to get rid of entire clusters of keywords further down the road, so don’t let that deter you!
Categorize Your Keywords
Next, it’s time to cluster your keywords into unique content pillars. When it comes to clustering keywords for SEO, it’s important to consider what makes keyword clustering effective. Any keywords you have grouped together should have the same search intent and provide similar information. Typically, when people are searching for something online, their search intent type could be:
- Informational
- Navigational
- Commercial
- Transactional
So, your job for every keyword cluster is to figure out if users want to learn more about something, to find something specific related to a search, to research before making a purchase, or to complete an action like a purchase or other commitment.
The initial grouping of words may be somewhat straightforward, but segmenting your clusters from there can be a challenge. To help determine how much you should break down clusters, you should consider the following:
- SERP similarity
- Content quality
- User journey
SERP similarity refers to how the same pages rank for different keywords within the same cluster. If the pages are ranking well for both, it’s indicative of a good match for a cluster. You should also be looking at the content quality you’re able to provide for both keywords in a cluster. If you separated the words, would the supporting pages be too sparse?
If so, the keywords are probably better off in a cluster. Finally, by paying attention to the typical user journey, you can determine if the average user would want to explore topics related to both keywords at the same time. If there isn’t a clear connection between the two, it may be a sign to separate them.
At Slam, we suggest leveraging one of these great keyword clustering tools to do this:
We personally use Keyword Insights ourselves, but we’ll talk in depth about each in a bit! Until we get there, there are a couple of other ways to go about clustering keywords for SEO if using one of these tools is not an option for you. Instead, you can:
- Cluster keywords manually
- Explore topic modeling techniques
- Use natural language processing methods
Manual keyword clustering is exactly what it sounds like: you, yourself, analyzing keywords and grouping them based on relevance and similarity. Since you’re tackling the job yourself, you’ll need a deep level of understanding of your target audience and industry as well as keyword research and search engine optimization as a whole. You’ll also need a bit more extra time on your hands as the process can be time consuming. On the plus side, you’ll be able to customize content pillars to your heart’s content!
You can use topic modeling techniques for SERP clustering to identify clusters of keywords based on underlying topics. Topic modeling algorithms analyze patterns to generate clusters, which can be helpful for large sets of keywords. Natural language processing techniques, on the other hand, are used for semantic clustering and analyze the similarity between keywords’ meanings instead of their underlying themes.
Check out Slam’s blog to see the fruits of our keyword clustering efforts!
Plan Your Keyword Strategy
By looking at the volume of searches and the keyword difficulty percentage, you can choose your primary keyword to rank for on a page. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t always go for the keyword with the highest search volume because the competition will probably be very high, too. In-depth research is required for every step of this process, so be sure you’re always thinking about your target audiences’ search intents, their goals, and how you want to position your brand.
Create & Optimize Content
When it comes to actually creating the content for your website, it’s important to incorporate all these elements while still presenting clear and coherent information. Using tools like our SEO content writing guide template or SEO article template can help keep you on track there! There are plenty of other technical SEO tools you should take advantage of to ensure your website is optimized.
As SEO experts, Slam is here to point you in the direction of as many of them as possible. For starters, you can put your website to the test with our SEO ROI calculator and leverage the top technical SEO audit tools to make improvements on the fly.
Track Progress & Update Regularly
Once you’ve written and published content, your job isn’t over! The flip side of the coin is consistently updating and refreshing that content. Not only does this provide users with up-to-date information, but it shows the search engines that you’re still a relevant and reliable source of information.
To ensure you’re making useful updates that optimize your site, be sure to measure SEO and form actionable goals based on those metrics.
Top Benefits of SEO Keyword Clustering
Keyword clustering is a key component of any successful SEO strategy. When Slam developed a winning aviation SEO solution for Greenwood Aerospace, Keyword Insights was a crucial tool in our arsenal. We’re going to go over the four main benefits of clustering keywords, so you know exactly why you should take advantage of the practice:
- Improves SEO
- Enhances User Experience
- Facilitates Content Creation
- Cleans Up Site Structure
Improves SEO
The main point of keyword clustering is to improve your site’s rankings on the search engines, so it’s safe to say clustering keywords is very good for SEO. Clustering keywords effectively enhances your online visibility and overall relevance with the search engines. This means you can increase the likelihood of ranking highly without gauging into your budget.
A lot of times, you’ll be competing against other people who want to rank for the same words, so there’s a lot of strategy that goes into choosing the right keywords to focus on for your purposes.
Check out these SEO benefits for small businesses you could be missing out on!
Facilitates Content Creation
By having content pillars in place, you can easily create new content that is tailored to your audiences’ needs and pain points. Keyword clustering structures the content on your site into separate areas, so you can present a cohesive image that has all the information they need without confusing them.
By having quality content that is easy to find and follow on your site, you also gain topical authority, which is your expertise on a given topic. This is great for both increasing traffic and making the search engines happy.
Cleans Up Site Structure
Clustering keywords for SEO naturally organizes your content into pillars, which makes Google’s job of crawling your site all that much easier. It also ensures you’re not trying to rank for the same keyword across different pages. While you may think peppering a keyword throughout your site is a good idea, it can lead to your pages competing against one another—a scary phenomenon dubbed keyword cannibalization. Ultimately, a cleaner site structure will lead to you ranking higher and receiving more organic traffic to your site. If you’re building a new site, check out Slam’s website launch checklist for the ultimate peace of mind. You can also test your existing site with a technical SEO audit
Enhances UXP
When you add all of the points above together, it leads to an overall more enjoyable experience for visitors to your website. Ultimately, the decisions you make to make your site more intuitive and readable for the search engines should do the same for your target audience.
Top Tools and Tech for SEO Keyword Clustering
There are plenty of keyword clustering tools out there that take care of clustering keywords for you by analyzing data through various algorithms and other techniques. We’ll share a handful of our favorites to use at Slam, so you have a good place to start looking for your own SEO keyword clustering tool.
Keyword Insights
One of the most popular keyword clustering tools available is Keyword Insights—that’s what we use here at Slam! This system uses AI to analyze keywords and group them into efficient clusters. It also provides actionable insights based on the data you feed it, saving you time while boosting your SEO strategy. With Keyword Insights, you’ll be able to generate thousands of keyword ideas, organize them, and leverage AI to create and optimize content around them.
Ahrefs
You can cluster keywords, track your site’s rankings, and pinpoint weaknesses in your content strategy with Ahrefs. By leveraging keyword performance data, you can refine your keyword clustering strategy and up your SEO. Plus, you can audit your own website and optimize with functional keyword clusters that align with your goals.
Google Keyword Planner
If you’re not as comfortable with the keyword research process yet, Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to have by your side. Not only does this solution have a free option, but it also provides insights directly from Google itself, so you can better understand keyword clustering, volume, competition, and more.
SEMrush
With SEMrush, you can dive into SEO data and leverage strategic insights to generate the best keywords for your niche. Their keyword clustering tool goes beyond simple keyword research and generation, so you can analyze the landscape you’re competing in and take advantage of opportunities for improvement over time.
Common Keyword Clustering Challenges (+ Solutions)
While clustering keywords for SEO is a daily straightforward process, it can take some time to master. If you have SEO and webflow experts like Slam on your side, you don’t have to worry about navigating all that. However, in case you’re tackling the keyword clustering on your own, here are some potential issues to avoid:
- Over-Clustering Keywords
- Keyword Misalignment
- Changing Search Trends
Over-Clustering Keywords
When you’re separating out keywords into clusters, it can be easy to spread things too thinly. Too many narrow clusters can negatively impact your SEO efforts and undermine your content strategy as a whole.
If your content pillars aren’t performing as well as you think they should be, review your keyword clusters and try merging any that are closely related. You should make it a point to do this regularly as you update content and refine your marketing strategies.
Keyword Misalignment
Another common problem people face with clustering keywords is dealing with disconnects between keywords in a given cluster and user search intent. Sometimes, you may come across a case where a keyword is only somewhat related to what a user is searching, which can lead to them encountering irrelevant content and leaving your page.
It can be hard to meet every single users’ search goals, but you can do your best by seeking out feedback and leveraging analytics about how visitors interact with the content on your website. By collecting feedback and making regular updates, you can be sure you’re optimize your content pillars and giving your site the best chance at a high ranking.
Changing Search Trends
Another important reason to regularly update content is to ensure you’re staying relevant with the information you’re sharing. Some keyword clusters may be less effective over time as search trends evolve and new dynamics come into play. The best way to combat this issue is simply to stay proactive and refresh keyword clusters to incorporate those new trends.
Up Your SEO Strategy Today with Slam
You know more about keyword clustering for SEO now, but the question remains: do you really want to apply all this knowledge on your own?
We’re not just an award-winning design agency in San Francisco; we are a full-service digital agency that prioritizes sustainable SEO practices, efficient webflow design and development, comprehensive content writing and strategy, and brand strategy and identity services. That said, you can count on us to know what we’re talking about when it comes to developing a killer SEO strategy.
From learning how to start an agency to keeping it running for years to come, Slam will be by your side and will keep you ahead of the curve with your digital marketing efforts. Contact our team, and we can take care of the rest! And if you’re not ready to take that step, at least let us leave you with our Keyword Research Template to send you off on your SEO journey.
Stay at the top of your SEO game with these slammin’ resources:
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