SEO for Advanced Users: Hub and Spoke Content Marketing Strategy

More and more people understand SEO, but Google is also constantly evolving. Content marketing and SEO are getting closer and this strategy brings them together.

Why you shouldn’t read this article

Many companies haven’t yet picked the low-hanging fruit when it comes to SEO. In many B2B markets, there’s still a lot of fruit to be picked. If you haven’t spent much time on SEO, it’s better to read one of the following articles:

• 9 Reasons Why Good Content Is Essential for SEO
• Ranking High in Search Engines: How Does SEO Work?

Great, you’re still here.

This article is an advanced SEO strategy and is built on your well-thought-out Content Marketing strategy. SEO and Content Marketing are practically inseparable, but I don’t need to explain that to you.

The SEO trick is too well-known.

The recipe was simple until recently: a good article with the keyword in the URL, title, a few headers, a few times in the text, and as an alt-tag for an image. Make sure your page’s authority is higher than the competition, and there’s a good chance you’ll rank high in Google. Goal achieved. Rinse and repeat, as the English say.

That worked well for a while.

But more and more people know the trick. Competition is increasing, and your lead is diminishing. You have to work harder for the same result.

Google is also getting smarter. Google now encourages searchers to ask increasingly complex questions instead of just two keywords. The search term “implement positioning” is becoming “implement positioning for medium-sized business service providers” more often. A more specific search should lead to a better search result: the user finds what they are looking for more quickly.

As a result, Google is adjusting its algorithm. The largest search engine in the Netherlands is increasingly assigning authority to domains rather than pages. The reasoning is that a site that is well-read on ‘positioning strategy’ or ‘brand strategy and positioning’ probably has something meaningful to say about ‘implementing positioning’ as well.

And that’s where we can come in.

The hub and spoke strategy: SEO and content marketing combined

A wooden wheel has been made in the same way for centuries: a wooden hub in the center with spokes radiating outward to support the rim.

The SEO/Content strategy is similar. At the center is an (extremely) comprehensive yet less in-depth article, the hub. In addition, there is a series of articles with more in-depth content that ‘rest’ on the hub, the spokes. The whole thing supports the rim, which symbolizes general authority or traction.

Sounds complex, let’s make this practical.

Example of the hub and spoke SEO/Content Marketing strategy

Hub: Everything about laminate flooring

Spokes:

• The importance of underlayment for laminate flooring
• Floor heating, how does it work with laminate flooring?
• The different types of laminate flooring and their pros and cons
• What determines the costs of laminate flooring
• How to install laminate flooring

The comprehensive hub article covers all aspects of ‘laminate flooring,’ the primary search term, but does not delve too deeply into each. Instead, the article refers to the spokes, where the information is shared in detail. The spokes themselves reference the hub article.

Google’s suggestions, a fantastic source of inspiration for spokes

In this case, Google sees that five pages are linking only to one page, leading the search engine to conclude that this is the ‘main’ article. As a result, it gains the highest authority and hopefully the top position in the search results.

The spokes are mainly focused on attracting specific long-tail search queries. The authority they accumulate is passed on to the hub.

SEO website architecture / structure

This suddenly makes the structure of your website quite clear. You probably already have a list of important keywords, and those are your hubs.

Certain spokes relate to two hubs. To stick with the flooring example, the article ‘The differences between laminate and parquet’ is relevant to both the laminate flooring hub and the parquet hub.

Hierarchy as a guide for content marketing

Finally, another important advantage of the hub and spoke strategy is that it provides a good framework for creating content. You can generate new content ideas more easily because the structure of your site becomes simpler. Instead of having a huge list of keywords and associated articles or URLs, they are now clustered by main topics.

This makes it easier to identify gaps in your content offerings, making it easier to come up with ideas for articles, videos, or infographics.

Merkelijkheid is increasingly adopting this strategy. We look forward to more structure, and the more ‘holistic’ approach aligns with how we view establishing expertise. Like people, Google is increasingly looking for domain experts, and we think this is a good move.

We would love to hear from you via the contact page or on social media about what you think of the Hub and Spoke SEO/Content Marketing strategy and whether it fits with your own online marketing experiences.