Google sends billions of visitors to websites every day. How do your blogs or articles get part of the action? Use a Content Hub!

What is a Content Hub?

Content hubs are simply a way to organize your content so viewers can see what you have to offer in a glance. An added benefit? Search engines love content hubs and will rank you higher because it can more easily see you are an authority on specific subjects. It’s a win-win!

Also known as “information hubs” or “resource centers”, a content hub is a central location that organizes all of your topics automatically. When you create a new article or blog, it will fall in the correct category in the hub making it easy to spot and even easier for search engines to crawl.

This will translate into higher traffic and conversion because search engines will begin to rank your material higher. They also help your overall SEO by having the opportunity to include many more ranked keywords and phrases in your content.

What’s the Difference Between a Content Hub and Blog?

A blog is a concise article that shares information, provides instruction or inspiration, relating directly to a particular topic, product, or service. Besides text, it can contain visuals including images and graphics, infographics, or even video and audio components.

A content hub is a well-organized page or blog that clearly highlights specific topics. It can be considered the Table of Contents for your blog collection. The content hub will display and link each topic to a variety of formats including articles, vlogs (video blogs), podcasts, tools, resources, infographics, and more.

What Can Be Included in a Content Hub?

Blog posts and articles are the most common. They usually comprise the majority of content and work to provide additional information on any topic.

Videos can be used as well either as a standalone entity or embedded in an article or blog. Videos are often used to provide more clarity to a subject, demonstrate instruction, or provide a visual summary of a product, service, or location.

Like videos, infographics can also break up the monotony of text-heavy articles and blogs and are a favorite to be repined or shared. A well-done infographic can become viral with links back to your website.

What is a Topic Cluster (aka Hub and Spoke)?

A Topic Cluster (also known and Hub and Spoke) is a single dedicated page, the pillar page, that has strategically placed internal links to multiple in-depth cluster pages. Topic clusters are known for creating a strong internal linking structure. It is important to note that pillar pages should be fairly long (at least 2000 words) and have enough information that they are completely comprehensive.

When your site is crawled by Google, it will try to understand how each page relates to each other. When done correctly, pillar pages can help this process by providing a solid site structure. Google will more easily crawl your site and find every reason for you to be moved higher in rankings. Your content shows you are an expert in your field and Google will find and reward that.

High volume competitive keywords are notoriously difficult to rank for since they have such a high search volume. Pillar pages help with this since they tend to cover broad categories rather than the specific blog topics.

Another great SEO benefit is that pillar pages are primed to receive quality backlinks. This will earn them a higher page rank to pass along to each internal link. It’s a win-win!

What is a Content Library?

If you have a deep wealth of information to be shared, a content library may be the best type of content hub.

A content library is an index page that lists all relevant topics and links to each subtopic index page. Then each individual topic index links to each separate article, vlog, video, resource, etc.

This is a very clear, very user-friendly approach that is also SEO-friendly. Each final page can be accessing by only a few clicks.

What is a Topic Gateway?

If you have a large amount of information on one topic, a topic gateway may be the best way to set up your content hub. Every subtopic has a dedicated page that contains a concise overview of the topic with links to resources or new content on the subject. This is a good way to highlight certain blogs or newest ones.

What is A Content Database?

If you have a large amount of information that can be sorted a number of different ways, a content database may work the best. That way the viewer can sort and/or filter the information using a variety of different factors. For example, say you have information about many books on your website. You may want to give your customers the ability to filter by author or book title or sort by price.

What Are The Steps to Creating a Content Hub?

If you are familiar with web design, you can use the following steps to create a content hub. If not, it is important to find someone like Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC who has extensive experience with content creation, organization, and SEO.

• Decide what type of content hub fits your business model and marketing plan the best.

• Determine where the content hub will live. I recommend that the hub is easily accessible through the main navigation. Again, this will help search engines find and crawl the information.

• Organize your topics. There can be several but you should have enough knowledge about each one that you will be able to build several posts or articles about each. Topics should be relevant to your business and already have a lot of search volume (determined by research). You may already have a series of posts about different topics that can be placed neatly into these categories.

• Consider types of formats work best for your potential viewers. Will written blogs be best or how-to videos? Should you offer webinars, podcasts, tools, or other resources?

• Create new content. See where your topics may need extra information and begin writing well-researched, accurate, original content. Research current trending topics and competitors’ work. Ensure your posts are engaging, easy-to-read, and have clear CTA (calls-to-action) to generate leads or follows.

• Ensure all internal and external links are working correctly. Make sure every post is linked correctly from the main content hub and any internal links to other resources on and off your website.

• Ensure every post has the correct on-page SEO in place including the proper use of H1 and H2 headings, metadata, and trending keywords.

• Add a clear CTA (call to action) on every piece of content so viewers can easily reach you to learn more, book an appointment, call, etc.

• Promote your new content everywhere that is dictated in your marketing plan. Send it out via social media, with influencers, publications, through email marketing, and relevant forums.

Click here to learn more about making blogs that are trending.

How Does a Content Hub Help with Organic Traffic?

• Organizing your pages with a content hub will help Google better understand and crawl your website. It will make connections more apparent and will more easily find your business strengths.

• As mentioned earlier, competitive, high-volume keywords are notoriously hard to rank for but if you have a pillar page linked to multiple subtopic pages full of long-tail keywords, the pillar page will start to increase its authority with broad keywords and phrases.

• Content hubs help with off-page SEO as well inviting more backlinks, brand recognition and possible content and infographic shares. The more these events occur from credible sources, the higher the search ranking.

• Because a content hub makes it easier for viewer to quickly find topics and relevant articles, your website will naturally incur more hits over time resulting in a higher ranking.

Why is Branding Important?

You will want your readers to immediately know it is you and your business when reading any of your material. At a minimum, a professional logo will set the tone and let your visitors know that they can trust your content. A few other things to consider:

• While topics may differ, keep the overall layout of blogs fairly consistent. This will breed familiarity and trust with your readers.

• Create a content hub so readers can quickly scan and find the article that appeals to them. Also known as “information hubs” or “resource centers”, a content hub is a central location that organizes all of your topics automatically. When you create a new article or blog, it will fall in the correct category in the hub making it easy to spot and even easier for search engines to crawl. This will translate into higher traffic and conversion because search engines will begin to rank your material higher. They also help your overall SEO by having the opportunity to include many more ranked keywords and phrases in your content.

• People often will want to find out more about the author so ensure your “About” page on your website is strong.

• Find a writing style that is comfortable to you and stick with it. Having one article strictly professional and another “chatty” will only confuse your readers.

• Try to stick to a publishing schedule. This is often easier said than done but if viewers are expecting new material, it’s best not to give them the opportunity to look elsewhere. If you find the time, you can write many blogs at one time, then schedule them to be released at regular intervals. If this is still an impossible feat, consider hiring a content marketing ghostwriter like Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC.

How do Content Hubs Help with Lead Generation?

When creating a funnel with your content hub, you will be able to provide relevant information at every stage which in turn helps you turn viewers into customers. As they work their way through your content hub they will be able to see the breadth of your knowledge all the way down to the exact reason they should be buying a service or product from you. There will be multiple occasions to nurture prospects in a variety of ways that may click with them.

How Do Content Hubs Help with User Interaction (UX)?

A well-executed content hub can be the center of your marketing efforts, organizing all of your services and/or products in a concise well-organized manner. Viewers will quickly see what your business offers, why you are an expert, and exactly how you stand out from your competitors (your USP or unique selling proposition).

Readers will also appreciate your organization and the ease of finding information. The goal is to make them want to return again and again to find information because it was so helpful and enjoyable. Google will reward your effort to make your site UX (user experience) centered and take that into consideration in their algorithm.

Why Should Metrics Be Tracked?

In order to see if your content hub is performing well, it is important to check the analytics frequently.

• Is your hub page getting increased page views? If not, consider promoting it through social media or paid ads.

• Are viewers spending a good amount of time on your hub? If not, make it more intriguing or curate the information to make it more interesting.

• How is your bounce rate? If viewers are not interested enough to read through more of the content, try to figure out what will make them stay. Perhaps the content needs more visuals and less words.

• Is your social media following growing and/or you getting more email subscribers?

• Have your sales or requests increased?

Summary

If you have blogs or other resources on your website, content hubs are a necessity, not a nice-to-have. Content hubs will:

• organize your information

• make your expertise apparent and readily accessible

• give viewers an easy way to access information on specific topics or issues

• enables Google to confirm your areas of expertise

• give opportunities to rank in competitive, high-volume keywords and phrases

• attract quality backlinks

• boost organic search results

Need Help?

Schedule a free, no obligation consultation here. Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC has extensive experience with content hubs and can work with you to successfully create, organize, and promote your content. Want to see a content hub in action? Visit CWD’s content hub here.