Keywords
Keyword Clustering Explained
What clustering does, what head-word grouping can and cannot tell you, and how to use it.
5 min read
Clustering turns lists into structure
A flat list of two hundred keywords is data. A set of eight clusters is a plan. Clustering is the step that converts one into the other, and it is usually the moment a research session starts to feel productive.
Head-word grouping is a heuristic
Grouping by shared first meaningful word is transparent and fast: you can verify every decision by eye. It is not semantic analysis, and it will separate synonyms that mean the same thing but start differently.
That trade-off is usually worth it, provided you know it is happening and merge obvious duplicates by hand.
One cluster, one page
As a working rule, one cluster maps to one substantial page. If a cluster is enormous, it probably contains two topics and should be split. If several clusters have two entries each, they may be one page together.
Use clusters for internal links
Clusters make internal linking obvious: everything in a cluster links to the pillar for that cluster, and pillars link to each other. Deciding this before writing saves a painful retrofit later.