This step takes the pages built in Step 3 and groups related ones into topic clusters: the broad subjects your content plan is made of, each broken into the page-level subtopics you would need to cover it.
Like the rest of the analysis, it runs in the background during project creation. When the project is ready, the Topic clusters screen is where you land: one card per cluster, with the sidebar showing how many clusters, pages and keywords the plan contains.
Why this step exists
After Step 3 a project holds hundreds or even thousands of pages. A flat list that size is unworkable: you cannot see the shape of the subject, and you cannot tell which pages belong together.
There is also a search reason. Search engines tend to reward sites that cover a subject in depth over sites with one article on everything — this is what the app means by boosting topical authority. Covering the subtopics of one subject, together, is how that depth is built. Clusters make the subjects visible so you can work that way.
How it works
Related pages form a cluster
Pages that address the same broader subject are grouped into one topic cluster. The cluster is the subject; its pages are the subtopics. A cluster built around one service or theme will hold separate pages for its costs, its types, its comparisons, its how-to questions — each page carrying its own keywords from Step 3.
What a cluster card shows
Each card carries the cluster’s name, the traffic you could reach per month if you covered it, and three figures combined from the keywords of its pages: Volume, Difficulty and an Intent bar showing the mix of search intents.
Below them, the Cluster structure preview lists the first pages inside with their keyword counts, and Explore topic & pages opens the Pages screen narrowed to that cluster.
The three-level structure
This step completes the structure the whole app is built on: topic clusters contain pages, pages contain keywords. Thousands of keywords become hundreds of pages, and the pages become a manageable set of clusters — three views of the same plan at different zoom levels. The breadcrumb at the top of the screen — Topic clusters, then Pages, then Keywords — is the same structure, and every count in the sidebar is one of its levels.
What this means for you
Work cluster by cluster, not page by page. A single good article helps, but depth in one subject is what the grouping is for. Pick a cluster, cover its pages, and the pages support each other. How to pick is Step 5’s job — and yours.
The cards are made for comparing. Sort by orders clusters by Potential traffic, Search volume, Topic cluster difficulty or Favorite; the star on each card lets you shortlist candidates. A high-traffic, high-difficulty cluster and a smaller, easier one are different strategies, visible side by side.
Clusters are not all the same size, and you do not need all of them. One cluster may hold a few dozen pages and another several hundred. Size reflects how much people search around a subject, not importance to your business. Clusters that do not fit your business can be ignored — or deleted from the plan.
The cluster is where your first decision happens. Everything before this step was automatic. From here, choosing which subject to invest in is a judgement about your business, and the plan is built so you can make it with numbers in front of you.
What next
- Step 5 — How we prioritise what to create first
- What is topical authority?