A topic cluster is a group of pages that together cover one subject. Each page answers one part of the subject; the cluster is the whole. In RankDots, clusters are the top level of your content plan: clusters contain pages, and pages contain keywords.
The general idea
Search engines tend to rank a site higher on a subject when it covers that subject in depth, not just once. So rather than one long article trying to answer everything, you write several focused pages - one per question people actually ask - and link them together. That set of pages is a topic cluster. Covering a subject this way builds what is often called topical authority [link is coming].
Many SEO guides organise a cluster around one broad overview page, a pillar page [link is coming], that links to the narrower pages.
How RankDots builds them
RankDots builds clusters from what Google shows, not from what the words look like. It works in two steps.
- Pages first. Keywords go on the same page when Google’s top results for them overlap. If the same pages rank for two searches, Google treats them as one need, and one page of yours can serve both. See Step 3 - How we build pages from keywords.
- Then clusters. Pages that belong to the same broader subject are grouped into one cluster, and the cluster is named by the grouping algorithm with the help of AI. See Step 4 - How we group pages into topic clusters.
Each keyword sits on one page, and each page in one cluster. The grouping is done once, when your project is created, from the Google results collected then. It is updated slightly when you connect Google Search Console or import new keywords.
Where you’ll see it
On the Topic clusters screen, one card per cluster. Each card shows:
- the traffic you could reach per month by covering the cluster - the sum of its pages;
- Volume, Difficulty, and an Intent bar. Volume is the sum of the cluster’s pages; Difficulty is the cluster’s Topic difficulty. The intent bar is weighted by search volume, so busy searches count for more - see What is search intent?;
- a Cluster structure preview: the first pages inside, with their keyword counts;
- Explore topic & pages, which opens the Pages screen for that cluster only.
How to use it
- Work one cluster at a time. Depth in one subject is the point. Pick a cluster, write its pages, and link them to each other.
- A cluster often maps to a section of your site, such as a folder or a menu item. That keeps the pages close together for readers and for search engines.
- You don’t need every cluster. Size reflects how much people search around a subject, not how much it matters to your business. Skip or delete the clusters that don’t fit.
What it doesn’t tell you
- Which cluster to start with. The numbers help you compare, but the choice depends on your business.
- What your site already covers. A cluster is a plan, not an audit. Connect Google Search Console and use Opportunities to see which pages you already have. See What “page” means in RankDots.
- Changes in Google since your project was created. The grouping reflects the results collected then; later updates are small.
Not to be confused with
- Topics in AI Visibility. Those are groups of prompts - the questions you track in AI assistants - that you can name and edit yourself. A topic cluster is a group of pages in your content plan, built from Google’s results.