Latest / Content Marketing with Fexingo: Blogs, Videos, and Long-Form Content That Converts / How HubSpot Uses Topic Clusters for SEO Dominance
Transcript
- Lucas: So HubSpot has been the poster child for inbound marketing for over a decade. But in 2025, they quietly overhauled their entire content strategy—moving from individual blog posts to something they call topic clusters. Luna: I remember reading about that. They essentially stopped publishing standalone articles and started grouping everything around pillar pages. Lucas: Exactly. The core idea is simple: instead of writing 200 loosely related posts on 'marketing automation,' you create one definitive pillar page that covers the topic broadly, then link out to cluster posts that dive into specific subtopics. Luna: And Google loves that, right? It signals topical authority. Lucas: Right. HubSpot saw that their old approach—publishing five posts a day on random keywords—wasn't cutting it anymore. Google's algorithms got smarter. They started rewarding depth over breadth. Luna: What kind of results did they see after the switch? Lucas: They haven't released exact numbers, but third-party tools tracked a 40% increase in average time on page across their cluster pages. And their organic traffic from non-branded keywords grew about 25% in six months. Luna: Forty percent time on page is massive. That signals engagement. Lucas: Exactly. The pillar pages become hubs that people actually spend time on. For example, their 'Marketing Hub' pillar page covers the entire platform. Then they have cluster posts like 'How to Set Up Email Sequences' or 'Lead Scoring 101' that link back to that pillar. Luna: So the pillar page ranks for broad terms, and the cluster posts rank for long-tail keywords. It's a net. Lucas: That's the perfect way to describe it. And the internal linking structure is critical. HubSpot's content team maps out every link before they publish. Every cluster post links to the pillar, and the pillar links to the cluster posts. It's a closed loop. Luna: That takes a lot of planning. Not every team has the resources. Lucas: True. But you don't need HubSpot's budget to copy the model. A small team can start with one pillar page and five cluster posts. That's enough to test the approach. Luna: Let's talk about how to actually pick the topic for the pillar page. Lucas: Good question. HubSpot uses what they call a 'content matrix.' They map their buyer's journey stages against key product categories. For a B2B SaaS company, you might have pillar pages for 'Onboarding,' 'Integrations,' 'Reporting'—each one targeting a specific stage. Luna: And then the cluster posts answer specific questions within each stage. Lucas: Right. So if the pillar is 'Onboarding Best Practices,' the cluster posts could be 'Setting Up User Permissions' or 'Importing Data from Competitors.' Each cluster post targets a keyword that someone searching for help would use. Luna: I've seen some brands try this and fail because they don't update the pillar page regularly. Lucas: That's a key mistake. HubSpot's content team revisits pillar pages every quarter. They add new statistics, update examples, and sometimes add new cluster links. The page is a living document. Luna: So it's not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Lucas: Not at all. But the payoff is that once a pillar page ranks, it tends to stay ranked because Google sees it as authoritative and fresh. Luna: Let's talk about a smaller brand that successfully used topic clusters. Lucas: Sure. I came across a case study from a company called Animalz, a content agency. They built a pillar page on 'Content Strategy for SaaS' and wrote 15 cluster posts. Within four months, organic traffic to the cluster posts grew 300%. Luna: Wow. And that's a relatively small team. Lucas: Yeah, they had two writers and one editor. The key was that they prioritized the pillar page first, then wrote cluster posts in order of search volume. Luna: So they didn't try to do everything at once. Lucas: Exactly. They started with one topic cluster and expanded once they saw traction. That's the smart way to do it. Luna: I imagine internal linking is the hardest part for most teams. Lucas: It's surprisingly tedious. HubSpot actually uses a spreadsheet to map every link before writing. They assign each cluster post a primary keyword and then decide which anchor text to use for the link back to the pillar. Luna: And they avoid generic anchor text like 'click here'? Lucas: Right. They use the target keyword or a close variant. That helps search engines understand the relationship between the pages. Luna: What about updating old content? HubSpot has thousands of legacy posts. Lucas: They did a massive content audit in 2024. They identified posts that could be consolidated into pillar pages. Some old posts got merged, some got redirected. They ended up cutting their total post count by 20% but increased traffic overall. Luna: So less really is more. Lucas: In this case, yes. Quality and structure outweigh volume. Luna: You know, this episode is exactly the kind of practical deep dive that makes me appreciate what we do here. Lucas: Same. And speaking of that — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through Buy Me a Coffee dot com slash Fexingo, and that literally funds making this many episodes. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group that keeps the show ad-free and focused on real strategies. Lucas: Back to topic clusters — one pitfall I see is that teams create a pillar page but then never promote it. Luna: What's the best way to promote a pillar page? Lucas: HubSpot promotes pillar pages through email newsletters, social media, and even as lead magnets. They'll offer a downloadable PDF version of the pillar page in exchange for an email address. Luna: So the pillar page pulls double duty — SEO and lead generation. Lucas: Exactly. And because the pillar page is already comprehensive, it converts well. HubSpot reported that their pillar page gated downloads have a 15% conversion rate on average. Luna: Fifteen percent is solid. Most landing pages see 2 to 5 percent. Lucas: That's the power of combining SEO with lead gen. The visitor is already warm because they found the page through search. Luna: Alright, so if someone wants to start a topic cluster strategy tomorrow, what's step one? Lucas: Step one is to audit your existing content. Find five to ten posts that cover different aspects of one broad topic. Then decide on the pillar topic — it should be broad enough to support multiple cluster posts but narrow enough to be authoritative. Luna: And don't try to cover 'marketing' in one pillar. That's too broad. Lucas: Right. Better to pick a subtopic like 'email marketing for SaaS' or 'content distribution tactics.' The more specific, the better chance you have of ranking. Luna: What about tools? Are there any that help with cluster planning? Lucas: HubSpot has their own content strategy tool, but you can use something as simple as a spreadsheet. Or tools like MarketMuse and Clearscope can help identify subtopics and linking opportunities. Luna: One last thing — how long does it take to see results from a topic cluster? Lucas: Typically three to six months. Google needs time to crawl and index the new structure. But if you're consistent with internal links and updates, the payoff compounds. Luna: So it's a long game, but the foundation is solid. Lucas: Exactly. And in an era where everyone's chasing ai generated content, building real topical authority is a differentiator. Luna: That's a good note to end on. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. See you next time.