With over 90% of companies focusing on content marketing, it’s obvious that this avenue is a smart investment for your business. Interestingly, the most effective marketers build content around the interests of their target audience, not around promotional goals. Hub and spoke content can help your brand attract traffic, leads, and clients like never before. Discover how this approach works and why it’s so valuable.
The Hub and Spoke Content Model
Hub and spoke marketing is a content strategy that helps you strengthen your search rankings for target keywords. The primary content piece is the hub, covering the main topic in detail. Spokes are secondary articles related to the topic. They can offer answers to important questions, provide tips, or help visitors find excellent solutions.
Long-form blogs are a good fit for hubs, usually 1,500- or 2,000-word articles. Spoke pieces include many types of content:
- Blog posts: Short- or long-form articles that provide more details about the target topic and subtopics
- Guides: Blogs that explain key factors to consider before making a decision
- Web pages: Additional content to support your marketing campaign, especially product or service pages
- Infographics and videos: Visual content to help visitors understand topics better
- Case studies or eBooks: In-depth content, usually for a business-oriented audience
A map for hub and spoke marketing looks like a brainstorming diagram, with the main topic in the middle and subtopics branching off. This strategy can capture a wide range of searches, boost search rankings, and keep visitors engaged with your website.
Examples of Hub and Spoke Content
To help you understand how hub and spoke strategies work — and to offer helpful ideas — we’ve put together several examples of this model in action.
High-Volume Keywords
Content marketing and search engine optimization are excellent partners. Hub and spoke strategies work well for competitive keywords and searches with high monthly volumes.
- Main keyword: personal injury lawyer
- Secondary keywords: car accident lawyers, medical malpractice, personal injury law firm
- Hub: Why Do You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer After an Accident?
- Spoke 1 (services web page): A Personal Injury Lawyer You Can Trust
- Spoke 2 (blog post): Common Legal Mistakes After an Auto Accident (and How Car Accident Lawyers Help)
- Spoke 3 (blog post): How Do You Prove Medical Malpractice?
- Spoke 4 (local SEO web page): Personal Injury Law Firm in Miami, FL
The hub article should always focus on your primary keyword (though you can include secondary keywords, too). Spoke content is the perfect place for long-tail keywords that have fewer monthly visits but significant conversion potential for your business.
Key Business Services or Products
Example: Home Health Care Services
Hub and spoke content can “bulk up” areas of your website that are thin. Whether starting a new business, investing more in your website, expanding your market, or launching a new product, this model helps you show off your company’s advantages.
- Key business services to highlight: Home healthcare and certified nursing services
- Hub: What Are the Benefits of Home Healthcare Services?
- Spoke 1 (infographic): Benefits of Home Healthcare Services
- Spoke 2 (blog): Are Home Healthcare Aides Certified?
- Spoke 3 (long-form guide): Home Healthcare Vs. Assisted Living: Which Is Best for Your Loved One?
- Spoke 4 (eBook): Complete Guide to Financing for Home Health
- Spoke 5 (web page): Caring Home Healthcare Services in Phoenix, AZ
Even though our example only mentions five spokes, it’s common for hub and spoke models to have dozens of supporting web pages and blog posts.
High Converting (Lead-Gen) Landing Pages
Example: Cybersecurity IT Company
Hub and spoke content supports business-to-business (B2B) marketing perfectly. In this strategy, the hub is usually a landing page for leads or sales.
- Business Service: Cybersecurity solutions
- Target Audience industries: Manufacturing, energy, oil and gas
- Hub: Experts in Cybersecurity for Industrial Businesses
- Spoke 1 (blog): Why Do Manufacturers Need Cybersecurity?
- Spoke 2 (infographic): Cyberattacks on Industrial Businesses — Worrying Statistics
- Spoke 3 (video): What Is CMMC 2.0 and How Do You Get Certification?
- Spoke 4 (eBook): Guide to NIST Cybersecurity Framework Compliance
Spoke content serves two functions for B2B websites: driving more traffic to the hub and nurturing leads. Persuasive articles move potential customers closer to conversion.
Benefits of Hub and Spoke Marketing
The hub and spoke content model provides amazing benefits for law firms, manufacturers, healthcare providers, e-commerce businesses, and countless other companies that have significant keyword competition.
Improves Website Authority
When you have a comprehensive collection of articles around a topic, it helps establish your website as an authority on that topic. Search engines detect high-quality resources and are more likely to send traffic your way.
Distributes Page Equity Wisely
With hub and spoke content, you build an organized network of SEO content instead of a tangled web of messy links. This layout distributes link equity (the positive SEO value of trusted pages) efficiently. When you lead readers naturally from topics to subtopics (and vice-versa), the right pages stand out, and your content strategy is more effective.
Brings in More Traffic
The more content you have for high-volume keywords, the more clicks you get. Hub and spoke content is like a spider’s web, casting a wide net for related search queries and directing potential customers to your website.
Ranks Naturally for More Keywords
Why rank for just a few keywords when you can target dozens of search phrases simultaneously? SEO content is phenomenal for supporting competitive or broad keywords with a variety of long-tail search terms. On average, websites that rank in the top 10 results for high-value keywords also rank for 1,000 other keywords, give or take.
Keeps Visitors Engaged Longer
If you’ve ever started out searching for one thing but ended up reading about another topic that caught your eye, you know the power of hub and spoke layouts. The longer visitors stay on your website, the more they are to take action, from making a purchase to filling out a contact form.
Generates Higher-Quality Leads
When you align your content marketing around the needs of your target customers, you’re more likely to capture leads that fit your ideal profile. As your website becomes a go-to resource for industry knowledge, you gather leads from real professionals who are looking for solutions and interested in purchasing. Also, well-researched and in-depth articles help you move B2B visitors down the sales funnel.
How To Use a Hub and Spoke Content Strategy for Your Website
Good SEO practices have a significant effect on your hub and spoke content.
Make Time for Keyword Research
Content marketing is more effective when you know the right keywords to connect with your target audience. Make time at least twice a year for in-depth keyword research. Choose primary and secondary keywords and lay out content plans for several months.
Evaluate Competitor Sites
Find out if you’re missing opportunities to attract customers by checking out competing websites. Use SEO tools to see which topics bring them the most traffic. Next, look for ways to give visitors a superior experience, such as more engaging content.
Make Your Website a Valuable Place for Your Target Audience
Use hub and spoke content to thoroughly provide the answers or solutions your target customers need. For example, general contractors could create a “library” of blog articles related to home improvement or repairs.
Repurpose Content
High-quality blogs can deliver an excellent return on investment for your hub and spoke strategy. Convert small portions of existing blogs into social media posts, video outlines, marketing emails, infographics, or similar content.
Design Short-Term Content Campaigns
To maximize the SEO benefits of hub and spoke marketing, design a unified campaign. Create and post your hub piece first. Over two or three months, add supporting content for the same topic and keywords. This reinforces the “link juice” from each page.
Invest in Amazing Content
One of the best things about hub and spoke content is that it provides long-term value for your website. Informative content supports SEO, attracts inbound links, and generates clicks for pages. If you’re interested in learning more about how content marketing can benefit your business, we can help.
At Digital Neighbor, we have experience with every stage of hub and spoke marketing, from keyword planning to content creation. Schedule a consultation with our friendly team to learn more about how we can help you!
