Topic clusters

A topic cluster is a named set of search queries: “Tents”, “Rain jackets”, “How-to”. It is the query twin of a content group: groups collect pages, clusters collect the searches people make.

Where. Open the Groups tab and switch to Topic clusters (the other side is Page groups).

Make a cluster. Choose New cluster, name it and add rules. Rules ignore upper and lower case:

• Query contains looks anywhere in the query, for example tent.
• Query does not contain removes queries, for example stake. A cluster needs at least one other rule.
• Query starts with and Query ends with, for example how to or review.
• Query has any of the words takes several words separated by spaces and matches whole words only: tarp tent matches “cheap tarp” but not “tarpaulin”.

A query is in the cluster when any of the other rules matches and no “does not contain” rule does.

Suggested clusters. If you have room for more clusters, the tab suggests up to 10 starter clusters: the two-word phrases that appear in the most of your queries (your brand terms and short words like “how” or “for” are left out). Add all creates them in one click; you can edit or delete each one afterwards.

The table. One row per cluster with the number of queries that had impressions, clicks, impressions, CTR, average position (weighted by impressions) and the change against your comparison period, plus a small clicks trend. Click a cluster’s name to open the Queries tab filtered to it.

Overlap. A query can be in several clusters. “ultralight tent” can be in both “Tents” and “Ultralight”, so the clusters can add up to more than your site’s total.

Filter by cluster. A Topic cluster menu above the numbers narrows Overview, Queries and Pages (and the monthly heatmap and CSV export) to that cluster’s queries. On Pages it reads page-and-query data, which we keep for 90 days. Countries & devices ignore it.

Limits. Up to 25 clusters per site, 10 rules per cluster, names to 60 characters, rule values to 100 characters. Regular expressions are not supported yet. Owners, admins and members can edit clusters; a change can be undone from the line that appears after saving.

Plans. Pro and Agency. Free sees a short note about Pro.