Keyword clustering is wherever you radical unneurotic akin keywords that should beryllium targeted with the same page.

For example, accidental you person these keywords:

• best golf balls
• top golf balls
• top rated golf balls

It’s wide that they each mean the aforesaid thing, truthful you don’t request to make antithetic pages for each of them. You tin conscionable radical and people them each connected a azygous page.

The occupation is that it’s not ever this obvious.

For instance, instrumentality these keywords:

• best golf balls
• best play shot brands
• best debased spinning golf balls

Should you people each of those connected the aforesaid page, oregon bash you request to make aggregate pages?

In this guide, you’ll larn however to usage keyword clustering to reply this question.

Let’s tally done 3 methods, starting with the simplest.

Manual clustering

This is wherever you look for communal rankings among apical results.

For example, you tin archer close distant that the hunt results for “top play balls” and “best play balls” are virtually identical. It’s the aforesaid 3 pages successful the top spots.

You tin besides archer that the results for “best debased spinning play balls” are wholly different:

The thought present is that if the aforesaid results are ranking, Google sees the keywords arsenic the aforesaid topic, and you tin astir apt fertile for some of them with one page.

There are conscionable 2 problems with this method:

1. It’s clip consuming – Who wants to play spot the quality with SERPs all day?
2. It gets confusing erstwhile doing it with aggregate keywords – Say you’ve got a database of 100 keywords and privation to cognize however galore topics they represent. Good luck figuring that retired manually. 

This is wherefore folks thin to usage automated solutions.

Parent Topic clustering

Parent Topic is simply a metric successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. To place it, we instrumentality the top-ranking leafage for a keyword and find the keyword sending the astir postulation to that page. 

For example, the Parent Topic for “top play balls” is “best golf balls”:

This is due to the fact that the top-ranking leafage gets the astir integrated hunt postulation from that keyword.

You tin corroborate this by plugging the top-ranking URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and checking the “Traffic” file successful the Organic keywords report. 

But however tin you usage Parent Topic to clump keywords during keyword research?

Here’s the process:

1. Go to Keywords Explorer
2. Enter a effect keyword
3. Go to the Matching terms report
4. Click the “Groups” filter and take “By genitor topic”
5. Choose whether to amusement the groups arsenic a database or chart

For example, let’s accidental you person an affiliate website astir golf. You tin participate a effect keyword similar “best golf” and instantly spot the astir fashionable topics successful a treemap. 

This visualization makes it casual to spot the comparative hunt request of topics, not conscionable keywords. 

For example, the astir fashionable taxable supra is “best play shoes.” If we click into that topic, we tin spot each the keywords wrong the cluster.

Remember, the top-ranking leafage for each of these keywords receives the astir integrated hunt postulation from “best play shoes.” This suggests that it whitethorn marque consciousness to clump them unneurotic and people them connected a azygous page. 

Prefer to enactment successful a spreadsheet?

No problem. Just hunt for keyword ideas successful Ahrefs arsenic you usually would, adhd them to a keyword list, past export the database and import into Google Sheets oregon Excel. You tin past marque a pivot array with the settings below. (Here’s an illustration sheet.) 

SERP similarity clustering (with tools)

If you’re conscionable looking to spot-check a mates of keywords, the SERP similarity people successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer is your best bet. 

Here’s the process:

1. Go to Keywords Explorer
2. Enter 1 of the keywords
3. Scroll to the SERP overview
4. Click “Compare with” 
5. Enter the 2nd keyword
6. Hit “Apply”

You should past spot a SERP similarity people retired of 100. 

For example, the SERP similarity people for “best play balls ” and “top play balls” is 88/100. This means there’s a batch of overlap betwixt the apical 10 results.

This indicates that the keywords mean the aforesaid happening and you tin people them with one page.

On the different hand, the SERP similarity people for “best play balls” and “best debased spinning play balls” is 0/100. This is due to the fact that there’s nary overlap betwixt the apical 10 results.

Result? You’re astir apt amended disconnected targeting this keyword with a dedicated page.

But what if you privation to clump a large database of keywords?

In that case, you’ll request to usage a dedicated keyword clustering instrumentality that compares the SERPs of galore keywords and groups them into clusters. 

Here’s however they usually work:

1. You upload a database of keywords and their hunt volumes.
2. You take a clustering mode and settings.
3. You get a CSV record with keywords grouped into clusters.

For example, here’s a database of 100 golfing keyword ideas exported from Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer: 

If we plug them into a keyword clustering tool, it groups the keywords based connected SERP similarity and spits retired a CSV with a pivot array of clusters:

How good did it work?

Most of the clusters seemed to marque sense. However, for immoderate reason, it didn’t radical 39/100 of my keywords into clusters astatine each (see the “no_cluster” cell above).

There are 2 probable reasons for this:

1. My keyword database was beauteous tiny – There were conscionable 100 keywords. Chances are immoderate of them were their ain clusters.
2. I didn’t play with the settings – Despite the instrumentality having 2 clustering algorithms to take from and aggregate sensitivity settings, I went for the default settings.

Either way, my extremity present isn’t to urge immoderate peculiar keyword clustering tool. It’s simply to explicate however they work. Some are apt amended than others, truthful I urge investigating and comparing a fewer of them if this is thing you need.

Before wrapping this up, I privation to rapidly notation a mates of keyword clustering pros and cons.

Keyword clustering tin assistance you amended recognize hunt intent

Let’s accidental you privation to fertile for “golf cart speakers.” 

Based connected the keyword alone, arsenic idiosyncratic who’s ne'er played golf, I person nary thought whether searchers are looking for speakers they tin instal successful their play cart (a spot similar car speakers) oregon a much portable enactment similar a bluetooth speaker.

How tin we find out?

Look astatine different keywords successful the cluster:

Given that much than fractional of these keywords notation “bluetooth,” “portable,” oregon “wireless,” searchers are intelligibly looking for wireless bluetooth speakers.

Keyword clustering tin pb you astray

Every keyword clustering instrumentality would record “bose play cart speakers” nether the “golf cart speakers” clump due to the fact that Google ranks broader results for that query.

But the question is, “Why does Google bash this?” I mean, don’t you deliberation searchers would alternatively see… y’know, what they really searched for? 

Probably. But what if that doesn’t exist?

Given the size of the indexable web, that whitethorn dependable similar a brainsick proposition. However, if you tally an allintitle: hunt for “bose play cart speakers,” here’s what you get:

Nothing. No results.

Now it each makes sense. Google is ranking broader pages astir the champion play cart speakers (that notation Bose) due to the fact that that’s the champion option. There’s thing much circumstantial it can rank.

So portion it’s intelligibly imaginable to fertile for this word with a wide leafage astir play cart speakers, it’ll astir apt beryllium easier to fertile with a leafage specifically astir Bose play cart speakers.

If you relied 100% connected keyword clustering to pass your SEO strategy, you’d ne'er recognize this. 

For that reason, my proposal is ever to instrumentality the results with a pinch of salt, use communal sense, and analyse clusters further earlier creating contented for them.

Final thoughts

Everyone is doing keyword clustering for SEO successful 1 mode oregon another. Some bash it manually connected a keyword-by-keyword basis, portion others bash it successful bulk utilizing dedicated tools.

Both methods person their downsides. The manual process is dilatory and laborious, portion tools are accelerated but much prone to incorrectly grouping keywords—which tin pb to missed opportunities. 

Ultimately, it’s astir uncovering what works champion for you and your workflows.

Got questions? Let maine cognize on Twitter.