Are you struggling with a lack of traffic to your website even after writing high-quality content and implementing effective strategies? You are at the right place. In today’s competitive online marketplace, bringing traffic is no less than navigating a complex maze. Moreover, search engine algorithms are developed in a way that they pick only the relevant, user-friendly, authoritative, and high-quality results for the users as per their query. Content Hubs are the most important part of any content strategy, which, when used in the correct manner, can be the main source of organic traffic and conversions. They show search engines that your website holds authority on a particular topic and has the power to deliver value and enhance user experience.
Whether you’re just getting started or looking for methods to organize your content, the Content Hub is the ultimate solution for your problem. However, as many people do not clearly understand what a content hub is and how to create it, we have created a complete guide on content hub and its creation to help you organize your content, increase traffic and take your online presence to the next level.
What is Content Hub?
A content hub is a page, section or a platform that includes a collection of various pages related to the same subject or topic. In simple words, a website contains different forms of topics and contents, and a hub page is a centralized location where all such amazing posts on a particular topic are present. A content hub can include articles, blogs, infographics, videos, podcasts, interviews, and other types of content in which your brand holds expertise.
Content hubs use an internal linking approach to link all pages (spoke pages) of the same topic to the central hub page and make content easily accessible to the audience. Multiple content on a specific topic allows search engine algorithms to ensure the website has authority on that topic. When your website proves authority, search engines boost your rankings, ultimately increasing traffic, conversions, brand awareness and customer loyalty. It includes 3 main sections:
The central content hub page – that includes an overview of the main topic and links to all the subpages
Subpage – that provides in-depth information related to a main topic or sub-topics
Internal linking – this is the process of connecting different sub-pages to the main page and vice versa
Moreover, there is a difference between a blog and a content marketing hub page. For blogs, you have to create new content daily, whereas a content hub does not require you to write any new content. It simply focuses on organizing your existing content on a particular topic in one place systematically to enhance user experience, boost traffic, reduce bounce rate, and increase session time.
Example of a Content Marketing Hub
The main purpose of a content hub or content marketing hub is to help readers explore and learn about a topic in detail. The best type of content hub is “hub and spoke,” which includes a single hub page, and its subpages linked to the main page and vice versa.
Suppose you want to create a content hub related to the main topic, “Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing”. This could include links to several spoke pages, including:
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- Search engine optimization
- Analytics and Measurement
Now, each spoke page may have further sub-topics. For example, under social media marketing, you may find topics like Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, Twitter marketing, etc. Similarly, under content marketing, you may find topics like blogging, freelancing, video marketing, SEO strategies, etc.
The main page or hub page includes only the overview of the central topic, which is “Digital marketing”, and brief content about the spoke pages. For each sub-topic, there will be a detailed page with long tail keywords, FAQs and detailed information about the topic and its sub-topics.
For example, the spoke page for paid advertising must include evergreen content like its introduction, strategies, optimization tips, etc., in its dedicated sub-page. Remember that not only does the content hub page link to the spoke pages, but the spoke pages must also link back to the main content hub.
A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Content Hub
Now that you know what a content hub is, it is time to learn more about creating a content hub page successfully. Although there are different ways to create a content hub based on your requirements and model choice, there are some general steps to follow. Have a look at the beginner’s guide to creating a content hub:
Develop a Content Strategy
Creating a content hub requires meticulous planning and developing a content strategy like any other content marketing activity. To do this, review your competitors, perform KOB analysis and, most importantly, identify your target audience. After that, conduct the basic research about the layout, main topic, theme, goals, objectives, content types, schedule, promotion strategies, platforms, or CMS needed to create your content hub. Make sure to include a variety of content formats, such as articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. Ensure that the content hub strategy must align with your brand goals and objectives and solve problems of the viewers.
Audit your Existing Content and Identify your Main Topic
The most obvious thing while creating a content hub is identifying and deciding the main topic of your content hub. The main topic will be the core of the content marketing hub page. To find the main topic, audit your existing content and choose the topic that has several sub-topics and blogs on your website. For example, if your website is about gardening, you can choose a main topic, Indoor Plants, and link several spoke pages related to indoor plants on the main page and vice versa. However, ensure that the topic is relevant to the brand, resonates with your audience, has a high search volume and is widely present on your website.
Brainstorm and Select its Subtopics
To create a hub for digital content, it is critical to brainstorm and select the subtopics that revolve around the main topic of the content hub. To do that, simply use a content research tool and get ideas about sub-topics related to the main topic. The sub-topics must be relevant to the main topic, provide value to the audience, easier to rank and engaging as well as informative. For example, with the central topic of indoor plants, your subtopics could be their benefits, categories, maintenance tips, selecting the right plants, indoor plant decor ideas, seasonal plant care, etc. Once you decide on the sub-topics, audit your website and find out which sub-topics are already present on your website. Make a list of such topics and the ones that you have to write to fill the gap. Remember that the sub-topics can include not only blogs but also videos, listicles, podcasts, etc.
Structure your Content Marketing Hub
The next step is creating a content hub in a user-friendly way. To do that, firstly you need to select a platform where the content hub will be present. You can choose either a DAM software or CMS platform for creating your content hub. After that, decide where you want to showcase your content hub, whether it will be on a separate page under the resources section or linked straight to your website’s landing page. Once the platform and place are decided, start designing the content hub page and ensure that it’s user-friendly and easy to understand and navigate. Create the structure in a way that you can organize content categories, topics, or themes effectively, making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
Create Effective Content Briefs
The main page contains brief descriptions of the topics besides a link to their specific pages. Therefore, to create a hub for digital content, it is critical to build effective content briefs that inform both the audience and search engines about the subtopic. Moreover, it can also help content writers write about new topics quickly and easily, saving both time and effort. You can use content brief generators or even AI tools to create briefs within seconds.
Link the Hub page to the Subpages
Once you create effective briefs, it’s time to compile everything and start adding content to the content hub page. The most common linking structure is a custom table of multiple contents. As per the structure and design of the main page, add the content briefs under their particular section and link the headings to their specific spoke pages. Make sure to link the spoke pages back to the content hub page to boost traffic and navigation. Besides linking the spoke or sub-pages, it’s crucial to follow an interlinking strategy to link other pages in the content using the keyword-rich anchor text to pass authority and boost SEO.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can state that creating a content hub is easy when you have the right knowledge and guidance. To create a hub for digital content, make sure to follow the above steps and organize your content in a well-structured, user-friendly and understandable manner. A Content hub increases your brand visibility, boosts traffic, encourages engagement, improves site authority, enhances user experience and increases rankings on search engine result pages. So, create a content hub, optimize your content and make your website authoritative and relevant to the search engine.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different types of Content marketing hubs?
There are 5 main types of content marketing hubs:
1. Hub and Spoke Model
2. Content Library
3.Topic Gateway
4.Content Database
5.Topic Matrix
Why is content hub important in 2024?
Content hub helps you organize content in a single page, thus sending traffic to the several pages on the website and increasing session duration. Besides that, it offers internal linking opportunities which ultimately improve engagement and user experience.
What are the best content aggregation strategies for creating a well-structured content hub?
1. Create High-quality content
2.Consistently maintain and update the content hub
3.Add different types of content in the content marketing hub
4.Establish a promotion plan
5.Implement a measuring strategy and track the content hub's success
How frequently should I update my content hub?
Updating a content hub is crucial to keep the content fresh and relevant to the audience. It's beneficial to update the content hub at least once a month to add new topics, update keywords, remove outdated content and modify the existing content.
What are the benefits of using a content hub?
There are several benefits of using a content hub: