What is a hub page?

Hub pages are central pages on a website that provide an overview of a topic with internal and external links. They’re good for SEO and improve user ex­pe­ri­ence, thanks to their simple nav­i­ga­tion and targeted in­for­ma­tion.

What is the de­f­i­n­i­tion of a hub page?

Hub pages are cen­tral­ized pages that contain links to content sur­round­ing a certain topic. That topic is usually one that is of key im­por­tance to your website and has content with high-volume keywords. The goal is to reach as large a target group as possible.

The content you publish on your hub page should be relevant for your specific niche. So if you have a pho­tog­ra­phy blog or company, the content on your website’s hub page should center around pho­tog­ra­phy. The content should also be high quality and contain keywords that are relevant to pho­tog­ra­phy. This will help you get ef­fec­tive­ly indexed by search engines. When doing keyword research, you should focus on finding the most relevant terms for your topic.

Hub pages can be broken into different cat­e­gories based on how they’re struc­tured and what their aim is:

• Hub Page/Pillar Content: Provides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of a broad topic
• Subpages/Cluster Content: Contains com­pre­hen­sive in­for­ma­tion on specific aspects of the main topic
• Hy­per­links: Links that connect the main page with the subpages. The main page should contain links to all the subpages and each subpage should link back to the main page.

What are internal and external hub pages?

An internal hub page is a hub page on your website that organizes and connects content from your site according to topic, making it a central point for in­for­ma­tion on that topic. External hub pages, on the other hand, are spe­cial­ized websites or platforms that are located outside your website and likewise serve as a cen­tral­ized place for in­for­ma­tion and resources on specific topics or areas of interest.

While internal hub pages organize content from a single website, external hub pages bring together content from a variety of outside sources. External hub pages have a positive impact on search engine op­ti­miza­tion (SEO). Because they link different external sources and build backlinks, they can help boost your website’s vis­i­bil­i­ty and ranking in search engine results.

External hub pages can also boost the reach and vis­i­bil­i­ty of brands, companies and or­ga­ni­za­tions. By pub­lish­ing content outside of your website, you can reach new target groups and increase your cred­i­bil­i­ty on certain topics. Hub pages are a valuable tool for content marketing and digital strate­gies that aim to increase your presence in certain areas of interest while also providing valuable resources for users.

Why are hub pages so important for SEO?

There are a number of reasons hub pages are good for SEO:

• Structure and or­ga­ni­za­tion: Hub pages serve as a central hub for in­for­ma­tion on a topic. Their clear nav­i­ga­tion structure makes it easier for search engines to un­der­stand the hierarchy and the con­nec­tions between different content. Bread­crumb nav­i­ga­tion is an effective method for il­lus­trat­ing the structure of hub pages.
• Internal links: Hub pages makes it easier to link in­ter­nal­ly, as they list various relevant subpages. These links help search engines to recognize the relevance of and re­la­tion­ships between the content, which can pos­i­tive­ly impact your ranking.
• Keyword op­ti­miza­tion: Since hub pages each focus on a specific topic, they can be optimized with relevant keywords. This helps boost the page’s ranking for certain searches.
• Authority and expertise: As a com­pre­hen­sive overview of a par­tic­u­lar topic, hub pages can be perceived as an authority in their area. Search engines favor pages that are con­sid­ered credible and competent.
• Improved user ex­pe­ri­ence: A well-designed hub page improves user ex­pe­ri­ence by making it easier to navigate through various bits of relevant content. Positive user ex­pe­ri­ence is a factor that search engines rate websites on.
• Backlink potential: If your hub page contains high-quality and in­for­ma­tive content, other websites might link to it. Backlinks from high-quality sources can improve your SEO per­for­mance.
• Content marketing strategy: Hub pages are often part of a com­pre­hen­sive content marketing strategy. By providing valuable content, they can increase en­gage­ment and help keep users on your site longer, which also has a positive effect on your ranking.

What are the downsides of hub pages?

Hub pages play an important role in struc­tur­ing content and in SEO strate­gies, but they do bring some downsides and chal­lenges with them. These downsides can in turn have a negative effect on website ad­min­is­tra­tion, content man­age­ment and SEO per­for­mance.

• A lot of work: Creating and main­tain­ing a hub page requires a lot of time and resources. You’ll need to do thorough research, create high-quality content and con­stant­ly update the page to keep it relevant. This can present a challenge for in­di­vid­u­als or small teams.
• Complex struc­tures: Hub pages need to be well struc­tured to work ef­fec­tive­ly. A poorly struc­tured page can make the user feel lost or miss important content. Creating an intuitive and user-friendly structure requires careful planning and constant updating.
• The right balance of keywords: It can be difficult to find the right balance when inserting keywords. Using too many keywords can make a page read like spam, but not using enough will decrease SEO ef­fi­cien­cy.
• Over­lap­ping content: If you have several hub pages on similar topics, you run the risk of repeating content. This can confuse users and decrease SEO ef­fi­cien­cy due to internal com­pe­ti­tion between the pages. -Potential nav­i­ga­tion dif­fi­cul­ties: If a hub page contains a lot of in­for­ma­tion and links, it can make nav­i­ga­tion more difficult. Users might not find what they’re looking for right away, which neg­a­tive­ly affects user ex­pe­ri­ence. -De­pen­dence on external links: Hub pages often depend on external links to strength­en their authority and relevance. If external content is deleted or changed, this can affect the integrity and ranking of the hub page. -Risk of over­whelm­ing the user: An abundance of in­for­ma­tion and options can end up over­whelm­ing your audience. This will decrease en­gage­ment and con­ver­sion for your hub page. -Potential technical problems: Due to their com­plex­i­ty and large amount of linked content, hub pages can come with a number of technical chal­lenges, such as long loading times and dif­fi­cul­ty dis­play­ing on smart­phones.

How to create a hub page

Creating a hub page requires putting care into the planning, struc­tur­ing and im­ple­men­ta­tion of the page. Follow these steps to create an effective hub page:

Step 1: Choose a topic

Choose a clearly defined topic for your hub page. Make sure that the topic is relevant for your target group and is a good fit for your brand or company.

Step 2: Structure subtopics

As soon as you’ve decided on a main topic, you can start choosing suitable subtopics. There are various ways to get ideas, like using keyword tools. You should also take into account each topic’s search volume. If the search volume for a certain topic is too low, you can combine it with a different subtopic to increase its relevance.

Step 3: Create user-friendly struc­tures

User friend­li­ness is of key im­por­tance. You should design your hub page to be as clear and intuitive as possible, so users can easily find what they’re looking for.

Step 4: Choose content

Decide what kind of content you want to include on your hub page. Some examples include:

• Blog posts
• Articles
• Photos
• Explainer videos
• Podcasts

Think carefully about which formats are popular among your target group.

Step 5: Add internal links

Link to any subpages you’ve created and other relevant content on your own website. Make sure internal links are well placed and help users to dive deep into the topic.

Step 6: Integrate con­ver­sion and CTAs

All content should include a CTA that fits the user’s place in the marketing funnel. For example, if the user has just started their journey, a good CTA might have them sign up for a newslet­ter.

Step 7: Search engine op­ti­miza­tion

Make sure your hub page is designed for search engines and your SEO content is optimized. This involves using relevant keywords, a clear URL structure, the right meta de­scrip­tion and other SEO tech­niques. Learn about how to best use various SEO tech­niques in our SEO guide for small busi­ness­es.

Step 8: Generate attention

Promote your hub page across a variety of channels. Build backlinks by con­tact­ing in­flu­encers or websites in your industry and asking them to link to you.

Step 9: Analyze and update

Monitor the per­for­mance of your hub page using analytics tools. Keep an eye on how it performs in search results and how users react to it. Update your hub page regularly to ensure that the in­for­ma­tion on it stays relevant and up to date.

Hub page example

Let’s look at an example hub page on the topic of pho­tog­ra­phy. The page is called “The world of pho­tog­ra­phy – A com­pre­hen­sive guide” and links to three subpages that in turn link to three more specific pages.

Subpage 1: Pho­tog­ra­phy basics

• Digital pho­tog­ra­phy for beginners
• Landscape pho­tog­ra­phy
• Portrait pho­tog­ra­phy

Subpage 2: Pho­tog­ra­phy equipment

• Choosing a camera
• Un­der­stand­ing lenses
• Ac­ces­sories for pho­tog­ra­phers

Subpage 3: Post-pro­cess­ing and image editing

• In­tro­duc­tion to image editing
• Advanced editing tech­niques
• Archiving and or­ga­ni­za­tion

Each of these subpages includes a detailed in­tro­duc­tion to the topic at hand and provides links to ad­di­tion­al resources. The structure allows users to find specific in­for­ma­tion and dive deeper into various aspects of pho­tog­ra­phy.