What is a hub and spoke content model? This content strategy is fundamental for any content marketing funnel or SEO strategy.
It is not difficult to implement, but it does take some work.
In this article, we’ll learn what it is, how it is useful from a marketing perspective, and how it can benefit your SEO.
What is a hub and spoke content model?
The “hub and spoke” portion of the term comes from a wheel analogy.
The two parts of the model are:
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The Hub – A lead magnet that you want to funnel users toward
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The Spokes – Supporting content pieces that direct users towards the hub
For instance, perhaps one of your marketing funnels revolves around a cheatsheet opt-in.
The cheatsheet, your lead magnet, would be the hub. You would trade this to users in exchange for their email address.
The spokes of the article would be a number of supporting articles that all lead back to that lead magnet.
Depending on which marketer you ask, their definition of the hub and spoke model may vary slightly.
At Content Marketing Institute, for instance, they demonstrate ways to drive traffic from guest posts (the spokes) towards your blog (the hub).
Orbit Media views this model as a set of pages (the spokes) that revolve around a central page (the hub). The central page is the main topic you’re trying to rank for – it can be a category page, a main web page, etc.
The definitions may vary, but its structure remains the same
Regardless of the exact definition, we can see a clear pattern.
In the hub and spoke content model, there’s a single central node and multiple supporting pillars.
The spokes can be blog articles on your site, blog posts on another site, social media posts, etc. And the concept of the hub can differ – it can be a page, a lead magnet, etc.
Regardless of the types of content involved, the structure is the same.
And the reason is simple: Google.
The hub and spoke content model evolved to please search engines, plain and simple.
In fact, if you look at other SEO strategies, you’ll see that they’re structured exactly the same way:
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Private Blogging Networks (PBNs) use supporting websites to link to a central website
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Standard SEO practices involve supporting a central site with supporting links from various sources around the web
In any case, the hub and spoke content model (or the content pyramid or the content silo) is an essential content marketing concept.
If you have a blog, but haven’t implemented this content model, then it’s time to get started … there’s a very good chance you’ll see better rankings, a stronger marketing funnel, and higher marketing ROI.
