This short tutorial covers the Research part of the typical Research > Plan > Content Brief workflow. It shows how to use Topic Explorer to research keywords and build out a topic cluster.
To get started you’ll need to enter a subject into the Research bar at the top. This is the main theme that ties your cluster together and also serves as the topic of your pillar page. The pillar page is the focal point of your cluster while supporting pages tackle topics that are closely related to the theme.
Topic Model
Created using MarketMuse patented topic modeling technology, this is a list of topics based on our analysis of hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of pages on the subject. This list of 50 semantically related topics is what the experts cover when discussing the subject. Those are the topics that you should cover when creating your pillar page.
They’re also topics around which you may wish to create supporting pages. The topic model is especially suited for creating clusters that dive deeper into the subject. We include volume, cost-per-click and trend data to help you decide which topics warrant individual pages.
Clicking on the gray + beside a topic adds it to your inventory and creates a plan. Adding it to your inventory enables MarketMuse to create personalized metrics for that topic which help in prioritizing the pages you create. The plan makes it easier to keep track of content briefs created for this specific cluster.
Keywords
Under the keywords tab you’ll find a list of keywords relevant to this cluster. These terms are helpful for widening out a cluster as they address areas of interest adjacent to the main topic. Volume, cost-per-click and trend data help you decide which topics warrant individual pages. Clicking on the gray + beside a topic adds it to your inventory and creates a plan.
Questions
The questions tab contains questions that people are asking when researching the topic — you’ll want to cover some of these on your pillar page. Some questions may warrant their own page where you can go into greater detail, or perhaps group a number of questions onto one page. Volume, cost-per-click and trend data help you decide.
Reflect
Reflect shows how well you cover the topics in this cluster, that are in your inventory. Putting a topic in inventory makes MarketMuse aware of its importance. We’ll determine what pages cover that topic, how well they rank for the topic, along with Personalized Difficulty and Topic Authority. As opposed to generic metrics, these personalized ones give greater insight into what’s required for your site to perform well.