Build the Cluster Before You Build the Pages

What it is for

A topic cluster is only a cluster because of its links, and those are the part that gets left until after publishing, which means never. This lays out the pillar, the spokes and every link and anchor before writing starts, and refuses spokes that exist only because a tool listed a subtopic. Use it at the point where a topic model becomes a publishing plan.

The skill Copy

Before writing a cluster, design it. The subtopics come out of the tool; the
linking is the part that decides whether any of it compounds.

Lay the whole thing out on one page first:
1. Name the pillar in the words a person would actually use. One page,
   broad, and genuinely useful on its own. A table of contents with
   paragraphs between the links is not a pillar.
2. List the spokes. Each spoke owns exactly one subtopic and one intent.
   If two spokes would answer the same question, you have one spoke.
3. For every spoke write its link line now: which page it links up to,
   which spoke it links sideways to, and the anchor text for each.
4. Mark which spokes an existing page already covers. Those are not new
   articles. They are UPDATE, and they usually rank faster.

Non-negotiables:
- Every spoke links to the pillar and the pillar links to every spoke. A
  spoke not worth a link from the pillar is not in the cluster.
- At least two spokes link sideways to each other. A cluster where every
  link points at the centre is a wheel with no rim, and it reads as a
  template to anyone who looks.
- No spoke exists just because the tool listed a subtopic. If you cannot
  write a real page on it, it is a section inside another spoke.
- Publish the pillar with at least three spokes at once. A pillar alone is
  a thin page making promises it does not keep.

Write the pillar last, once the spokes exist, so it can link to real URLs
instead of placeholders you will forget to fill in.

Failure this prevents: fifteen articles published across three months that
never link to each other, so nothing accrues, and the pillar ends up
competing with its own spokes for the same query.

How to install it Copy

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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Where it came from