Producing tons of content and struggling with discoverability? Content hubs are probably the solution.
In this article, we'll explore:
- What content hubs are
- Some useful content hub examples
- The benefits of implementing content hubs
- How to create and optimize impactful content hubs
- How we use hubs to level up your content library
- How to measure hubs' impact
Ready? Let's dive in!
Understanding Content Hubs
In this section, we'll cover the basics of content hubs. We'll share:
- A quick definition
- Some common benefits of implementing hubs
What Is a Content Hub?
A content hub is a resource center on your website where you collect, organize, and showcase your blog posts & other digital assets dedicated to a specific topic or user need.
Content hubs offer easy access to all the information your users need to achieve a specific goal or alleviate a specific pain. A well-crafted content hub will create a cohesive experience and encourage your visitors to dig deeper into your material, resulting in:
- Higher engagement
- More return visits
- Better brand perception
- Higher chances of conversion
In other terms, we could say that content hubs help your users to progress across the value continuum.
The 4 Main Benefits of Content Hubs
Implementing a content marketing hub comes with many benefits, including:
- Clearer positioning and authority
- A better user experience
- Optimized content organization and management
- Potentially smoother content promotion
Let's dive into each one.
Clearer positioning & topic authority
Even if you have a compound model and offer a large suite of products, you need to be the go-to, most valuable resource for a very well-defined series of topic clusters.
Your content efforts should have a couple of central topics, and your entire content database should focus on diving deeper into sub-topics that are relevant to different types of target users and search intents.
Clusters help you synthesize all the material supporting your topic expertise in a single link, containing a pre-filtered content library. And don't forget that your content hubs can (and should) rank.
The results are clearer positioning and topic authority.
Enhanced user experience
A content marketing hub improves the navigability of your site, making it easier for users to find and consume your content. Ultimately, this can increase engagement and time spent on your site.
Need a real-life example? In mid-2023, we helped a B2B SaaS client to re-structure & re-design their content hubs. Thanks to a better, more intuitive content discovery experience, their website's average pages per visitor doubled. And their bounce rate decreased from 73% down to 48%.
Better content organization and management
Structuring your content in a hub helps you identify gaps and opportunities for new material, making content planning and production more streamlined and efficient.
This is especially important if you're making the transition from generic content production to product-led content.
Often, teams that haven't achieved content-market fit produce too much shallow content across a wide range of topics. Implementing topic clusters can help you:
- Make sense of your current material's scope, discard the irrelevant, and double down on high-potential topics
- Understand content gaps
- Plan the production of valuable content
Improved content promotion
A well-organized hub promotes content re-sharing and cross-promotion, increasing your content's potential visibility.
By implementing a content hub, you can create a more engaging and valuable experience for your visitors, while also improving your search engine rankings and content management processes.
Our Favorite Content Hub Examples
There are several types of content hubs. Considering the latest trends & the best examples from industry leaders, we divide them into 5 categories:
- Deep-dive hubs
- Interconnected stories hubs
- Topic hubs
- Use case hubs
- Programmatic hubs
Let's take a close look at each one.
Deep-dive hub
Features: In this type of content hub, blog articles are organized like chapters in a book, helping the user to gain deep expertise in a specific topic.
Basic structure: Pillar post + posts about specific sub-topics.
Best use cases: These content hubs are great for organizing educational content related to your brand's core value proposition.
Example: Julian's handbooks
Why it works: It leverages our minds' need to complete processes, while giving users a clear blueprint for learning.
Interconnected stories
Features: In this type of content hub, blog articles are organized as interconnected stories.
Basic structure: Index + individual stories.
Best use cases: Related topic research, customer stories, and interviews with industry leaders.
Example: The Atlantic's Shadowland content series
Why it works: It helps users go down a specific rabbit hole. Best when combined with creative web design and storytelling.
Topic gateway
Features: These types of hubs organize content around a specific topic. In the best cases, this content is diverse, spanning different formats, so it's best organized into subsections.
Basic structure: Index (with subsections) + individual content pieces & resources
Example:
Best use cases: Organizing a large volume of diverse, product-led content.
Why it works: It's extremely useful for both sales enablement & self-serve user experiences.
Use case hub
Features: This type of hub is usually a very precise topic gateway, dedicated to showcasing a specific use case and helping aligned users to thrive.
Basic structure: Intro/pillar post + sub-topic guides & resources.
Example: Intercom's blog
Best use cases: Best for showing how to achieve a certain goal with your product, sharing inspiring stories, and convincing the user that your solution is exactly what they're looking for.
Why it works: It's BOFU content, compiled and presented in an intuitive way.
Programmatic hub
Features: These types of content hubs are programmatic SEO collections. In short, they're the page where users discover a certain programmatic collection. In the best case, they'll also have the option to filter the collection based on their preferences.
Basic structure: Programmatic index + programmatic pages.
Example: Zapier's integrations directory
Best use cases: Programmatic SEO. Learn more about how to conceive a pSEO collection on this blog post or by taking our free pSEO course.
Why it works: It'll work depending on the relevance and unique value of the collection. But, if done correctly, a pSEO collection will help you target long-string keywords competitively, at scale, without burning through your SEO budget.
How to Create a Content Hub for Your Blog
Wondering how to get started with content hubs? We can help you make the switch in under 4 weeks.
In this section, we'll share what our process looks like.
We usually:
- Identify core topics & user needs
- Organize existing content
- Design an intuitive template for the hubs
- Find and fill content gaps
Step 1: Identify Core Topics & User Needs
In the first stage of our content hub development process, we conduct a 1-hour workshop where we:
- Discuss your content strategy’s goals and impact so far
- Take a general look at your existing material
- Map out your content’s topical tree
Step 2: Organize Your Existing Content
Next, we export a list of your existing content and organize it into clusters. If your website runs on Webflow, this process is usually pretty simple. It usually goes something like this:
- We export your CMS collection/s
- We import the entries into a new Airtable database
- We create a new “cluster” multi-select field
- We organize your content
Once that’s ready, we’ll just re-import the content into your CMS.
Step 3: Create a Scannable, Conversion-Optimized Content Hub Design
Once we know what content topics and formats we’ll use, we’ll develop a content hub template. This structure will have two key benefits:
- It’ll elevate your content discovery experience, making your new hub pages particularly competitive.
- It’ll make it easy for non-technical members of your team to create new hubs.
How we’ll embark on this step will depend on your team structure and preferred workflow. For instance, if you want to assign the development of the content hub to a member of your team, we’ll be glad to just work on the design. Likewise, if you have in-house designers who want to take the lead, we’ll collaborate with them directly, acting as consultants.
Step 4: Creating New, Relevant Content to Fill Content Gaps
Once your content hubs have been deployed, it’s time to start reaping the benefits of better content discoverability. But don’t relax just yet: With your core topics established and existing content organized, it's time to produce new materials. Focus on creating high-quality, evergreen content that speaks to your target audience.
Remember that consistency is crucial, so before we sign off, we’ll share a plan to help you find & fill content gaps. We’ll also help you establish a process for repurposing existing content into new formats, such as turning a blog post into a video, webinar, or gated resource.
How to Make the Most of Your Content Hubs
Your startup wouldn't be the first one or the last one to create a content hub. So, how can you stay ahead of the competition and build some interesting differentials?
Here's what we suggest:
- Use several filtering criteria. Aside from just topics and formats, don’t forget that you can leverage content hubs to weave stories together into larger brand narratives. Allow users to filter your content through various criteria, so they can dive into your brand in their own terms.
- Use internal links strategically. Aside from just preventing orphan content, proper linking can help users move from the “just checking out” stage to conversion. Group together content in a way that helps users move down the funnel.
- Add extra value to your hubs. Aside from the material itself, you can enrich your hubs with interactive content, FAQs & other extras.
- Take an account-based approach. Listen to your customers, and don't hesitate to create content hubs specifically for their needs. A customized selection of content can help engage users in a meaningful way and re-ignite stagnant conversations.
Measuring the Success of Your Content Hub
It’s essential that you establish sound content KPIs to measure the success of your content hub.
We recommend tracking:
- Page views
- Time spent on your site
- Bounce rates
- Click-through rates
- Exit pages
Additionally, you should keep an impact on how your content hubs affect:
- Average pages per session
- Content discoverability
- Micro conversions
Aside from these metrics, you can enrich your view of your content hub’s impact through zero-party data. For instance, by implementing non-invasive satisfaction surveys.
Let's Power-Up Your Content Strategy with Hubs
In this post, we shared everything you need to know to get started with content hubs. But it isn't as simple as it may seem. Creating, growing, and optimizing a content hub requires:
- A sound, user-oriented, and data-driven strategy
- High-quality content
- Web design & development expertise
Is that what you're looking for? If so, we've got you covered.
At Postdigitalist, we help groundbreaking startups grow through user-centric content and conversion-oriented design.
Maybe you've just found your startup's growth partner. Book a free consulting call today.