Keyword clustering is an advanced SEO approach that organizes individual keywords with the same search intent into a group. Keyword clustering allows you to target multiple keywords at once instead of focusing a webpage on a single keyword.

Clustering helps you organize your website so that search engine algorithms and page visitors can understand it. It can be challenging to organize thousands of keywords into clusters. But a free keyword cluster tool canhelp you achieve this quickly!

Keyword clustering can help increase the relevancy of your website to search engines and page visitors. It can increase your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Within the context of search engine algorithms, the higher your site ranks, the better the chances of your website’s products being discovered.

This guide discusses some of the best keyword clustering tools available in the market today.

What Is Keyword Clustering?

A keyword cluster is a group of keywords with the same search intent. A cluster typically consists of a core keyword and other related keywords. Keyword clustering is the process of organizing thousands of keywords into smaller groups with similar intents for better rankings in search engine results.

With keyword clustering, you can get your webpage rank for a primary keyword and other related terms. A keyword cluster model will help your webpage rank higher in search results for related terms that your audience is searching for.

Clustering helps you organize your website so search engines and page visitors can understand it better. It lets you target multiple keywords with the same intent in your content instead of just a single keyword.

Benefits of Keyword Clustering

Keyword clustering is essential for the following reasons.

  • Better search engine rankings.
  • Strong rankings for multiple keywords.
  • Increased organic traffic.
  • Creation of a solid content plan.
  • Higher chances of being featured within Featured Snippets.
  • Reduced risk of cannibalization, a situation where multiple pages rank for the same keyword and intent.
  • Opportunities to identify new topics that will add to the site’s authority and performance within SERPs.
  • Better internal linking to improve website crawling.

Free Keyword Cluster Tool

Manually organizing thousands of keywords into groups takes hours of work and a good experience in keyword research and SEO. Manual clustering requires that you break each keyword into terms, define their search intent, and group them based on relevant metrics.

The free keyword cluster tool can do this automatically in minutes, saving you time and effort.

The Best Free Keyword Cluster Tools

1. INK

INK content planner is an exceptional keyword clustering tool that helps you build a brilliant keyword cluster. It’s cheaper than other keyword tools and is also faster.

INK allows users to add keywords manually or upload a keyword file. The tool supports several file types, and allows exports for Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Semrush.

INK Content planner analyzes the search intent for each keyword and groups them into clusters. You can then download the clusters and begin creating pages. INK is free, easy to use, quick on tasks, and great for small and complex projects.

2. Keyword Insights

Keyword Insights uses live geo-specific SERP data to group keywords, allowing you to choose any country and language to source your data. The tool places keywords that share four URLs in common in the top ten results into a group.

Keyword Insights also uses pre-trained machine learning to identify search intent at scale. This means users can infer what type of search intent to target.

The tool allows users to enter a list of keywords using a CSV/XLSX file. Users can also use the Keyword Discovery module tool to generate related keywords. Keyword Insights is well-designed and simple to use.

Keyword Insights offers four types of insights to users.

  • Cluster: This insight helps users understand which pages should be split or consolidated.
  • Context: This insight displays the search intent of keywords, allowing users to understand the nature of keywords, whether commercial, informational, or navigational.
  • Rank: This insight shows you where you rank and from which URL for each keyword. It also shows you optimization opportunities at a URL level.
  • Title AI: Keyword Insights analyzes clusters and creates four clever title ideas for each cluster.

3. Keyword Cupid

Keyword Cupid uses data from search engine result pages and a range of machine-learning algorithms to analyze keywords and provide results. The tool requires users to provide a list of researched keywords, called “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Data).

Reports of researched keywords must contain metrics like search volume, difficulty, and CPC. Depending on the pricing plan, you can input between 2,000 to 40,000 keywords per report.

Keyword Cupid allows users to customize the location they wish to target. Users can also ask the tool to gather additional data in SERPs, like average word count per result and average number of H2s.

4. Cluster Army

Cluster Army allows users to upload up to 50,000 keywords at a go. Users may input keywords directly into the tool or upload a .txt file. Cluster Army organizes these keywords by similarity and search intent and categorizes them into “stems.”

The tool organizes keywords into clusters following seven steps.

  • Reads the imported list.
  • Finds the term frequency (distribution) of each stem.
  • Identifies the distribution of each single term
  • Finds the distribution of keyword pairs
  • Finds the distribution of triples
  • Creates a cluster table with the starting keyword associated with the most frequent stem.
  • Generates a chart for each distribution.

5. Cluster AI

Cluster AI is one of the features of its overall package. The tool requires users to have accounts with other keyword research tools. It supports Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Search Console. Users can also provide researched documents of keywords.

Cluster AI allows up to 25,000 keywords which it sorts by analyzing SERP data. It analyzes these keywords to retrieve the top ten websites that rank for each keyword. It then matches the keywords against one another and compares the number of pages ranking for each set. If several pages rank for a group of keywords, the tool tells users they can rank for that set of keywords within a page.

With 25,000 keywords to group into clusters, you can expect a report in six to ten hours. If you input about 1,000 keywords, you can get a report in around one to two hours.

How to Build A Keyword Cluster with A Keyword Cluster Tool

Keyword clustering is the practice of grouping keywords that share the same intent into clusters. The clustering process involves the following steps:

Step 1: Collect a list of keywords

Keyword clustering begins with collecting a list of keywords. Take note of the keyword you want your website to rank for. Identify similar terms users are searching for in your niche, like variations of the primary keyword, long-tail phrases, and subtopics.

You may use a keyword research tool to find related keywords from the same category as the one you picked as your primary keyword. Or check out what keywords your competitors are ranking for. You may also brainstorm ideas and try out a few different combinations.

Step 2: Assign keywords into clusters

Once you have a list of keywords users are searching for in your niche, it’s time to assign keywords into clusters. This process is lengthy and time-consuming when done manually, but with the free keyword cluster tool, the process becomes much easier.

Keyword clustering tool saves time and allows you to quickly and easily assign keywords into clusters. Select one that best resonates with you from the list above.

Step 4: Create pillar pages

Next, create pillar pages. A pillar page contains everything a reader needs to know about a core topic and links out to detailed content on subtopics. Pillar pages are an easy way to funnel people to the information they need.

Create a pillar page for each cluster optimized for a core keyword. Provide readers with enough value to make them click through to the appropriate piece of content for them. Include internal links that make it easy for readers to find the information they need.

Step 3: Create cluster pages

Cluster pages cover related topics in more detail. They have a narrower focus on specific search intent. It doesn’t end at finding a long-tail keyword and writing about it – it’s about providing in-depth information about a particular topic. Cluster content dives deeper into specific topics under the pillar pages.

After organizing keywords into clusters, create content around each cluster.

  1. Identify the core keywords in a group and create blog posts that target subtopics, longer-tail keywords, and questions related to the core keywords.
  2. Include links from the cluster pages to the pillar pages, and provide descriptive anchor text for each link.
A person in a brown garment typing on a laptop computer
A person in a brown garment typing on a laptop computer

Wrapping Up

Keyword clustering is the process of organizing keywords with similar search intent into a group. You can optimize your website for multiple keywords instead of a single keyword with keyword clustering. This means your webpage will satisfy the intents of thousands of searchers instead of a few. Clustering makes it easy for search engines and page visitors to understand your website.

Manually organizing thousands of keywords into clusters can be a complex process, but the process becomes manageable with a free keyword cluster tool. The best cluster tools save you time and take away the stress of analyzing each keyword, defining their search intent, and grouping them.

Some of the best keyword cluster tools are discussed above. Choose the one that best suits your needs and begin your journey to boosting your organic rankings.

Co-Founder of INK, Alexander crafts magical tools for web marketing. SEO and AI expert. He is a smart creative, a builder of amazing things. He loves to study “how” and “why” humans and AI make decisions.

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