Topic clusters work well for search engines… Because they ensure internal linking, they make sure everything’s cohesive, we just assume that it’s structured well so USERS can also find what they need.
However, the actual process of navigating a topic cluster isn’t always a great user experience for real, non-robot humans. As marketers, in the process of optimizing for what works well for search engines, we often become detached from our target audiences.
And we end up optimizing our sites for us, people like us, and what we think our target audience wants. Which is what Michael Aagaard, Conversion Rate Optimization Consultant calls, “the imaginary audience.” Or as I like to say, “Oops! We optimized for ourselves!”
In an article about confirmation bias in marketing, Aagaard talks about how it’s actually REALLY common for marketers to create content and format our websites for ourselves and what we assume our target audiences want. And that’s not always true.