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Topic

Defining the cluster topic is one of the most important decisions you make each time you create a cluster. The topic should be clearly defined and distinct from your other topics - but most importantly, you need to ensure that Machined understands the context you're coming from.

Don't be tempted to use keywords or article titles in place of the topic - this will lead to a badly formulated cluster with low variance in the articles.

Use a hierarchical approach​

The best way to define your topics is using a hierarchical approach, like breadcrumbs:

Chess > Strategy > King Protection

This tells Machined that you want content about king protection, within the context of chess strategy.

By defining your topics this way, you help Machined to:

  • Understand the context: The broader category and narrower focus help the AI grasp exactly what you mean
  • Create relevant content: A structured topic ensures articles are highly relevant and engaging for your target audience
  • Formulate well-structured clusters: The hierarchy informs relationships between broader and narrower topics, limiting cannibalisation between clusters
  • Improve SEO: Breadcrumb-style topics provide more keywords and context for search engines

How to define your topic​

There are tools like Nichely that will help you uncover subtopics within your niche and export a list of topics already formatted hierarchically.

If you prefer to define your topics manually:

  1. Identify your broad category - Start with the broader subject, for example: Chess, Dogs, or Gardening
  2. Narrow down - Think about a subset within that category you want to target, for example: Strategy
  3. Get specific - Identify the specific focus for your content, for example: King Protection

Your final topic: Chess > Strategy > King Protection

More examples:

  • Dogs > Walking > Leash Control
  • Motherhood > Postpartum > Anxiety
  • Travel > Family > Beach Holidays

You can go as deep as you need - 2, 3, 4, 5 or more levels depending on how you partition your content.

Topics are not keywords​

The topic hierarchy has nothing to do with keywords. Forget keywords exist when defining a topic. The cluster is tied to a topic, not a particular keyword. In Auto-pilot mode, Machined finds keywords by analysing the topic definition and audience, so the hierarchy matters.

Think of the hierarchical definition like the categories on your site, or the breadcrumbs you might see to navigate them. They are sections of knowledge that you can write multiple related articles about.

Hierarchy order matters​

The way you order your categories affects what the AI writes. For example:

  • Travel > Family > Beach Holidays - a travel website with a subsection for families with a cluster about beach holidays
  • Family > Travel > Beach Holidays - a family website with a subsection for travelling with a cluster about beach holidays

In each case, the AI will write from a slightly different perspective based on the topic hierarchy.

Audience affects keywords​

Your audience definition also affects keyword research. For the chess example above, you would get very different keywords based on who your audience is:

  • Beginner amateur chess players vs National Masters level chess players

These would produce very different keywords from Auto-pilot and very different content in the articles.