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Topic Cluster Map: Your Pillar Pages, Satellites and Internal Links

The Themes tab of Mentionable's Action plan draws your content plan as a topic cluster map: each pillar page with its satellites, the state of every page, and the internal links the plan calls for, in place or missing at the latest crawl. Tree or graph, exportable as an image.

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Key Takeaways

  • The Themes tab shows the content plan behind your Action plan as a map: one theme at a time, its pillar page first, then the satellite pages that support it.
  • Every page carries its state: in place, to rework, to create, or done. Pages already on your site and pages still to write sit on the same map.
  • Every internal link the plan calls for is checked against the latest crawl of your site: link in place, missing link, or planned link when one of the two pages does not exist yet.
  • Two views: a tree to work through theme by theme, and a graph to see the whole structure. The graph exports as an image for a meeting or a brief to your writers.
  • The map comes with the content plan of the brand offers, computed on its own once your site is crawled.

Your blog has eighty articles. Some answer the same question twice, some link to nothing, and the page that should anchor your main topic was never written. Nobody on the team can draw the structure from memory, so nobody can fix it.

The Themes tab of the Action plan draws it for you.

What problem does the topic cluster map solve?

A list of pages to write tells you what to do next. It does not tell you how the pieces fit together. Which article is the pillar of the theme, which ones support it, which links should exist between them and do not. Without that picture, new content piles up next to old content instead of building one strong source per theme.

That matters more in AI search than it did in classic SEO. An AI engine answering a question looks for the page that covers it best and reads what surrounds it. A theme with one clear pillar and well-linked satellites gives it something solid to quote.

What do you see on the map?

The content plan of your brand, theme by theme.

Themes, in the order of the plan. The order follows what matters for your business, not the alphabet.

A pillar and its satellites. In each theme, the pillar page comes first, then the satellite pages that go deeper on one question each.

The state of every page. Four badges: In place for a page that already does its job, To rework for a page to rewrite, merge or split, To create for a page that does not exist yet, Done once the work is finished.

The state of every link. For each internal link the plan calls for: Link in place, Missing link, or Planned link when one of the two pages is still to create. The legend says which crawl the links were checked on.

Tree or graph?

Both, one click apart.

The tree is the working view. Each theme is a panel, the pillar on top, the satellites indented below it, and each line opens its mission straight from the map: generate the page, rework it, or mark it done.

The graph is the overview. Each theme forms its own cluster, the pillar in the centre, the satellites around it, the links drawn between them: green when the link is in place, dashed red when it is missing, dashed grey when it is planned. Click a page and you see its mission, plus every link it should make or receive, with the state of each one.

How are the links checked?

Against your real site. Mentionable crawls it, reads the internal links on each page, and compares them with the links the plan asks for. A link you add on your site shows as in place after the next crawl, without you ticking anything.

That turns internal linking from a vague recommendation into a short list: these links are missing, on these pages, toward these pages.

Can you share the map?

Yes. In the graph view, Export as image downloads the whole map as a PNG, named after your brand. It is the slide that explains your content strategy to a manager in ten seconds, or the brief that tells a writer where a new article fits.

Your own AI can read it too. Through the Mentionable MCP server, an agent gets the pages by theme with their state, and every link with its status, then can answer "which links are still missing on our main theme?"

Where does the plan behind the map come from?

From your Action plan. Mentionable reads your site, your Google data if you connect Search Console, and what the AI engines cite on the prompts you track, then plans the pages to keep, rework or create over 6 months, grouped by theme. The map is that plan, drawn. When the plan is recalculated, the map follows.

The pages to create and rework are written with page generation, in your brand voice.

Which plans include the topic cluster map?

The map comes with the content plan of the brand offers, computed on its own once your site has been crawled, and during the 7-day free trial. The agency offers sell the data rather than the production, so they have no content plan and no Themes tab.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a topic cluster map?

A topic cluster map shows how the pages of a site group around themes: one pillar page that covers the topic broadly, and satellite pages that each go deep on one question and link back to the pillar. In Mentionable, the Themes tab of the Action plan draws that map from your content plan, with the state of each page and of each internal link.

Why do topic clusters matter for AI visibility?

AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode answer a question by looking for the page that covers it best, and they read the site around it. A theme covered by one pillar and well-linked satellites gives them a clear, complete source to quote. Scattered articles with no links between them do not.

Where does the map come from?

From the content plan Mentionable builds for your brand: your site as crawled, your Google data if you connect Search Console, and what the AI engines cite on the prompts you track. The plan decides the themes, which page is the pillar, which pages are satellites, what to keep, rework or create, and the internal links between them. The map is that plan, drawn.

How does Mentionable know if a link is missing?

It compares the internal links the plan calls for with the links found on your pages at the latest crawl of your site. A link present on the page shows as 'Link in place', an absent one as 'Missing link'. When one of the two pages does not exist yet, the link shows as 'Planned link'. Before a first finished crawl, links show as not checked.

Can I export the map?

Yes. In the graph view, 'Export as image' downloads the map as a PNG named after your brand, ready for a presentation or a brief. Through the Mentionable MCP server, an AI agent can also read the map as data: pages by theme, their state, and each link placed or missing.

Is the topic cluster map available on every plan?

The map belongs to the content plan, which comes with the brand offers. The agency offers focus on the data and do not include a content plan, so they have no Themes tab.

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