Content hubs and spokes for service businesses (SEO that scales)

A hub is the page you want a customer to land on for a service — “boiler installation”, “settlement agreements”, “tree surveys”. Spokes answer the questions around that job: cost, how long it takes, what the regulations are, what to do next. Search engines and people both do better when that relationship is obvious. Internal links are how you show it, which is why this pairs with the later piece on internal linking without over-optimisation. Use the service name in the anchor when that is what the page is about, and vary it when you link again.

Design hubs around revenue, not traffic vanity

• Each hub maps to a service you want more of — not blog traffic for its own sake.
• Spokes link up to the hub with descriptive anchors; the hub links down to the best spokes.
• Retire or merge spokes that overlap 80%+ in intent.

Refresh versus new URLs

When prices, regulations or examples change, update the same URL and say what changed near the top. A new URL is for a new question, or for a merger where several weak pages become one stronger page and the old addresses redirect. Publishing a fresh URL every January, with the same advice, splits the history you already earned. Town pages that only swap the place name are not spokes. They are duplicates.

A simple map before you write anything else

• List the services that make money. Each one is a hub candidate.
• Under each, list the questions sales already answers on the phone. Those are spokes.
• Cross off anything you would not want a stranger to land on from Google.
• Link the spoke to the hub in the first screen, and link the hub to the two or three best spokes.