Hub and leaf architecture
What this page covers
Hub and leaf architecture groups content around one main overview page and a set of supporting pages that cover specific subtopics or search questions.
A strong hub helps both visitors and search engines understand the topic fast. It gives context, sets direction, and points clearly to the pages that go deeper.
When the hub and leaf pages are planned well, internal links carry context, support topical coverage, and make the structure easier to scale, review, and maintain over time.
What to choose
- Choose planning guidance if you need to map the hub, define the main sub-intents, and decide how the pages should connect before launch.
- Choose checklist and quality-focused topics if you want a practical review of structure, internal linking, overlap, and launch readiness.
- Choose cost and mistakes topics if you are weighing implementation tradeoffs and want to avoid cannibalization, orphan pages, or crowded navigation.
Where to go next
The pages below break the topic into clearer next steps, so you can move from the core model into planning, review, cost, and execution details.
Each leaf focuses on a narrower subtopic while staying tied to the main hub, helping create a clearer path for users and a stronger structure for search engines.
What matters
- Hub pages work best when they give visitors a clear overview, short summaries, and direct paths to deeper pages built around distinct sub-intents.
- A healthy hub-and-leaf model uses two-way linking: the hub links to leaf pages, leaf pages link back to the hub, and related leaves can link to each other where it helps.
- This structure also needs ongoing governance, including regular audits to refresh stale pages, reduce overlap, and prevent orphan content or keyword cannibalization.