<!-- Source: Chapter 4 and Chapter 8 of "Answer Engine Optimization" by Spencer Goldade. -->

# Hub-and-spoke planning worksheet

## What this is and why it matters

Hub-and-spoke (also called pillar-and-cluster) is a content architecture built around topical depth. One hub page covers a broad subject end-to-end. A set of spoke pages each go deep on a single sub-question under that subject. Every spoke links back to the hub, the hub links out to every spoke, and related spokes cross-link.

This matters for AEO because AI systems perform query fan-out: a single user prompt gets broken into several sub-queries behind the scenes. If your site has a hub plus spokes that cover those sub-queries individually, you have a page in the retrieval pool for each pass instead of one page fighting to match them all. Five to fifteen spokes per hub is the working range from Chapter 8. Fewer than five and coverage is thin; more than fifteen and your own pages start cannibalising each other.

## How to use this worksheet

1. Pick your highest-value topic first. Do not try to map every cluster at once.
2. Fill in the hub row. If the hub page does not exist yet, put the proposed URL and mark the status as `missing`.
3. List the sub-queries you want the cluster to cover. Pull them from GSC query data, manual AI testing (ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews the main prompt and watch what it expands into), and competitor hub pages.
4. For each sub-query, decide whether a spoke already exists, is in draft, or needs to be built.
5. Assign a priority from 1 (ship this quarter) to 5 (someday).
6. Build the hub first if it does not exist. A hub with zero spokes still works. Spokes with no hub to link back to do not.
7. Revisit quarterly. Mark newly-built spokes as `live`, retire sub-queries that stopped mattering, and add ones that surfaced in the last round of AI testing.

## Worked example: hub for a B2B SaaS analytics product

Hub topic: **Product analytics for SaaS teams**
Hub URL: `/guides/product-analytics-for-saas` (live)

| # | Spoke sub-query | Target URL | Status | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How to choose a product analytics tool for a Series A SaaS | `/guides/choosing-product-analytics-series-a` | live | 1 | Top GSC impressions, no AI citation yet. BLUF rewrite pending. |
| 2 | Event taxonomy design for B2B SaaS | `/guides/event-taxonomy-b2b-saas` | draft | 2 | Draft written, needs schema + FAQ section before publishing. |
| 3 | Product analytics vs. customer data platform | `/guides/product-analytics-vs-cdp` | missing | 2 | Competitor owns position zero. Build with comparison table + FAQPage schema. |
| 4 | How to instrument a SaaS onboarding funnel | `/guides/instrumenting-saas-onboarding` | live | 3 | Live but thin. Refresh with 2026 examples and add HowTo schema. |
| 5 | Self-serve vs. sales-led analytics dashboards | `/guides/self-serve-vs-sales-led-dashboards` | missing | 4 | Lower search volume, but common sub-query in AI Overview responses. |

## Blank template

Copy this block for each hub you want to map. Three empty hubs are set up below.

### Hub 1

Hub topic: `YOUR PILLAR TOPIC HERE`
Hub URL: `/path/to/hub` (live / draft / missing)

| # | Spoke sub-query | Target URL | Status | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | |
| 3 | | | | | |
| 4 | | | | | |
| 5 | | | | | |
| 6 | | | | | |
| 7 | | | | | |
| 8 | | | | | |

### Hub 2

Hub topic: `YOUR PILLAR TOPIC HERE`
Hub URL: `/path/to/hub` (live / draft / missing)

| # | Spoke sub-query | Target URL | Status | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | |
| 3 | | | | | |
| 4 | | | | | |
| 5 | | | | | |
| 6 | | | | | |
| 7 | | | | | |
| 8 | | | | | |

### Hub 3

Hub topic: `YOUR PILLAR TOPIC HERE`
Hub URL: `/path/to/hub` (live / draft / missing)

| # | Spoke sub-query | Target URL | Status | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | |
| 3 | | | | | |
| 4 | | | | | |
| 5 | | | | | |
| 6 | | | | | |
| 7 | | | | | |
| 8 | | | | | |

## Sequencing reminder

Build the hub first. A shipped hub with two spokes beats a planned hub with ten unshipped spokes. Once the hub is live, release spokes in priority order and add the bidirectional links as each spoke ships. Run a manual AI test (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) on the hub's primary prompt after every two or three spokes go live, so you can see when fan-out coverage starts showing up in cited sources.