Topic-cluster pages outrank exact-match pages on 2 of 3 head terms

Topic-cluster pages outrank exact-match pages on 2 of 3 head terms
Old tactic: one page per exact keyword. New tactic: one deep page per topic covering many terms. We tracked both across 90 matched head terms.
— Single topic page ranking for 15+ related terms: ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ won 67% of head-to-heads
— Exact-match thin pages: ▇▇▇ won 33%, mostly on ultra-specific long-tail
— Topic pages averaged 8.4 ranking keywords each vs 1.9 for exact-match
— Exact-match still wins where intent is genuinely distinct (different product, different buyer)
So what: consolidate by intent, not by keyword string. Split only when two terms truly serve different searchers, which the SERP overlap test confirms.
Benchmark of the week: a consolidated topic page captures ~4x the keyword footprint of the exact-match pages it replaces.