Q: Should internal links flow up to the pillar, down to the cluster, or both?

Q: Should internal links flow up to the pillar, down to the cluster, or both?

Short answer: both, but the directions do different jobs. A home-improvement site tested this on a "bathroom remodel" cluster of 16 pages.

Phase 1: cluster pages linked up to the pillar only. The pillar gained 3 positions; cluster pages barely moved.

Phase 2 (6 weeks later): they added pillar-to-cluster links plus 2-3 sibling links between related cluster pages. Now the cluster pages averaged a 4-position gain and section-wide clicks rose 33%.

In practice: up-links concentrate authority on the pillar; down-links and sibling links distribute it to the specific pages people actually search for. You need both to win the whole topic, not just the head term.

Want a linking pattern checked? Send your structure in.