Potential buyers require multiple interactions with a brand before making a purchase. To increase the chances of your content reaching them more often, it's crucial to have a solid internal linking strategy in place. In such cases, pillar pages come in handy.
When you have a lot of content on your website, it can be difficult for visitors to find what they are looking for. Pillar pages organize your site's structure in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find the information they need quickly.
Content pillars have the most significant impact on your search rankings, and when managed well, pillar pages can attract a high volume of traffic and present your business to a wealth of well-qualified leads.
Table of contents
- Select a Topic That Is Relevant to Your Niche or Industry
- Conduct Keyword Research
- Create High-Quality Content
- Include Internal Links
- Enhance Your Page With Visual Elements
- Summarize the Key Takeaways from Your Pillar Page
- Track the Performance of Your Pillar Page
What are Pillar Pages?
A pillar page is a thorough, in-depth, and top-quality website page that acts as a primary resource or content hub of information for a core topic or subject on a website.
Pillar pages are created with the intent to cover a broad topic and offer a foundational overview of that subject.
They typically include detailed content and relevant links to related content (cluster content) and are structured in a way that makes them easily navigable for both users and search engines.
Pillar pages are a key component of the topic cluster model, which is a content strategy designed to improve SEO, user engagement, and authority in a particular subject area.
The Importance of Pillar Pages in SEO
Here are some compelling reasons that emphasize the significance of pillar pages in the context of SEO:
#1. Improved User Experience
When users find what they're looking for on a pillar page, they are more likely to stay on your website, explore related content, and engage with your site for a longer period of time. This, in turn, reduces bounce rates, which is a positive signal to search engines.
Pillar pages typically include clear and intuitive navigation, with links to related cluster content. This makes it easy for users to delve deeper into the topic or explore related subtopics, enhancing their overall experience on your site.
Providing valuable, comprehensive content through pillar pages can establish trust with your audience. When users perceive your website as a reliable source of information, they are more likely to return for future queries and may even become customers or loyal followers.
#2. Enhanced SEO Authority
Pillar pages are typically well-researched pieces of content that cover a specific topic in depth. When you create high-quality pillar pages, you demonstrate your expertise and knowledge in that subject matter.
By consistently producing well-crafted pillar content, you can build a reputation for expertise and trustworthiness in your niche or industry. Search engines prioritize websites that are seen as authoritative sources, so this, in turn, can benefit you in terms of SEO.
High-quality pillar pages can also attract external backlinks from other websites. When other websites link to your pillar content, it further reinforces your website's authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines.
Pillar pages are designed to provide evergreen content, which remains relevant and valuable over time. This means your pillar content can continue to build authority and attract traffic for an extended period of time.
#3. Targeted Keyword Optimization
Pillar pages are typically created to cover broad topics. This provides an opportunity to target a wide range of keywords related to the central topic. These keywords can include both short-tail and long-tail keywords.
When you create a pillar page, you aim to address all relevant subtopics and questions related to the main topic. This means you can naturally incorporate a variety of related keywords within the content.
Pillar pages are often part of a larger content strategy known as "topic clustering." This involves creating a pillar page as the central resource, surrounded by cluster content, which further targets specific keywords and subtopics. This strategy strengthens your website's keyword coverage and overall SEO.
Source: SemRush
By optimizing your pillar page for a variety of keywords, you increase your chances of ranking for multiple search queries. This can result in improved visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and, ultimately, more organic traffic.
#4. Adaptation to Changing Search Trends
As mentioned in the previous section, pillar pages are typically created to provide timeless, evergreen content. This means the information remains relevant and valuable over an extended period of time, even as trends and technology change.
Pillar pages can be periodically updated and expanded to include the latest information, trends, and developments in your industry or niche. This ensures that your content remains up-to-date and accurate.
As search trends and user preferences shift, you can proactively adapt your pillar content to align with these changes. By addressing emerging topics and optimizing for evolving keywords, you can maintain your website's competitive edge.
Adapting your pillar pages to changing search trends demonstrates a user-centric approach. By addressing what users are currently looking for, you enhance user experience and engagement.
A Step-By-Step Process for Creating Effective Pillar Pages
Here are the steps to create an effective pillar page:
#1. Select a Topic That Is Relevant to Your Niche or Industry
Choose a topic that is directly related to your niche or industry. It should align with your business's core offerings, products, or services. Selecting a topic that resonates with your target audience is essential.
Consider your target audience's interests and needs. Your pillar topic should address their questions, pain points, or areas of curiosity. Understanding your audience's preferences and behaviors will help you create content that resonates with them. The topic should be broad enough to cover various aspects or subtopics comprehensively.
Let’s have a look at an example. Imagine you are in the process of developing a pillar page centered around digital marketing tailored for small businesses. Your goal is to offer valuable insights and address the inquiries and pain points of your target audience of small business owners, startup proprietors, and entrepreneurs. This involves providing comprehensive responses to their key questions, like how to choose the right marketing channels for their business, how to create compelling content on a small budget, how to optimize their website for conversions and user experience, what effective social media strategies they need to implement for success, how to build and nurture their audience through email marketing, and so on.
Consider how the chosen topic supports your business objectives. It should align with your marketing goals, such as increasing brand awareness, attracting leads, or driving conversions.
2. Conduct Keyword Research
Source: RedRiver
Conduct keyword research to identify the primary keyword and related secondary keywords relevant to your chosen pillar pages. These keywords should have search volume and align with the intent of users searching for information related to your topic.
During keyword research, it's important to assess the search volume and competition for your selected keywords. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz can provide data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and competition levels. Choose keywords that strike a balance between search volume and competition, considering both the potential traffic they can bring and your ability to rank for them.
In addition to primary and secondary keywords, incorporate semantic keywords, which are synonyms, related terms, and variations of your target keywords. This enhances the content's comprehensiveness and relevance.
#3. Create High-Quality Content
Write high-quality, in-depth content for each section of your pillar page. Provide valuable information and insights on the topic. Integrate the primary and secondary keywords into the content in a way that feels natural.
Use clear headings, subheadings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs to improve the readability of your content. Readers should be able to navigate and comprehend the material easily.
Maintain a consistent writing style and tone throughout the pillar page to create a coherent reading experience. The tone should align with your brand and appeal to your target audience.
StoryChief eliminates the need for various tools by bringing SEO, writing, reviewing, publishing, and promotion together in one beautiful platform. Start your free plan now!
#4. Include Internal Links
Internal links within the pillar page should be contextually relevant to the content. They should guide readers to cluster content that provides additional information or details about the subtopics mentioned on the pillar page.
The anchor text, which is the clickable text of the link, should be descriptive and indicative of the content it leads to. Avoid generic terms like "click here" or "read more." Instead, use anchor text that clearly conveys the topic of the linked content. Try to make the anchor text at least a couple words long or a short phrase, rather than a single word.
Internal links create a network of related information within your website, making it easier for readers to navigate and explore related topics. This enhances the user experience by allowing users to find more in-depth information on areas of interest.
When you consistently link to cluster content from your pillar page, you signal to search engines that your website is a comprehensive resource on the chosen topic. This can lead to an increase in your website's authority and visibility in search results and helps your blog posts get indexed.
#5. Enhance Your Page With Visual Elements
Visual elements make your content more engaging and appealing to readers. Images and graphics break up the text, making it visually less daunting and more inviting to readers.
Charts and graphs can help illustrate data, statistics, and trends related to your pillar topic. They make complex information more accessible and understandable to your audience.
Visual elements can be used to tell a story that complements the written content. This can be particularly effective in conveying emotions, experiences, or step-by-step guides.
Videos or images can be used to demonstrate concepts or provide real-life examples related to your topic. This enhances the clarity of your content and helps readers grasp the information more effectively.
#6. Summarize the Key Takeaways from Your Pillar Page
The conclusion section of your pillar page should summarize the main points, key takeaways, and insights covered in the content. It acts as a quick reference for readers who want to review the most important information without rereading the entire page.
Reiterate the central message or main idea of your pillar page. Make it clear to the reader what they should have learned or understood from reading the content.
Calls to action (CTAs) are designed to enhance user engagement and lead readers toward the desired next step in their journey, whether it's acquiring more knowledge, taking action, or becoming a lead or customer.
Place CTAs strategically throughout your pillar page, including the conclusion section. However, be careful to not overwhelm the reader with too many CTAs. Focus on providing relevant and non-intrusive suggestions.
Ensure that your CTAs are designed with a focus on driving action. Instill a sense of urgency to inspire readers to take immediate action.
Tips for Optimizing the Content and Structure of Pillar Pages
Here are some SEO tips for optimizing your pillar page:
#1. Optimize for Mobile
Ensure that your pillar page is built using responsive design techniques. A responsive design adapts the layout and content of your page to fit various screen sizes and resolutions, including those of mobile devices. This guarantees that your content is legible and well-structured on smaller screens.
Consider the constraints of mobile screens when structuring your content. Use a single-column layout and prioritize important content at the top of the page. Minimize the need for horizontal scrolling and ensure that text and images are appropriately sized for mobile viewing.
Implement a mobile-friendly navigation structure. Use clear and intuitive menus, buttons, and links that are easy to tap on touchscreens. Mobile users should be able to navigate your pillar page seamlessly.
#2. Optimize Your Pillar Page for Fast Loading Speed
Page speed is regarded as a ranking factor by Google and various other search engines. Pages that load more quickly tend to have a better chance of achieving higher rankings in search results, ultimately boosting the visibility and organic traffic of your pillar page.
Reduce the number of elements on your page, such as unnecessary images, scripts, and plugins. Each additional element can increase loading time.
Compress and optimize images to reduce file sizes without compromising quality. Use appropriate image formats and dimensions to ensure efficient loading.
Browser caching stores certain elements of your page on a visitor's device, allowing subsequent visits to load faster as cached elements don't need to be downloaded again.
Use a content delivery network to serve your content from servers geographically closer to your users. CDNs can significantly reduce page load times.
Regularly test your pillar page's loading speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Monitor loading times and make improvements as needed.
#3. Implement Schema Markup When Applicable
Source: IESGP
Schema Markup can improve the visibility of your pillar page in search results. It can lead to enhanced search features, such as knowledge panels, event listings, product ratings, and more, depending on the type of structured data used.
By providing structured data about your content, you can convey additional context about your pillar page's topic, which can be beneficial for users seeking specific information.
Schema Markup is valuable for local SEO efforts. It can provide essential information about your business, such as location data, reviews, and ratings, which can improve local search visibility.
Different types of content, such as articles, reviews, recipes, and videos, have specific schema markup guidelines. Using the appropriate schema markup for your content type ensures that search engines understand and categorize your content correctly.
#4. Track the Performance of Your Pillar Page
Monitor the traffic to your pillar page, including the number of visitors, page views, and unique visitors. Analyze traffic sources to understand where your audience is coming from. Be sure to watch the bounce rate, as this can signal issues with content quality, relevance, or user experience.
You should also monitor the search engine click-through rate (CTR) of your page. If the click-through rate (CTR) is high, it means that the title and description of your page hold a strong appeal for searchers. If it’s low, you might consider adjusting your title and meta description to make it more appealing.
Conduct A/B tests to experiment with different elements of your pillar page, such as headings, visuals, or call-to-action buttons. Compare the performance of different versions to identify what resonates best with your audience.
By consistently monitoring these performance metrics, you can gain insights into how well your pillar page is meeting its objectives, where it may be falling short, and how to make improvements.
FYI: With StoryChief, reporting and analytics are seamlessly integrated into one powerful tool, making it easier than ever to track and optimize your content performance. Create a free account and start optimizing content today. 🙌
Real-Life Examples of Successful Pillar Pages for Inspiration
Here are some real-life examples of successful pillar pages from various industries that can inspire your own content strategy:
#1. Moz's "The Beginner's Guide to SEO"
Moz's "The Beginner's Guide to SEO" is a good example of a comprehensive pillar page in the SEO industry. It covers the fundamentals of search engine optimization and provides links to more detailed cluster content on specific SEO topics.
#2. SEMrush's "On-Page SEO: The Practical Guide"
SEMrush's pillar page on on-page SEO provides detailed insights into optimizing web pages for search engines. It offers practical tips and examples, along with links to cluster content covering various on-page SEO techniques.
#3. Shopify's "The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping"
Shopify's pillar page on dropshipping serves as a one-stop resource for those interested in starting an ecommerce business. It covers the basics, advantages, and challenges of dropshipping and includes links to cluster content on related topics.
Wrapping Up: Publish Pillar Pages with Ease
Pillar pages are a foundational element of modern content marketing and SEO strategies. They provide in-depth, comprehensive information on specific topics, enhance user experience, and boost search engine rankings.
By following best practices and continuously optimizing, businesses can create effective pillar pages that serve as central hubs of valuable content, establishing authority and attracting a more engaged audience.
Embracing the concept of pillar pages can help your website become a go-to resource and a cornerstone of your content strategy, ultimately driving growth and success in the digital world.
Tired of juggling multiple tools for content marketing? Join 5,000 marketers who manage website content, social posts, videos, webinars, podcasts, and whitepapers - all from one central content marketing calendar.
