Quality content is the key to driving organic traffic to your website. Pillar pages are a great way to create quality, search engine-optimized content that helps potential customers to find you. Pillar pages are long-form content that covers a topic in-depth, providing readers with helpful information and helping search engines understand your website.
By creating pillar pages, you can improve the overall performance of your website, increase visibility in search engine results, and attract more customers. With the proper keyword research and optimization, pillar pages can be the cornerstone of your online presence and give your website the competitive edge it needs.
What are pillar pages?
A pillar page is a long-form content page that covers a topic in depth. It is used to provide information to readers and to guide search engine crawlers to understand what your website is about. Pillar pages organize content around topics and subtopics, and they are used to structure your website’s content.
Benefits of creating pillar pages
Creating pillar pages can have several benefits for your website. Pillar pages can improve the overall performance of your website, increase visibility in search engine results, and attract more customers.
Pillar pages are often written as blog posts but are more comprehensive and include more information than a typical blog post. For example, a pillar page may contain information about a topic’s history, related subtopics, frequently asked questions, and other related content. The goal of a pillar page is to provide readers with useful information and to help search engines understand the purpose and content of your website.
Creating pillar pages is a content strategy that helps optimize a website in several ways. Pillar pages are long-form, comprehensive pieces of content that cover a broad topic and serve as the central hub for a group of related subtopics or articles, often referred to as “cluster content.” Here are some ways in which creating pillar pages can help optimize your website:
1. Improved user experience
Pillar pages provide a structured, organized way for visitors to navigate your website and find the necessary information. By creating a central content hub, visitors can easily access all the relevant information on a specific topic, improving their user experience and increasing engagement.
2. Increased search engine visibility
Search engines love pillar pages because they provide a comprehensive, authoritative topic overview. Creating a pillar page that covers a broad topic and links to relevant cluster content can improve your website’s search engine visibility and drive more organic traffic.
3. Higher search engine rankings
Pillar pages are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords by focusing on a broad topic and creating in-depth, comprehensive content. This can help increase your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic.
4. Better internal linking
By creating a pillar page and linking to relevant cluster content, you can improve your website’s internal linking structure, which can help search engines better understand the hierarchy and relationships between different pages on your site.
5. Improved conversion rates
You can establish your expertise and authority in your industry by providing comprehensive, informative content on a specific topic. This can help build trust with your visitors, leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
In summary, creating pillar pages is an effective way to optimize your website by improving the content experience, increasing search engine visibility and rankings, better internal linking, and improving conversion rates.
Steps in creating pillar pages
1) Conduct keyword research
Before creating a successful pillar page, you need to research to find the best keywords for your content. First, you can use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner to find related keywords and phrases. Then, you can use the keywords to create optimized SEO content. You should also consider including long-tail keywords in your content. Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases that are less competitive and can help to attract more qualified leads.
2) Identify topics and subtopics
Once you have conducted keyword research, you can create quality content for your pillar pages. Pillar pages can improve the overall performance of your website because they organize content around topics and subtopics. This makes it easier for readers to find the information they are looking for and helps search engine crawlers understand your website’s purpose and content.
When creating content for your pillar pages, focusing on quality over quantity is essential. Your content should be well-researched and comprehensive and provide readers with useful information. You should also focus on creating content that is relevant to your business. For example, if you are a plumber, your content should focus on topics related to plumbing, such as common plumbing problems, tips for preventing plumbing problems, and information about different types of plumbing materials.
3) Optimize the pages
Optimization helps search engine crawlers to understand your website and help to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results, and attract more customers. Pillar pages can also help to increase visibility in search engine results.
Pillar pages can attract more customers by providing a comprehensive resource for readers. By creating quality content that is well-researched and comprehensive, you can give the readers a valuable resource that will keep them coming back for more.
You should also include internal and external links to other pages on your website and other relevant websites. Additionally, you should use meta tags and descriptions to provide search engine crawlers with information about your page and ensure that your content is optimized for mobile devices.
4) Promote the pages
Once you have created and optimized your pillar pages for SEO, you need to promote them to get more readers.
We have listed down platforms where you can share your content, including pillar pages, to amplify content distribution.
Best practices for creating pillar pages
When creating pillar pages, you should keep a few best practices in mind.
One effective way to promote your pillar pages is to share them on social media. For example, you can share links to your pillar pages on your social media channels or snippets of the content to draw readers to your website.
You can also use email marketing to promote your pillar pages. For example, you can send emails to your subscribers with links to your pillar pages or email automation to send emails to new subscribers.
Finally, you can also use paid advertising to promote your pillar pages. Paid advertising can increase visibility in search engine results and attract more readers.
How to measure results of pillar pages
Measuring your pillar pages’ results can help you understand how successful they are and make improvements if needed.
You can use tools such as Google Analytics to track the performance of your pillar pages. Google Analytics can provide you with data on page views, time on page, bounce rate, and other metrics that can help you to understand how successful your pillar pages are. You can also use Google Search Console to track the performance of your pillar pages in search engine results. Google Search Console can provide data on impressions, clicks, and other metrics that can help you understand how successful your pillar pages are in search engine results.
Examples of successful pillar pages
Here are a few examples of successful pillar pages:
• HubSpot
HubSpot’s pillar page on ‘How to Create a Website’ provides readers with comprehensive information about creating a website, from choosing a domain name to optimizing content for SEO.
• Moz
Moz’s pillar page on ‘What is SEO?’ provides readers with comprehensive information about search engine optimization, from keyword research to link building.
• WordStream
WordStream’s pillar page on ‘What is PPC?’ provides readers with comprehensive information about pay-per-click advertising, from setting up campaigns to optimizing bids.
TL; DR
First, you should focus on creating quality content. Your content should be well-researched and comprehensive and provide readers with valuable information.
Second, you should focus on SEO optimization. By optimizing your content for SEO, you can improve your website’s ranking in search engine results and attract more readers.
Third, you should focus on promoting your pillar pages. You can use social media, email marketing, and paid advertising to promote your pillar pages and attract more readers.
Finally, you should measure the results of your pillar pages. You can use tools such as Google Analytics to track the performance of your pillar pages and measure their success.
Optimind writes optimized content as part of our SEO services, including pillar pages and written content that our clients want to publish on their websites and promote on their owned media. Contact us for your content writing needs!
