Just an extra-long blog post or a savvy marketing tool? Pillar pages are the newest buzz word in the world of inbound marketing, but what actually are they? Should everyone be using them? And how do you create one? Here we explore the benefits pillar pages could bring to your business.
“Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much are the three pillars of learning.” Benjamin Disraeli wasn’t wrong when he said this, indeed, it could be the philosophy of many businesses today. Your pillar page needs to be a beacon of learning for your readers – a place where they can find things out that only you can teach. So if you’ve got a topic you want to shout about, you’ve also got the beginnings of a pillar page.
There’s a lot of talk around pillar pages at the moment. Perhaps you’ve been teetering on the edge of creating one for a while, knowing your business would benefit from one, especially as HubSpot puts their keyword tool to bed. Or maybe you haven’t heard of this new phenomenon of the SEO content world and need to learn everything, ground up.
Either way, this pillar page – on pillar pages (see what we did there?) – should help guide you, answer any questions and help you decide if your business is ready for a pillar page (hint: it probably is).
A good way to understand pillar pages is to imagine a food festival. The main reason you’ve gone – the core topic – is to try different foods from around the world and get a tasty dinner. There’s one big long street with tents along it, where you see pizza, Chinese food, curry, sushi and paella. But off this main thoroughfare there are smaller alleyways, lined with dessert stalls, gin tasting stalls, doughnuts and chocolates (anyone else feeling hungry?!) – or sub topics. So you leave the main food street, and you veer off into the alleyway to try some sweet treats. Once you’re finished there, you follow the signs back to the main street and carry on your journey down the core food festival, until you come to another side street, explore that avenue, then come back to the main street again – ad infinitum.
Put simply, a pillar page is a single, long website page that covers one particular topic in depth. We call this one key topic a ‘core topic’. The core topic links to several ‘sub topics’ so readers can find out further information in depth, but these pages always link back to the original pillar page. The purpose is to make you an authority on this topic, meaning that more traffic is driven to your page and, therefore, your website. Your pillar page will boost your search engine visibility by better organising your content into related ‘clusters’.
If you were a business who specialised in pet care, you might choose to write a pillar page on ‘owning your first dog’. This is your ‘core topic’.
In this pillar page, you’d break the sections down into more in-depth, concentrated topics such as:
These are called your ‘sub topics’. They all relate to the core topic, but offer opportunities to go further into detail, linking to external relevant materials in the meantime.
So why not just write a series of blog posts about all of the sub topics? Well, if you constantly churn out blog posts on your website, using variations on the same topic and variations on the same long-tail keywords to try and capture every possible searched item, your content becomes repetitive and disorganised.
Instead of your blog posts consistently attracting engagement, your posts get lost in a boggy, oversaturated field of similar blog posts, all fighting for attention in Google. The search engine has also changed its algorithm recently to prefer topic-based content, making pillar pages a necessity for those who want to maintain a high SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking.
The pillar page is the content guru’s solution to organisation. So instead of brilliant blog posts ‘floating around’ without being anchored to anything, you have a pillar page as the ‘home’ to keep them all linked to. Your pillar page offers in-depth advice, education and tips to help the reader, but meanwhile hyperlinks to ‘cluster pages’ around that topic.
You create your pillar page on ‘owning your first dog’. When you come to write ‘Section 1: Finding the right breeder’, you write lots of interesting facts and advice about this sub topic. As you write, however, you start to link to external blog posts you’ve written on this topic. For example, you might already have 3 blog posts ready to be published that link to this topic called:
You want to link to these blog posts in Section 1. Whichever words you hyperlink from on your pillar page, must be the same words that you hyperlink in the blog post, back to the pillar page. This will ensure that when one page performs well, the entire topic cluster will be boosted in Google. The more connections you set up between the same words in your content, the more trusted you will become as an authority on the topic.
But “A pillar page without a content cluster is actually just a page” – Hubspot. If you just create a long page of copy, without any of the cluster links, you’re just creating… an extra-long webpage. This will not have the same effect as a pillar page, won’t act as an organisational tool, and won’t help Google build your authority on content.
Remember: The aim of your pillar page is to get more people finding your content and linking through to even more of your content through well-organised links. If your page is just a page, there’s no guarantee anyone new will find your content, making it a fruitless task.
Write a list of big, core topics you could create pillar pages on. Try to think of five core topics you think your business is an authority on, has existing content for, or could easily create more content about.
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." John Steinbeck certainly knew how to come up with an idea or two. But if you’re not sure you’re up to the pillar page equivalent of ‘Of Mice and Men’ just yet, then there’s a few tricks you can try to generate ideas. Coming up with viable ideas is any writer’s biggest challenge, so dedicating enough time to the content-planning stage ahead of getting stuck in is an important step not to be missed.
We’ve already touched on cluster topics: now it’s time to think of your own.
Create your own clusters. Using the five core topics you thought about in Activity 1, try to write eight sub topics of cluster content for each one. Set it out in the same format as the diagram below, to help you visualise how the content would connect together.
How did you do? Did you complete the task? If so, you’ve just created yourself five new pillar page ideas with up to eight sub topics to dive into more deeply on hyperlinked pages. That’s a lot of content! And if you organise the content appropriately, as outlined in Chapter 1, Google will love you for it.
Still struggling to create ideas for pillar pages? Sometimes even the best marketers find themselves short of inspiration. When your main purpose is to create content for your business, day in, day out, having an “off day” isn’t really an option (particularly if you are the content writer). Alternatively, perhaps you’re more strategy minded or don’t see yourself as a ‘creative type’, yet you know your business would really benefit from having some pillar page content.
Here are some more ideas to help you find inspiration for pillar page content:
Once you’ve decided on your killer content idea, planned what you’ll write about and sub divided it into sub topics, it’s time to decide which format your pillar page will take. There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to formatting pillar pages: the x10 and the Resource. Both have their charms and both are valuable options to consider – you need to choose which one you feel most comfortable with, and which suits your content, writing style and customers the best.
This style of pillar page is similar to an ungated ebook and the more widely used of the two. The content is owned almost entirely by the creator and is an opportunity to deep dive into a core topic e.g. The Beginner’s Guide to Wedding Dress Shopping. The reason it’s called ‘x10’ is that you need to be asking yourself ‘How can I create something 10 times better than what anyone else is currently doing and try to stand out?"
If you have content that is a combination of:
Your own content is front and centre stage. Not only does this mean you are established as an authority on your topic, but it means you aren’t in danger of plagiarising anyone else’s work and getting into trouble with Google for it. Google loves original, organised content, so if you’re creating a x10 pillar page, there should be plenty for search engines to adore about your website.
It’s a lot of work! Creating 3000+ words of original, well-researched, well-crafted content requires a lot of hard work and the expertise of an experienced writer. If you’ve already got content you can repurpose – such as an ebook – then great, but if you’re starting from scratch, it’s a lot of copy to produce in one go.
The resource pillar page is the less common of the two types. This is because it hyperlinks to external content, as well as internal which doesn’t guarantee the user will return to your original page. This is a hotchpotch of fascinating information from across the web, all in one place, making it a ‘bookmarkable’ reference page that readers will keep coming back to, rather than reading once and being done with it. For example, ‘House-Searching Tips for First-Time Buyers.’
If you have content which is a combination of:
This type of pillar page improves SEO, even though many of the links may send people off your site, which is not optimal for your business. You can generate inbound links from the sources you include on the pages that are yours, but not on the ones that belong to other people.
Your own voice will not come through as strongly as in a x10 pillar page as there simply isn't as much content from you on the page. The majority of your content will be hyperlinked elsewhere like a huge catalogue of interesting and useful bookmarks for your reader. Rather than celebrating your own knowledge, it acts as a research project you’ve done on behalf of your audience.
“It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.” J. R. R. Tolkien wasn’t kidding – actually getting started can be the hardest part when commencing a new, unfamiliar project. We’ve broken the steps down into seven easy chunks (and if you’ve stayed with us this far, taking part in the activities in the sections above, you’ve already completed some of them!)
So it’s really not that daunting – you’ve already achieved Steps 1 and 2!
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If you’ve got a design team, this is the point where they can work their magic: you will simply hand over your written, image, podcast and video content to them, and they’ll upload it to your website to make it look gorgeous. If, however, your job doesn’t stop at content and it’s actually you who will be building the page, there’s a few tips to follow along the way.
In Chapter 6, you’ll find out more about the best practices for formatting and layout of your pillar page – from navigation options to how to use headers.
The old saying goes that you can’t please everyone… but maybe you can. The website pillar page format won’t suit everyone – give them the option of a PDF to download and keep everyone happy.
Top Tip: To optimise the pillar page, you need a conversion opportunity near the top. This is like any other landing page on your site – you have to give the reader the opportunity to gain something from you in exchange for a few details. Instead of removing the navigation bar, as if best practice on standard landing pages, you can leave this on in a pillar page, and simply insert a form which asks for 2-3 fields, such as names and email address.
The offer should be a PDF version of the pillar page – despite the fact the user has to give you their details, PDFs are still surprisingly popular and many visitors to your site will prefer to have a “physical” downloaded copy of your pillar page, rather than browsing the page itself. Giving the option for download right at the top means you’re keeping everyone happy, whether they want to download or simply bookmark your page to keep coming back to later online.
This is a fluid, ever-changing behemoth – the thing about the pillar page is that it’s never ‘done’. If you’re someone who loves a to-do list you can meticulously tick off, your sensibilities may be challenged by the pillar page! It will be ever growing, ever changing and ever creating more work…
...The first job in this ever expanding list, is to create the blog posts that will hold the sub topic cluster content.
Remember: Without external links to related content, which then hyperlink back to the pillar page, you just have a really long webpage… which no-one will find, and no-one will want to read, if they do.
Using your blog, steadily build up content relating to each chapter in your pillar page. This rich, original, helpful content is essential for Google to identify you as an authority on your topic and help build you as the one-stop-shop for your core topic.
This can’t be done overnight – who has enough time to write, upload and hyperlink 25+ blog posts at the same time as creating a 3000+ word pillar page?
Instead, organise your internally created links in the following ways:
Remind yourself of the importance of forwards-backwards hyperlinking between the pillar page and blog posts with this video from HubSpot:
So where does your pillar page appear on your website and how do people find it? You’ll need create a conversion path to access the pillar page from your website. This can be done by:
And finally (drum roll please)...
There are a few best practices you’ll need to check you’re using on your pillar page. Without these, your page might not function as effectively as it could, meaning all that hard work is being wasted. You might have already implemented some of these tips – some have been mentioned in previous chapters – while others may have passed you by.
Use the following points as a checklist, ticking off each one when you’ve achieved it on your pillar page.
It sounds so obvious, but this is the best way for Google to find you and associate you with other similar content you’ve created. Remember, if your pillar page performs well, it boosts everything else linked to it, so make it really easy to find you.
Lots of CMSs do this automatically for you when you create a new page, but it’s still worth checking that your key core topic words appear in your URL – again this helps improve your site’s search visibility.
If this is the first page a new visitor lands on – because they’ve clicked through from one of your related posts, social media or advertising – you need to give them the opportunity to explore the rest of your site, so don’t hide away.
It bears repeating: you need to ram it home that this pillar page is about your core topic! Yes, it feels overly repetitive and contrived, but by repeating those key terms you’ll be easier to find and easier not to confuse with something else.
Your reader has come to your pillar page for one of two reasons: they know a bit about the topic but need more, or they know absolutely nothing. The former will want confirmation of what they know for a confidence boost, the latter will benefit from layman's terms explanation.
As explored in Chapter 5, the pillar page format isn’t for everyone and the ways people plan to use your information may vary greatly: use this as an opportunity to gain some contacts and offer a PDF of the page in exchange for some basic details.
This is the essential feature of a pillar page – there is so much content in one place here that you need to make it as easy as possible to navigate the different sections/ include an anchor to make skipping around really easy.
Not only can your pillar page be found through Google text searches and linked external content, but if you include your core topic words in the alt text of the images you use, Google Images will also redirect to your pillar page, creating another way for you to be found.
This is a mighty, mighty body of content. Your reader will likely not be interested in the whole thing – you need to give them clear headers to signpost them to the parts they’re interest in and ensure the correct H2 headers map to the correct anchor links in the table of contents. Remember: Google likes organisation!
Not only do you need to be using your core topic wording at every turn, but related sub topics in the cluster – those you will link to outside of the pillar – need plenty of mentions. This isn’t only so that you’ve got opportunities to hyperlink, but so you are constantly teaching the reader new terminology.
We’ve laboured this point enough in this pillar page, but just in case you missed it – link, link, link! The most valuable content to link to your pillar pageb (and vice versa) is your own. Whether it’s older content or newly created for this purpose, the best way to promote your expert view is to hyperlink.
Your own content is the best, but showing you’re confident and credible enough to shout about other great marketers is a wise move – alternative, if you’re creating a Resource Pillar Page, you’ll be predominantly relying on superb external links.
This is another tactic to encourage further exploration of your website – don’t just leave them hanging at the bottom of your page; guide the reader back to the top so they can a) explore another chapter they previously skipped or b) use your site navigation to discover more about you and your products/services.
Well, not really because – as your new expert knowledge has taught you – a pillar page is never really done! So we will be regularly updating and adding to our pillar page on pillar pages, creating new blog content to support it and helpful tips we learn along the way (in fact, we’ve already got our Chapter 7 title planned out!). But for now, we wish you luck with your own – go forth and organise!
