Using Pillar Content to Build Your SEO Approach

Introduction

Nearly every business these days will appreciate the importance of adapting an SEO strategy into their marketing approach, or indeed using SEO as central tenet of that approach. One of the biggest challenges, however, is staying up to date in what is happening in the world of SEO and not being caught behind the curve. The job of an SEO expert is to constantly remain innovative.

Search engines such as Google are continuously improving the algorithms which trawl for keywords and relevant content, and the way in which data is recorded. The bottom line is that it becomes very easy to see costly marketing approaches fail to result in the desired traffic because it would be very easy to be using the wrong approach. What is the right approach I hear you ask? Well, increasingly, savvy content marketers are turning to an innovation called pillar content. Here’s what it is and how it works.

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What Is Pillar Content (and How Long Has It Been a Thing)?

The issue at hand is how to build a content strategy, and the content, that remains relevant, even with all of these changing parameters. Is there a way you can ensure that your content remains attractive to search engine algorithms over a period of time, without worrying that your content becomes uninteresting almost as soon as it is published?

The answer to this question is a resounding ‘yes’. The secret, which is not so secret to those who have been utilizing this approach for some time, is to produce foundational content that stands the test of time. This is what we can call a content pillar, or cornerstone content (both names are used within the industry).

The thing is, pillar content is not a new concept. It was mentioned on blog forums for marketing experts as long ago as 2013, and was even the focus of a detailed article by author Yaro Starak as far back as 2006.

So what is it? At its most basic, a content pillar is an all-encompassing article or page that sets out everything that your business is all about and the relevant information that a potential customer is likely to look for when running a search for a business akin to yours. A ‘how to’ article, for example, would be a fantastic means of approach as it sets out to answer all of the questions which would lead to someone finding your business on a web search through a search engine. It is vital that you emphasize all of those critical functions that your business concentrates on and you want to be known for. Not only does it seek to answer all potential queries, but it remains relevant to a search for an unlimited amount of time, which is crucial.

What Does a Pillar Content Look Like?

As previously mentioned, pillar content will usually take the shape of a long-form article, for example, or a well-positioned web page which is not hidden beneath layers (you want this to be accessible to everybody, so don’t hide it behind a form that needs to be completed first). Identifying what the theme will be to this content pillar is perhaps the most essential task you will complete in your whole marketing strategy. Not only must the theme stay forever (in marketing terms anyway) relevant, you ideally want it to be a topic that can be easily broken down into sub-topics which can be addressed in equal detail using all the regular content channels such as videos, infographics, email marketing, blog posts, social media posts and so on.

“The central idea behind this strategy, of course, is that from this one pillar, all you other content approaches can be supported - hence the name ‘pillar’ or ‘cornerstone’,” points out Russel Windsor, an SEO manager at BritStudent and WritemyX.

What Are the Benefits of Pillar Content?

It’s a pretty easy premise with regards to a content pillar – it is all about your business getting found on a search engine. Not only that, it’s about your business getting found on a search engine consistently over time, without constantly needing to be updated and worrying about if you are staying on message and staying relevant in terms of SEO. So, in effect, getting your content pillar right will save you a lot of headaches in the form of lost time, money and productivity, in the long run.

Another point to make is that not only should a content pillar support your content marketing plan, it has to be the cornerstone of it – once again reinforcing the fact that the name is befitting of the purpose.

How to Build It - Topic Clusters and Sub-Topics

So how in essence do you go about producing pillar content? In the same way that you should be going about any content marketing strategy – by understanding your audience and customers. Failing to do so will see any marketing approach fail, and producing content pillars is no different.

So, who are your potential customers? The answer to that question is the same as who are the people who will benefit from your product and service. What is it exactly that they need: what are they looking to do? How will your business work? How does the product or service work? How will your product or service add value?

“The more detail you can provide in answering the questions pertaining to your audience, the better your pillars will be. And the better they are, the more relevant and effective they will remain,” states Anne Bellow, a tech blogger at 1day2write and NextCoursework.

From here you can set about identifying your central, or core, topic, for which everything else resolves – think of this as the sun and everything else becomes the planets revolving around it. If you are uncertain, utilize the old-school but still-relevant practice of keyword research to tell you. Once you know the first thing that your potential audience types into a search engine, you can start to think deeply about everything that is connected to that central theme. And, of course, try to be as innovative with those keywords as possible so you are not just clogging up an already saturated space. So, you need to be innovative as always, but the point is that this innovation will continue to set you apart for a significant amount of time to come. This will simply generate more traffic to your site, which in turn you can seek to engage and then convert.

Once you have your core topic – the sun – you can begin to create the sub-topics – planets -  that revolve around it. It would be important here to ensure that these are strong enough topics to stand alone themselves, but always links back (both literally and figuratively) to that core principle. From here you just simply repeat the process, and of course you can create sub-topics – moons – around the larger sub-topics – planets.

This is where topic clusters come in. Topic clusters are, as they sound, areas of intense information regarding a certain subject. If you have done the job effectively – built a strong content pillar page with a number of sub-topics linking back to that central theme, search engines will then start to identify that pillar as a place of authority on that given subject. The result? A better search ranking.

So, your topic cluster becomes the basis to be more successful when it comes to SEO. And the beauty of it is, you’ve probably done a lot of the hard work already in producing videos and blog posts and so on – now you just need to build the layers around that central pillar to maximize the effect.

Another consideration is the fact that it is unlikely you will have just one content pillar – you should essentially build several around all of your key concerns as a business. From here, you can identify your sub-topics relating to that central idea.

The Relationship between Pillar Content and Your Content Strategy

As previously alluded to, pillars are the basis of your content marketing approach. They should always be the focus of what your business offers to its audience and potential customers, and so are the starting point for all other content, not the other way around. Everything that you then do should be to raise awareness of your pillar – for example, social media posts linking to it, or producing ‘how to’ videos based on the ideas expressed in the central pillar.

And, of course, the job is never done – you will continue to produce content related to that pillar, and continue to effectively utilize all of your channels to draw attention to that pillar. But the pillar itself in the concept, never changes. The only concepts you need to create are to continually grow your content clusters in the form of your pillar content.

Recommended: A Step by Step Guide to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy that Will Supercharge Your Business

Conclusion

It may be that you have been doing most of what is spoken about here, but just never knew it was called content pillaring. Or it may be that you have everything in place, you have just never arranged it to look like this (and have therefore never created a content cluster which attracts search engines). Or it may just be that this gives you the focus to build, or rebuild, your SEO approach.

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Michael Dehoyos

Content marketer Micahel Dehoyos is usually found assisting organizations in their digital
marketing approach. He is an editor at Academic Brits and PHDKingdom and a regular
contributor to a host of other sites and blogs like Academic Paper Help portal.