This post will explain content pillars. Over 7 million blog articles are published each day. It can be difficult to maximise your content marketing approach in such a crowded digital world. To get the most out of your content efforts, some experts advise authoring in-depth articles similar to content pillars.
Learn what a content pillar is, how to construct one, and how to make the most of it in this post. A comprehensive content on a subject that covers all the elements of the subject is referred to as a content pillar. A content hub or pillar can be created where the main article links to further articles that go in-content on particular sub-clustering articles.
For instance, the sub-clustering sites will address questions like “what is a paleo diet?” if a pillar content is about the Paleo Diet. or “paleo diet maintenance.” A solo blog article that serves as your content pillar is typically an educational tutorial on a certain subject. In this instance, it makes an effort to provide more in-depth information while also exploring the subject broadly and thoroughly.
It might be presented as a blog post, an eBook, or a PDF with numerous headings and subheadings. Here is a real-world chatbot example from Drift.
What Is a Content Pillar And How To Create One
In this article, you can know about content pillars here are the details below;
Some of the most common content pillar types include the following:
What are the most common types of contentpillars?
A thorough explanation of a difficult subject divided into chapters and sections.
The how-to guide is a detailed, step-by-step piece that explains how to do something to your audience.
The best manual: A thorough examination of every facet of a subject within a set time frame.
The listicle is a comprehensive piece that addresses every angle of a single topic.
Why is a content pillar important in a content strategy?
A content marketing strategy should include content pillars because they provide numerous advantages for both the audience and the company.
It guarantees better engagement.
The perceived value of your company or website will rise if you have a well-organized and insightful piece of content that speaks to the problems of your audience.
You then receive direct traffic and your bounce rate drops. This forces search engines to give your website a better rating, along with the on-page interaction your content receives.
It helps you stay on top of your business niche
High-volume keywords are typically what fuel content pillars.
The goal of this kind of content is often to thoroughly explore the subject and address any questions the reader may have.
By addressing subjects of this magnitude, you establish your expertise. Additionally, due to the content’s depth and breadth, most beginner- or newbie-type queries that searchers may have are covered.
Most readers will think of you as an industry leader after reading your content. For instance, if a reader interested in learning more about sales sees Hubspot’s Ultimate Guide to Sales, reads it in its entirety, and finds it useful, they will immediately think of Hubspot as the go-to resource for all things sales-related.
It helps you buid a solid SEO asset for your business
Backlinko claims that content pillars have a better chance of ranking on Google’s first page than normal postings. According to a study by BuzzSumo, backlinks naturally fit into content pillars. Additionally, because of their length, they keep users on your page longer, increasing dwell time, which is a sign of quality content to Google algorithms.
They become a resource you can always link to in your other blog entries, which is much more fascinating (i.e., internal liking). In turn, this helps your website’s content develop a semantic link with one another. One of the top ranking indicators on Google, topical authority, is something you can simply develop. This implies that Google will see your website as authoritative for the subject at hand.
How to create a content pillar to fuel your content marketing
The various actions you must take to generate excellent content pillars are listed below.
Step 1: Determine Whts business goals you want to achieve with your content pillar
Every action you do in the remaining steps should build on this. What purposes do you hope to accomplish with your content pillar?
- Would you want to:
- Amplify brand awareness
- Educate your audience?
- Arouse curiosity or desire?
- Strengthen your connection with customers?
- Encourage more people to join up for free trials?
- Generating paying customers from leads?
Once you have it figured out, defining your key performance indicators and how to gauge success or failure will be simple. You can use it to decide what information to cover, who to share it with, etc.
Step 2: Understad your target audience
A content pillar requires extensive work to develop. Make sure your intended audience will find it useful, interact with it, and either bookmark or share it.
As a result, you must expend some time learning about your audience, their problems, and the reasons they seek a solution.
Here, thorough client research is essential. You should find the answers to the following issues in your audience research:
What issue are we attempting to address?
Whom does our solution address?
What does our audience know and don’t know about this subject?
In a piece of content like this, what would people like to read?
What other content can be found on search engines, and why can’t it assist users get better off?
It will be simple to produce content that has effect if you can pick what to put in your content pillar using the answers to these questions.
Based on the results of your consumer research, you should be able to determine the keywords you want to focus on at this point.
For instance, you would know to generate content on “cold calls closure” if the major objective of your audience is to learn how to complete transactions during cold calls. You must develop content centred on “sales automation tools” if they are having trouble finding technologies that will assist them in automating sales.
Use an SEO tool like the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer if you’re still having trouble deciding which keywords to target.
Look at the phrase match report after entering a wide keyword associated with your niche. Keep in sense that this only applies if you wish to centre your content pillar around your primary area of business.
For instance, if you sell bags online, type “backpacks” into the search bar.
Exploring keywords with Ahrefs
Then let the suggested keywords serve as your inspiration.
Keep in mind that not all of the ideas you have for subjects or keywords will work for a content pillar. Pick a term that has enough volume to support a content pillar. To achieve this, make sure your topic or keywords meet these requirements.
Keywords indicating the need for information, understanding, your perspective on the matter, or the desire to learn how to accomplish something are known as informational intent.
A keyword with a high tracking volume in your industry that has the potential to generate traffic.
A keyword that is sufficiently broad to be rapidly expanded into subheadings and divisions will make it simple to develop your content pillar.
Step 4: Map out the subtopics or subheadings to cover
Create an outline for your content pillar after selecting your favourite topic and keywords. Here’s the ideal way to complete this.
1. Do keyword research
You can use keyword research effectively in one of two ways. Finding search terms and phrases that you can elaborate on in your content pillar is your aim in either case. Also check Cox Webmail
Utilizing AnswerThePublic is the first option. AnswerThePublic is a keyword generator that pulls the most popular phrases and terms from Google searches. These are essentially queries that people search for with that particular term. You only need to enter your topic’s or keyword’s root. This is the keyword report for “vegan.” AnswerThePublic If you want to see more results, scroll down the page.
The second method is to employ an SEO tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer. Let’s use SEMrush as an illustration. Let’s presume that “podcasting” is your topic here. Wait for the keyword overview report after entering your term.
Now, the search results that most interest you are keyword variations, queries that people also ask, and associated terms.
2. Leverage top-ranking pages to pull out subtopics
In addition to conducting keyword research, consider what the top pages for your target keywords are doing.
To find subtopics or headers you can expand on in your content pillar, skim through the articles that are currently ranking well on your topic.
You can just Google it and browse the top articles that come up. Utilize an SEO tool to find these articles if you want to be more comprehensive. BuzzSumo and Ahrefs SERP Checker are tools you can use for this.
Ahrefs SERP Checker is a SERP analysis tool that will assist you in locating the articles that are currently ranking at the top of SERPs for your term and their metrics so you can make wise judgments.
Suppose “content marketing” is your keyword or topic. You may check the top-ranking pages for this term using Ahrefs’ SERP Checker.
Overview of Ahrefs’ SERP Checker for content marketing
To find more results, you may also broaden SERP characteristics like “people also ask.”
You now know what subtopics inside “content marketing” individuals are interested in learning about.
Use BuzzSumo to locate the articles that have received the most social shares. You may mimic the patterns driving engagement and social sharing in your content pillar using this data.
Just enter your keyword and wait for the outcomes. Here are the outcomes once more for the term “content marketing.”
Examine the outcomes and use each page as the foundation for your outline.
It’s interesting to see that the research box also offers a few keywords you might find useful. Those might also be good additions to your pillar content.
3. Be opinionated
You probably won’t be the only Google website attempting to draw visitors to the same subject. Also present will be your rivals. Therefore, you must develop distinctive and novel angles or perspectives to distinguish your content pillar.
By expressing your opinion, exploring the subject from various angles, utilising original examples, offering a contrarian viewpoint, or making references to popular culture, you can stand out from the throng.
Step 5: Write your content pillar
It’s time to write your content pillar at this point. You might start by using this resource on content production strategies. But in order to be more precise, here are certain things you must remember.
- Add a table of contents that is clickable.
- Format the content to make it simple and convenient to read.
- Use concise paragraphs and sentences.
- Create headings that have a clear, scannable structure that follows logic.
- Ensure the examples are current and pertinent to help readers understand the principles more quickly.
- The notion should be well explained in each part.
- Ensure that paragraph transitions are seamless.
- Add pictures, movies, and infographics to break up the text and make it more visually appealing.
Do not assume that the position is given. Invest on the UX and appearance. Hire a designer if necessary. Long-term return on investment will be achieved.
Step 6: Interlink
Building a cluster is the key to connecting your website’s content pillar to other articles. The goal of a content cluster in a content marketing plan is to develop a cohesive collection of complimentary contents that revolve around your primary business theme, a particular problem, or in-depth details about a new product you are introducing.
Interlinking, then, is how you keep everything organised into a single hub. The content pillar in the hub serves as the centre, being the most in-depth and holding everything together. Now, thanks to the links between the sub articles and the content pillar, this structure enables search engines to correctly explore your website. Additionally, it enhances the user experience because users can quickly traverse the connected articles and locate pertinent, complementary content.
Linking to other articles on your website is always a smart idea even if you’re creating a solo content pillar. For instance, you may do a content audit on your website to identify and link to pieces that are similar to your content pillar in terms of keywords or theme.
Step 7: Optimize Your content Pillar for SEO
You must optimise your content pillar after developing it if you want to rank on Google. Generally speaking, this is one of the primary goals of producing long-form content. Therefore, you must ensure that your content pillar is top-notch. Also check KeyBank Login
Here are some SEO techniques you can use.
To prevent traps and Google penalties, use on-page SEO. Effectively use keywords in your heading and title tags.
Construct a strong meta description.
Use FAQ schema markups to help your content respond to specific queries.
All photos should be optimised by include alt text and employing keywords.
Monitor page performance to enhance user experience.
Optimize your website for desktop and mobile.
Setp 8: Distribute your pillar content
Your content pillar should by now be prepared, properly optimised, and published on your website. You must now make sure that your target audience sees it.
You want to draw as many people’s attention to it as you can. Therefore, you must first come up with a content distribution strategy.
To achieve the greatest reach, you can think about spreading it naturally through your social media accounts, posting it in online forums, or even paying for advertising. Make sure to always share in locations where your target audience will see it and interact with it.
Step 9: Repurpose your content pillar
Leverage your content pillar at scale through content repurposing. It is a valuable resource you can use across several platforms.
Think about creating a video version of your content pillar for YouTube and social media. You can post questions and answers on Reddit, Quora, and Twitter threads. Slideshares can be made from advice and tactics, etc.
Step 10: (bonus): Get Backlinks
Backlinks are signs of trust from other websites that tell Google how good your content is. If your content pillar is good enough, readers of your content may naturally link back to it. Your Domain Authority (DA) will increase and your content pillar will rank higher the more backlinks you have.
Make sure to only obtain backlinks from websites with higher DA than your own if you choose to obtain backlinks through publicity outreach initiatives.
These are your top two options for doing this.
Guest blogging is the practise of contacting websites that have comparable target audiences to your own, producing content for their blogs, and linking it to your own website. If your content pillar supports the points you are making or delves deeper into the subject, you can link to it. To understand more, read our post on guest blogging.
Reaching out to other blogs that you know may benefit from linking to your content pillar and encouraging them to do so is known as blogger outreach. For additional information, see our page on blogger outreach.
Content Pillars supports your site
A content pillar is different from a regular post and is harder to create. To make one, careful preparation, commitment of time, knowledge resources, and funds, as well as execution, are required. Here are some considerations before you begin making one.
- Ensure it has a Unique design
Your content pillar needs to stand out from the other blog posts or articles in the cluster. You must emphasise that the content is really insightful. Its aesthetic appeal is where we should start.
By employing graphic designers, the photos, infographics, charts, data, and quotes in the content pillar will have a top-notch design.
- Make sure it’s value-driven
While keyword research may reveal the terms people are looking for on search engine results pages, you might also want to think about speaking with a few of your consumers to gain genuine understanding of what interests them most. Knowledge dissemination is one thing, but information that your target audience genuinely appreciates and cares about is quite another.
