By Jayne Schultheis — When building your website, or maybe conducting a content audit, you want to make sure the site is well-structured and optimized for both search engines and customers. To accomplish that, it helps to have thoughtfully-crafted pillar pages.

‍

A pillar page is a comprehensive web page, typically an article or blog post, that covers a specific topic in a way that supports the infrastructure of a website and its content strategy. In the context of SEO, a pillar page covers many aspects of a topic and includes internal links to other pages on the site that cover those subtopics. Together, the pillar page and related pages form a topic cluster.

‍

How does a pillar page help your SEO strategy?

‍

This structure enhances the site's authority and helps improve its search engine ranking by:

‍

• Providing a central hub. The pillar page acts as the central hub for a topic, giving an overview and linking to detailed articles, or blog posts, that explore subtopics with greater depth. The pillar page is positioned at the core of a topic cluster, providing a means to explore the topic further.
• Improving user experience. By organizing content around pillar pages and clusters, users can easily navigate and find information. This increases the time users spend on the site and reduces bounce rates.
• Enhancing internal linking. Pillar pages create a strong internal linking structure, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index the site, thus boosting SEO.
• Establishing authority. A well-structured pillar page positions the site as an authority on a topic, increasing the likelihood of earning backlinks and improving the site's overall search engine ranking. Authority is one of the top qualities search engines look for when deciding who gets the top ranking in certain user searches.

‍

What's the difference between a pillar page and cornerstone content?

‍

If you look up the word "pillar" in the dictionary, you'll find that it's described as an upright, supporting post in a building. If you look up "cornerstone," you'll find that it refers to the foundational blocks of buildings. So, both of these types of content have their linguistic roots in "supporting structures," even though their method of support is different.

‍

While some people use these SEO terms interchangeably, they have different meanings and uses for SEO and content strategy. Cornerstone content is central to the core of a website's purpose. A pillar is the center of a cluster of topics. Your cornerstone content could link to several pillar pages, which could then link to pages that focus on subtopics. Here are some other ways to look at it.

‍

• Scope. Pillar content covers a broad topic and links to more detailed articles, while cornerstone content represents the best, most important articles on a site.
• Focus. Pillar content is focused on creating a comprehensive, anchoring resource and strong internal linking structure. Cornerstone content is designed to be the authoritative, go-to resource on its subject and feature internal and external linking.
• Strategy. Pillar content supports a content clustering strategy, boosting topic authority and enhancing user navigation. Cornerstone content supports an overall SEO strategy by presenting relevant, evergreen articles that define the site's expertise and authority.

‍

In short, cornerstone pages can act as pillar pages, but pillar pages are not cornerstone pages.

‍

What's a good example of a pillar page?

‍

Let's do a bit of content analysis by looking at the pillar page of a popular project management tool — Trello.

‍

This page is called "How to Embrace Remote Work" and functions as a "complete guide to setting up your team for remote work success."

‍

‍

As you scroll, you see five sections related to remote work. Each provides a concise take on its subject and provides a link to take visitors to a deeper article on that sub-topic.

‍

‍

On the left, notice the interactive table of contents that allows readers to click and jump to a certain part of this pillar landing page.

‍

As a project management tool and subscription service, Trello is strategically positioning itself to be an expert on remote work, especially when it comes to virtual project collaboration between team members.

‍

Pillar pages can function as guides along the customer journey. Think of them as vital middlemen between your main landing page and the page to the product, service, or information that turns your target audience into customers.

‍

How can I create a pillar page?

‍

We won't get into the nitty gritty of website construction here. Wordpress and other web content publishing platforms have made that much simpler these days. However, if you're brainstorming what to include on your pillar pages, here are some key elements you should consider:

‍

• Keyword research. A pillar page's short-tail focus keyword helps keep the topic broad and allows you to branch out with your linked cluster content. Those linked, cluster pages are likely to have long-tail keywords.
• Table of contents. Your pillar page should be on the longer side, since it's a comprehensive overview of a topic. A TOC helps users quickly scan the page to find what they need.
• Internal links. We covered this above, but this is the main reason you're making a pillar page — to provide a launching pad for visitors looking for more in-depth content.
• Regular updates. Keep an eye on the page's analytics and engagement metrics. Update the page as necessary, especially if you add more content on the subject that you can link to. Content optimization is an ongoing task.
• Visual and interactive elements. Do you have user-generated content that helps represent your product or service? Charts that show informative and related statistics? Photographs and videos that engage readers? These embellishments strengthen a pillar page and help it fulfill its purpose.

‍

This list certainly isn't exhaustive, but it gives you some good starting points. No two pillar pages will look the same. Yours will reflect your particular brand, target customers, products or services, and content goals.

‍

Let Rellify help you craft pillar pages that will exceed your content goals

‍

At Rellify, we're in the business of helping people craft content that gets results. We know that great pillar pages are foundational to a robust SEO strategy. With a Relliverse™, a custom-AI subject-matter expert trained on your relevant focus topics, you can make data-driven strategic decisions on that strategy. Your pillar pages will be more likely to foster lead generation and higher conversion rates. Want to find out more? Talk to one of our Rellify experts and schedule a demo today.