Planning on directing your marketing efforts into a content pillar strategy as part of your content marketing services?
Thankfully, you’re at the right place here on this blog. So we will explore some really great examples of pillar content effective at both serving up traffic and positioning brands as experts in their fields. Also, you will get a productive process to create an awesome content pillar which enhances ranking and organic traffic growth.
Before we go on to describe the advantages and functions of pillar pages, let us first explain what they are.
What are content pillars?
If you are interested in growing an audience for your intended purposes of improving organic traffic, as well as making content planning convenient and faster, then maybe you should use a method that revolves around pillarization of content. The blog will guide you on the process of developing content pillars with the help of a reliable content marketing company in support of long form blogs and articles. And the best part: they help in different types of groups.
The central supporting theme for your articles, blogs, videos, e-books, and infographics is known as a content pillar. In essence, it is a strategy for structuring all the topics in your content plan into themes so as to organise your media in order to convey only one main message. Pillar pages include the main pillar and the sub-pillar.
The centrepiece or central theme, as it’s commonly known in an essay. It usually has a long tail keyword attached to it, with around 3000 words of full or ultimate guide.
The main pillar has a content that acts as support to the subject. It can also be referred to as cluster content in some instances. It consists of long tail keywords and goes into more depth on central issues. Sub-pillar length could be anywhere from 750 words to 2,500 words.
Some teams add supplementary contents to their marketing strategy as they endeavour to take pillars further than before. Additional information that boosts both main- and sub-pillars like long-tail question keywords that can be a short blog / landing page.
Why are content pillars important?
Pillars make content planning so simple to handle. Assume you are doing it for 3 content pillars one per week. For at least, during your three weekly cycles you could go through a single pillar each week at will One = cluster one, two = cluster two, three = cluster four. It’s as simple as that!
In what way do pillars improve SEO content writing?
However, search engines like Google look at a website on aggregate. Therefore, it involves checking if other web pages contain a copy link. If a website contains good content with links that are related to search queries, then Google considers this page better relevant.
The use of content pillars will allow you to establish some hierarchy of topic items on your website which can be navigated easily by search engines like Google hence making it easy for them to move across them. However, if you follow the basics of SEO writing like keyword research and crafting high quality content, your chances of getting ranked on SERPs improve.
Internal linking is one essential advantage that content pillars bring to SEO. This enables a blog content to be used for navigations and architectures as well as page authority distribution and rankings. Obviously, you should not just associate random pages with you. Hence, you need a plan on how best to make use of the blogs and long form texts.
Content Pillar Strategy in Five Steps
Step 1: Choose a topic
Begin by creating a main topic that will serve as the basis for your content pillar. For now, don’t focus on keywords as there are some ideas about themes that resonate with your brand and company’s goals.
Make sure you remember the things stated above on what should be known when starting a business. What would the target market want to know? What are their pain points? What value will you offer to this group through your content?
Sweet tip: In case you are challenged in identifying subject matter, check on your highly ranked blog entries as well as social media entries. Doing so will help you understand what interests you in order to tap.
Step 2: Conduct keyword research
You’ll need to conduct some keyword research to see what search engines queries your prospects use and which other topics you might be able to rank for after finding that idea of yours you may want to consider as well. You can develop this information into cluster content at a later stage.
Consider, for example, one of the content pillars. Some clustered ideas based on the keyword research would include four-day workweeks, remote working, and onboarding if your pillar topic was workplace culture. You can further break those clusters down into your supporting content. As far as working from home is concerned, you may discuss issues such as “why working from home is environmentally friendly” or “do people end up saving some money when working from home?”
Step 3: Organise your content and keywords
Review your topic choices and keyword them appropriately for each grouping. Making a mindmap like that is a wonderful method to structure your thoughts and sources. However, they should preferably be used in points and not lists if possible.
You have to bear in mind that your subjects should not be too close as otherwise your site will end up competing for the same keywords while Google is running through it. Keyword cannibalization can be dangerous for SERPs positioning.
Also, link with this other content in your own site to allow your visitors to navigate easily between posts and pages of your web log.
Step 4: Make content for your pillar point.
Having planned your pillar piece, let’s do the writing part. Each writer may employ a unique style but most often content pillars are noticeably wordier than conventional blog posts. For example, our flagship article on content planning has around 3,496 words. With long-term content like this, think about an outline that would answer these questions:
- What would be the follow up question by your readers?
- Was the question answered properly?
- Do you have the content backup?
- Have you collected the required facts?
- Is your table of content ordered logically or not?
Ensure the piece is broken down into small and manageable pieces with set timelines once you have a sketch of the plan. Doing so will ensure that you remain focused and motivated until completion of the project.
Step 5: Update pre-existing content
Make sure to update any old content that fits under a current pillar of your business. That means searching for different SEO keywords, updating the title tags and metas, and adding any new information that you may have found.
With the background and some strategy action for the content pillar now, how can you exploit them on your website?
6 Content Pillar Examples
Your content pillars may entail different topics; hence, they are not restricting you from producing similar content pieces weekly.
In other words: be consistent, not repetitive.
Key examples of content pillars you should know
If this could be done in an independent bookstore, it should mainly centre on indie book reviews, behind the scenes running of a small business, and maybe local coffee shops.
For a fashion blogger, it could include pillars like minimalism/minimalist style, love for body/body positivity, self love and body confidence, stylishness under a budget, etc.
He/she can concentrate on issues related to entrepreneurship, social media news, or work-life balance tips.
The content pillars of a food brand are product round-ups, recipes, cooking tips, and busting the nutrition myths
The creator of a fitness website can post morning routines, easy home workout, or the motivation quotation.
The content pillars for a luxury luggage brand would include luxury hotel guides, travelling tips, packing hacks, and product tutorials
However, what is the process of identifying and defining your brand’s content pillars? Keep scrolling, friend.
What You Need to Know About Your Brand’s Content Pillars in 2024
However, it does not mean that creating content pillars comes down to a single second brainstorm.
Then, list down possible sources and pick one among them!
Here are five things to consider when building your content pillar strategy:
Business Objectives and Audience Requirements
Keyword Research
Content Analytics and Performance
Audience FAQs and Feedback
A tool driven by Later’s advanced AI that generates ideas.
1: Business Objectives and Audience Requirements
Content is a pillar that must be aligned with your business goals.
Ask yourself:
Why did you create a profile in a social network, what are you aiming at?
What kind of information is likely to be useful for your audience?
Do you want this video to be mainly informative, inspiring or funny.
Are you intending to market a website or develop a brand ?
2: Keyword Research
Focus on your sector and keep track of any developing trends, as it will be immensely helpful when defining your social media’s content pillars.
Firstly, focus on the keyword research to identify popular terms, lacking content areas, and positions for showcasing your knowledge or unique viewpoint.
In addition, it is supportive to one’s SEO over time via particular search criteria embedded within your caption.
Looking for a list of rising keywords? Here are a few free recommendations:
Instagram and TikTok Search: Put your niche in the search bar, notice the corresponding keywords, hashtags, as well as content that is being posted.
Google Trends: Know what people are seeking for in Google. It also allows you to categorise it according to particular locations, countries, or even a specific period like the last month.
Pinterest Search: Search for your industry using the search tool. Pins that appear on top can be considered as an indication of the kind of information people like.
Answer The Public: Helps you know your pain points and what you are looking for as an audience.
Content Analytics and Performance
One of the best ways of determining which types of your posts are viewed more often is to look into your analytics data.
Take note of what makes those social media posts successful in terms of captions, images or video footage, and hashtags (keywords).
Can you make out the commonality of some themes that you may identify as potential content pillars? Start there.
For a more detailed picture of what is working, try using an in-depth analytics tool such as Later that would help measure your progress by such indicators as comments, likes, and your engagement rate.
later’s engagement rate tool in analytics
It allows you to track and compare posts on a weekly basis for one month or month over month.
Conclusion
Make the best of content marketing services with special focus on content pillars with the help of a reliable marketing agency. Pay special attention to the type of content you create for your digital business and stay relevant in the competitive scenario.