The search behavior of Internet users is evolving, which means that the way search engines work is also changing. Keywords become long-tail keywords, which are bundled in so-called pillars. In order to be found reliably in the vastness of the Internet, marketers have to work on their content strategy and organize their pages structurally. Pillar pages are inevitable. They form the center of a content-based, SEO-optimized online strategy; Technical term content hub .
Relevant content has always been the focus of inbound marketing. Content ideally deals with direct challenges from desired customers. However, achieving first place in the rankings on Google and Co. with blog articles or websites is not a matter of course. That takes a lot of work.
The search queries of the users are so specific
So far, the core task has consisted of researching suitable keywords that are characterized by the highest possible search frequency and low competition. Short-tail keywords or generic keywords that only consist of individual terms have long been replaced by long-tail keywords that combine several terms.
But the search queries of Internet users are becoming more and more specific and now often consist of whole sentences. Changed search options, above all voice search, play a major role here. Because with Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Co., voice input in whole sentences is becoming increasingly important.
The algorithms of the search engines have also adapted to these trends and developed further: they are constantly being optimized and can thus implement search queries more and more perfectly and deliver perfect results.
Orientation based on keywords alone therefore no longer works for marketers. Inbound marketing shows that a content strategy and its structured implementation with the help of pillar pages are promising under the conditions.
In the following sections, read what a pillar page is and what you should consider when creating it.
Content strategy, pillar and cluster content
To create a pillar page, a content marketing strategy must first be designed and the pillar and cluster content determined.
The pillar content represents the overarching main topic, to which the cluster content is assigned in the form of many connected subtopics. This allows you to serve a wide range of topics and increase traffic on your site and general visibility with internal links.
Read more about topic clusters and how to create them here .
What is a pillar page?
The Pillar Page is derived from the English word pillar , which means column in German . It forms the basis of a specific topic worked out in the content strategy. A topic that you are an expert on and about which you can create helpful content for your desired customers.
All aspects that are dealt with in more detail in the cluster content should be represented on the pillar page. These are then linked to the pages dealing with the cluster content using hyperlinks.
The pillar page offers a rough overview of all areas of the topic, but is much less specific than the individual cluster content elements. In this way, enough open questions can still be clarified there and the links help the user to actually deepen the topic instead of just repeating it.
Creating a pillar page: what is important?
In general, before creating the pillar page and thus choosing your main topic, you should detach yourself from keywords and instead focus on topics themselves.
Of course, as always, the focus is on your persona , which you should have developed at the latest when creating your content marketing strategy . Which pain points (challenges) does it have, which problems of the persona can you solve, which interests serve?
In any case, your topic should be broad enough to provide enough aspects for cluster content, but should also not go beyond the scope. After all, all important aspects should also be able to be mentioned on the pillar page. So don’t be too specific, but also don’t be too vague when naming your topic.
Hubspot provides a nice example of this : a pillar page that talks about marketing on the social platform Facebook would also be perfectly named “Facebook Marketing” . On the other hand, if you were to just call it “social media,” that would be far too broad a name.
For example, “Common Mistakes in Facebook Marketing” would be too specific.
The pillar page should be able to roughly answer all questions related to your chosen topic. Hyperlinks then direct interested visitors to the pages where they can find out more about the individual aspects. These are usually blog articles, but can also be landing pages.
In the Facebook example, it would be blog articles on the following topics:
- How to get Facebook likes
- How to advertise on Facebook
- How to develop a Facebook marketing strategy
- How to analyze your own performance
Why is this SEO relevant?
As mentioned above, keywords have lost their effectiveness in expanding reach. Most of the time, short-tail keywords are far too narrow to deliver the right search results for online users. Instead, choose a topic for which you want to achieve a good ranking and only focus more on keywords again with the cluster content. This allows you to comprehensively cover individual subject areas with your content, link it internally, create more traffic and thus a higher ranking.
URLs should therefore be arranged and linked in such a way that, ideally, several pages of your website are represented in the Google ranking, thereby attracting even more visitors to your website.
If the content you provide is still relevant to your visitors, you can use this strategy to generate more valuable leads.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing is a constantly evolving method, not least because it is closely linked to social and technological developments. So the pillar page is a reaction to the change in search engine queries and their processing. It is therefore the perfect opportunity for you to continue to make yourself visible with your content.