Building a Content Strategy with HubSpot Pillar Pages

By Lynton Team

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Content marketing strategies are consistently advancing, and one of the more recent developments is the implementation of pillar pages. Pillar pages provide a straightforward way to organize your blog content, making it easier for visitors to gain information while boosting your search engine ranking along the way.

What is a Pillar Page?

You can think of a pillar page as a master page on a certain topic. In addition to providing an overview on that particular topic, a pillar page also serves as table of contents for blog posts related to that topic.

You might, for example, have a pillar page on dog training. That page would give readers a high-level overview on the topic of dog training, and it would also provide a list of links to, say, 20 other blog posts that each explores a different aspect of dog training.

In short, a pillar page is your SEO anchor piece that’s connected to multiple other blog posts on the same topic.

How to Build a Pillar Page

Building a pillar page is straightforward and fairly simple.

Choose a Topic

Your first task is to choose a topic about which your buyer personas would be interested. Make sure it’s a broad topic, not a keyword, about which you could write at least 20 different blog posts.

Research the Topic

Before you dive into 20 different blog posts on a particular topic, it’s imperative to research your topic to ensure it’s worth your while. Your topic research should answer the following questions:

  • Is this topic overdone or are we likely to gain attention from it?
  • How deep should we explore the topic: beginner, intermediate, advanced?
  • What angle will we take to make our content stand out from the rest?

If your initial topic isn’t panning out, try a different topic instead.

Select Keywords

Keyword research comes next. The keywords you select need to be related to your overall topic, have high search volumes, and cover different aspects of your topic. Use your keywords in the working titles of the blog posts you’re going to create.

See Also: Inbound Marketing 101: Do’s and Don’ts for Keywords and Meta Tags

Designate a Pillar Page

Now it’s time to create the actual pillar page. Your goal is to write a comprehensive overview of the topic, making sure the page includes:

  • A definition or explanation of the topic
  • Bulleted table of contents with sub-topic headings
  • Sub-headings that include the keywords you’re using in your related blog posts
  • Content beneath the sub-headings that give readers a sneak peek at the info each blog post will provide

Write the blog posts related to the specific keywords you selected. Link each post back to the pillar page in the table of contents area so readers can simply click to learn more.

How Pillar Pages Help SEO

Voice searches are gaining ground, with search queries becoming more conversational and longer. Instead of typing in a keyword or two, people are using voice search devices to ask questions or conduct searches made up of four or more words.

Semantic search and machine learning advancements have also helped Google’s search algorithm become more adept at delivering the exact information people are looking for.

Organizing your blog in topic clusters, with a main pillar page serving as the anchor of the cluster, aligns neatly with these search changes. Your pillar page is designed to rank highly for its topic, and it will bring up the ranking of all connected blog posts in the process.

Instead of writing a litany of blog posts containing different keyword variations of the same general topic, you’ll have an organized infrastructure of one anchor page with multiple blog posts covering different aspects of the topic.

Your blog posts are now working together to support the overall topic rather than competing against each other to rank for the same long-tailed keywords.

Promote Your Pillar Page

Promoting your pillar page is an essential step in your content marketing plan, and you have several ways to go about it.

  • Run ad campaigns: Paid social and paid search ads can bring in quick hits from users on their favorite platforms.
  • Use backlinks: Asking other sites to link back your pillar page is a good way to drive traffic. Start by contacting any sites you used as resources when creating your page.
  • Post on social: Posting a link on your account pages is good, as is answering questions and providing your pillar page link in social media groups.
  • Use to make sales: Create an email template with a pillar page link for your sales team to use as a sales tool.

With a cluster of posts all related and anchored to a pillar page, your content becomes more organized and more useful – making it much more valuable. For more info or help with your content marketing strategy, contact LyntonWeb today.