“We’re an early-stage start-up and can’t invest much into blogging. Is there a way to rank higher without much capital spent?”
One of my clients posed this question to me. If you’re a company with a fairly new blog or a blogger who writes for such companies, you’d likely get this question often.
But there’s an answer: improving ranking and authority as a new blog is possible. You do that by working on SEO pillar content strategy.
With content pillars, you:
- Rank faster and for almost all blog posts you write
- Don’t have to worry about the opportunity cost
- Know exactly what will bring sales and only target that
And go from ranking one page to 206 pages on the first page of search results.
Isn’t this all you want? Then, let’s jump right in to understand what content pillars are and how pillar content helps in blogging.
What Exactly Is Pillar Content Strategy?
Let’s start with an example of a travel blog. Consider two blogs:
Blog 1: The blog targets random keywords whenever they feel like writing an article. They don’t have a content calendar and only focus on keywords, not the audience.
Blog 2: The SEO running the blog has spent time researching topics that are important for their target audience and have earning potential. Instead of randomly writing articles using any keywords, the blog has a well-crafted content calendar based on those topics.
The keywords are divided into topics based on their similarity. There’s a main topic keyword with a cluster of keywords that can match the main keywords.
Who will have more chances of ranking faster? Blog 2 because they understood the patterns in which their target audience searched and created clusters around them.
The main keywords became their content pillars, and they can easily generate at least 10-15 individual blog posts.
Content pillars are the top-level topics or themes that create a website’s content strategy. They are the main subject areas on which the website aims to establish itself as an authority.
How Do Content Pillars Make SEO Writing Easy
When you create content around the pillars, you make it easy for the search engines and the users to understand the hierarchy of your blog. The content is self-explanatory, and since you cover each topic in depth, you have a higher chance of becoming an authority in that niche.
Authority builds trust. Who would you trust if you travel to Europe for the first time? A blog that answers every travel-related question, or someone who just posts content in hopes of somehow getting visibility without doing what’s needed?
Obviously the former, right?
Content pillars serve multiple purposes in SEO, one of which is stated by Brian Pipar on the YouTube channel of Content Marketing Institute.
Expert Opinion
When users come to your website, they expect to see certain things. They have expectations about your brand, what problems you will solve for them, and what questions you will answer. Having your content well structured on your site spreading out from the pillar pages makes it easy for them to find the next question they’re asking or a solution to their next problem. Search engines and users like flatter websites, so keep your content focused around pillar pages. That makes it easier to determine what content to create next and helps you stay focused.
Pillar pages can help inspire and teach algorithms throughout the content landscape, so push out and promote your pillar pages on social media to train the algorithms.
Here are some other ways content pillars help in SEO:
- Build topical authority and become an expert in the industry by producing high-quality, in-depth content around pillars.
- Organize content by creating pillars that structure the website’s content logically and hierarchically.
- Target relevant and rankable keywords by using content pillars that encompass a cluster of related keywords and phrases for a broader range of relevant search queries
- Plan website content since the pillar content needs a framework that guides the development of consistent and valuable posts.
How To Create Content Pillars (Topic Clusters)
Like the pillars of any building, SEO content pillars need strong cement to balance the weight of your blog. These content pillars or topic clusters determine how valuable your pillar content will be in building authority.
Here’s how the process of creating content pillars starts:
1. Nailing The Intent of Your Blog With Keywords
These are the main keywords around which your entire content revolves. Every business has a target audience and specific pain points it wants to resolve.
Consider Notion, for example. The goal is to help those unable to take notes and organize them effectively. It’s also for professionals who want to create systems for their projects, workplaces, or clients. To target the audiences with these pain points, Notion will need a list of high-intent keywords that, when ranked, will directly attract these audiences into customers.
For them, the high-intent keywords with earning potential can be “best note-taking apps,” “organizing notes,” “note-taking apps and team collaboration,” etc.
These are the central ideas or pillar content for their blog. Similarly, you need to find the pillar content ideas for your blog. Find 5-10 central ideas with search volume and earning potential.
Here’s how to find these keywords:
Customer Feedback and Surveys
Your existing customers hold a treasure trove of information. Collect their most burning pain points by taking direct feedback or creating focus groups. Asking them to narrate the instance when they first learned about you and the journey of becoming your customers can help identify high-intent keywords that directly resonate with them.
Analyzing Customer Personas
Many businesses don’t have only a single ideal customer persona (ICP). There are those you directly impact; the second category is the passive audience.
Consider my blog, for example. My first ICP is for freelance writers and bloggers who need help getting clients and creating rankable content. However, I also passively write for small businesses that may need help with their blogs.
Find who these active and passive customer personas are and create detailed persona profiles. Each of these personas will have a different set of target keywords. Multiple personas can lead to multiple clusters, each targeting a specific segment with unique high-intent keywords.
Understand the customer journey for these personas and identify the stages where high-intent searches occur. Every customer will experience things differently. Find the common threads that can repeat themselves, as these have the potential to rank and attract the right crowd. Map these stages to specific keywords.
Expert Opinion
If done correctly, SEO can be done in a matter of weeks. We learned how to apply machine learning math to a specific data set, and we were able to target the term Content Marketing and go from a page one ranking to 206.
We ignore every rule and best practice you’ve heard about SEO for the last 10 years and instead think like a search engine does. Over the past several years, we have learned that we are all more sophisticated than a funnel.
If you think about how you search for things, you start with the specifics, look for the answer you need, and then learn and fill in the gaps.
If you can access the data, analyze it, and contextualize it. In that case, you can turn a topic into a pillar topic and optimize for the aggregate search behavior and buying journeys throughout this network.
Your Own Expertise
Nothing beats the knowledge you gain over working in your industry. Utilize that and brainstorm potential keywords. Your deep understanding of the field can help identify terms that may take time to be obvious but have high earning potential.
Collaborate with sales and customer service teams who frequently interact with customers as they are the closest to the customers. Through the years of working closely with customers, they can pick up the common phrases customers use that can become potential keywords.
Examine client inquiries and help tickets to find common problems and queries. This data can highlight high-intent keywords that reflect common customer problems. Review chat logs from live chat support tools to discover the language and terms customers use when seeking help.
Google Search and Tools
Use Google’s autocomplete and related search features to find commonly searched phrases related to your core topics. Analyze the “People Also Ask” section in Google search results to find questions that indicate high intent.
Select the advanced searches to find exact matches and narrow down your results domains, updates, regions, etc.
Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz to find high-volume, low-competition keywords with strong commercial intent.
Courses and Organized Topics
I personally love this method as courses already have an organized structure and follow a logical way. Their syllabus is designed to cater to different demographics of audiences. Simply going through the syllabus gives you enough idea about the topic clusters. You can even find something completely new but relevant.
Check courses from Udemy and Coursera. They offer different courses for varied audiences in the same niche, which helps you maintain diversity.
Competitor Analysis
Look at the keywords that your competitors are using in their high-ranking content. You may find out what keywords your rivals rank for with the use of tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush.
Find areas in the content strategies of your rivals where you can add more value or a different viewpoint.
Social Media Listening And Product Reviews
If you listen carefully, your audience shares many concerns, complaints, and praises on social media. Their comments, the hashtags they follow, and the accounts they interact with reveal a lot about their behavioral patterns. You can use tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, or Sprout Social to listen to social media. Below are examples of customers sharing their reviews and concerns on different platforms.
Additionally, interact with Communities and participate in discussions tailored to your sector. Use communities such as Reddit, Quora, and specialized Facebook groups to learn about the issues and subjects your target audience is discussing.
Analyze reviews of your products and services on platforms like Amazon, Yelp, and Google Reviews. Respond to customers’ words and phrases to describe their needs and experiences.
Industry Reports and Publications
Many brands and industry pioneers release reports, whitepapers, and market research studies based on the data they collect from their audience. These resources are a gold mine of information from experts and end users. You can unravel many and find the trends you can cash in on.
Regularly read trade publications and blogs in your industry to stay informed about popular topics and emerging keywords.
Channel The Creativity Of AI
Had we been in 2021, we’d have had to conduct this research manually. Since we’re in 2024, we have AI to help us. Plug detailed and smart prompts into tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity AI, and AI will bring the keywords to you.
Perplexity AI is my new favorite research tool. Since it can access the web, you get real-time data from your competitors and other sources, which is fantastic. Simply share details about your niche, audience, and product and ask the tool to create a topical map. You’ll be surprised by the number of keyword ideas you get.
2. Keyword Difficulty And Volume
Not all the keywords you generated would have search volume or ranking potential. If you’re working on a relatively new blog, targeting keywords with low-ranking difficulty is also essential. Some keywords might have search intent that doesn’t align with your business goals.
In the end, these keywords will become your main topic cluster keywords. You should only invest your resources in those that align with your business goals and bring revenue, not just traffic.
For that, use keyword research tools and shortlist the keywords that fall into the following categories:
- At least a search volume of 100 (shows that there is a decent search demand for the keyword)
- Keyword difficulty less than 50 (makes it easy for you to rank in the top ten and beat your competitors)
- Search intent matching your business goals (ensures you only focus on keywords with earning potential)
| Suggested reading: SEO mistakes businesses should avoid
3. Create Cluster Keywords
Next, it’s time to find the cluster keywords that comprise the entire hub-and-spoke topic clusters. This requires a simple keyword research process you’d generally use.
Put the primary keyword in keyword research tools and find all the related keywords. Other ways of generating cluster keywords include using tools like Also Asked, Answer The Public, Google Keyword Planner, or a simple Google search.
The process remains the same as that of finding the pillar topic keywords. The only difference is that you’ll need to go in-depth to find related keywords for one pillar topic.
This is how it looks after you’ve created one complete topic cluster.
4. Categorize Existing Content
Take a look at the existing content on your blog. Chances are, you already have some articles or pages that fit under one or more of your newly defined topic clusters.
Go through each piece of existing content and determine which pillar topic and cluster keywords it is most relevant to. You can analyze the main topic, keywords used, content covered, etc. Assign each piece of content to the appropriate pillar topic and cluster.
This process serves two main purposes:
- You may realize you have good coverage in some areas but lack in others, which will inform your future content strategy.
- It allows you to interlink and structure your content properly. Once categorized, you can add internal links from your cluster content pieces to the main pillar page and vice versa.
Additionally, you may find some existing content that doesn’t fit well under any of your core topics. You can make a few choices for this orphaned content:
- If it addresses a relevant topic, repurpose or rewrite it to fit within one of your pillars.
- Remove it from your website if it doesn’t add much value and isn’t linked to your current issues.
- Keep it up on your website, but make sure it doesn’t take precedence over pillar/cluster content regarding your primary conversion goals.
| Suggested reading: Use E-E-A-T to rank every blog post you publish
Pillar Pages And Cluster Pages
A pillar page is a comprehensive, in-depth piece of content that covers a broad topic or theme (i.e., one of the content pillars) in great detail. It serves as the central hub or gateway to a cluster of related content.
Pillar Pages are typically longer, well-researched, and authoritative pieces that comprehensively overview a particular subject. With links to and from multiple related subtopic pages, they form the foundation of a subject cluster strategy.
Conversely, cluster pages are blog posts focusing on a single subtopic mentioned on the pillar page.
For example, The Pottery Guide by Gathered is a pillar page that includes every subtopic in the “pottery” pillar. It contains a detailed narrative about everything pottery.
At the same time, if you click on the links from the subtopics, it leads you to the cluster pages or blog posts focusing on a single keyword. When the article talks about pottery for beginners, it links to a blog post on pottery kits for beginners.
Together, the pillar and cluster pages weave a strategic web of interconnected web pages that increase the website’s authority.
Components of a Pillar Page
1. Comprehensive Overview of the Topic
The pillar pages cover all aspects of the central topic, including definitions, explanations, and other essential topics. Pillar pages are anything but shallow. Answering key questions and leaving no stone unturned is the nature of a complete pillar page. Typeform has done an amazing job writing in-depth content for one of its pillar pages. Their brand awareness guide screams “detail” with its thorough content.
2. Subtopic Sections
The content depth doesn’t diminish the organization of the content. You’ll see clear sections, each focusing on a specific subtopic related to the main topic.
3. Internal And External Links
Pillar pages include links to all relevant cluster pieces like blog posts, articles, and free and paid resources. You’ll also find links to high-quality external sources that provide additional information and support the content on your pillar page.
4. Calls to Action (CTAs)
There are CTAs throughout the page to guide users to take specific actions, such as:
- Subscribing to newsletter
- Downloading resources
- Contacting the business
The pillar page on puppy care by Petfeed has added an engaging, interactive element right at the beginning of the guide. It hits the nail on the head by allowing the readers to interact with their in-house vet.
You don’t have to limit your CTAs to the traditional ones. You can be like Petfeed and try something unique yet useful for the audience, increasing your chances of bagging the top spots on search results.
The Petfeed guide is full of creative CTAs and interactive elements. Check out the complete guide to find inspiration for your pillar content.
| Suggested reading: Rebrand your blog for success
Final Thoughts
Gone are those days when you could rank by randomly targeting keywords. Today, thinking of ranking without a strong SEO pillar content strategy is as difficult as trying to build a house without a solid foundation; it’ll collapse.
But if you follow the hub-spoke method, you’ll soon see all your blog posts in the top ten search results.
Got any questions about blogging? Book a consultation call with me!
