Content pillars are a key online marketing strategy that organizes a multi-faceted topic into one consumer-friendly page. This strategy of organizing content centers around both creating a consumer experience and taking advantage of search engine optimization (SEO). Utilizing content pillars effectively can not only help to create content for the user experience but also leverage your content to draw traffic to your site.
But what are content pillars and why are they important to content writing? In this brief overview, we will explore what content pillars are, how they can help you and your consumers, and why they are an essential component of content writing.
Defining Content Pillars
Content pillars serve the purpose of being a single point of reference for authoritative and informative content that branches into several sub topics or topic clusters. Techtarget.com defines content pillars as:
A comprehensive article or series of articles that are used as the foundation for other smaller, more digestible pieces of content. Content pillars may also be referred to as content cornerstones. Marketers use content pillars to create page authority for specific topics.
You can think of a content pillar as a miniature shelf of a library that contains several books on the same topic or historical event. Though a much more scaled-down version, the content pillar is a single location of a cluster of information that all connect to create the full picture of the topic.
Content pillars help to organize a larger topic into an easily digestible page that acts as a gateway to a wealth of more in-depth information related to the larger topic. The content pillar creates an overview of the topic while the topic clusters add additional information, relative context, and more specific details.
Diving Deeper: What are the Different Types of Content Pillars?
Getting a little further into the nitty-gritty of defining content pillars, there are 3 main categories for content pillars. Of course, this can flux based on the content writing that you need, your business, and your marketing strategy. Semrush proposes that there are three main categories that content pillars fall into and that content writers typically follow these as a rule of thumb.
- The “Guide” content pillar: The guide format serves to provide a generic walk-through of relevant information. The main topic is presented with authority and is a single resource for the full picture of the necessary information. The subtopics provide a support system to reinforce the validity of the main topic and expound upon further details. Subtopics for the guide form of the content pillar are usually found in the form of FAQs, sources, related products, or relevant media.
- The “What Is” content pillar: This modality has the purpose to inform in great detail to thoroughly explain a topic. This type of content writing usually takes its time on the main topic to give a full understanding of a subject. The subtopics can be in the form of additional articles, deeper explanations, graphs, and illustrations.
- The “How-To” content pillar: The main purpose of this form of content pillar is to instruct the consumer on how to accomplish a task. Frequently, the how-to content pillar is an excellent help for businesses to walk their consumers through a process that may be difficult to understand. The main topic will be an overarching order of processes in a step-by-step guide. This can be an excellent content writing tool to provide a user-friendly experience that well-explains a difficult process. Subtopics for the how-to content pillar are often found in the form of frequently asked questions, comparisons, and definitions.
How Content Pillars Help Your Website
When content writing for your business, it can be challenging to create content that is all-encompassing on a subject. There is always more to say on a topic, a richer method of instruction, or more details to contribute. In addition, creating content that is engaging for your consumer can be its own set of challenges. That is why using content pillars effectively can help you create content that is not only authoritative but also captivates the reader.
Through the organization of your content into content pillars, you can strategically position your website to draw the attention of online consumers. By weaving a full picture of your topic, utilizing numerous subtopics to your advantage, and strategically implementing your keywords throughout your content pillar, your SEO can be used to its fullest.
How Content Pillars Benefit Your Consumers
While there are several ways that you benefit from a strategic content pillar, your consumers will also have some great benefits as well. First of all, content writing is intended to be consumable. The organization of a well-thought-out content pillar can make your content organized and easy to enjoy by your consumers. Second, an effective content pillar will allow your consumer to gain more knowledge by breaking it up into digestible portions. Finally, an effective content pillar will allow the consumer to enjoy the content at their pace without becoming overwhelmed by too much information.
Structure Matters: Building Effective Content Pillars
Here, at Bizwrite, we are all about content writing in engaging and authoritative methods. Whether content writing for a blog, ecommerce, or employee bios, the structure of building your content matters. How you structure your content pillar is reflective of your entire business or organization and sets the tone for your consumers’ experience.
When facing the challenge of content writing and building your content pillars, here are a few pro tips to keep in mind:
- Start from your main topic: Let your content pillar grow from the core subject that you want to cover. Ask what your consumers need to know about your topic and create your overview of the subjects you need to cover.
- Identify your keywords for SEO: Using the right keywords through your content pillar and subtopics can make all the difference in SEO.
- Consider your subtopics: Think about the subtopics you want to cover in your content pillar. Depending on what type of content you are creating, your subtopics may be further explanations, in-depth descriptions, frequently asked questions, or additional information that adds to the main topic.
- Inspect the current content on your site: It can be very helpful to go through the content that already exists on your site and see if there are blog posts, articles, or other media that would lend themselves to the content pillar you are creating. This can also help you avoid repetitive or jumbled information in multiple places.
- Do your research: Odds are that there is already a good deal of content on your topic available either from competitors or other sources. Take advantage of other sources of information.
- Map it out: Once you have done the preliminary legwork, make a plan for your content pillar page by mapping out how you want it to be structured. Take on your customer’s persona and think about how they would expect the layout to be designed.
- Interlink it: Interlink your content pillar and your subtopics so that every page related to your content pillar reaps the maximum traffic benefits.
Need Help Writing Strategic Content Pillars? Let the Writers of Bizwrite Step Up to the Plate
The team of content writers at Bizwrite is all about creating content that engages the reader and optimizes SEO. Get in touch today Let our keyboard heroes take on the foundational task of content writing for your business or organization.