1. Keyword Research
The Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters must start with keyword research if you want this strategy to help your organic rankings. The concept behind Pillar Pages is that broad keywords with high search volume will need a page that has longer content compared to less competitive long tail keywords. These longer pages will be your Pillar Pages so that’s why it’s important to start with keyword research and identifying competitive keywords before you start writing.
How to Do Keyword Research for Pillar Pages
In order to know what keywords should inform your Pillar Pages, you need to get competitive metrics for each keyword you want to rank for. So, use a free tool like Google Keyword Planner to find the search volume of each keyword and similar long tail keywords. If you use Keyword Planner, both will be provided based on your seeded keyword. If you don’t have a Google Ads account, you can also look at number Google provides under the search bar once you complete a search. With the search volume of your keywords, you now have an idea of what is considered a competitive keyword. The more competitive the keyword, the more thorough and robust content is needed. Pillar Pages work great for competitive keywords because they are usually long and broad in their content.
What is Considered a Competitive Keyword?
Competitiveness can change based on a domain’s authority, but for this blog, we are assuming the site is new and in the beginning stages of content marketing. The higher domain authority, the higher the threshold for competitiveness.
For sites in the beginning stages of marketing, once a keyword surpasses 1,000 searches a month, it becomes a more competitive keyword.
Search Volume Per Month
0 – 500 = Low Competition
600 – 1,000 = Medium Competition
2,000 – 4,000 = High Competition
5,000 + = Extremely High Competition
A site like Forbes or WebMD, has the potential to rank for keywords that have 10,000 searches a month. But for new sites that do not have a strong domain authority, the above threshold is a good rule of thumb.
Categorizing Your Keywords
Once you have the competitive metrics for you keywords, the ones that are in your Medium to High bucket are the best contenders for Pillar Pages. If you used Google Keyword Planner, you will also have long tail and related keywords. These will make good candidates for Topic Clusters (shorter, more specific articles that will be linked on your Pillar Page) and should be organized later once your Pillar Page keywords are established. We suggest starting from your Medium category so you can monitor performance and if you are successful you can build upon the page, incorporating High competition keywords. From your Medium competition keywords, you should choose one target keyword to structure your page around. This will be your ranking goal. You can also track synonyms of your target keyword and use them throughout your Pillar Page Content.
2. Create an Outline for Your Pillar Page
Once you know which keywords are informing your content, you should plan out the structure of your page before you write. The reason for this is because you want to ensure your Pillar Page is comprehensive and know where you have the potential to link your Topic Cluster pages once they are complete.
Example Outline of a Pillar Page
Our client, a dental office that specializes in children’s care, wrote a Pillar Page about Baby Teeth since that is something their clients often asked about. Below is how that page was structured with Topic Cluster pages linked throughout the page.
Topic: Everything You Need to Know About Baby Teeth
Paragraph 1: What are Baby Teeth?
Paragraph 2: Baby Teeth Development
- Link to a Topic Cluster blog: What Are The Stages of Baby Teeth?
Paragraph 3: Function of Baby Teeth
- Link to a Topic Cluster blog: What Are the Best Foods for Baby Teeth?
Paragraph 4: Problems That Can Arise in Baby Teeth
- Link to a Topic Cluster blog: Baby Bottle Tooth Decay: What It Is & How To Treat It?
Paragraph 5: What to Expect at Your Child’s First Dental Appointment
You should create a similar outline for your Pillar Page with subtopics listed out and potential internal links planned.
3. Write Content and Add Internal Links
With your outline created, the last step should be easy. Your Pillar Page should be broad. It is important that each sup topic of your Pillar Page does not go into too much detail about the subtopic because those subtopics will be your Topic Cluster pages. The Pillar Page should have overviews of the subtopics with links to the Topic Cluster pages. Using the example above, we can review how the content in your Pillar Page will work with your internal links to your Topic Cluster blogs.
Example Content of a Pillar Page
Topic: Everything You Need to Know About Baby Teeth
Paragraph 1: What are Baby Teeth?
- This paragraph should explain the definition of baby teeth. This paragraph can cover other names for baby teeth, how many a child will get, when they will lose them, the difference between permanent teeth or any other general ideas that are not covered in the subtopics specifically.
Paragraph 2: Baby Teeth Development
- This paragraph should explain the formation of baby teeth like which teeth erupt first, the definition of erupting, teething etc. Since you know that you have a blog that specifically covers each stage in detail of baby teeth development this paragraph should just give general information and include a link to the more specific blog.
Paragraph 3: Function of Baby Teeth
- This paragraph should explain why children get baby teeth and what they are used for like how they help make space for permanent teeth or for chewing. When talking about chewing, you should add your internal link to the blog about food for baby teeth.
Paragraph 4: Problems That Can Arise in Baby Teeth
- This paragraph should explain the various problems with baby teeth like what they are and what are the symptoms. Baby Bottle Tooth decay should be covered broadly because you should link your specific blog about that issue in this section.
Paragraph 5: What to Expect at Your Child’s First Dental Appointment
- This paragraph is used to explain to parents what dentists usually do for baby teeth and what to expect. It can also be used as a place to add a CTA about our client’s dental services.
