Just about everyone gets the idea of SEO at this point. You just slap some related keywords in your web copy and when someone searches for a topic related to your business you show up on the ol’ Google page. Right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, it’s far more complex than that because the little algorithm goblins that live inside cyberspace are demanding and mercurial creatures that, depending on the time of day or what trends are happening, may change their temperamental little minds at the drop of a hat.

That’s where pillar pages come in. They help establish your brand’s expertise on the internet, making those little goblin bots happy – they feed them with all the varying degrees in which your company is an expert. That’s why it’s important to establish a well-thought-out pillar page to get your SEO where it needs to be and get your ranking higher.

What is a Pillar Page and How Does It Impact SEO?

Let’s start with the basics of pillar pages. Pillar pages are the frontline, so to speak, of your cyber campaign. They are the center point resource for people searching with questions that your company can answer.

A pillar page is a website page of high-level content that broadly, but comprehensively, provides an overview of a main topic with links out to more in-depth pages about specific subtopics that live on your website. They could be labeled as “The Ultimate Guide to X Topic” on your site.

A pillar page serves to show Google that you’re an expert on a certain topic or a”one-stop-shop” where they can direct you to. Pillar pages, thereby, inform your SEO strategy and is the right jumping-off point for successful SEO.

Think of a pillar page as the “hub” of the wheel – topics that link out from it are the “spokes” of the wheel. Pillar pages are essentially an organizational framework that categorizes your individual pages. Then, you can organize them into topics, or “topic clusters”. Topic clusters are collections of content that are related and collectively cover a broad subject area within your pillar page.

So, let’s break down how pillar pages actually work and how they can help your website get more traffic.

Six Best Practices for a Pillar Page 

1. Be an expert on your content – both in Google’s eyes and to your users.
2. Add new content. Pillar pages are living things, so as you add new content, you’re updating your website. New content improves SEO.
3. Intentionally keep users engaged with good content. Pillar pages also keep users on your site longer, offer better engagement, which is good for conversion rates and for Google, as they like longer website viewing durations.
4. When developing your pillar page, think of taking the user on a journey to where your products or services are the ultimate solution to their problems. Since pillar pages thoroughly cover a topic in a predictive pattern, they help your users discover more about you, taking them deeper into their journey in a natural way.
5. Make sure your subjects make sense to your SEO strategy. Google gives pillar pages a high search ranking because it’s easy for Google to determine their subject matter and rank them accordingly.
6. Include various types of media. Text is great but you need to augment that effort with videos embedded on the page, as well as CTAs to supplemental assets you have that align with the topic.

Mirror the Funnel Journey of Your Buyers 

The pillar page is a microcosm of the buyer’s journey from the top of the funnel to the bottom. It essentially mirrors the user journey. A lead comes to the page at the very top of the funnel, interested in a high-level topic, but by the time they get to the end of your pillar page, they’re very informed and much further down the funnel in record time. That’s the nice thing about a pillar page, it effectively compresses the distance between ToFu to BoFu for the customer.

Don’t know where to start on developing expert copy or creating your pillar page? Don’t worry, at GMG, we’re pillar page experts. Reach out to us below and we’ll take care of the rest.