How Pillar Pages & Topic Clusters will improve your Search Engine Rankings
21st October 2020
With SEO is constantly evolving, Google regularly improves its algorithms to reflect how people are searching for information online. With the advancements of technology and machine learning, we assume that search engines recognise intent. Instead of searching for specific terms we now search rather generically. For example, “where to go for dinner in Bristol”.
Solid content marketing can improve your search engine rankings while increasing engagement and conversions. It is important to ensure that your content strategy ties in and works with your SEO strategy. Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters are a great place to start when creating strong content foundations.
What are Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters?
The standard way to write content is to think about your subject, choose your keyword and write your blog post around it. Ultimately resulting in sites that become repetitive and disorganised. A Pillar Page is 1 large piece of content which broadly outlines your topic. This is the foundation that you build you Topic Clusters around. Each Topic Cluster piece is a separate post that covers its own long-tail keyword. Each cluster should link back to the original Pillar Page.
Image Credit: HubSpot
What are the benefits of writing content this way?
There are many benefits to Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters, here are a few:
- As we previously mentioned it prevents your website from becoming disorganised and repetitive. Improving the user experience on your site by enabling visitors to find everything they need about the specific subject.
- When one Topic Cluster performs well the whole cluster gets a boost. This improves search engine rankings for all topic pages around your initial Pillar Page as it helps web crawlers to make connections between your content.
- Providing comprehensive information builds trust between your brand and consumer. Alongside this Google will also believe you are a trusted authority on the subject. Ultimately helping to get you the top spot in the SEO rankings.
If you haven’t already started using Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters to from your content then now is the perfect time to start. You may want to take a look at a few more posts we have written on how to optimise your content for better search visibility.
