How to Build Successful Content Pillars

Content pillars, besides known arsenic pillar pages, are high-level introductions to a topic. They nexus to much elaborate resources astir each subtopic to signifier a contented hub.

Here are a fewer benefits of utilizing a contented hub strategy:

• Better enactment – Pillar pages fundamentally enactment arsenic a topical hub and let you to research a taxable successful detail.
• More engagement – It’s casual for readers to find related contented and devour more.
• More links – People often nexus to contented pillars, arsenic they’re a bully starting constituent for those wanting to larn astir a topic. 

In this guide, you’ll larn however to make a contented pillar for your website.

How to make contented pillars

Follow the steps beneath to make contented pillars for your website.

1. Find the main taxable to make a contented pillar around

Grab a seat, a pen and insubstantial (or laptop), past brainstorm ideas for contented pillars. If you’re acquainted with the niche, galore topics should travel to mind. 

For example, I’ve been breakdancing for the past 10 years, and I tin deliberation of plentifulness of topics for pillar pages (e.g., types of powerfulness moves, must-know footwork steps, and more).

Alternatively, you tin besides usage Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to find ideas. Just participate a wide word related to your niche and spell to the Matching presumption report.

However, not each word present volition beryllium a suitable topic. What’d you privation are topics that:

• Have informational intent – People are looking for information, not to buy. You tin verify this by Googling the topic. If astir of the results are blog posts, articles, oregon different hubs, the taxable apt has informational intent. 
• Have hunt postulation potential – Look astatine the Traffic Potential (TP) file beside each keyword to spot its hunt postulation potential.
• Are wide enough – The taxable shouldn’t beryllium truthful constrictive that determination aren’t immoderate subtopics to speech about. And it shouldn’t beryllium truthful wide that your pillar leafage is 50,000 words agelong either. As a wide regularisation of thumb, look for topics with betwixt five and 20 subtopics.

For example, let’s comparison the taxable “yoga poses” against the criteria:

• Has informational intent – Almost each of the results are blog posts. 
• Has hunt postulation potential – The topic’s TP is 33,000 (in the U.S. alone). 
• Is wide enough – There are perchance hundreds of yoga poses to cover. But if we constrictive down to the “best” ones for beginners, determination should beryllium a bully scope for a pillar page. 

If you’re a yoga site, this could beryllium a fantastic taxable for a contented pillar. 

2. Figure retired what you request to screen successful your contented pillar

The cardinal present is to take subtopics that are highly related to the main topic. 

Here are a fewer ways to find them:

A. From your expertise

If you’re an adept oregon acquainted with the niche, past you astir apt person an thought of what you request to cover. For example, if you’re a yoga teacher, you apt already cognize the antithetic types of yoga poses that beginners should maestro first. 

B. Check Wikipedia

If your taxable exists connected Wikipedia, it’s a large mode to find subtopics since everything is already organized properly. 

For example, Wikipedia has a leafage called “List of asanas,” wherever antithetic yoga poses are arranged successful a table:

C. Look astatine online courses

Online courses beryllium for astir immoderate topic, and they’re usually structured successful a logical manner. Therefore, they’re besides bully places to look for applicable subtopics. 

For example, this course connected Udemy covers the cardinal poses for yoga:

D. Analyze the competition

Since the main extremity of a contented pillar is to fertile for the main topic, you tin look astatine the existent top-ranking pages to spot what they’re covering. 

For example, the top-ranking leafage for “yoga poses” has already covered the indispensable poses for beginners:

Since the subtopics are organized neatly successful a hierarchical manner—H2s, H3s, H4s, etc.,—a bully mode to spot each of them astatine 1 glimpse is to instal Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar and unfastened the Content report.

3. Create your contented pillar

With your probe done, it’s clip to make your contented pillar.

Think of it arsenic a “portal.” Your extremity is to springiness readers a jump-off constituent for further find of the topic. So support it comparatively light. 

You’re not trying to accidental everything astir each subtopic. Leave it to your clump pages to supply much detail. Stick to what radical request to know.

For example, our beginner’s usher to SEO lone has a one-sentence instauration to each chapter:

If you person the budget, see creating a customized plan for your contented pillar. This is what we did for our own. Not lone does a bully plan marque it easier for readers to devour content, but it besides stands retired among different guides—hopefully starring to much shares, links, and traffic. 

But if you can’t spend a customized plan now, don’t worry. You don’t request an unthinkable plan to make utile contented pillars. Take a look astatine Zapier’s pillar leafage astir distant work—it’s fundamentally text:

4. Create your clump pages

Even though a contented pillar is simply a stand-alone page, it’s astir useless without its supporting clump pages. So erstwhile you’re done with the main pillar page, it’s clip to make the remainder of the hub. 

With the subtopics laid out, you already cognize what you request to create. It’s simply a substance of executing. But it volition take time. 

Watch this video to larn however to make contented for your clump pages:

If you person existing contented pieces that acceptable the “hub,” past simply interlink them together. 

5. Promote your contented pillar

Don’t hold for the contented pillar to beryllium discovered—promote it proactively and fto radical know. 

Here are a fewer tactics you can use:

• Share it with your audience – Email list, societal media accounts, etc. Share it wherever you person a following.
• Get it included successful newsletters – There should beryllium galore newsletters dedicated to curating the champion contented successful your niche. Find the emails of these newsletter writers and transportation your contented pillar for inclusion.
• Share it connected communities – If you’re an progressive subordinate of immoderate communities—Facebook groups, Slack, Discord, Reddit, forums—share your contented pillar with them.
• Build links – Links are an important Google ranking factor. So if you privation your contented pillar to fertile high, you’ll request to physique links. Read this start-to-finish usher connected however to physique links to your pillar page. 

Recommended reading: 13 Content Promotion Tactics to Get More Eyeballs connected Your Content 

Content pillar examples

Check retired these palmy contented pillars to animate your own:

• SEO: The Complete Guide for Beginners
• A Ketogenic Diet for Beginners: The #1 Keto Guide
• Wine 101 Learn the Basics - A Beginner’s Guide to Drinking Wine | Wine Folly

You tin find more pillar leafage examples here. 

Learn more

If you’re looking for much guides connected however to make contented pillars, I’d urge checking retired these articles:

• Content Hubs for SEO: How to Get More Traffic and Links With Topic Clusters
• How to Build a Topic Cluster successful 10 Minutes

Any questions oregon comments? Let maine cognize on Twitter.