Getting your content seen by the right audience is the goal of any marketer. It’s about creating great content that informs and entertains, but more importantly, it’s relevant.
That’s always been a challenge when creating content. It may be beautifully written but if your audience isn’t looking for it, then it won’t drive traffic or generate leads – even with a data capture asset on offer.
But it’s not just about your human audience, you need to also consider algorithms. That not only means search engines but also social media, platforms that people are now using as recommendation engines.
That’s why you need to create content pillars. They are the foundation of a successful content marketing plan as they help drive organic traffic and rank on search engines.
In this blog we’ll explore:
- What are content pillars?
- Why are content pillars important?
- Content pillars vs. topic clusters – what’s the difference?
- How do you create content pillars?
- How can you use AI for content pillars?
- 3 great examples of content pillars
What are content pillars?
Content pillars are the themes around which all of your content will cluster. They are core topics that are relevant to your business and promote the products or services and values of your company.
The aim of using content pillars is to cover key themes in-depth to demonstrate expertise. You will post these topics on your website, social media and any other relevant platforms to drive traffic.
” To create your content pillars, think about how you want to be perceived as a brand. What are people interested in that you have to talk about? “– Mischa McInerney, CMO at DMI
Why are content pillars important?
It’s impossible to cover every keyword or key phrase that relates to your audience. What you need to do is cover the topics and keywords that count and convert (and tie into your SEO strategy). Content pillars enable you to do that.
Content pillars are important because they:
- Help you build authority
- Drive organic traffic
- Engage your audience
- Help generate conversions
- Improve search rankings
- Tap into the Google E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) ranking factor
- Help cultivate your brand’s voice
- Attract high-quality backlinks
- Link relevant internal content
Content pillars vs. topic clusters – what’s the difference?
There can be confusion around the difference between a content pillar and a topic cluster (also known as the hub-and-spoke model).
While content pillars (hubs) are the key themes a content strategy focuses on, topic clusters (or spokes) are what links to the core content. These sub-topics dive deeper into different aspects of the content but are connected back to the pillar/hub content (creating the opportunity to create internal links).
For example, let’s say your furniture company decides that outdoor furniture is one of its content pillars. You might create a topic cluster with the pillar page being “The Ultimate Guide to Outdoor Furniture.” Supporting cluster content could include blogs (or spokes) like “How to Choose the Right Patio Set,” and “Top Materials for Weather-Resistant Outdoor Furniture,” all of which link back to the pillar page.
