Pillar pages have been an effective way to group and present website content to users and search engines for some time.
In this post, I’ll define what a pillar page is, how it can help your SEO efforts, and share some examples of pillar pages in action.
So let’s start by defining column pages.
What Is A Pillar Page?
A pillar page is a destination on your website that focuses on a key topic, resource, product or service area.
It enables users and search engines to access a lot of relevant content quickly.
The depth of the column sides will vary based on the purpose.
Some may be a more superficial introduction to quickly access other content (a bit like the role of a content page), while others will be more comprehensive, providing deeper stand-alone value, supported by related content elements.
If you listed all the core topics related to your business, each of these could logically justify becoming a pillar page.
Pilar sites give people one-stop access to a variety of related content in a user-friendly way.
They also provide search engines with logically organized content that can be quickly reviewed, understood and therefore ranked effectively in search.
You may have heard about cornerstone content, content hubs, content clusters or pillar pages in various forums, and in practice they all represent shades of the same approach.
If you imagine a wheel on a bicycle, in the center, you have the hub.
From the hub you have many spokes.
In the case of column content, the hub is the column page (the central theme or topic), and the spokes are the related content areas that point to and from the column page.
A single pillar page can have many pages and other content types that all link to the pillar page, either directly or via other subtopics that then link back to the main/pillar page.
The basic interaction remains the same – centralizing all related topical content from one main destination (the column page).
I’ll soon provide some examples to help reinforce this principle so you can visualize pillar pages in action.
How Can Pillar Pages Help Your SEO?
Before moving on to some examples of pillar pages, it’s helpful to understand a little more about how they can help your SEO performance.
There are many benefits to creating pillar pages on your website, and I’ll cover some of these next.
Strengthening Topical Authority Signals
Expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-A-T) underpins Google’s guidelines and is a key factor in assigning overall quality scores to any site.
Simply put, Google uses E-A-T as a yardstick to determine if your content is considered high quality – and if it is, it’s likely to rank consistently higher.
This is because it will be considered:
By grouping content into a simple hierarchy, you make it easy for search engines to identify, understand and rank your content.
Your appropriate signals are clearly provided to assist broader Google guidelines such as E-A-T.
This means you can shine a light on the areas you want your business to be closely associated with online, making your rankings for those topics more consistent and optimized.
On the other hand, consider a website where the bulk of the content is competing against itself.
Where there is no clear segmentation or hierarchy of topics (or pillars) and every time you add a new blog post, or article to your site, the amount of noise for search engines and users increases.
You can quickly see why column pages add value.
Here you can find out more about E-A-T and why it is important.
Faster, Simpler, More Complete User Experience
For many years, Google has increased the effect of a positive user experience for SEO gains.
Core Web Vitals (CWVs) are a more recent manifestation of this.
Another example of this in action is the devaluation of websites and content that place barriers between the user and their intended destination, such as interstitial ads, or websites with perceived content of thin value.
Website speed and mobile friendliness as ranking factors are other examples.
Through the use of pillar pages, you can land people in the heart of the subject they are interested in.
You can give clear signals of trust through comprehensive, more meaningful content delivery.
You can showcase your experts through the content they are linked to and house it in a central resource.
You can improve user engagement signals by simplifying access to related content and encouraging them to move more quickly through the information search and purchase cycle.
On top of this, while focusing your resources on specific main landing pages, you can ensure that they are quick to load, intuitive to interact with and easy to navigate.
You also facilitate the ongoing, iterative changes you make to keep improving them through new datasets.
Here you can find out more about how you can improve SEO with user experience.
Natural, Value-Based, Link Building
When you offer a one-stop shop for people to solve a myriad of related questions, wants, needs and pain points, in a simple way, you can naturally collect external trust signals, including links.
Think of all the repeat social listening opportunities to share your extensive column pages with your audience.
With your pillar pages, you provide free, easily accessible, share and promote content assets, perfect for link acquisition, branding and PR.
Added SEO Benefits Of Pillar Pages
There are many other SEO benefits of using pillar pages, but typically these will include:
Examples Of Different Pillar Pages
Pillar pages have many different applications and to complete this article I thought it would be helpful to share a few here.
Product Pillar Page
This sample segment from the Foresters Friendly Society shows how a single column page can provide:
Image from Foresters Friendly Society, December 2022
Topic Pillar Page
In these sample extracts from the University of East Anglia (UEA) life on campus destination, you can see how a single column page provides the user and the search engines:
Image from the University of East Anglia, December 2022
Image from the University of East Anglia, December 2022
Image from the University of East Anglia, December 2022
Conclusion
Pillar pages are not only an efficient way to organize your website content, they can also have significant benefits for your SEO.
By leveraging pillar pages, you can create a faster, more streamlined, and generally more user-friendly experience on your website – making it easier for both users and search engines to interact with it.
If you want to boost your SEO efforts today, use pillar pages!
Featured image: oatawa/Shutterstock
10X Content Pillar Page More commonly implemented, 10X Pillar Content is a single web page that completely deconstructs every aspect of your core topic. A 10x page is simply 10 times better than any other resource out there covering that topic. It is ungated content with unlimited possibilities.
What is the most important focus of community development?
Community development strengthens community members and creates stronger and more connected communities. Community development is a holistic approach based on principles of empowerment, human rights, inclusion, social justice, self-determination and collective action (Kenny, 2007).
What are the important aspects of community development? Community development usually has three main elements: (a) the well-being or welfare of community members involving both material and non-economic aspects of life such as health and education; (b) resource development, which involves increased production and efficiency; and (c) organizational development, which involves…
What is the most important element of community development?
In order to achieve the desired results inherent in community development, it is crucial to state and understand the elements that should be present in any of the initiatives. These elements are community participation, collaboration, capacity building and empowerment.
What are the 3 most important elements of a community?
13 most important characteristics or elements of the community
- (1) A group of people:
- (2) A specific locality:
- (3) Community:
- (4) Naturalness:
- (5) Permanency:
- (6) Equality:
- (7) Wider ends:
- (8) Total organized social life:
What are the most important elements of a community?
Sense of community It includes elements such as image, spirit, character and pride, together with processes such as communication, intergroup relations and networking. A community consists of different people with different interests, experiences and backgrounds.
What is the importance of the community development?
Why is community development important? Community development is important because it provides the foundation upon which a city is built to improve the lives of its citizens. It creates strong, diverse communities capable of attracting and retaining talent, starting and growing businesses, and overcoming challenges that arise.
What is the importance of community development in social work?
Community development âestablishes a process that promotes people working together for a common purpose in groups and organisations. The process builds trust and sociabilityâ (Naparstek & Dooley, 1997, p. 79).
What is community development and its importance?
Community development is a process where people come together to take action on what is important to them. At its heart, community development is rooted in the belief that all people should have access to health, well-being, wealth, justice and opportunity.
What is the full meaning of column?
column ˈkä-ləm. also ˈkäl-yəm. : a vertical arrangement of elements printed or typed on a page. columns of numbers. : one of two or more vertical sections of a printed page separated by a rule or space.
What are column and examples? A column is a vertical series of cells in a chart, table, or spreadsheet. Below is an example of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with column headings (column letter) A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. As you can see in the image, the last column H is the highlighted column in red and the selected cell D8 is in the D column.
What word is column?
What type of Word is column?
A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration. A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom: as opposed to a row (which is horizontal).
What is columns and rows in Word?
The difference between a column and row. The main difference between columns and rows is that a column arranges data vertically from top to bottom, while a row arranges data horizontally from left to right.
What is column in grammar?
one of several vertical blocks of print into which a page in a newspaper or magazine is divided: The article filled two columns. A column is also a piece of writing in a newspaper or magazine that is written by the same person and appears regularly, usually on a specific topic: a column on sports.
Where is column on Word?
In the Page layout category, click on Columns and then on the layout you want. To apply columns to only part of the document, select the text you want to format with the cursor. In the Page Layout tab, click Columns and then More Columns.
What does column mean in text?
In typography, a column is one or more vertical blocks of content placed on a page, separated by gutters (vertical space) or rules (thin lines, in this case vertical). Columns are most often used to break up large texts that do not fit in a single text block on a page.
How do you use column in a sentence?
3 She writes a regular column for a national newspaper. 4 The new device emits a powerful circular column of light. 5 He uses his daily column to whale away on the war. 6 Parker’s column on teenage sexuality is right on.
What is an example of a column?
Examples of columns The text of a newspaper article is divided into columns, hence the term “newspaper column”.
What is the meaning by column?
column Ëkä-lÉm. also Ëkäl-yÉm. : a vertical arrangement of elements printed or typed on a page. columns of numbers. : one of two or more vertical sections of a printed page separated by a rule or space.
What does column mean in reading?
A column is not a news article, but it is news. It provides general answers to why and how. It is often personal, using first and second person (I and you). A column often makes a statement.
What is the meaning of one column?
a unit for specifying the size of newspaper and magazine advertisements, and for calculating their cost. A single column inch is one column wide and one inch tall: A single column inch costs $50.
What is a column of people?
countable noun. A column is a group of people or animals moving in a long line. There were reports of columns of military vehicles appearing in the streets. Synonyms: line, train, row, file More synonyms for column.
What are the 4 types of landing?
There are 4 basic categories of landing gear that General Aviation aircraft use: Tricycle, tailwheel (conventional), pontoons, and skis. Tricycle Gear planes are by far the most common, as they are only marginally heavier than the older Tail-Wheel design, but have several advantages.
What are the types of landing? If you’re just starting out, or if you’re knocking off the rust, here’s an overview of the basics.
- 1) Landing with power failure / short approach. …
- 2) Normal landing. …
- 3) Short field landing. …
- 4) Soft Field Landing. …
- 5) Touch-and-go. …
- 6) Stop-and-go. …
- 7) Precision spot landing. …
- 8) Removed for the “alternative”
What is the process of landing?
Landing is achieved by slowing down and descending to the runway. This speed reduction is achieved by reducing thrust and/or inducing a greater amount of drag by using flaps, landing gear or speed brakes.
What is it called when a flight is landing?
Landing is the final part of a flight, where a flying aircraft or spacecraft (or animal) returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to the water, the process is called descent, although it is often also called “landing” and “touchdown”.
What happens during a plane landing?
To land, the aircraft’s speed and rate of descent are reduced to allow for a gentle landing. Slowing down and descending to the runway is how you land. This is achieved by reducing thrust and/or increasing drag through the use of flaps, landing gear or speed brakes.
What do pilots say when landing?
PED â Descent â Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our descent into [city]. Please turn off all portable electronic devices and store them until we have arrived at the gate. In preparation for landing in [city], make sure the seat back is in the upright position and the seat belt is fastened.
How do you land a plane step by step?
What are the 3 basic types of landing gear arrangement?
Landing gear configurations come in three basic types: tailwheel-type (aka: conventional gear), tandem landing gear, and tricycle-type landing gear. Tail wheel type landing gearâThe main wheel is located forward of the center of gravity, requiring support from the tail of a third wheel assembly.
How many basic arrangements of landing gear are used?
Landing gear Three basic arrangements of landing gear are used: tailwheel-type landing gear (also known as conventional gear), tandem landing gear, and tricycle-type landing gear.
What are the three stages of ranking?
The three stages of ranking are: discovery, relevance and authority.
Does authority directly affect ranking strength? So authority directly affects ranking strength. Your content is considered authoritative when it is talked about a lot, referenced a lot, and sites with high domain authority link back to it.
What are the 3 C’s of SEO?
Simply put, the basics of SEO can be boiled down to The 3 Cs: Content, Code and Credibility.