Up Your SEO Rankings with Pillar Pages and Cluster Topics

Whether you have an e-commerce or a company website, you want people to notice you online. When people identify with your brand, services, or products, better engagement, sales, and revenue follow. One way to help you become more visible online is through search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO involves strategies to rank you higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). One SEO strategy you should consider is using pillar pages and cluster topics. Let us learn what these are and find out some tips to get started.

What Are Pillar Pages and Cluster Topics?

A website’s “pillar page” is the page that serves as the topic’s overarching introduction. A “topic cluster” is a group of related articles or pages built around the pillar page’s topic. Both the pillar page and the content within the topic clusters are linked to one another.

Say you have an e-commerce site that sells custom-made jewelry. Articles and pages about different types of rings would be part of a topic cluster, each linked to your pillar page on “custom-made rings.” A topic cluster for your “necklaces” pillar page could include articles and pages about the different kinds of necklaces.

Let us take a closer look at the three general types of pillar pages.

• • 10x Content Pillar Page: Breaks down every facet of your main topic. Compared to other relevant resources, a 10x page” is simply ten times as good. It has unrestricted, limitless content. The content must be trustworthy, high-quality, and engaging and must elicit a positive emotional response like awe, joy, surprise, and anticipation. 

• Resource Pillar Page: Collates links (both external and internal links) and information about a shared topic. This page leans on resources like links readers can check out to get more information on your subject.

• Product or Services Pillar Page: If you have a business that offers various products and services, this pillar page helps you present them in a more orderly manner. It covers the different products you sell or the services you offer. 

Using pillar pages is just one of the many ways to optimize business pages.                                                                                                                       

Tips to Use Pillar Pages to Up SEO Rankings

Pillar pages and cluster topics make your site more organized and, thus, help search engines like Google understand your content. According to Digital Authority Partners,  pillar pages and topic clusters help boost your site’s rankings, but you must ensure they are formatted and added correctly. 

Here are some techniques to help you use pillar pages:

• Consider what your target audience is looking for. Doing so helps you find the topic you wish to rank for. You can use Google Analytics and social media analytics like Facebook Insights.
• Use a keyword research tool. Find which keywords have the highest searches and the competition for every search item. You can use Google Keyword Planner or WordStream Free Keyword Tool.
• Segregate pillar and cluster keywords. Pillar page keywords target broad keywords about your topic, while topic clusters target long-tail keywords related to your broad keywords. 
• Add target keywords in the right places. Place keywords in your title, headings, meta descriptions, image alt-text, and sprinkle them in your body text. Doing so helps search engine bots crawl and index your pages, helping it appear whenever someone looks for your keywords.
• Link your pillar page to cluster pages. After creating your pillar page, link it to your topic cluster pages. Link your cluster pages back to your pillar page as well. 
• Promote pillar pages using social media or paid ads. Your pillar page needs exposure, and social media and paid ads help you reach people actively looking for your topics.

Tips to Use Cluster Topics in Improving SEO Rankings

Topic clusters help enhance keyword optimization. As the pillar and cluster pages break down your broad topic into narrow sub-topics, targeting more keywords and phrases becomes easier. If your main topic is “handmade jewelry” and jewelry is your main keyword, it becomes easy to build cluster topics around it.

Use keyword variations like “women’s jewelry,” “men’s jewelry,” and “wedding jewelry.” With these variations created from your main keyword, you improve keyword use, thus helping your site rank in search results whenever someone looks for handmade jewelry. 

Here are some techniques for using cluster pages.

• Gather and organize data. Use data from your SEO research, top competitors, recent content audits, and other organized topic clusters. You need these to learn more about your audience, especially their issues, which helps you create a long list of subtopics.
• Focus on audience core problems. Look for five or more core problems through surveys, interviews, and research. Once you have the data, group them into broad topic areas. Is your audience looking for custom-made fashion jewelry pieces or handmade jewelry sets?
• Create subtopics for these core topics. Build from your keyword research. Make sure your content aligns with your core topics and subtopics. 
• Use content strategy tools. These tools help organize and improve content around topics. Choose tools from HubSpot, WordPress, and Ahrefs.
• Start a competitor analysis. By analyzing your competition, your topic cluster can compete better. Use Google to look for top-ranking sites for your main keywords. Look for pages with pillar pages and gather subtopics from these pages.
• Use competitor analysis to highlight keyword opportunities. Tools like Semrush Domain Overview give you the top organic keywords of your competitor’s pillar page. Include these keywords in your topic cluster strategy.
• Improve cluster content loading speeds. A study revealed that 19% of respondents abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. Check topic cluster content for performance-related problems using tools like PageSpeed Insights and resolve these issues immediately.

Summing Up

Pillar pages and topic clusters improve the way your web pages are organized. With well-devised pages, search engines like Google can easily crawl and index your website and, eventually, rank you higher on search engine results pages. Follow these strategies to create your website’s best pillar pages and topic clusters.

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