I think we can all agree that SEO is great fun. It keeps changing, it has a ton of rules, and if you don’t cater to it in just the right way, it can mean not being seen in search results, which can be devastating to your conversion goals. Yes, indeedy, there’s nothing quite like SEO.
Sarcasm aside, it doesn’t matter if we like SEO or not because it’s here to stay. All we can do is try our best to appease our overload the algorithm and if our offerings are accepted, the algorithm will reward us with a bountiful harvest of page views.
Tell Us, Dear Prophet: What Doth the Algorithm Crave?
The algorithm craves what the searchers crave: The answers to questions.
Most people using a search engine now search for answers using actual questions instead of particular keywords. Instead of someone simply searching “Pardot”, they’re much more likely to search for something more nuanced like, “How to make Pardot work for my small business”.
So how can you boost your visibility in lieu of these changes? Well, one good way is to cluster your topics and create something called a Pillar Page.
Pillar What?
Pillar Pages are pages on your site that cover all aspects of a topic that you want to rank high in the search results for. They’re very broad, longer than your average blog post, and they touch on all aspects of a particular topic without being in-depth.
These pages essentially boil down to link hubs that direct the reader to your more comprehensive materials like videos and blog posts. So if you have a pillar page dedicated to “The Tools of Construction”, you then will briefly detail subtopics like “hammer” and “wrench” which link to larger pieces of content.
Does it Work?
It would be weird if it didn’t, right? We made a whole post about it!
The fact is, creating and maintaining pillar pages that link all of your content on a specific topic under a content umbrella greatly increases your chances of moving up in search engine rankings. It leverages your intentional site architecture to boost your search engine impact. It takes your topics and subsequent linked posts to create an information hub.
Now when someone searches for a topic you mentioned in your cluster, the search engine is much more likely to send them your way. It sees you as an authority on the topic and related keywords. The algorithm sees you as a valuable resource now!
