Creating great cornerstone content is a vital part of SEO Editing.
It is the most important content on your site.
You can’t have an effective SEO strategy without first considering what your most important content is.
In this post you’ll learn what cornerstone content is, why it’s important, and how to create it.
- What is Cornerstone Content?
- Why Is Cornerstone Content Important?
- How to Create Cornerstone Content
- Cornerstone Content Link Structure
- 4 Tips for Creating Cornerstone Content
- Conclusion: Cornerstone Content Is Your Most Important Content
What is Cornerstone Content?
Cornerstone content is the most important pages on your site.
It’s the content you want search engines to show searchers.
They are typically long and informative posts that provide a lot of value to the reader.
These posts may also be overviews of key topics on your site.
You can then go into more detail in the subtopics in shorter posts that you link to from within your cornerstone article.
Why Is Cornerstone Content Important?
Cornerstone Content is important because it consists of the pages you want to rank in search engines.
It’s also important because it provides a lot of value and useful information to your audience.
This content will target the keywords you think you can rank for.
By writing great content, targeting the right keywords, and creating a great link structure with your supporting articles, you can start ranking on the first page of Google search results.
How to Create Cornerstone Content
Once you determine what keyword you would like to rank for, you need to create a long, informative post showing you are an expert in the topic.
Typically, you’ll want your page to be at least 2,500 to 3,000 words.
You should create an overview of the keyword and use subheadings to break up the content.
Then, you can create supporting articles that provide even more information for the user.
If the user wants more information about a particular topic and you’re not providing it, they’ll likely turn to Google to find that information.
This means they’ll be leaving your site to find information you could have provided them.
If you want the user to take a particular action on your site (for example, making a purchase), then you want to keep them on your site as long as possible.
Cornerstone Content Link Structure
Cornerstone content is also referred to as Pillar Pages.
This is because these pages are built up by supporting articles that link back to these pages and vice versa.
By creating supporting articles for your most important content and linking them together, you show Google that your cornerstone is the most important page on your site and you are an expert in the topic area.
Think of your page like a Wikipedia page.
When you look something up on Wikipedia, there are a lot of links to other related topics that may be useful if someone would like to go more in depth on a particular subject.
You should become the Wikipedia page for your keyword.
After all, Wikipedia is nearly always the first result in search engine results pages.
4 Tips for Creating Cornerstone Content
Once you know what keyword you want to rank for and begin creating your cornerstone page, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind.
1. Utilize Anchor Text
When linking to your supporting articles and vice versa, you’ll want to link with appropriate anchor text.
This is the word or phrase a user clicks on to get to the linked page.
By linking with appropriate anchor text, you give search engines an idea of what the linked page is about.
This helps Google see the topical relevancy of your site and establishes you as an expert on the topic.
When search engines see you are the authority on a particular topic, they’ll be more likely to rank you higher for your chosen keyword.
2. Write Your Cornerstone Page First
A great way to figure out what to write for your supporting articles is to write your cornerstone content first.
This way, you can figure out what subtopics you can go into further detail on.
3. Update Your Cornerstone Links
As you start creating your supporting pages, be sure to go back and update your cornerstone page with internal links to the new pages.
This makes sure your site structure is up to date and helps search engines see how your content is connected.
4. Use a Table of Contents
Since the cornerstone page will be quite long, it’s a good idea to utilize a table of contents at the beginning of the article.
This will help the user find the information they’re looking for.
Put yourself in the users’ place.
If you were to click on an article and saw a block of 3,000 words, you’d probably feel overwhelmed.
By using a table of contents and subheadings, you can break up your content, make the user feel comfortable, and help them find the information they’re looking for.
After all, helping the user find what they’re looking for is the primary goal of search engines, so it should be your primary goal as well.
Conclusion: Cornerstone Content Is Your Most Important Content
Since cornerstone content is the most important content on your site, you’ll need to make sure it’s well-written and provides the value your target audience is searching for.
By creating high-quality content and developing a great site structure, you can start driving more organic search traffic to your site.
This can be a complicated and time-consuming process, so you may want to consider hiring an SEO Editor, like myself, to help you out.