Cornerstone Pages Boost SEO

Cornerstone pages are an increasingly important concept for search engine optimization. Arranging your content around cornerstone pages (also called pillar pages) will help you to rank highly in search results, which react to the way people today search.

People Use Phrases to Search

Today’s search engine user submits queries that reflect plain language, conversational style. This is becoming even more prevalent as voice searches (“Siri, find me a…”) become more common.

The majority of search phrases are four words or more. Rather than searching for general terms, people use these longer search queries to find the exact information they’re looking for.

Organize Content Around Topics

To rank in search, approach your content differently. Choose the broad topics you want to rank for, then create content based on keywords related to that topic. Interlink the content.

Organizing around content and linking URLs together will help more pages on your site rank in Google and help searchers find information on your site more easily.

Create Cornerstone Pages

Then, link all the related content together on a cornerstone (or pillar) page for the broad topic. A cornerstone page should cover all aspects of a topic on a single page. Additional related pages and posts then link into the pillar page.

Cornerstone pages generally have more content than other pages and posts because they cover all aspects of the topic you’re trying to rank for. They should provide general information and address common questions about a particular topic. They also serve as the hub where all related content is linked.

Adopt the Right SEO Mindset

To succeed with SEO, you need to think about the topics (rather than keywords) that you want to rank for. These should be central and congruent with your brand or business.

With your core topics in mind, you can create your cornerstone page(s). You can then research the keywords related to your topic and build out more content to link to the pillar page.