Introduction
Are you wondering what a pillar blog post is and how to write one?
According to the Search Engine Journal, a pillar post consists of 3-5 blog posts that provide useful information. They are linked together through common keywords and topic ideas.
They can help create more authority in your niche, as well as boost search engine rankings and boost traffic to your website. The name comes from HubSpot, which coined it as a term for long-form content pieces.
What is a pillar blog post?
A pillar blog post is a type of long-form content post on your blog that serves as a valuable resource for users.
The posts should be more than just an update to clients and partners.
Instead, they should be insightful articles that teach readers something new or provide detailed information about your product or industry.
They can also serve as a great way to answer common questions from potential customers. These are often referred to as how-to posts because they show people how to do something specific with your product or service.
For example, if you run a web design agency, you could create one-page guides on how to build websites using WordPress or Squarespace.
If you sell clothing online, you could write tutorials about how to dress professionally for work in hot weather climates.
This kind of long-form content provides value for both current customers and potential ones—and it can help grow your business by attracting new leads through search engine optimization (SEO).
That said, not all pillar blog posts are created equal; some will have a much greater impact than others.
How long should be your pillar blog post?
Pillar blog posts are supposed to be quite long.
While I can’t give you an exact number of words, most of them have at least 1,500 words in length.
A good rule of thumb is that if you don’t find your post to be at least 1000 words when you finish it, then it isn’t long enough. With that being said, a lot depends on what kind of topic and audience we are targeting with our pillar blog post.
For example, if I was writing a How-To post about advanced SEO topics and working to catch more experienced SEOs’ attention (in a good way), then the long-form pillar blog post should probably be longer than 1500 words and even as much as 3000-3500.
Why do pillar blog posts bring more traffic?
To do that, you need to understand exactly what they are.
Here’s how to write a pillar blog post: A pillar blog post is a topic that attracts traffic on a consistent basis because it’s good for SEO.
If a particular topic draws more attention than anything else you write, then it is your most valuable post.
This can be an extremely effective strategy for driving targeted traffic and getting leads for your business in ways other posts just can’t.
Why?
Because when you write about something people want or need, those people will come back again and again to read new content about that same subject.
You’ll also get long-term SEO benefits from writing pillar blog posts.
The reason why so many websites have such high bounce rates (people visiting once and never coming back) is that they lack consistency. They don’t offer readers any sort of value or useful information—they’re essentially one-hit wonders.
When you create pillar content on a specific topic, though, Google sees that as proof of your authority in that area and rewards you with increased visibility over time (and hopefully increased search engine traffic).
And if readers love your pillar blog post enough to share it with their friends or colleagues?
Create an action plan
An action plan is an organized system of setting goals and following through on them. It forces you to take action towards your goals and improves self-discipline.
Without planning out what you will do next, it’s easy to lose focus and fall into bad habits.
Once you create a plan of action, it becomes much easier to follow through and stay focused on achieving your goal.
If you can follow through with even one or two items each day, you are moving closer to your goal every day.
This not only creates positive momentum but also helps build confidence that you can reach your goals with small actions each day. The first step is creating an action plan that works for you and then executing it!
What is an effective pillar blog post?
The name pillar blog posts are valuable for fostering stronger connections between users and brands.
- An effective pillar blog post should be relevant to your audience engaging to read informative and insightful.
- In order to create a strong pillar blog post, you need to be clear about what information you want to provide for your audience.
- Why you’re providing it (i.e., what’s in it for them)?
- Make sure that whatever information you provide is concise and easy to read by using lists, short paragraphs, bullets, bolded text, and links to support each point made in your long-form content piece.
How to understand your target audience?
Before you start writing, you should get clear on who your audience is and what they want to know.
This can be difficult to figure out at first, but it’s important to have a general idea of your target audience if you want them to actually read your content.
- Think about who they are and what they need help with before starting your research.
- Get inside their heads; try pretending you’re writing for yourself.
- Once you know who your audience is, consider how they will find your post.
If someone has already asked a question similar to yours on Quora or Yahoo Answers, then those sites might be good places to look for ideas or inspiration.
If not, Google is always an option—just make sure that whatever search terms you use are relevant and specific enough.
Identify your audience’s needs
To write a pillar blog post, you need to identify your audience’s pain points and then share content that addresses them.
For example, if you write for a health magazine or website, your target audience might be mostly women in their 20s and 30s who are looking for information on how to stay fit.
You can create content that’s tailored toward these readers by answering questions such as:
- How do I tone my abs?
- What exercises should I do to improve my running form?
- How do I get rid of cellulite?
By addressing these needs in your posts, you’ll be able to connect with your readers and build trust with them over time. This will help boost reader engagement and get more people reading your work—and sharing it with others.
As more people read what you write, they’ll start coming back to see what else is new—and hopefully engage with it too!
Implement Keyword Research
The first step to writing a pillar blog post is to discover which keywords your target audience is using to search for their problem.
For example, if you’re writing a post about how to lose weight, you might find some phrases like.
How do I lose 20 pounds? or lose 10 pounds fast.
Use Google Keyword Planner to check for trending keywords that people are searching for now.
SEO Tools like Ahrefs can help with this process by showing which sites rank well for specific keywords and how much traffic they get from those searches.
Use SEO tools to research your competitors and see what keywords they use in their content so that you can replicate them in yours.
This helps give an indication of how popular certain topics are at any given time and gives an insight into how much competition there is out there for certain terms.
It also gives an indication of whether it would be worth investing time into creating content around these terms or not based on traffic levels alone.
Gathering sources and data
A pillar blog post is one that provides a lot of in-depth, useful information to your readers.
It’s often used as a launching point for more posts and future content, so it’s important to gather sources and data.
After all, you can’t always just make up facts! Make sure to thoroughly research your topic, ensuring everything you write is accurate.
This will help build trust with your audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Crafting your idea/concept
Make sure your concept has legs and it’s not just a vague idea.
Your concept should be original, specific, clearly articulated, and easy to communicate. After all, that’s what we’ll want to talk about in our posts.
Make sure you can give an elevator pitch that conveys what your post is going to be about so that when someone asks you. So, tell me about your latest post idea you can explain what it’s about as well as who it’s for and why they should care.
That will help ensure that you’re writing something worthwhile.
Finally, make sure your topic or idea is timely and relevant. There are lots of great ideas out there but if they aren’t timely or relevant then no one will care about them.
Brainstorming possible titles
The first thing to do is brainstorm a list of possible titles.
Don’t worry if you have trouble coming up with interesting ones at first – you’ll come up with more as you continue on.
Start by writing down anything that comes to mind in regard to your topic, no matter how vague or ridiculous it may seem.
As you write, ask yourself these questions:
- What are some aspects of my topic that people should know about?
- What might people not know about my topic?
- How can I make what I want to say about my topic sound more appealing?
- How can I make what I want to say about my topic sound less appealing?
- What would someone who doesn’t know much about the topic think when they read?
These questions will help you get an idea for some of your pillar blog post titles.
Writing the first draft
When writing a pillar blog post, it’s important to have a firm grasp of all aspects of your topic. By all aspects, I mean that you need to cover all perspectives and opinions—both supporting and opposing.
The goal is to synthesize your own viewpoint by taking into account all angles.
Then write. It doesn’t matter if what you end up with isn’t perfect or even good. You can always revise later.
This first draft should be an unedited stream-of-consciousness ramble about everything you know about your topic.
The first draft of any post should be written as quickly as possible. Don’t worry about grammar and write your thoughts.
Just get it out there onto your computer and write quickly as possible so that you can start building off of it in subsequent drafts.
Writing the final draft
Use short, simple sentences and choose words that will appeal to a wide audience; remember that people who don’t know much about your topic will be reading your post. A good rule of thumb is to use three-to-five sentences per paragraph.
When you start typing out each sentence, pause for a few seconds before hitting enter so that you can make sure it makes sense on its own. If not, rephrase until it does.
Keep going until your draft is complete!
- Create content in formats like infographics which are very useful for SEO
- Besides writing entirely new posts, you can repurpose existing content into a new format.
- Common formats to repurpose your content include infographics, videos, tweets, or even a podcast or e-book.
- Don’t worry about all of these right now; that will come with time. For now, just focus on one format and start experimenting with it.
Keep in mind that some formats are easier than others. Videos take more effort than an infographic, for example.
Start small and work your way up as you get better at creating content in different formats.
Make posts more shareable?
It’s an unfortunate truth of social media that if your content isn’t easy to share, readers won’t share it. One way you can encourage sharing is by creating pillar blog posts.
On Facebook and Twitter, longer posts tend to perform better in terms of engagement and views than shorter ones do.
That said, not all long-form content is created equal—the best long-form content has a specific purpose or goal.
In other words, each piece should have one main takeaway point (or pillar) that makes it worth reading in its entirety.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t multiple ideas within the post—just make sure there’s one main idea with supporting points that are tied back to it.
This will help readers find value in what they’re reading and make them more likely to share your post with others who might benefit from it too.
Promote content
One of the best ways to get new readers to your website is to promote content on social media like Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn which can boost SEO potential by getting more backlinks and shares.
A pillar blog post is a long-form content, evergreen piece of content that you can share across social media and email.
You can re-purpose an older post as a pillar blog post by taking some additional time to craft a great headline, copy it over, then boost it on your social media channels.
It’s okay if you don’t have any pillar blog posts yet—just use your best work for now! The key to promoting content is to make sure people are seeing it. Share links on Twitter and Facebook at least once per day (if not more) for a week or two after publishing.
It’s also worth reaching out to relevant bloggers and asking them if they would be willing to share your post with their audience.
Measure and analyze
Analyzing your competitors can give you valuable insights into how to promote and grow your business.
The most important aspect of measuring and analyzing your marketing efforts is to do it often.
Whether you are using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or another platform, taking regular measurements will keep you up-to-date on what is working (and what isn’t).
It may be tempting to only measure once a month or even less frequently. However if you want to keep pace with your competition, tracking daily and weekly metrics will help you see where you stand in comparison.
Summary
A pillar blog post is a type of post that attracts backlinks from other sites and helps you build authority in your niche. Pillar blog posts are a goldmine for SEO. These posts are so named because they support their own weight, in addition to that of everything else on your site. When done correctly, these posts will help you draw traffic from Google for months or even years to come.
