Pillar pages are nothing new, in fact they’ve been core for digital content strategies for years. However, if you haven’t yet created a pillar page, or you’re thinking about revamping yours, then now is a good time.
And one of the best ways to learn is to see what others are doing, and how they’re doing it. So we’ve gathered seven tip-top pillar pages from various different websites to show you the key elements that work.
Pillar page basics
Pillar pages are the foundational columns in your site architecture, around which all your other content is built.
Pillar pages offer a broad but authoritative overview of a particular topic, with links to more in-depth articles and keyword-based blog posts on relevant sub-topics scattered throughout.
Not only are pillar pages a neat way to organise your content, they also make it easy for readers to navigate your site, which boosts engagement rate and session durations, and signal your authority on key user queries to Google, resulting in higher rankings.
With fewer than five per site on average, according to databox.com, a handful of pillar pages are responsible for supporting a lot of content on your site. In order to do so, they need to follow some golden rules:
Golden rules for pillar pages
- Broad – your pillar page should be broad enough to support anything from six to 20 additional posts. Anything less than that could be a sign that your pillar page is too narrow in focus, anything more and it could be too broad.
- Relevant – understand the search intent and address the key user query that brought them to your page as soon as possible and tease further revelations later.
- Readable – remember, your pillar page has to serve as a shining example of the fantastically readable and informative content you have on the rest of your site to ensure readers will keep clicking. That means punchy, active, engaging prose broken up by plenty of visual aids.
- Skimmable – pillar pages tend to be longer than the average post, and readers often have a specific intention when researching a topic, so make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for when scrolling down the page with clearly defined sections, strong headers, highly relevant images, and bullet points to break up the paragraphs.
- Navigable – a table of contents with anchor links to relevant sections, and links back to the top, and a floating table of contents that follows the user down the page will enhance user experience and improve your bounce rate.
- Optimized – it’s no good putting all this work into creating great content if your page doesn’t rank. Make sure your page is SEO optimized using the 9 steps in our on-page SEO checklist.
- Leave them wanting more – if your pillar page is too long, it’s probably because you’re covering the topic in too much detail. You need to provoke interest in your subtopics without laying everything out on the table. That way, your pages will be neater and more concise, which makes it easier to digest information, and your reader will be encouraged on their journey deeper into your website.
- Evergreen – your pillar page should be able to stand the test of time, with a few updates now and again. Check out this page on creating evergreen content that grows your traffic.
Now we’re all on the same page with what makes a great pillar post, let’s see some inspiring pillar content examples that embody these golden rules.
1. How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy That Converts More Customers
Similarweb / content marketing
What makes this a pillar piece?
Our first pillar page example is a big guide to content marketing from the Similarweb blog. It’s addressing a broad topic – building a content marketing strategy – with clear, information dense sections, each peppered with links to blog posts on highly relevant subtopics.
What do we love about it?
How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy ticks off a lot of our golden rules for pillar posts. It’s highly readable, with conversational and engaging prose; it’s generous with internal links to everything from how to do a competitive content analysis to conducting keyword research; and it’s easy to navigate thanks to a sticky table of contents that follows the reader down the page.
What can you copy?
Clocking in at just over 4,200 words, this is a long article, even by pillar page standards. And that’s justifiable – content marketing is a massive topic. However, thanks to a progress bar at the top of the page, the reader isn’t abandoned to seemingly endless scrolling. The progress bar lets the reader know how much of the post they’ve already read, and how much they have left to go, which can encourage them to keep going to the end of the post.
2. Wine Folly
What makes this a pillar piece?
From top to bottom, this post from Wine Folly is so rich in information that you’ll dip in for a section and end up finishing the whole article. ‘What Is Wine Exactly?’ is a vintage example of a pillar piece, taking the broadest possible angle on a topic and encouraging the reader to venture further into the website and even make a purchase.
What do we love about it?
We love the no frills copy. It delivers clear, concise information to the reader on everything from the difference between wine and table grapes to the combination of elements that explain wine’s unique taste, with well-placed links to more in-depth articles. Know your target audience. For some topics, conversational and humorous can aid understanding. For others, it can be best to just deliver the information the reader came for.
What can you copy?
The infographics. They’re genuinely useful and really enhance the page, rather than seeming tagged on. Use infographics on your own pillar page to illustrate data and statistics or simplify complex subjects.
3. Population Healthier
The Atlantic / Population Healthier
What makes this a pillar piece?
This post from The Atlantic is widely cited in compilations of excellent pillar page examples, and rightly so. Focusing on one US city as an example of the state of American healthcare, it uses a combination of text, graphs, and dynamic infographics to tell a story and encourage readers to learn more by linking out to other compellingly titled pages like ‘The Culture Wars: Healthcare Edition’ and ‘The Beauty of Shared Risk’.
What do we love about it?
Population Healthier is a study in how great page design can enhance user experience. Content and graphics are boxed off from each other in clearly defined sections that stick to a strict palette, and the dynamic infographics build on the storytelling in the copy.
What can you copy?
Tell a story. Whether you’re writing about US healthcare or content marketing, find a way to craft a narrative that has the reader at its centre. Take them on a journey from writing their first post to becoming a marketing machine, with all the pitfalls they might encounter, and useful sidequests (subtopics) they can venture down for more information.
4. Artificial intelligence
Built In / artificial intelligence
What makes this a pillar piece?
As you can see from the title, this page is absolutely dedicated to answering two big questions on one big topic: What is AI? And how does it work? From an explanation of the four types of AI to how AI is used by Netflix to recommend shows to its users, the page covers everything you need to know about this increasingly prevalent technology, with plenty of links to on-site further reading.
What do we love about it?
AI is a complicated topic, so the inclusion of a couple of embedded YouTube explainer videos is a welcome relief from the text, and an efficient way to deliver even more information while cutting down on copy.
What can you copy?
You won’t go far wrong with a video, but we also admire the ‘top to bottom’, ‘bottom to top’ links that enable the reader to jump up and down the page with ease. This is great for user experience, which prevents readers becoming frustrated and leaving your site.
5. Amazon SEO: Your Guide to Getting it Right in 2022
What makes this a pillar piece?
This post on optimizing your eCommerce site for Amazon acts as a crash course in amazon SEO, but encourages the reader to dig deeper with links to more niche topics like optimizing your listing on Amazon, and including Amazon product videos.
What do we love about it?
It uses plenty of imagery, which helps to both illustrate the tips, enhancing the reader’s understanding, and to break up the blocks of text, making it easier to scan the page and digest the information.
What can you copy?
A downloadable PDF of the page’s copy or a relevant topic is a great way to build trust by giving your reader something useful to download and keep for later. This page on Amazon SEO allows the reader to download a free SEO guide in exchange for a few personal details. They get a handy PDF, you get to capture a qualified lead. Quid pro quo.
6. A Modern Workplace with Microsoft 3,700
ItLab / the modern workplace
What makes this a pillar piece?
This 3,700 word page encompasses nearly all of the great features we’ve highlighted in our other examples of pillar pages, including easily navigable contents, clear sections, a progress bar, infographics, downloadable PDFS and, of course, lots of links to further reading.
What do we love about it?
If you’re looking for a pillar page template, you wouldn’t go far wrong copying this one. It might be long, but it’s easy to skim and find salient information thanks to its judicious use of the pillar post strategies mentioned above. It also gives you access to a free ebook, and an online modern workplace assessment, which are highly relevant to the user query.
What can you copy?
The CTAs. There are CTAs to all sorts of resources on this page, including an ebook, a quiz, and finally, a Microsoft Modern Workplace Audit. The important thing here is that the CTAs are contextually relevant, used sparingly, and genuinely helpful to the reader’s original query. In short, they’re earned.
7. Affiliate Marketing: A Beginners Guide to Opening an Affiliate Program
Similarweb / affiliate program management
What makes this a pillar piece?
If you see the words ‘beginners guide’ in the title, the chances are it’s a pillar post. This article explains affiliate marketing for the uninitiated, answering common queries like ‘what can affiliate marketing do for my business?’ and ‘how to find the right affiliates’.
What do we love about it?
It’s rich in internal links to more in-depth posts on growing sales and affiliate networks vs affiliate marketing programs, and it offers a downloadable checklist for both how to open a successful affiliate program and how to become a successful affiliate.
What can you copy?
Affiliate marketing for beginners uses a plethora of stats to support its key points, with external links to their sources. Used infrequently, external links can help to boost the credibility and authority of your pillar page, provided you’re linking to credible and authoritative sites. If linking to stats, it’s best practice to find the original source rather than using a third party.
What next?
As they play such a crucial role in your website’s content, it can be daunting to start creating a pillar page. But doing so can be such a useful exercise in understanding user journeys around your site, and even for generating future subtopic ideas, that you’ll wish you’d started sooner.
Just remember, whether 2,000 or 4,000 words, your pillar pages should only be as long as they need to be – it’s an overview of the topic, not a deep dive into every possible facet. Get the key points across, engage, intrigue and encourage your readers to explore further using the strategies and techniques described in these seven great pillar page examples.
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