Having solid content pillars puts you at the forefront of your niche and helps you connect with your customers; check out these content pillar examples.
We have developed a list of content pillar examples that can be integrated into your content strategy. Also known as themes or buckets, content pillars are a set of high-quality, evergreen content pages that focus on the main topics most relevant to your company and target audience.
Creating a comprehensive framework of content pillars is a significant aspect of a strong content marketing strategy.
In addition to boosting your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, content pillars also give your market top-notch information that will likely be shared with others, boosting your brand awareness. Almost 40% of marketers consider optimizing on-page content the most important element of their SEO strategy.
Choosing your content pillar strategy—perhaps three to five topics your brand consistently discusses online—can help you find your niche, appeal to your target market, streamline your social media strategy, and establish your business as a reputable authority.
If you’re interested in this topic, check out our round-up of the best content marketing tools.
Contents
What Is A Content Pillar?
Generally, a content pillar is a piece of long-form content. Content pillars are mainstays of your brand that are tailored to explain your focus areas in great detail.
Your content pillars may be in the form of:
- An article loaded with infographics
- A literature review that compiles information on a topic in your industry
- Videos that provide tried-and-trusted content to your target market
- Or how-to guides that provide industry-best advice
It’s important to ensure that your content pillars make sense for where your audience will most likely interact with your brand. For example, if your audience typically spends time on your website, long-form blog posts that give in-depth information on one of your content pillar topics may be a great choice.
If your audience spends most of their time on Instagram, creating pinned Instagram stories that allow you to visually tell your brand’s story may be more helpful.
Your content creation will drive your website persona and social media accounts.
Content Pillars Vs. Topic Clusters
It’s important to note the difference between content pillars and topic clusters.
Content Pillars
Typically, content pillars are evergreen, meaning your audience can repeatedly return to the same page without feeling like your content is outdated.
These pages can often be a jumping-off point for new audience members. For example, if you’re running a health and nutrition business and providing simple slow cooker recipes is one of your content pillars, you may want to link to an extensive list of healthy slow cooker recipes that your audience can bookmark and return to time and again.
When you have solid content pillars to boost your business, your audience won’t just return repeatedly—they’ll also send others your way, trusting you as an industry leader and reputable authority.
Topic Clusters
While a pillar is a hub for information your target audience needs, topic clusters are subtopics you can link to from your content pillar page.
For example, in the slow cooker example, your subtopics could include the most effective way to make a healthy grocery list, meal prep, and finding time to work out on a busy schedule.
Your site map can help you direct your visitors from pillars to clusters, making navigation clear and showcasing the full extent of your content library.
Content Pillar Examples
You likely already have a few potential content pillars in mind. Here, we’ll look at some examples of stellar content pillar pages from various brands.
1. Industry Guide Pillar
Industry guide pillars provide a high-level reference point that can give industry newbies and veterans a great place to learn more about a specific marketplace.
Digital Marketing in 2023: The Ultimate Guide by Forbes, for example, covers everything readers need to know to succeed in the modern digital landscape.
Cluster topics under Forbes’ digital marketing pillar include SEO trends, the latest updates in influencer marketing, direct response email best practices, social media marketing platforms, and more.
This content pillar allowed Forbes to continue cementing their place as an industry expert and boosted their web traffic from new and repeat visitors.
2. Product-Centric Pillar
A product-centric page allows you to provide your target market with useful information while recommending your products to solve a problem.
Let’s say you sell several courses for aspiring novelists that guide writers from learning writing basics to pitching a completed manuscript to publishers. You might use a pillar page to highlight the struggles budding writers face, provide advice, and explain how your products will help them overcome them.
Within your pillar page, you could have a subheading on the importance of correct spelling and grammar with a link to a crash course. Then subheadings on how to plan out chapters, develop characters, and create sub-plots, which will link back to another of your courses. Finally, you can also incorporate sections on how to self-edit and how to go about publishing work, where you will highlight another relevant course you run.
This approach can work for a wide range of niches. A product-centric pillar like this one demonstrates to potential customers that you’re an expert in your industry and clearly communicates what they’ll get from your products.
3. Audience-Centric Pillar
As a rule of thumb, all content should be audience-centric. In other words, it should be written with the audience in mind. An audience-centric pillar is a pillar you create with your established audience in mind and even with their help. This differs from an industry-specific pillar, which tries to win over a new audience entering a specific industry for the first time.
Creating an audience-centric pillar entails communicating with your customers or readers directly and creating content based on your findings. This may be through social media, reading comments on your posts, or surveys.
Let’s use a brand that sells herbal tea as an example. Your audience-centric pillar may be a list titled “10 Best Herbal Teas According To Our Customers.” You can determine which teas to include based on which products sell the most and from customer reviews. Another idea is “5 Unique Herbal Tea Blends Created By Our Customers.”
This isn’t the same as a testimonial pillar as you will only use customer reviews to select which products to highlight but won’t post the reviews themselves to this page.
These pillars make customers feel valued. Plus, they’re a great way to entice existing customers to try more of your products, as they will likely trust the opinions of other brand supporters.
4. FAQ Pillar
A FAQ content pillar can follow the style of an “Everything You Need to Know About XYZ” page. Here, we’ll explore possibilities for a hypothetical “Everything You Need to Know About a Vegan Diet” page.
Cluster topics for this type of page might include the definition of veganism, macronutrient recommendations for a vegan diet, what foods are permitted on a vegan diet, and special considerations for exercising while following a vegan nutrition plan.
Using headings to boost SEO rankings can increase the likelihood that your target market will see your pillar page in your search results, making you an expert on the topic and increasing overall site traffic. Do some research on keywords and frequently asked questions and use those as your headings.
5. Trending Topic Pillar
It’s smart to create content pillars around trending news topics related to your industry. For example, a trending topic page for a CBD company might cover the legalization of cannabis in the news.
Cluster topics for this type of page might involve cannabis legalization by state, politician’s stances on legalization, and timelines that show how cannabis law has changed over time.
This type of page can boost your repeat visitor numbers, as your target market may return to check for updates. This may also boost unique visitors looking for information on current news topics in your industry.
6. News Pillar
A news pillar might not be the same as a trending topic pillar. A trending topic pillar will cover industry-specific news and trends, while a news pillar will provide a place for you to issue company updates.
Cluster topics can include new product announcements, updates on upcoming releases, or a notification that a product is being retired.
This type of page will mostly be visited by repeat customers who want to stay current with your brand’s activities.
7. Reviews & Testimonials
Creating a pillar about customer reviews is a great way to create trust with new customers. This pillar should show plenty of customer photos of your products in use and in-depth (authentic) reviews from customers.
Positive testimonials allow your customers to feel like they are making an informed decision when purchasing your products.
The Code Institute is a good example. Their organization delivers practical skills in full-stack software development, web application development, e-commerce, and predictive analytics online.
Their pillar content allows prospective students to read through in-depth interviews with alumni or watch videos about their stories. It even pulls from Google Reviews and social media to show a wider range of testimonials.
8. Quick Hacks
A quick hack pillar might not be appropriate for all businesses, but it can be a gold mine for customers.
For example, let’s say you run a site on home remedies. Your quick hacks may include interesting ways to use everyday household items to address common needs. For example, how to use lemon juice as a deodorant or coconut oil to clean your teeth, or how to make a natural plant fertilizer using banana skins or garlic skins as seed planters.
You can update this pillar as your library of content grows and use it to direct visitors to other pillars, such as industry guidelines (for health information) or trending topic pillars (for any new developments in this field).
Cluster topics may include the best places to source organic and sustainable products or a list of forums or community groups pooling resources in this market.
9. Customer Success Stories
Customer success stories are similar to reviews and testimonials, but the distinction lies in whether your product tangibly improved their lives.
In other words, a makeup brand will include reviews from customers who are happy with the product, but a coach or a business selling a course can share customer success stories from clients whose lives were changed by the experience. This is a ‘what happened next’ review provided after the event.
If you sell a 12-week digital marketing course, for instance, you can post stories from customers who got a new job thanks to your course or successfully created their own brand using the knowledge they learned.
Like reviews, customer success stories demonstrate to potential customers that your offering does exactly what it says on the tin.
10. Behind-The-Scenes
Depending on your product, your customers might be interested in a behind-the-scenes pillar. This is where you can explain how you create your products and where your inspiration comes from.
Brands selling art or food can especially benefit from this kind of pillar, as customers will appreciate learning how you create your offerings.
11. How You Started
If you built your brand from the ground up, customers would love to hear about it. Perhaps you started a blog as a hobby, and now it garners millions of views per month, or your family’s humble coffee shop is now a booming franchise.
Some brands like to create a physical timeline customers can scroll through that highlights key moments from each year. Another might prefer to have significant events under a sub-heading of a long blog post. Either way, make sure to illustrate it with lots of pictures.
Cluster topics for this pillar might be news of award nominations and new product announcements.
Whatever way you decide to do it, customers will want to read about exactly what you did to become so successful.
12. Introduce The Team
If you’re a small business, customers will love learning about the team. This is especially true for businesses that interact with their customers in person. Customers like putting a face to a name and will feel more at ease when they can recognize team members.
You can host photos of your team members alongside their job titles. A small bio about their experience or interests also promotes a connection between you and your customers or audience.
Even if you don’t engage with your customers in person, a pillar introducing the team will make your company look more human. Take Etsy, for example. While there are too many employees to list, the company opted to highlight those in leadership positions while still incorporating the rest of their staff onto the page.
There is a collage of profile pictures that makes you feel connected with the organization on a human level.
13. Core Values
These days, business values are a bigger concern for customers. They want to support businesses whose values align with their own and companies they believe are making the world a better place.
Creating a pillar that demonstrates your core values will reassure customers about supporting your business. You can select a handful of values and write a blog post detailing each.
Some examples of core values include:
- Operating sustainably
- Accountability & honesty
- Fostering diversity & equality
To get an idea of this in action, take a look at Stumptown Coffee’s Impact page. Here the brand has listed its values and aspirations, such as partnering with producers, celebrating our people, and sustaining our planet.
Further down on the page, it highlights sustainability and impact reports as well as what it means to be a B-Corp.
How to Choose the Right Content Pillar for Your Brand
When choosing the content pillars that will support your brand’s message to your audience, it can be tough to figure out where to start. Like many aspects of marketing, knowing your audience is key to choosing the right content pillars.
Find Your Audience
Carefully consider where your audience spends time online, as you’ll need to tailor your content pillar pages to their preferred platforms. The more you understand your audience’s needs, the better you’ll be able to create content pillars that are the right fit to create conversions from potential to actual customers.
Align With Your Business Goals
You’ll also need to ensure that your content pillars align with your business goals. You should be able to weave your products and services into your content pillars seamlessly without obvious product placement. Content pillars should naturally lend themselves to your business and the interests of your target market.
Keep it Evergreen
Since one of the mainstays of content pillars is ensuring that they’re evergreen, it’s smart to monitor future predictions for your industry. While you can always switch up your content pillars if necessary, keeping them consistent for as long as possible helps your target market understand what your brand offers and saves you time.
When determining whether your content pillars are effective, pay attention to their performance and your market’s feedback.
Tips for Creating Effective Content Pillars
Once you’ve decided what topics to cover in your content pillars, you’ll need to craft them effectively to get them in front of your target market. Key tips for creating stellar content pillars that can stand the test of time include:
Pay Attention to SEO
When your target market searches for the information you provide in your content pillar, you want to appear at the top of the search results.
Conduct keyword research to discover what terms your target audience inputs into Google. Then, use those terms naturally in your content. After all, people come to Google to ask a question, so make sure your content answers it clearly.
Good SEO practice also entails linking to internal and external content, using alt text on images, and using your keywords in your post titles, meta descriptions, subheadings, and URLs.
Talk to Others in Your Industry
When developing your content pillars, it’s smart to work with others who are experts in your industry. Doing so can help build trust with your audience.
You can also ask other industry experts to review your pillar pages and provide feedback. Implementing their advice can help you boost your appeal to your target market.
Commit to Excellence
Your content pillars should be your target market’s go-to place for all the information they need on a topic. Don’t rush the creation of your content pillars–take your time to ensure that you’ve done all you can to make your page stellar.
If you receive negative feedback or your page isn’t performing as well as you’d like, don’t hesitate to return to work.
Update Pillars Regularly
You should aim to make your pillars as evergreen as possible, but you’ll also need to ensure that your pages are as accurate as possible.
When new research emerges in your field, be sure to update your pillar pages and promote the updates on social media posts to drive traffic to your site.
When it comes to creating excellent content pillars, there’s a learning process. Taking the helpful feedback of experts and your target market to heart can help you make the changes you need to keep your target audience and their friends coming back for more.
Promoting Your Content Pillars
After you’ve developed your content pillars, it’s time to ensure your target audience knows what you have to offer.
When you’ve developed your content, promoting on social media is key. Just like you took the time to figure out how to tailor your content pillars to the platform on which they appear, you’ll need to tailor the promotion of your content pillars to several different platforms.
Which Platform to Use?
For example, LinkedIn is better for B2B businesses as working professionals use the website to network. X, formally Twitter, can also be used by B2B businesses to network and share content.
Brands that sell food or create recipes, as well as clothing and cosmetics companies, can benefit from using Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Customers will prefer to see videos of these items in use. A travel agency will also benefit from these platforms as you can showcase videos from hotels or destinations.
Businesses that have physical locations customers can visit can also benefit from Instagram, and Stories can be used to share timely announcements, like opening hours.
Lastly, Pinterest can be used to share blog posts. DIY content, recipes, and travel itineraries tend to do well there.
Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns can also help you spread the word. If you have a subscription list, sending out news of your new content pillar can be helpful. Be sure to discuss the problem your content pillar can solve and let your audience know that they’re the first to learn of your new offering.
Collaboration
If you’ve collaborated with another professional or company to develop your content pillar, talk with them about cross-promotional options. Ask the company you’ve collaborated with to promote your page on their social media channels.
Paid Advertising
Publishing a new content pillar can also be a great opportunity to utilize paid advertising. Your target market won’t see that they’re being asked to buy something or support a brand. Instead, they’ll see that you’re offering information that meets their needs, allowing you to build trust with new audience members.
Pay attention to who is checking out your new page by utilizing social media comments and shares, and re-target your ads to a new market if necessary.
Measuring the Success of Content Pillars
After you’ve worked hard on your content pillars, it’s key to ensure they’re performing well. Monitoring web traffic and engagement metrics can help you determine where to change your page.
To do this, you can use Google Analytics. If your website is hosted on WordPress, you can also use its built-in analytic tool.
You’ll also want to track backlinks. If other sites link to your content pillar, you’re doing something right. To find out how many backlinks you have, you can use Website SEO Checker. This free website shows you the total amount of backlinks your website has as well as how many are quality backlinks, which are better for SEO.
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