19 Nov Pillar pages and topic clusters for healthcare content marketing
Do you want your brand to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs)? Want to organize your content so it’s more accessible for your audience? Do you want to move your customers down the sales funnel? Then you need pillar pages and topic clusters.
Why? Google!
Before 2013, keyword-stuffed website copy was all the rage—and the best way for your brand to land on SERP page 1. But the way people search has become more sophisticated. Most searchers today use long search phrases. The search engine optimization firm Ahrefs found that 64% of search queries contain four or more words.
So Google has changed its algorithms to be far more specific—and smart enough to understand the intent of your search even if a keyword isn’t included.
That’s why the key to higher page rankings on a Google search is no longer about copy length or keyword density. It’s all about the depth and breadth of your content. If Google sees you as an authority on a particular topic, it will reward you with higher SERP rankings.
And that’s why you need pillar pages and topic clusters.
What are pillar pages and topic clusters?
A pillar page is a website page that provides an overview of a specific topic you want to promote—and that you want to own. This type of content establishes you as a thought leader—and a trusted source. (A pillar page is what you are reading right now.)
Topic clusters are individual pages that delve more deeply into the specifics of that particular topic.
Also important: the pillar page links to the topic clusters, and the topic clusters link back to the pillar page (or other topic cluster pages). That means there’s a whole lot of clicking going on—and Google likes that.
Here’s how HubSpot represents pillar pages and topic clusters:
Simply put, the pillar page is the hub, the topic clusters are the spokes. And they are all linked.
