{"id":127361,"date":"2022-06-30T13:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T13:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=127361"},"modified":"2025-03-26T15:47:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T15:47:32","slug":"pillar-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/marketing\/content-marketing\/pillar-page\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Pillar Pages?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the name suggests, strong pillar pages prop up your content and marketing strategy<\/a>. But instead of supporting temples, they drive web traffic and boost user engagement.<\/p>\n

Or at least they do when they\u2019re made correctly.<\/p>\n

Here we\u2019ll teach you how to write pillar pages that help improve your SERP rankings, site traffic<\/a>, and conversions. We\u2019ll also break down how to optimize your content performance<\/a>, pairing pillar pages with topic clusters<\/a> (more on that later).<\/p>\n

But what is a pillar page, exactly?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s back up and start at the beginning. If you\u2019re already familiar with the basics feel free to skip ahead.<\/p>\n

What is a pillar page?<\/h2>\n

A pillar page is a high-level piece of content that covers a core subject, linking out to in-depth articles about specific subtopics. They\u2019re comprehensive pages that usually have at least 2,000 words. Why? They\u2019re packed with helpful and actionable information that communicates to users (and search engines) that you\u2019re an authority on the topic.<\/strong> When people turn to your site for info on a specific topic, Google pays attention and will rank your content higher in its results.<\/p>\n

Case in point: the Neilsen Norman Group<\/a>, a UX, UI consulting firm founded in 1998.<\/p>\n

The site is packed with pillar content and supporting articles, research, and videos on all things UX and UI. When you type in \u201cEmpathy mapping\u201d on Google, the article and video from the site shows up in a top search positions.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

So you can see how pillar pieces are critical for setting up the success of your content marketing strategy<\/a> and SEO performance.<\/p>\n

Plus, the higher you rank on search engines, the more likely you are to have other sites link back to you, increasing the number of external links back to your site.<\/p>\n

Secondly, pillar content makes it easy for your readers to navigate to more helpful and related information when you have supporting articles.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you write a 4,000-word pillar page about the topic of SEO. On that page, you\u2019ll touch briefly on the subtopic of backlinks<\/a> or local SEO, but you\u2019ll link out to more detailed blog posts about those subtopics.<\/p>\n

Those in-depth blog posts are known as cluster content (which we\u2019ll explain in more detail below) and nearly always link back to the pillar page.<\/p>\n

Topic clusters and pillar pages<\/h2>\n

Topic clusters are groups of content related to one core subject. Designed in a hub-and-spoke format, each topic cluster centers on a pillar page (like a bike wheel hub) and is surrounded by cluster pages (the spokes). Generally, pillar pages cover broad topics, while cluster pages target specific, more focused subjects, related to that topic.<\/p>\n

\"Content<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you want to build a pillar page about the topic of Content Marketing<\/a>. On that page, you could cover a variety of subtopics, and link to articles that go even more in depth:<\/p>\n