What is Cornerstone Content?
Evergreen content, Pillar Content, cornerstone content; often used interchangeably, but all refer to the best or most important content on your site – fundamental pages and articles that you want to have rank on search engines like Google.
Cornerstone content refers to the high-quality, authoritative pages on your site that cover the main topics of your niche. These are long, detailed and informative pieces of content – Think blogs like “What Are Keywords in SEO – A Complete Guide (2024)” or “SEO for Plumbers, A Complete Guide.” These are designed to provide a complete overview of a topic with high search volume. While they don’t necessarily sell products or services, they are the most useful resources for your visitors, reflecting your business’s expertise.
Why is it Important?
It’s hard to rank for search terms and queries that are popular. That’s because online competition is fierce – there are thousands of websites like yours fighting for the same top spot in search results.
- Establishes Authority: Cornerstone content positions you as an expert in your niche. By covering key topics in depth, you can demonstrate your knowledge and ultimately build trust with your audience.
- Improves SEO: Search engines love well-structured, detailed and informative content. Cornerstone pages often rank better because they provide valuable information that search engines want to show users. They are also comprehensive enough to rank for valuable secondary and tertiary terms and phrases – ultimately boosting your overall SEO performance.
- Enhances User Experience: When visitors land on your site, cornerstone content gives them access to the most relevant and thorough information, all in one spot! This improves their experience and keeps them engaged, making it more likely they’ll return.
- Supports Other Content: Your cornerstone content acts as the foundation of your site’s content strategy. Other blog posts, articles, or pages can link back to these pieces (and vice versa), reinforcing their importance and helping to spread link equity throughout your site.
- Builds backlink potential: Great content needs to be shared. This means that cornerstone content is more likely to win backlinks from other reputable websites, boosting authority and credibility.
- Drives traffic: Cornerstone content is often long lasting. This means that they can consistently attract traffic month on month.
How To Create Cornerstone Content
A successful cornerstone content strategy requires some planning and preparation. Frequently, there are several steps to follow to help ensure your cornerstone content is effective and impactful:
- Find a Topic: Identify the core topics that are most relevant to your audience and business goals. Think about what your readers are searching for and what questions they need answered. These should be the big, central themes that highlight your expertise.
- Research: Research is crucial to creating high-quality content. Think about what’s out there- what are users reading? What’s missing? What can be improved? What can you do better? Look for reliable sources, statistics, and case studies to support your content.
- Create an Outline: Organise your research into a structured outline and plan out how your content will flow. Break it down into sections and bullet points to make sure you cover everything important.
- Make It Comprehensive: Cover your topic in-depth. Provide valuable insights, answer common questions, and include practical tips or solutions. Include visuals, interactive elements, infographics and even videos. The goal is to create a resource that readers will find incredibly useful and want to share.
- Make It Easy to Find: The easier it is to find, the more people will see it. Ensure that it’s accessible and easy to find both for search engines and users. Consider adding a prominent link to this content in your site’s navigation or homepage.
- Build Internal Links: Add links within your content to other related articles or pages on your site. This not only helps with SEO but also keeps readers engaged by guiding them to more of your content.
- Keep It Fresh: Regularly update your cornerstone content to ensure it remains current and relevant. Add new insights, update statistics, and revise outdated information to maintain its value for longer.
Cornerstone Best Practices
Writing content is one thing, writing great content is another. Here are some other tips and best practices to follow when planning out your next cornerstone content piece.
- Use data and statistics
- Include quotes from prominent experts and influencers
- Tell a story to make it more relatable and engaging
- Focus on quality over quantity
- Make user experience a priority
- Make is look good
- Measure, track and adapt to do better next time
