Pillar pages are vital in a medical SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. They can be very effective if done correctly. In this article, we will look closely at pillar pages, how they impact SEO, and how to build one that draws traffic to your medical website.
What a Pillar Page Is
So, what is a pillar page? In simple terms, a web page containing content that provides a general overview of a specific topic and links to articles that go deeper into subcategories are considered pillar pages.
Pillar pages are not just a trend to improve user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), but something to improve search engine exposure. Think of pillar pages as the primary landing page within a content hub. For example, for your medical website, the pillar page would focus on dentistry if you are a dentist. You get the idea that it would link out to additional pages with content on various aspects of dentistry such as how to prevent cavities, the importance of regular checkups, what causes gingivitis, and false teeth options.
Digital Authority Partners states that pillar pages are generally longer than an average blog post containing no less than 2-thousand words. A pillar page does not stand alone; it is linked to subcategory pages and dependent on them. If you visualize the pillar page as the hub of a bicycle wheel, the links are the spokes, and the subcategory pages make up the rest of the wheel. All parts are necessary to get the desired results.
How Pillar Pages Help SEO
Pillar pages perform three primary functions within a website.
Improving Site Structure
Search engines crawl individual pages to understand the content of your website. They factor in what each page contains and how each page is related to the others. A pillar page clusters a volume of relevant content together, making it easy for search engines to figure out what your web pages are about and can increase your ranking and visibility.
Helps With Keyword Ranking
Because pillar pages feature broad topics, they tend to rank for competitive keywords with high search volume. Since search engines prefer high-quality content that offers an overview of a subject with an informational tilt, those keywords, particularly long-tail ones, push pillar pages up the rankings, meaning users will spend more time with your content.
Showcase Your Expertise
A website filled with content that surrounds specific topics increases your trustworthiness. You become viewed as an expert in your field, which breeds loyalty. As search engines provide users with results that contain the most relevant content to match their queries, clustered content about your medical services brings your pages more exposure. The pillar page can also work with local SEO efforts.
Build a Pillar Page In Six Steps
Pillar pages require a specific format to be successful. Here is a breakdown of the necessary steps to create the perfect pillar page.
Step 1 – Pick The Topics To Rank For
As basic as this sounds, you must reframe what you are trying to do with keywords. Instead of trying to rank on specific keywords, the purpose of a pillar page is to present a landing page that focuses on a broad topical theme. As in the dental practice example mentioned above, dentistry is a good choice that can link to more specific topics on which you would focus your keyword attention.
Step 2 – Conduct Extensive Keyword Research
Because your pillar pages are general overviews of specific topics, you should utilize broader keywords that still fall under the umbrella of your primary keywords. Learn how users use the internet to search for particular topics to gain insight on what direction to go with your pillar page content. Information on related searches should give you some great ideas.
Step 3 – Put The Keywords Into Groups
Grouping keywords is the most complex and vital step in creating topic clusters. Get it right, and it will return huge dividends. You will want to group keywords in blog posts. Follow that up by grouping the blog posts into topic clusters. Your next move is to group those clusters into categories. It is these categories you would link to from your pillar page.
Step 4 – Create Your Cluster Pages
It may seem slightly out of order, but writing the cluster pages should be complete before attempting to create pillar pages. The main reason is that the pillar page content is an overview of what is on the cluster pages. Having that content finished first makes constructing the pillar page much easier to complete.
Step 5 – Create Your Pillar Page
Now is the time to build the pillar page based on the information contained in the cluster pages. There are two key points to remember when creating pillar pages that will impact your medical SEO strategy. The subtopics on the pillar page should be short, as the cluster pages are meant to provide greater detail and offer a reasonable amount of information.
Step 6 – Add Pillar Page Optimization
The final step in creating a pillar page is the optimization of that page. If you follow general on-page SEO best practices at this point, you will do just fine. Don’t forget to focus on the internal linking strategy, as this is the whole point behind creating cluster pages. Follow this with pillar page promotion to build traffic, and your work is done.
Final Thoughts
Using pillar pages that link internally to cluster pages will push your website up the rankings. The better it ranks, the more traffic it generates. With more traffic comes more business. Pillar pages are a vital part of an effective medical SEO strategy. Now that you know how pillar pages improve the structure of your website, you will see positive results. Websites are practical tools in digital marketing, but to be successful, you must conform to what search engines need to comprehend your website thoroughly. Pillar pages and cluster pages achieve this goal.
