How to build a pillar and cluster content model that dominates an entire topic?

Most web pages have random pieces of content. A blog post here. A guide there. A handful of pages have little or no context. These pages could all be considered as targeting separate keywords. This type of approach produces some traffic. It very seldom creates a significant search presence. It rarely establishes a website as the go-to authority for a particular topic.

The Pillar and Cluster Model is also known as Pillar Content. It is a method of organizing and linking content. It provides search engines with evidence that a site has extensive knowledge of a total subject area. It shows that the site is not just a random assortment of related pages.

This approach is based on a basic concept. Each broad subject area a site wants to target will be represented by a pillar page. The pillar page covers the general scope of the subject at an upper level only. It answers all potential questions associated with the subject. It covers sub-subjects and any possible angles a search engine user may have when searching. It does not give enough information about each individual point to completely answer every question of each sub-subject.

Instead the pillar page provides sufficient information about each sub-subject. It provides links to clustered pages dedicated solely to those sub-subjects.

The clustered pages provide links back to the original pillar page. Collectively these inter-linked pages create a complete picture of the topic. They demonstrate to search engines that as a group of pages they all refer to the same group of subjects. They collectively represent the best possible source of information on that group of subjects.

The first step to developing this model is to identify a suitable pillar topic. A pillar topic has to be broad enough to allow for several subtopics. It still has to meet business needs and connect with the audience.

For example a digital marketing agency may use content marketing as the pillar topic. The cluster pages for that specific pillar topic could cover Content Strategy, Blog Writing, Content Distribution, Content Measurement and Content Repurposing. Each of these cluster pages will specifically target a more narrow keyword. The main pillar page will target the broad keyword. Together these pages will cover the entire topic from several differing viewpoints.

Internal linkages between pillar and cluster pages form the basis for how the model works technically. Once a pillar page has linked to its related cluster pages and that cluster page has linked back to the original pillar all of the related pages can be clearly identified as being linked to one another by search engines. Pages linked in this way contribute to one another’s rankings. When a cluster page receives backlinks or traffic it transmits authority back to the pillar. When a pillar receives good rankings it creates more visibility for any cluster page underneath it.

The Pillar and Cluster Model will not provide results immediately. It requires planning, creating content on a consistent basis and patience.

Websites that commit to the Pillar and Cluster Model create search authority that individual unconnected pages will never receive. Owning a topic in the search engine results pages means covering the specific topic completely. The Pillar and Cluster Model provides the ideal framework for achieving that.