​We recently had a client assignment that went something like this (don’t worry; we’ll tell you how you can profit from this story in just a moment): 
 
We’d helped them write a huge long-form article for their website, touting their experience with a given industry, in a given U.S. state.
 
Thing is, this client of ours—a B2B consultancy—also had similar experience with other industries. And—you guessed it—in other states, too. 
 
On the surface, this is a very simple assignment. You want to broaden your reach, and your SEO rankings, for more than one industry, in more than one state. 
 
Sound familiar? Read on. 
 
Thinking outside the algorithm
 
Granted, the original article was an SEO play. In other words, it went after very specific long-tail keywords that our client knew were attainable, in terms of search domination. They’d called us in to do the writing. 
 
The original article—as you’ll recall, for one industry, in one state—was quite specific and detailed. But now there were two challenges, in terms of making “spin-off” articles: 
 
1. Talking about the other industries. 
2. Talking about the other states. 
 
Oh. And there was a third challenge, which was arguably bigger than the first two: 
 
3. Convincing Google that none of the spin-off articles were, in fact, spin-off articles. 
 
So Challenges 1 and 2 were fairly straightforward. To wit: 

• As far as talking about our client’s expertise serving other, specific industries, we were well-versed on those topics, and had plenty of material to draw from. This is good, because it already makes the first spin-off article substantially different from the original, in Google’s eyes. Of course, that won’t help with the subsequent spin-off articles targeting the same industry. 

 

• For serving the other states, a little research was required. This was admittedly a fun assignment: We found quick high-school-level fact-sheets on each state, and also visited the website of each state’s visitor’s bureau, to learn fun facts, nicknames of different areas, and so on, so we could pen these with a better level of local familiarity. 

 
(Did we do this 49 times? No. We didn’t. Our client had us rank all 50 U.S. states by population, and we went after the biggest 25. Smart, and cost-effective.) 
 
So now, armed with these different buckets of data, it came time to write all of the spin-off articles. 
 
Sure, we could’ve commanded Word to do a search-and-replace, on the original article, to plug in “Industry B” for “Industry A,” and even “State No. 2” for “State No. 1.” And even though the resulting article would be totally fine in the eyes of an Industry B prospect living in State No. 2, Google would not be amused. 
 
So it was time to get more creative. We had to re-order ideas and arguments, move paragraphs, re-title headlines and subheads, and change the phrasing within most sentences… to the point where the spin-off article was materially different from the original, yet still sold, potently, to the proper audience, toiling in the proper industry, while living in the targeted state. 
 
To AI or not to AI
 
We know what you’ve been thinking all this time: Why not hand off a basic assignment like this to ChatGPT? Isn’t that, after all, what it excels at? 
 
Yes and no. As we’ve discovered, ChatGPT can really help non-writers look better. For actual writers, the opposite is true. And that was the case here. We actually let ChatGPT take the first stab at this assignment. And its results worked in letter, but not in spirit. There were just too many flubs, none of which would be acceptable to this demanding client of ours. 
 
Could we fix those flubs ourselves? Absolutely. And we, at first, tried. But we quickly realized that it was actually less work to follow the process we’d described above than to babysit ChatGPT for this. 
 
Fast-forward a few weeks, and all the articles were written and illustrated (with the graphic team taking an analogous approach to ours) and posted online. The client was happy, and most important, the effort paid off in the SEO results. 
 
So it was a lot of effort, but certainly worth it. 
 
Need help with a tricky assignment like this? While we do a lot of big-picture marketing and creative strategy, we’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves and get into the weeds. Contact us and let’s talk. 

It’s that time of year again. Time for our annual wrap-up of business-building posts for consultants from Copel Communications. 
 
We hope you had a good year, considering that 2020 is one for the history books, in so many ways. We had a good year (thanks for asking), but that’s because we’re blessed with some really smart clients who always see the glass as half-full, and were able to thrive amid the most challenging of times. 
 
Here’s a recap of our 2020 posts, with a teaser and a link for each. If you’d like to revisit any, here’s your chance. And if you missed any of these, by all means, catch up! 

• What’s the best medium for increasing your exposure? We always get asked, “Which medium should we use to promote our business?” Guess what? That’s the wrong question. Find out what you should be asking—and answering—here. 

 

• How to write a pillar page (and get better site traffic). If you don’t know what a “pillar page” is—let alone how one can boost your business—this is the article for you. Lots of good, useful detail. 

 

• How to write business-building emails. You might be shocked to learn how hard this “simple” task really is. But boy is it worth the effort. Learn killer tricks and tips here. 

 

• How to nail that webcam performance. We actually penned this one before the pandemic put everyone on camera! We were ahead of our time. Catch up. Our tips are the best you’ll find, trust us. 

 

• How to create—and use—talking points for your business. You don’t need to have a CNN crew at your doorstep to need the help this article provides. You’d be surprised how many practical applications exist—and why you should prepare now. 

 

• How to profit from gig-economy vendors. Websites and apps have democratized specialized labor. Great news for you, right? Not really: It’s a classic double-edged sword. Learn how to help your business, while supporting talented individuals. 

 

• What is your “gateway offering”? You have one, right? Ooops, you blinked. Better read this article before you get caught flat-footed by that next big opportunity. 

 

• What is the best “media mix” for promoting your business? There’s a ton of choices out there: traditional, digital, social, you name it. Where should you invest? Find out here. 

 

• Continuing education for consultants. Should you pursue an online degree? Invest in an advanced certification? What are the counterintuitive options out there which deliver outsized ROI? Get the answers you need to make smart choices. 

 

• What is “cross-pollination consulting”? How do you break into new markets with minimum friction and maximum payoff? What tools and advantages do you already have, that are hiding in plain sight? The answers may surprise you. 

 

• Do business gifts build business? What’s the ideal end-of-year business gift for that client or prospect? Discover our radical approach to this annual conundrum. 

 
Have a topic you’d like us to weigh in on? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you. 

In this article, we’re going to show you how to create a pillar page. Isn’t that great?! 
 
There’s only one question. 
 
What the @#$% is a pillar page? 
 
We’re so glad you asked. The answer, incidentally, can have a big impact on your business’ presence on the web. 
 
Okay, what is a pillar page?
 
To answer this question, you need to back up a little and consider the world from Google’s point of view. That’s what search engine optimization, or SEO, is all about anyway. The “SE” in “SEO” is basically code for “Google.” Spoiler alert: Pillar pages are all about SEO, kind of a newfangled skeleton key for improving your search rankings. 
 
Back to Google. In the old days—not very long ago, actually—Google would scour the web for information it could organize (the company’s foundational mission) by searching for keywords: phrases that would indicate the contents of a given page. This, incidentally, is what transformed Google from a dot-com also-ran into a global behemoth: They figured out that they could monetize the search for keywords. Today, Google AdWords is basically still that: A reverse auction whereby advertisers bid on the keywords they want to own. 
 
So keywords still exist. But over the years, Google has gotten much, much smarter than just looking for keywords. It’s also searching for metatags, depth of content, appropriate images, video, and so on. The overarching goal, now as before, is to serve up useful content. 
 
Google has gotten much better at this. We’re sure you remember, not too long ago, when you might search Google for a certain term, and the top hit would appear to be exactly what you were looking for. ...But then you’d click that link and discover that it was essentially junk: Just a landfill of “aggregated content” and slapped-together keywords, created solely for the purpose of tricking Google into ranking it highly. You’d see a page like that, get frustrated, and go back to your search results. Only this time, you’d be wary: Would the second item on the list yield the same junk? There was a good chance of it. 
 
Today, you rarely encounter such situations. Credit Google: They’ve gotten smarter. Not only do they update their search algorithms, they update them continually, and in secret, so that junk advertisers like the one we just described can’t easily reverse-engineer Google’s search parameters and thus game the system. 
 
In an article about “pillar pages,” you might think that we’ve gotten significantly off-topic. In fact, we haven’t. 
 
The bigger picture
 
Google, as we said, wants to serve you the best information it can. (It also wants to make the most possible money doing so, but that is actually off-topic here.) 
 
Now. Think. What is one particular website that’s known, better than every other site on the internet, for the information it serves up for free? Here’s a hint: Imagine a student trying to write an essay about “The Roman Empire.” What’s the first site they’d visit? It sure wouldn’t be “RomanEmpire.com,” (We just made that up.) 
 
It would be—no suspense—Wikipedia. 
 
Here’s where things get interesting. Wikipedia is, inarguably, a great source of information. But it’s not always the best source. Still, the way it presents its info is clear, logical, and authoritative. 
 
So if you’re Google, wouldn’t you want to find other websites that are equally clear, logical, and authoritative?
 
Of course you would. 
 
And those—ta dah!—are pillar pages. 
 
Here’s a quick and dirty definition of a pillar page: 
 
A pillar page is single, long-form, informative page that’s structured very similarly to Wikipedia, but doesn’t reside on Wikipedia. 
 
A counterintuitive approach
 
Wikipedia gets tons of traffic. It’s one of the most-visited sites on the entire internet. Wouldn’t you love to have even a sliver of that kind of traffic for your business? 
 
This is where the pillar page comes in. If you can craft a good pillar page, then Google will recognize it, and reward you with strong placement for your efforts. 
 
But if you’re new to this, prepare to go in unfamiliar directions. Again, think of Wikipedia. Does it have advertising? No. Does it self-promote? No. Does it feature a call-to-action? No. 
 
These are all things that you naturally assume would be on any website page you create! But in the land of pillar pages, they’re verboten.
 
Incidentally, we keep saying “Wikipedia.” But it’s not the only example. Wikipedia is, after all, infamously dry and boring. So you’re free to do a better job. You can make your pillar page fairly conversational. You can make the layout pretty. Think of, for example, a good introductory college textbook. 
 
So you’ll want to craft a pillar page about a topic you absolutely own. Something you’re a world-class expert on. You’ll create it just like a Wikipedia page—replete with a table of contents at the top, hyper-linked to all of the chapter subheadings—and devoid of hype that promotes your business, or even a call-to-action. 
 
You’ll want the thing to be deep. Aim for 4,000 to 5,000 words. (You can always update it and lengthen it, going forward. In fact, Google likes it when you do.) Include Google-friendly elements, such as diagrams, illustrations with metadata and captions, bullet lists, embedded video clips, and so on. 
 
So how does this build your business? Well, the answer is subtle. First off, this big, huge, authoritative page does not reside on Wikipedia.com; rather, it lives on your website. So Google is driving all the traffic there. That’s the second benefit: the obvious SEO boost, if you do this right. And once those visitors arrive at your site, they automatically associate this authoritative information with your business. And they’ll be able to learn more about you: Your pillar page can still include things like top nav-bar links to the rest of your site, and ads for your services here and there, which can link to landing pages on other parts of your site. 
 
Admittedly, this is an unusual exercise. If you’re used to creating strong, promotional web content, prepare to downshift to a stranger gear. But it’s worth the effort: A good pillar page can really dominate its intended search results. We know: We’ve helped clients attain this exact goal. 
 
Need help creating a pillar page of your own? You don’t have to go it alone. Contact us today. We’ll help to ease the journey, and improve the destination.