How to write a pillar page (and get better site traffic)

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. 

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