How to write a B2B pillar page (free template!)
As the saying goes, if you rank on page two or beyond, you’re practically invisible. But talk to any SEO pro and they’ll probably agree that ranking organically on the first page of Google is likely to be difficult – but not impossible.
The good news: A pillar page (and content cluster strategy) have proven to get cut through even for sites with the lowest domain scores.
So how can a content cluster strategy and pillar page help? 🤷♀️
A well-conceived pillar page can gain a lot of attention, boost website traffic, attract backlinks, and nurture an audience, converting them into customers.
So today let’s walk through our approach to pillar pages, which we use with pretty much all our clients, no matter the market or industry.
Starting with a quick recap.
What is a pillar page?
A pillar page is a long-form article which links to all content on a key topic (often a keyword or phrase). It provides a deep-dive on a topic, but leaves room for more detailed coverage of the topic in the cluster pages – which usually focus on a particular aspect of the topic.
For example, a pillar page on ‘content marketing’ might offer a summary of each cluster page that goes into more depth:
As a result, pillar pages are usually longer than typical blog posts (usually 2000-2500 words) because they touch on all parts of a topic.
Notably, pillar pages always link back to the blog posts within the cluster.
And if it does its job well, it becomes an authoritative source that attracts external links and ranks very well in Google -often on page one and with the featured snippet. Win-win! 🥇
Why you need pillar pages (and content cluster strategies)
In short, pillar pages and content cluster strategies organise your content in a way that’s easy for customers to navigate and understand – and in a way that Google loves too. 💖
This leads to:
Longer session times – because the pillar and cluster pages are interlinked, it can keep visitors on site longer, driving up engagement.
Satisfying customer experience – pillar pages are designed to be easy to scanread, and dip in and out of to find exactly what the reader is looking for.
Better Google rankings – content organised by topic pillars and clusters tend to get rewarded with higher rankings.
In fact, when done well, comprehensive pillar pages are one of the most effective ways to create content that appeals to both search engines and your ideal customers with authoritative information.
Related: Helpful Content: How to Write for Humans and SEO (see what we did there!)
Next, we’ll explain exactly how to write a pillar page.
Keep in mind that there are several ways to write pillar pages, but we have personally found this approach to be the most effective for B2B businesses to generate the best results. 💰
How to kick-start writing your pillar page
Your pillar page should provide a comprehensive overview of a key topic that is relevant to your business and audience.
If you’re a fintech, it might be something like embedded finance, or embedded analytics. At this point you might want to use Ahrefs or SEMrush to see what the monthly search volumes and keyword difficulty looks like.
In the example below, the keyword difficulty is medium, with a huge global monthly search volume of 6000. It will be fairly hard to go after this keyword – but not impossible.
Once you understand what the difficulty and traffic potential looks like, we usually take a look at the top 10-20 search results to see what the competition is doing in this space.
While this topic is up against some tough competition, including McKinsey, Stripe, and Forbes, many of the search results are one-off articles - albeit very long ones.
Plaid has a decent example of a pillar page here. It covers the topic from a lot of angles:
What is embedded finance?
What are the types of embedded finance?
Embedded finance is a growing, multi-trillion dollar market
How to offer embedded finance products and services
What is the future of embedded finance?
As an interesting side note, Plaid’s pillar went live within the last few months and is already ranking highly, having overtaken Stripe and OpenPayd.
Now that you know what the competition looks like, you can get to work on your plan of attack.
Key considerations to create a pillar page that outranks the competition
There are a few key considerations when creating pillar pages that outrank the competition:
Unique angle: Firstly, take a look at the angle they have chosen to run with. Does it cover the topic in a generic way? If so great! You have a golden opportunity to create a new and interesting angle on the subject.
Use subject matter experts: Related to the above, a unique angle often goes hand-in-hand with subject matter expertise. Interview your experts (internal and external) to garner unique views and to add real insight and value to the piece.
Add depth and breadth: If your competitors are only covering the main topic from one point of view, you have a great opportunity to go into more depth. Think about all the facets relating to the main topic such as ‘content marketing budgets’, ‘content marketing trends’, ‘content marketing tools’ and so on.
Add quotes: Add social proof with a couple of well chosen and well placed client testimonials or external expert quotes (if it feels appropriate). HelpAB2BWriter is a great place to find them.
Optimise your word count: While word count isn’t the holy grail, it’s clear Google still takes this into account. Aim for at least 1200 words. But because pillar pages are in-depth, most of the pillars we write are around 2500 words.
Add relevant keywords: Without keyword stuffing or making the copy sound weird, try and incorporate the right amount of keywords. Include your keyword in the title, first paragraph of your intro, sub-titles, and conclusion as minimum.
Include visual content: Including images is great for ranking and it makes content more shareable. Include relevant screenshots, diagrams to explain the copy, infographics and video.
💡Pro tip: We use a tool called Frase.io to help us more precisely optimise client content. You can see exactly how your content stacks up against the competition, where the gaps are, and what might need tweaking.
Now that we know how to outrank the competition, let’s look at the key elements of a pillar page.
Pillar page template (Key elements to include)
Like I already mentioned, there are several ways to approach a pillar page, the following key elements are based on our specific approach – which has been proven to rank on page one and gain featured snippets for almost every client we’ve had.
You can follow the steps below, or use our Google Docs pillar page template here. Please make sure you make a copy before trying to edit it.
Title (H1 tag)
Your title should include your keyword and your chosen angle.
Ideas for pillar titles include:
[Keyword topic]: Your complete guide
What is [keyword topic]? (And why it matters for XX)
How to [solve x problem] (with examples!)
Introduction
According to Yoast’s SEO tool, it really helps rankings to include your keyword within the first paragraph of the introduction. If this doesn’t read well for humans though, avoid adding it in.
Shortcuts ✂️
Here you can provide quick links to each section of the blog.
Definition (What is X topic)
The definition section is usually the prime content Google uses for featured snippets. Aim for approximately 300 characters - all on one line. And start the sentence with your topic is …, for example ‘Content marketing is …’ (Google’s algorithm seems to use this as a signal to capture the featured snippet).
Body sections
This will be the main body of your piece. Ideally, here, you will provide a short summary (re-written not duplicate content) of your blogs that fall within this topic cluster. And link to each blog.
Some ideas for the body copy sections might include:
X [key topic] best practices
How to implement [key topic]
Key elements of [key topic]
X [key topic] misconceptions
[Key topic] template
Conclusion
Your conclusion should provide a summary of the key points discussed and provide one last key point or tip as a final takeaway.
FAQs
As a bonus section, you can add frequently asked questions to the end of the article. Use SEMRush’s magic keyword tool, or Ahrefs most asked questions section to see which questions people search for in relation to your topic.
Then simply provide a short answer for each one. Make sure to add transitions to this section, to make the copy flow well.
The importance of optimising your pillar page
As an interesting side note, once you’ve created your pillar and followed every best practice step, you might not rank straight away. (This is common).
Maybe the competition is tough, or maybe your domain score is low. But don’t be disheartened.
The key is to keep optimising. If after a few weeks your content isn’t climbing rankings, take another look and consider if you can bolster it further with additional sections, linking new blog content on the topic, or adding more expert insight.
It took us months to rank on page one with our own pillar page. And three rounds of optimisation edits. But it was well worth it.
In conclusion
We hope this post has uncovered hidden opportunities to help you create your own pillar pages to get more traffic, improve click through-rate, boost shares, and increase your revenue.
Using this approach combined with a content cluster strategy is a sure-fire way to effectively outrank the competition.