This article is a summary of the HubSpot Academy masterclass about “Trailblazing your content marketing strategy”, by HubSpot content marketing professor Justin Champion. It forms part of the new search engine optimisation strategy (SEO) based on pillar pages, authority content, and topic clusters.
To achieve this we need to plan a long-term content marketing strategy, but this looks like we need to climb a steep mountain: we can see the summit but it is really far away and we don’t even know the trail. But, if others have been able to climb this mountain before then we can do it too.
"The first thing to do when you try to climb any mountain is to focus on the steps, not how steep it is".
To help to understand this concept it would be useful to watch the TED TALK of Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, where he talked about the idea of “Retrograde analysis”, that is “to look ahead, it pays to look backwards in the past”. This idea is not based on how to solve a problem, but on preventing it, and we can think of applying it not only in a chess game but also in the content marketing world, where it takes the form of “Reverse Engineering Content”. It is the process of working backwards to create a valuable piece of long-term content by recycling a series of planned content initiatives. So, in this case:
"When you’re thinking of recycling your content you must think of your content like a series of pillars, a stabilizing foundation for your content marketing strategy".
A pillar content, or pillar page, is nothing more than a website page that covers a broad topic in-depth and is linked to a cluster of related content. Generally, there are 2 pillar pages used most commonly:
Note: You can download this guide here.
Of these two, the most important is probably the “resource pillar page”. It can be seen as a long-term content marketing strategy approach to gaining website authority or reaching a high ranking on the search engine, and it’s a potential link page to various “10x pillar content pages”. For example, if you run a company that offers dental health products, could be good for you to create a resource page about the causes, prevention, and treatment of gum disease with a list of links to help customers better understand this topic.
So, let's see how to reverse engineer a resource pillar page.
The reach term represents the top of the “mountain”, it’s the main topic that you want your company to be known for and build authority around, what you’re aspiring to rank for on the search engine. Reach terms usually have a high monthly search volume and are generally 1-3 words in length to use to make the most of your efforts in creating marketing content. Because of that is extremely important to choose a term that supports your products and/or services, if not you will not be able to reach all the customers you are looking for.
So, how can you find the potential reach terms? A good way is to search on Google terms that you think are useful using the “Keywords Everywhere” plugin to help you determine monthly search volume. To be good you should consider terms that have at least 2,500 monthly searches. In our previous example, a reach term could be “gum disease” which has over 90,000 monthly search volumes.
Once you identified your reach term, you have to identify a series of core topics, that represent the “half of the mountain”. They are still difficult to get to but not as hard as they reach term. Core topics should contextually support your reach term and they are generally between 3-6 in length, for example, “gum disease cause” or “gum disease symptoms”.
To find these potential core topics perform research on Google and review Google’s autocompleted and related search suggestions. Their monthly searches must remain high but achievable and a good value could be between 300-2,500. You should also analyse the first page of the search engine result listings, click through the top-performing link, review the page’s content and find out if you can improve this content and provide new valuable resources. If you can’t then skip it.
So, your goal is to rank for each core topic first, and the more content you create for each of those topics more you’ll get closer to the reach term which you want to rank for.
With this step, we’re at the base of the mountain and subtopics essentially are what we do every week, every single weekly task. Now, your core topics should be supported with subtopic content assets that are influenced by each subtopic you identify, and to do it at best it is good practice to
"Think about these subtopics in the form of a question. This because it is how people search on the search engine and your assets should be answering to those questions".
Following our previous example, if people are afraid of gum disease they may type on Google “How do I know if I have gingivitis?” and in this case, a good subtopic content asset could be “Three signs that you might have gum disease”.
The next step is about how to create this content, in particular of “design”, an element that sometimes it’s just more important than the content that you’re creating. You can have the best message, but if people can’t easily read it, you will not communicate effectively with them.
So, here are some layout tips to use on your Resource Pillar Page:
It seems difficult to create a good resource pillar page, especially if you’re not a designer, but it’s not entirely true. HubSpot offers a variety of free pillar page templates to use, so the design will no longer be an obstacle that keeps you from creating valuable content.
The first thing you have to do is to make sure that all your subtopic content assets link to the resource pillar page, whether it’s a video on YouTube or a blog post.
There are 2 different areas where you can insert links:
One important thing to consider is that if you have 2/3 pillar pages that are all related to one of your subtopic content assets, you can link all those pillar pages from the same content assets. The only thing to keep in mind is the visitor’s experience, if it’s useful you can redirect him to every content you want, and it will also help you to understand how the structure of your internal links should be.
The last step is probably the most important one.
Of course, you’re not the only one who will be competing for attention online, a lot of people are competing for the same terms. Coming back to our topic about gum disease, we can see for example that both Colgate and Crest, big brands in dental health, have a resource pillar about that reach term, but their positioning is completely different. While that of Colgate is in the first place, the Crest one ranks on the ninth page of Google.
Why is this happening? Because of the Inbound links. These are critical pieces of your marketing plan and both the quality and the number of your inbound links matter greatly for your ranking on Google. In the example, Colgate has almost three times inbound links compared to Crest.
The inbound links are the image of how authoritative your website is, and the way that Google prioritises its content is based on this authority and not so much on the quality of the content. Creating valuable content still something very important, but if you want to reach the ranking you’re looking for on the search engine, you need a strong link-building structure that shows you’re credible. This is what developing a valuable inbound marketing strategy means.
So, where should you get started?
Focus your time and energy on creating your first topic cluster to help make your “climb” more manageable and less overwhelming.
"Don’t try to create all the different content and pillar page at once, but the best thing you can do is to start small, understand this process and then go for a bigger project when you have figured out".
The reason why it’s so important is that if you’re able to rank well for that cluster that will help you to have more impact and visibility for your next campaign.
To make everything a little easier, HubSpot has its content strategy tool that can help you plan and organise your topic clusters and pillar pages. The tool shows you:
You should not be in a hurry to reach the top of the mountain: building your road map may take time, weeks, months, or years, but is not important. Focus on the long-term, take your time to practice and work on it and to keep yourself motivated: remember that the reason why you’re doing all of this is to get to the top. Once there you will see your return on investment (ROI), how this experience was valuable for you and you will understand that it was worth it.
So those are our best tips, strategies, and secrets for innovating your content strategy. Now we would like to hear from you:
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