Pillar content blog posts are the bricks and mortar that support your blog or business. They are the posts that define your brand. They are so valuable that they draw readers back again and again to your site. You might also hear it called evergreen content for this reason.
You probably already have pillar posts on your blog or website. These are often your most popular posts for views or engagement.
These posts are the cornerstones of your blog. They are what your visitors come to view most often and so they are the posts that define what your blog is all about.
It is really important that your pillar content accurately reflects your niche because of this. When a new visitor first comes to your site to make use of one of your valuable pillar posts, they are more likely to enjoy the rest of your content, click around, and subscribe to your mailing list as a result.
So why should you be creating it?
Pillar Content Drives traffic to your Blog or Biz continuously
When you create new content for your blog or business website, you should always try to make it pillar-worthy. This means packing every post with tons of value for your reader.
When choosing what topic to write about, it is worth considering two things.
- Staying on-brand for your niche
- Answering the questions your ideal audience want answering
As I have said, each post needs to reflect your overall blog or business goals, staying on-brand. So if you’re a virtual assistant looking to market yourself to busy entrepreneurs, blog or biz owners, you need to write for them, and not for other virtual assistants. This can be a really easy snag to fall into.
For each post idea remember: you are writing to help and attract your ideal reader or customer which is not necessarily other bloggers within your niche (although it could be!)
For Knead to Dough, that means that I write for other baking bloggers and cake business owners because they are my ideal reader. They are who I design my content for and who’s content marketing and social media strategy needs I try to address, which leads me nicely onto the second part of choosing the right blog post.
To be the kind of post that attracts readers and makes them want to share it with friends, it needs to be as helpful as possible for them.
You can achieve this in several ways. The easiest way is to ask in relevant Facebook groups that your ideal readers hang out in. Get involved and engage in these groups, answering other people’s questions. Then post yourself asking what they most struggle with. Design your next blog posts to answer these questions and solve these problems and you’ll have some very happy readers. You can also use the search function in these groups to see which topics come up most frequently.
The other valuable way to get in the mindset of your ideal reader is to create their personal profile. If you know your ideal readers rough age, gender, lifestyle, employment status, hobbies, struggles, typical day you can write with all of this in mind and develop posts to address this. You need to go into as much depth as possible – you can even give them a name if it helps you to visualise your ideal reader.
For example, if you know that your ideal reader is a busy mum who works from home while looking after her kids and so struggles to find time to market her biz through social media, you could write all about different scheduling tools that could make her social media run on auto-pilot. Win! Just remember, cover the topic in detail. I’m talking 800-1000 words+. Your readers will love you for it!
Pillar posts attract the right kind of readers
You are creating pillar content that perfectly represents you and your blog or biz and what you can offer. You are drawing in your ideal readers, turning them into repeat visitors and customers because when they reach your blog they don’t just fine one but multiple posts that all speak directly to their needs. Your blog becomes their haven for information and support.
This means that while you are busy juggling life and your blog or biz, your traffic can take care of itself.
Not only will your traffic increase as you become known for your valuable content, it will be increasing with the right kind of readers.
Rather than one-stop readers who leave your site after one post, your readers move from post to post, want your opt-in freebies and subscribe to your list. They open your emails because they trust you. They know you can be relied upon to provide them valuable help regularly.
This keeps you in the forefront of their minds and makes you a likely first choice when they want to hire someone in your niche or pay for a product like the ones you offer.
The takeaway:
By creating pillar content, you consistently attract the right readers who will subscribe to your list, share your content, and buy your product or services.
Who knew a blog post could achieve so much? Pillar content really can revolutionize your marketing strategy and make you stand as the go-to person or business in your niche.
What posts are your pillar content? What will you do before writing your next post?
Regina says
Thanks so much for spelling out what pillar content is and its importance. I just launched my blog and I’m focusing on creating pillar content and not on monetizing at this point. You’re so right, pillar content is definitely the foundation on which the rest of your blog is supported. Good stuff!
Lauren says
Hey Regina! You’re on a great track for success if you’re focussing on building some great content before monetising! It’s definitely the right way round to build your blog and it’ll make monetising much easier later on because you’ll grow a loyal following 🙂 great work!
Corina Ramos says
Hi Angie,
As always, you’ve shared some valuable tips for bloggers. You’re right, we should always stay on-brand for our niche and answer questions and resolve problems for our visitors.
Thanks for sharing! Have a great week.
Cori
Lauren says
I’m so glad you found my guest post helpful! Serving your ideal reader’s needs is a must for content. Have a great week Cori 🙂