I’ve spent this afternoon posting messages to selected Facebook and LinkedIn pages, showcase pages, and groups talking about updates to blog content (and in one case a LinkedIn article).
If you look at the updated blog posts/LinkedIn article in question, you’ll see that they now start with this statement:
(Updated 4/16/2022 with additional benefits information.)
Then, when you scroll down the post/article to a benefits discussion, you’ll see this insertion:
(4/16/2022: For additional information on benefits, click here.)
This post explains
- why I made those updates to the blog posts and the LinkedIn article,
- how I added a new page to the Bredemarket website, and
- what I still need to do to that new page to make it better.
(Why, how, what: get it?)
Why I updated selected blog posts and a LinkedIn article
I talk a lot about benefits on the Bredemarket blog, but all of the conversation is in disparate, not-really-connected areas. I do have a page that talks about the benefits of benefits for identity firms, but that doesn’t really address the benefits of benefits for non-identity firms.
Then, while I was taking a HubSpot Academy course, I found a possible way to create a central page for discussion of benefits.
A pillar page.
According to HubSpot, the need for pillar pages arose because of changes to Google’s search model.
Google is helping searchers find the most accurate information possible — even if it isn’t exactly what they searched for. For example, if you searched for “running shoes,” Google will now also serve you up results for “sneakers.” This means that bloggers and SEOs need to get even better at creating and organizing content that addresses any gaps that could prevent a searcher from getting the information they need from your site.
From https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-pillar-page
What does this mean?
Now, your site needs to be organized according to different main topics, with blog posts about specific, conversational long-tail keywords hyperlinked to one another, to address as many searches as possible about a particular subject. Enter the topic cluster model.
From https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-pillar-page
How I added a new page to the Bredemarket website
So I created the page https://bredemarket.com/benefits/ to work as the hub of a wheel of content regarding benefits.
But not all the content that I’ve written on benefits.
I’ve curated links to selected content (both on the Bredemarket website and on LinkedIn), provided a brief quote from the content in question, then provided a link to the original content for more information.
After that, I went out to each of the “spokes” in the topic cluster and linked back to the new content hub on benefits as illustrated above.
What I still need to do to the new page on the Bredemarket website
At this point the people who REALLY know search engine optimization are shaking their heads.
“John,” they are saying to me, “that’s not a pillar page!”
They’re right.
It’s just a very crude beginning to a pillar page. It lacks two things.
Multi-layered keywords associated with the “hub” topic
First, simply linking selected “benefits” pages together in a wheel is extremely simplistic. Remember how search engines can now search for both “running shoes” and “sneakers”? I need to optimize my wheel so that it drives traffic that isn’t tied to the specific word “benefits.”
Choose the broad topics you want to rank for, then create content based on specific keywords related to that topic that all link to each other, to create broader search engine authority….
For example, you might write a pillar page about content marketing — a broad topic — and a piece of cluster content about blogging — a more specific keyword within the topic.
From https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-pillar-page
A logical organization of the pillar page
Second, a pillar page needs better organization. Rather than having what I have now-a brief definition of benefits, followed by a reverse chronological list of posts (and the article) on benefits, the pillar page needs to address benefits, and its relevant subtopics, in an orderly fashion.
Pillar pages are longer than typical blog posts — because they cover all aspects of the topic you’re trying to rank for — but they aren’t as in-depth. That’s what cluster content is for. You want to create a pillar page that answers questions about a particular topic, but leaves room for more detail in subsequent, related cluster content.
From https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-pillar-page
HubSpot directs its readers to HubSpot’s own pillar page on Instagram marketing. Frankly I don’t know that I’d want to write something that long, but you can see how the pillar page provides an organized overview of Instagram marketing, rather than just a reverse chronological list of content that addresses the pillar topic.
More to come
So my pillar page on benefits certainly has room to grow.
But at least I’ve made an agile start with a first iteration, and the search engines can start processing the existing cluster of links as I make improvements.
And as I create additional pillar pages. I already have an idea for a second one.
Bredemarket 
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