Building the Right Foundation for Cornerstone Content — Here's Everything I Know
I remember exactly where I was when I stumbled upon the concept of cornerstone content for the first time. It was a fresh winter’s morning in late December, and the sunshine glistened over the frosted ground … Okay, I kid, I kid.
So, the cornerstone content model isn’t exactly ‘Moon Landing’ material. But, it did completely revolutionize how I think about and implement content strategy.
As a junior content marketer, it gave me my first logical framework for creating, organizing, and managing content production. Before then, it kinda felt like I was throwing content ideas at the wall until something, anything, stuck. There was nothing to “hang my hat on,” so to speak.
Aside from a logical framework, cornerstone content also gave me a tried and tested method to increase search engine visibility for my clients. I also know for a fact that cornerstone content formed part of the SEO content strategy that still drives millions of visits to the HubSpot blog today.
Interest piqued? Cool! Please keep reading to learn from me and some incredible leaders in the SEO industry.
Table of Contents
What is cornerstone content?
Cornerstone content is the most important content on your website. We‘re talking about the best of the best, your magnum opus, the articles or landing pages you’d bend over backward to place in front of your ideal customer or reader‘s eyeballs.
In short, it’s content you want organic searchers to come in contact with first.
Not only does cornerstone content set the tone for what folks can expect from your brand, website, and offering, but it should also form a critical part of your SEO strategy.
Ideally, you want these cornerstone pieces to rank on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant queries that your ideal audience uses.
Note: You might have heard cornerstone content referred to as “pillar content,” — which, honestly, is low-key my preferred terminology. This also leads me to a little more oh-so-necessary clarification …
Cornerstone content vs. cluster content: What’s the difference?
To fully understand cornerstone content, I‘d argue you must also understand cluster content. They’re kind of like two halves of a whole that work together to form the pillar (aka cornerstone) cluster content model. Confused? No sweat, let me break this down.
A piece of cornerstone content, like an article, functions as an introduction to an entire topic category or subcategory of content on your website. Simply put, it introduces your audience to a core topic or subtopic that you already cover or plan to cover rigorously.
Cluster content, on the other hand, acts as supplementary content that expands upon and supports your …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
