Pillar Keywords — the Foundational Content Marketing Tool You Might Not Have Heard About

Every business has a mission statement. You probably have at least two or three brand values too. They define the starting point of your business by addressing the key things you want to communicate to your target audience. Pillar keywords work the same way. If you don’t already have a few in your marketing strategy, it could be the reason you’re not getting the traffic you want.

What Are Pillar Keywords?

Pillar keywords are the limited words or phrases that guide your content marketing long-term. They match your brand’s products or services while remaining broad enough for years of future content.

There are two ways I describe pillar keywords to business owners. First, I use the term itself. Imagine the great white pillars holding up the Parthenon in Greece. The ceiling couldn’t exist—or the space inside the Parthenon—without the pillars holding up the building.

Pillar keywords work the same way. All of your future content exists within those keywords. Without them, your content would just be a bunch of articles hanging out on your website, hopefully staying relevant to what you do.

You can also picture pillar keywords like umbrellas. If I run a holistic coffee shop, I know my audience is going to read content related to coffee and wellness. Maybe the environment too. Coffee, wellness and the environment become your foundational topics. Those are the umbrellas under which I’d publish specific content like “10 Ways Coffee Actually Helps Your Blood Pressure,” “The Latest Research Turning Coffee Into a Sustainable Crop,” and other related subtopics.

Why Are Pillar Keywords Important?

Have you ever tried to write content for your blog and felt like there wasn’t a specific place to get inspiration from? That’s where your pillar keywords come in. They guide your future content creation because they provide multiple benefits like these.

1. Improved Google Ranking and Traffic Performance

Google’s EEAT guidelines prioritize experience, expertise, topic or industry authority and trustworthiness. Your content will rank higher if you meet all of these criteria. That’s where copywriters like me come in. I know how to meet those things without making articles sound like a textbook.

Your pillar keywords provide the topics you’ll expand on with EEAT-optimized articles. If you’re a nutritionist, one of your pillar keywords will likely be nutrition. A subtopic could be “nutritional benefits of whey protein.” You’d choose future content based on your pillar keywords. When that content meets Google’s ranking guidelines, you’ll get better Google ranking results and more traffic. People will want to read your relevant content, further boosting your site visitors.

2. Better Content Organization

Writing articles for your website shouldn’t feel like throwing darts at a board. Pillar keywords group your articles under a limited number of relevant topics. You can also use them to search for future keywords, which I do for my clients every day.

3. Efficient Time Management

You won’t waste time on articles your readers don’t care about if you’re not randomly selecting topics. Pillar keywords and subtopics provide a consistent focus for your website. Content gaps are also easier to notice, which makes choosing future article topics easier.

How to Identify Your Pillar Keywords

Once you learn what pillar keywords are, it’s time to choose the best options for your brand. You can always do that by setting up a strategy session and short-term content calendar l with me, but you can also use these steps.

1. Prioritize Your Audience

Why does your audience care about your brand? How do your products or services solve problems for them or benefit their lives? Think about what they might google related to those things. You can also list general topics by reflecting on their most common questions about your business. Try making a list of at least three broad factors that pull your audience back to your brand.

2. Do Some Keyword Research

Keyword research tools are always available if you want to learn how to use them. I personally love SEMrush, but you can also check out Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. Use them to find keywords relevant to your website. Compare the keywords your competitors are using to get the most traffic and see if you’re missing those same keywords. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs will also pinpoint potential content pillars based on an audit of your website.

3. Check Out Your Competitors

Name three competitors for your business. They can be locally-owned brands or international businesses. Check out their blogs. What pillar keyword sections do they have in the header of their blog? What topics are they posting about? Take some notes to see if your audience would be interested in similar content, then make your articles unique with your perspective on each topic.

4. Remember to Make Your Pillar Keywords Relevant

You could choose pillar keywords that look great, but don’t align with your services or products. You wouldn’t care about reading health advice from a blogger who only posts craft projects. It’s not why you’re visiting their website. You want to get inspiration for your next craft! When you have three to five pillar keywords that seem perfect, double-check that they’re relevant to your brand before publishing content under them.

Guide Your Content Marketing Strategies With Pillar Keywords

Pillar keywords improve content marketing plans in undeniable ways. Use them to guide your topic choices and content calendars. They form the roadmap for all future articles on your website, so make sure they relate to your products or services before forging ahead.

If you want to brainstorm pillar keywords with me or ask a few questions before you get started, let’s connect! I’ll set up a free consultation call to answer a few questions or schedule a brainstorming session that will leave you with an entire month of content ideas drawn from the pillar keywords we choose. Let’s make your blogging feel effortless.