Why Your Blog Needs Pillar Posts
First off, if you’re any type of blogger, whether a big-shot timer in the industry or an inspired rookie looking to tell a story, hats off to you. It’s one thing to write a story, and another to blog about it with the hopes of reaching out. It takes determination, will, inspiration and most of all, as has been put a couple of times, quality content. Can your content accommodate the readers’ needs and find a solution to their everlasting lust for interest and inspiration? It’s never about how great your content is, but rather how long it can grab the readers’ attention.
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This thus creates the need for a new blogging technique known as a pillar post, also called cornerstone content. It is merely a powerful and essential piece of writing that acts as the vertebrae to your website. They are usually in-depth articles, which don’t necessarily have to belong, and purpose to grab the attention of the audience. Alternatively, they serve as a detailed guide that would be an excellent stepping stone for a newbie on your website. Here are some of the reasons why your blog may require a pillar post:
Creating flow
Pillar posts can help you create a natural flow for your readers based on the niches you deal in. If your posts are based on health, for example, you can create a sequence of pillar posts that would give readers all the relevant info about health.
There are no counterfeits
The barrier into the blogging industry is quite low, allowing almost anyone to jump over to the other side. Pillar post protects your blog from duplicates by other bloggers as they make the articles very unique and distinguished.
To be identified from the crowd
The truth is, you may be working on a blog that is categorized in a very crowded niche. There are hundreds of millions of blogs on the internet and thousands more keep being posted daily. The chances that someone may be telling a story based on the same topic from your piece tend to be higher than you think. This makes it crowded, and your blog might be lost among the many writing pieces from which the owners consider them all as inspiring.
An excellent pillar post is capable of building an excellent reputation for you as a blogger. It will grab the attention of many readers who will then consider you an expert in your relevant niches. This enables your blog to be unique from its competitors and helps advertise you and the brand you represent.
Keeps your content ever-trendy
Typically, anything that trends will quickly be rendered obsolete after a while as it would’ve lost value and the interests of many. However, if you use successful pillar posts, your content can remain trendy for an extended period without having to fade. One should note that some pillar posts may only trend for a while as not all of them can be entirely successful.
It is, therefore, the blogger’s responsibility to update the posts regularly with new and inspiring details that will forever make it trend in the hearts of many readers.
It guides readers
Apart from attracting much traffic to your website, pillar posts supply readers with essential content for navigating your blog. Informational pillar posts are surprisingly helpful to visitors on your website as it gives them the blueprints of what to expect. Readers get to learn a lot from them, and this puts you at an advantage of gaining fame.
Improves SEO
Google is very accommodating to in-depth content as they contain many related and relevant keywords as well as phrases that occur naturally in the text. Pillar posts therefore, rank very well in the various search engines such as Google as high-quality content keeps the visitors fixed on the page. An excellent pillar post is considered an impressive start for the best search engine optimization.
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Increases shares on social media
Research has proven that many readers love sharing unique pillar posts on social media profiles. High-quality articles may get thousands of shares on various social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and even Pinterest. The higher the number of shares your post is subjected to, the more extensive the range of exposure, and this pulls in more subscribers and followers.
Using social share icons on your posts and doing some outreach activities are other ways to make it easier for visitors to share your content.
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It promotes email subscribers
As a blogger, you should be aware that growing an email list is an essential task for the survival of your posts. An email list lets you stay in touch with your most loyal followers at any time without having to depend on other platforms for traffic. The main aim of any pillar post would be to seduce readers into subscribing to your regular posts. They provide adequate information that would persuade the readers to subscribe so as not to miss out on any future posts.
One can also make use of content upgrades to pull in more subscribers for your blogs.
Pull in links
Using pillar posts can also help get links from other relevant blogs and websites. If your article is an informational masterpiece, other bloggers will tend to tag it or link you when telling their stories on a similar niche.
Money making machines
Pillar posts are designed to attract traffic from different sources mentioned above that include social networks, search engines, and various inbound links. This makes them a fantastic means of making money online for extended periods.
Here’s how to do it:
- Sponsorships – Reach out to companies offering relevant commodities to see if they would gladly sponsor your content.
- Service marketing – If you offer any services, you can write pillar posts that will promote them.
- Using affiliate links – Be sure to use affiliate links for the various commodities in line with your pillar posts.
- Your products – Write content that may allow you to promote your products.
Conclusion
Creating pillar posts may be a considerable sacrifice one would have to make but the results are worth it if it means taking your blog a step higher.