What is Cornerstone Content?
In 2020, it was reported that digital ad spending grew by roughly 12 percent despite the pandemic. While digital ads are good for advertising, cornerstone content is also an effective way of marketing for businesses, but what is cornerstone content and why should it matter?
While it may sound surprising, the term ‘cornerstone content’ is completely alien to some businesses.
The amazing thing about this type of content is that it can take businesses from getting no attention, to getting more attention than baby Yoda (Grogu) in a short span of time, ok maybe not that much attention.
So without further ado, let’s cover what cornerstone content is and some interesting ways it can benefit businesses. Read on to learn more!
What Is Cornerstone Content?
In short, cornerstone content is the content that is written on websites to help you rank higher in search engines.
This content often consists of articles and many businesses use cornerstone content pieces as the main website focal point. The articles, pages, or posts that make up cornerstone content should all be SEO optimized as well.
Cornerstone content is not only used as the ‘go-to page’, but also the pages that offer the most value on websites.
This kind of content can be internally linked multiple times within a website. For example, websites may have multiple blog posts and certain blog posts have an internal link that links back to the cornerstone content.
To be successful with this type of content, there are a few dos and dont’s that we should keep in mind.
What Is Pillar Content?
A content pillar is an informative piece of content about a specific topic. Think macaroni art. The idea is that smaller pieces of content can be created from content pillars.
Similar to cornerstone content, pillar content can consist of very valuable information, and blogs, articles, and more are created based on pillar content.
What Is Content Planning?
Content planning is often used in alignment with cornerstone content and pillar content. It ensures that a specific topic is scheduled for use at a certain time. Kind of like we scheduled to publish this very blog!
There are multiple aspects to content planning, including when content should be released, what kind of content should be focused on, ensuring content is unique and relevant, and more.
Why Is Cornerstone Content Important?
There are three crucial reasons why cornerstone content can help our businesses in a big way. So let’s get into why it’s so important now.
1. To Rank Higher
The number one reason businesses use cornerstone content is to help their website rank higher. Ranking higher through internal link usage and keyword usage allows businesses to show up before their competition on search engines.
This is because keywords on search engines are often competitive. When we don’t use keywords properly we end up ranking lower in search results.
This can cause us to lose out on potential customers and ultimately potential sales. That’s a no for me dog.
So one of the fastest and most effective ways to beat competitive keywords and have websites show up first, is by using cornerstone content.
2. Industry Expert
Another reason that this type of content is important is that it helps to position businesses as an authority in their industry. Of course, ranking higher does also help with this, but having a well-written article can demonstrate that we know exactly what we are talking about.
This can help to gain the trust of potential customers and makes them more inclined to want to work with a business that is an authority.
Both the SEO content and the way these high-value articles are written can have a huge impact in your search rankings.
3. Track Results
Businesses who succeed tend to track their results closely and cornerstone content allows us to do this. Not only can we see how our content is performing but also where we are currently ranking in search engines.
With this information, we can make adjustments to start ranking higher in the search results. Without this feedback, it’s easy to feel like we are shooting in the dark and we never really show up how we’d like to, so tracking results is crucial.
Tips for Implementing Cornerstone Content
Just like any other area of marketing, it’s always important to know some useful tips to progress faster. Cornerstone content is no different, and we have covered some of our top tips to get you in tip top below!
1. Use Internal Links
One of the main driving forces behind ranking higher in Google is using internal links. It’s important to get familiar with using links on things like internal blog posts.
Internal links let Google know that we want to rank for certain topics. Once Google notices this, it will then pick up on this pattern as it crawls our URLs. Which sounds creepy but we promise it’s super awesome.
2. SEO Keyword Strategy
Another tip is to use a strong SEO keyword strategy. Unfortunately, many businesses do this wrong and it ends up hurting their SEO ranking.
Avoid those missed opportunities by making sure you use keywords in the appropriate places and learn what keywords are best to use. It’s always a good idea to seek advice from content experts to ensure keywords are ranking properly.
3. Regular Reviews
Review, review, review is the key to tracking progress. It’s always important to look back at how well cornerstone content is working and look for areas of improvement.
If it’s not working well then it may be time to make some changes. While cornerstone content can take some time to work, weekly, biweekly, and monthly reviews are always a good idea.
Why Is Cornerstone Content Important to Your Small Business?
Cornerstone content provides small business owners with the opportunity to create an engaging and informative website that stands out from the competition. It can help you target long-tail keywords and improve your ranking in search engine results, as well as increase credibility through word-of-mouth marketing. This type of content not only serves as a helpful introduction to visitors but also helps provide more detailed information on specific topics, making it easier for your customers to find what they’re looking for and increasing your chances of converting.
Moreover, creating cornerstone content enables you to optimize different sections of your website, which can further increase organic search traffic. By providing comprehensive and up-to-date information, customers can quickly identify which products or services best suit their needs.
Get Started Today
Creating amazing cornerstone content doesn’t have to be a difficult process. There are some very effective strategies to help businesses rank higher on search engines.
At Your WP Guy, we specialize in helping businesses rank higher. We also keep your website fast, secure, and working – all while you’re sleeping.
So if you would like to learn more about how we can help you, then request an appointment now.
What is Cornerstone Content? Summary
• Digital ad spending grew by 12% in 2020 despite the pandemic.
• Cornerstone content is valuable content written on websites to help with rankings and can be used as a main focal point.
• It should be SEO optimized and internally linked multiple times within the website.
• Pillar content is an informative piece of content about a specific topic used to generate smaller pieces of content.
• Content planning is used to ensure unique, relevant content is released at the right times.
• Cornerstone content helps to rank higher, creates authority in an industry, and allows for tracking results.
• To make sure cornerstone content works well, internal links should be used, a strong keyword strategy should be employed and regular reviews should take place.