Content marketing is very popular now. In fact, this concept became such a buzz phrase that many bloggers might say that what they do is content marketing. Not all of them, however, realize the scale of content marketing. While many bloggers might write posts for $20, content marketing companies are dealing with contracts worth thousands of dollars. The reason is that, while blog posts are a part of content marketing, there is much more that goes into it.
Understanding the difference between simple blogging and content marketing can help bloggers increase their income and improve their SEO results. No matter what objectives you have, you will certainly benefit from using an effective content strategy. In this article, we will talk about big content, and consider pillar pages and skyscraper content — two types of big content that can help you rank higher.
Key Take-Away:
Skyscraper Content allows you to outrank other blog pieces by creating a more extensive, better researched, & more value-packed article. Just like a skyscraper in a city, your goal of Skyscraper Blog Content is to be the biggest & best article for your topic. Pillar Pages on the other hand are supportive blog articles that backlink to the main topic at hand. Pillar Pages are blog articles that are dedicated to a specific topic of the broader subject at hand. Just like how it takes many pillars to support a roof, it takes many pillar pages to support a top-ranking blog piece.
Just below we breakdown exactly how to incorporate Skyscraper Content & Pillar Pages into your blogging strategy.
Big Content: What is it?
Big content is quite a popular term that refers not to a specific type of content but rather any content that takes a lot of time and resources. If you want to improve your rankings, you need backlinks. But encouraging website owners, publishers, and other bloggers to link to your website content can be a tricky task. A simple 500-word article that provides key information about a certain topic won’t be the right choice. You need comprehensive content that will enable others to add value to their own content. That’s where big content comes into play.
Well-planned and engaging content can help you add value to the host’s website. It can include in-depth research, interactive elements, detailed step-by-step guides, etc. Content marketing can only be effective if you approach it strategically, providing as much value as possible. Guest blogging has changed dramatically during the past few years. After Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., and other sources started to add no-follow attributes to links, it became much more difficult for marketers to use guest blogging effectively. Google doesn’t tolerate paid links so publishers don’t want to be associated with link selling in any way.
Quite often, publishers are not willing to add links to any external content, but they will do it if these links provide real value. Here’s where big content comes in handy. Here are two effective tactics that will help you create big content that is unique, difficult to replicate, valuable, and therefore — effective.
Skyscraper Blogging
The skyscraper tactic was popularized by Brian Dean who noted that, when people walk by a very tall building, they don’t think of how tall the 8th tallest building in the world is. They are only interested in the best. The same applies to websites and links, as well. The skyscraper tactic is based on googling a certain keyword or topic, analyzing content that ranks high, and then creating something better, more informative, and impressive. After this, you can contact people who have already linked to the inferior content and ask them to link to yours instead.
The main idea of the skyscraper approach is quite obvious. If you want others to link to your content, make sure that your content is better than any other. Having original, comprehensive content is great for SEO. There is no better practice than actually providing high-quality content if you want to rank higher in search engines. An important thing about this technique is that you should pay close attention to the length. For instance, if you’ve found an article with 15 tips, you outrank it by listing 17 tips. You should also make sure that your content is more relevant and detailed.
Pillar Pages
Pillar Pages became another popular approach in 2017 after the HubSpot Content Strategy for better SEO results. The main idea of pillar content is so that you can rank for specific topics. This approach enables you to educate your audience. First, you should publish a comprehensive encyclopedia-like article with lots of general information on the topic. After this, you should make new blog posts dedicated to specific aspects of the broader topic. In these posts, you may answer certain questions, provide interviews, etc.
“Pillar content enables businesses to make sure that their target audience will be educated on the key aspects of their niche,” said Adam Simon, LegitWritingServices’ content writer, and editor. “The success of pillar content is due to its value — educational content with detailed information that enables readers to learn everything they want to know about the topic will eventually rank higher in search engines.” The supplementary pages provide some specific details and link back to the main pillar page, which is a great internal linking approach. This way, you can increase your organic traffic, get more internal links, and clean up your blog, at the same time.
To use pillar page content successfully, you should rank for specific searches related to the general topic. According to statistics, 64% of search queries include more than four keywords. Voice assistants like Alexa & Siri make it easier for us to search longer sentences. So you should be ready to match the audience’s searches with your content. You should have enough pillar pages to answer all the search queries about the topic at hand. The more Pillar Pages you have the more support you have for your main piece of big content.
Given that modern internet users create lengthy search queries, ranking for keywords isn’t an effective approach anymore. Instead, you can rank for topics, and pillar content enables you to do it. When pages and articles link back to each other, people can navigate your content easily, quickly finding answers to their questions. As a result, pillar content not only boosts SEO but also improves the overall user experience and helps build trust.
Wrapping Up
If you’ve never used the tactics described in this article, now it’s time to start. Content marketers no longer can rely on simple approaches. Google cares about the quality of content, and if you want your website to rank higher, you should be able to provide value. We hope that our tips will help you come up with an effective content strategy that will bring the best results possible.
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