What’s the Difference Between a Pillar Page and a Landing Page?

Pillar pages and landing pages have completely different functions, but they can work together to help generate leads and show up organically in search engines.

What is a pillar page?

A pillar page, or content pillar, is part of a larger pillar-page strategy that provides in-depth coverage of a topic. The pillar page strategy is supported by subpages and blogs that provide relevant information on the same topic. It’s hierarchical, with all content rolling up to the main pillar page topic. Search engine crawlers prioritize websites with this kind of topic-organized content. It can help you rank for important inquiries. 

What is pillar page SEO? 

Pillar page SEO means identifying keywords you want to rank for and using these throughout your pillar page strategy. This is what it’s all about. Use those keywords in your headings, subheads and other text. Be sure to assign H1 and H2 tags to these headings. Be consistent—use these words throughout all of your online accounts.

Landing pages focus on a single topic: Lead generation

Unlike pillar pages that provide comprehensive coverage of a single topic, good landing pages can focus on a single objective—lead generation. A landing page is a dedicated page on a website that you land on directly from an external source such as a paid ad or email. It’s highly targeted, persuasive in nature, designed to connect with a predetermined audience. Landing pages can be constructed for SEO purposes to capture organic search traffic. They can also be used with paid advertising through search engines or social media.

Landing pages in a marketing campaign

Landing pages are usually accessed by a link from a paid ad or email. Traffic from paid ads has high commercial intent and is usually ready to complete an action. The page must be ready to fulfill that need. 

A landing page should be providing:

• A unique proposition. Define what makes your product so appealing and enticing. Why should the user take action? Use the proposition in the headline to gain attention and encourage the user to read the supporting copy. Follow best practices for writing headlines and subheads. Short, crisp, attention-getting headers. Easy to read fonts. Use an image that’s descriptive, one that helps define your further your proposition. 

Just one thing. Make sure you’re promoting one thing. I see this a lot. It quickly becomes confusing and dilutes your messaging. Make sure you’re promoting one product or one service.

• Call to Action (CTA). The most important part of the page. Make your CTA button obvious and stand out. Include a CTA above the fold and repeat at the bottom of the page. 
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• Benefits of the offer. Don’t sell features, sell benefits. How will this make the user feel? How will it make their lives or jobs easier, save them money, etc. There must be a visceral appeal.
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• Social proof. Word of mouth and social approval offer trust. People are risk-averse and reviews are now a fact of life. None of us makes a purchase these days without reading the reviews. We’re reassured by others’ positive experiences.

Can a home page be a landing page? 

Theoretically, your homepage is a landing page. But it has too many functions to be focused on landing page conversion. The home page usually exists as the portal, enabling a user to navigate to other pages. Despite the trend toward minimizing navigation, I don’t get it. Why make it difficult for users to find what they’re looking for? 

Unlike your homepage, a landing page is designed to convert visitors into leads. Landing pages are the gatekeepers to your most valuable content offers. Landing pages map to the sales funnel. 

• Awareness
• Discovery
• Evaluation
• Intent
• Action
• Loyalty

Aside from delivering on the promise and intent of the query, the organic landing page must also make the brand and offer clear. 

Ask us about how a pillar-page strategy and landing pages work together to help improve your ranking in search engines. Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.  

Is Local SEO Free?

The answer: Local SEO can be free if you stick to Google applications

There are hundreds of SEO applications that promise they’ll help you get better rankings, more customers and more revenue. Some of these apps are free; many offer a free trial with a fairly hefty financial commitment when that trial ends. Do your research, but if you stick with Google’s suite of SEO applications, SEO can be free.  

Local SEO strategy

It’s up to you to do some research and decide which application(s) best meets your needs. Most of us don’t have the bandwidth or budget to manage our clients, our lives and also be ramping up to multiple applications—there’s always a learning curve. Choose one or two apps that will deliver the most functionality. Read reviews and check with friends and colleagues who may be using these apps. 

To start with: You may want to invest in a website checker—an app that will scan your site and identify issues that are impeding good SEO—missing H tags on headings, broken links, missing alt descriptions on your images and even unique metadescriptions for each page. These are the things that your web guy isn’t going to do. Small things, yes, but collectively these add up. 

Best local SEO tools

While Google makes us all crazy, it does offer powerful free tools. This is not out of a spirit of generosity; rather, we need these tools if we’re going to be doing Google ads—that uber-lucrative business from which Google rakes in an estimated $100K/day. 

You’ll find that the big enterprise SEO apps get expensive--Moz, HubSpot, SemRush, Ahrefs, etc. These applications are excellent, with great customer support. 

Can I do SEO for free?

Yes. You can go a long ways toward managing SEO, including online ads, with Google’s free suite of tools. The following list includes descriptions of Google’s tools. 

Local SEO for small businesses

·      Google PageSpeed Insights. This tool lets you can track page speed on both mobile and desktop devices. Page speed is fundamental. If your site takes too long to load, you’ll lose your audience and everything else is irrelevant.

·      Google Analytics monitors activity and data. This is all the data you need about your site--tracking traffic, drilldown and conversions. 

·      Google Keyword Planner. Conduct keyword research that’s fundamental to your content marketing strategy. Google’s keyword planner may be the best, consistent SEO keyword tool for both beginners and experts. Other apps provide this service, but they come with a pricetag. Frankly, Google owns the search space. It makes sense to be using its keyword tools.

·      Google Business Profile. A recent article suggested that one of the very best things you can do for SEO is to get reviews on your GBP. Reach out to current and former clients and colleagues and ask them to give you a review—make it easy and send them a link. Anyone can access your GBP from Google’s apps—Google Maps, etc. Keep this page updated with new business information; upload blogs and images. You really want to be taking advantage of Google’s free tools.

·      Google Search Console. This Google tool gives users a snapshot of their site's performance, including organic search traffic, link data, and issues impacting the site’s performance. While any marketer can benefit from using it, this tool is really for those who are SEOs—those who are dedicated to improving search results. Which, really, should be all of us. Why have a website if you don’t want people to find it?

·      Google Trends. Another free Google tool. How to use this one? Use Trend Predictions. This can be a simple way to help with your keyword research. Google has added forecasting and trend data for existing keywords to the Google Trends tool. If your keyword is expected to k in the next few months to a year, go for it and target that keyword. A good example: Let’s say you’re writing a blog post on “baking croissants.” If you’re using the pillar/cluster model for content (which we are), you can use the related queries section in Google Trends to generate ideas for cluster topics. I’ve just started to use this app. 

“Can I do SEO for free?” When this question comes up, the answer is “yes”. Google owns the search space. Using its search tools makes a lot of sense—that they’re all free is a very nice feature. Contact Top of Mind Marketing to evaluate and build your SEO strategy.  

Goodbye Keywords; Hello Pillar Pages

Search has changed, which means it’s time to rethink the way we create content.

Google has gotten a lot smarter about making associations

Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving to provide the best possible answers to searchers’ queries. If you search for “running shoes,” Google will now also serve up results for related words, such as “sneakers.” Google is now interpreting conversational queries as entire thoughts rather than individual keywords. An estimated 64% of searches are four words or more.

Organize websites according to main topics

As a result of Google’s evolution and our subsequent behavior, websites need to be organized according to main topics. In the current model, we create individual blog posts that rank according to specific keywords. The result is disorganized, difficult for users to find the exact information they need. It also results in our own URLs competing against one another in search-engine rankings because we produce multiple blog posts on similar topics.

A better solution: Creating pillar pages with links to more specific topic clusters

The first step in creating a pillar page is to stop thinking about your site in terms of just keywords. Start thinking about the topics you want to rank for first. Choose a topic that’s broad enough that it can generate more related blog posts that will serve as cluster content, but not so broad that you can’t cover the entire topic on a single pillar page.

• Let’s say you write a pillar page about content marketing. It’s a very broad topic, so your cluster topics might be about blogging or social media.
• Fundamental to the pillar-page concept is a comprehensive linking strategy among the pillar page and its cluster topics.
• A pillar page should answer questions about a particular topic but leave room for more detail in subsequent, related cluster topics.

Pillar pages and SEO: More inbound links = higher placement in search

Pillar pages help position your content so users can easily browse your website and consume your blog posts, videos and infographics. There’s a lot of clutter online, and it can confuse Google’s algorithms. Google loves a clean website experience with a thoughtful linking strategy that tells it exactly what each piece of content is about. Inbound marketing and sales expert HubSpot experienced an increase in their rankings when they used more internal links.

Use personas to help identify the interests and challenges of your audience

If you haven’t created personas, this is a great time to do it. Your personas will help identify the top interests and challenges of your audience, providing topics for pillar-page content.

I’m doing some reorganization of my own website to more closely follow the pillar-page concept, and I’m finding it helpful to create an organizational chart that maps out broad topics that are my pillar pages and the cluster topics that support them.

Your pillar page will gain Google authority through the quality inbound links from your subtopic content.

Need help rethinking your website content? Give me a call—let’s strategize about how we can make your content work for you.

Blogging: Still Part of a Smart Marketing Strategy

Marketing experts these days recommend incorporating video into your marketing program for a very good reason. Millennials, the new go-to demographic, love this communication channel. Videos are also an excellent way to increase your Google authority, helping you show up in search engines. Pay-per-Click (PPC) is another hot marketing trend. Google is making a stunning $100M/day from Google Adwords—which means that millions of people around the globe are using PPC to help grow their businesses.

The question inevitably surfaces: Is blogging still necessary?

With the hype around sexier marketing trends like video and PPC, you may be wondering if you still need to be blogging. The answer is a resounding “yes”. Blogging is and will remain an essential strategy for reaching your audience. A few stats from Hubspot:

• You have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines if you feature a blog.
• Businesses using blogs as part of their content-marketing mixget 67% more leads than those who don’t.

More reasons to keep writing and posting high-quality blogs to your website

1. Blogging is still the most critical content marketing tactic for 2018. In a recent content marketing survey, 52% of respondents agreed that blogging is their most critical content-marketing tactic, followed by email newsletters (40%), social-media content (40%), then ebooks, in-person events, and webinars. Only 30% of respondents considered video to be vital.
2. Blogging—not video–is the place to provide in-depth information. Long-form content (2,000 words or more) performs systematically well. Forget the trend towards minimalism. To rank well in search engines, a page should be at least 300 words. My rule of thumb: Provide enough information to answer your clients’ questions; frontload information so that the reader is getting the most important information in the first paragraph.
3. People trust blogs. Think of your blog as your very own platform. This is where you can create your online personality. It’s here where you can differentiate yourself.
4. Blogging drives web traffic. I love this one: The SEO industry couldn’t survive without words. Your blog is where your words go. One more thing: Your website’s landing pages should also be at least 300 words. More is great, but 300 words is the target.
5. Blogging spurs inbound links. Companies whoblog receive 97% more links to their website than those who don’t.
6. Effectiveness. An estimated55% of bloggers report that they get positive results from blogging.
7. Blogs have evolved. Today’s readers expect transparent storytelling and great, accessible content. Avoid promotion; provide information that helps people do their jobs. Keep it lively, and don’t be afraid to share your opinions.
8. Your blog works in tandem with social media. Without a blog to promote on social, you’re missing an opportunity to drive high-quality engagement.

Having trouble committing to a blog?

Create an editorial calendar and line up topics a few months in advance. Calendar time each week to write. Don’t be afraid to steal ideas.

Need help with content marketing program? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and internet marketing specialists.

5 Things You Need to Know for Better SEO

1. Optimize metadata

Metadata helps organize and describe information on your site that search engines index your site. Search engine companies send programs called “spiders” out to gather information about your site and determine how to display it in the search results page (SERP). Metadata tells your users and the search engines what your site is about. If your metadata is consistent with the intended theme of your site, it increases your chances of ranking well in the search results and increases the odds of attracting qualified traffic.

There are three kinds of metadata: (1) Meta titles are the titles and subtitles on your landing pages and blogs. They should be identified with H tags—H1, H2, etc. (2) Metadescriptions are the 160 character descriptions that you identify on the backend that encapsulate the message of each landing page. A good way to think about a metadescription is that it’s like a little classified ad. It shows up on your SERP, and it helps promote each webpage. (3) Meta keywords aren’t visible to visitors, but they tell search engine spiders those keywords for which your site is optimized.

2. Page speed

No surprise here. Everybody’s in a hurry these days, and more than 60% of users are accessing everything from their phones, which can be challenging. As a result, web design has adapted and gotten simpler and more streamlined. Simpler code, design and navigation. If your site is taking too long to load, you’re going to lose your audience before they even get a chance to land on your homepage. Google has an easy page speed measurement tool that give you a quick analysis and recommendations for increasing your speed.

3. Duplicate content

Duplicate content is content that appears on the web in multiple locations. It could be content that you’ve repurposed on several pages on your own site—an easy thing to do, after all—the page that’s about the company and the one about you as a business owner could be duplicative in some places. But Google hates this—take the time to modify it.

Duplicate content confuses the search engines

If you’ve stolen content from someone else, that’s another example of duplicate content that Google dislikes. Search engines have to choose one or the other page to return for a query, so they are forced to evaluate which version or form is more credible/meaningful to that user who’s searching. A question comes up about content curation—what if you’re curating, or borrowing great content from another source, giving credit to the author, of course. I’ve begun curating content when I find something that I really like. But I never just copy and paste it into my blog and identify the author. I personalize this with an intro and a conclusion. Explain why this is a great article—the reasons for its insights and relevance.

4. Relevant content

Search engines have become more sophisticated. You can’t fool them anymore by keyword stuffing or filling up a page with nonsense just to create mass. (To rank well in search engines, we recommend landing pages and blogs be 300 words or more.) Google is increasingly intuitive; it seeks out high-quality landing pages, blog articles, videos, infographics, guest articles, forums, etc. Good content has become nonnegotiable.

5. Internal links

Create an internal linking strategy. When you post a blog or new landing page, spend another 10-15 minutes and create internal links—link key words or phrases to related blogs or landing pages. Use one relevant internal link for every 400 words. Internal links help encourage drilldown–people will click on the links and stay longer on your site.

6. Social sharing

If you’re not distributing your blogs and other relevant content across your social media network, you’re missing important opportunities to build your online presence. It just takes a few minutes to log in to your social sites and post a headline or brief description with a link back to your site to drive traffic. Do include an image—the chances of someone’s engaging with your post increases dramatically with a relevant image.

Are you thinking about optimizing your website to increase its SEO value? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re internet marketing experts.

Alt Text: Optimizing Images for Enhanced SEO

You may or may not be using alt tags when you post your images on your website, blog and social media posts. If not, you’re missing opportunities to increase your SEO value and provide valuable information to the reader who may not be able to see the image.

What do alt tags do?

Alt tags help describe the appearance and function of each image that you upload. As you upload an image from your iPhones, stockphoto or other source, you’ll be presented with fields where you can provide a description, caption and alt tag. In general, if there’s a field, fill it out—it’s an opportunity to use your keywords and reiterate the name of your business.

Start by labeling your images

Rather than the default numbers that are automatically attributed to your images, start relabeling them with brief descriptions. My favorite naming convention is to label the image with the name of your company, underscore, brief image description, such as FordMotorCo_2017redSUV.

Why is alt text important?

1. Never forget that your audience will be reading your blog, post or website on a wide range of devices and sometimes images don’t load. In those cases, alt tags will be displayed to show readers what they would have been viewing. Those who are visually impaired, by using screen readers, will be able to read an alt attribute to better understand the intent of an on-page image.
2. Image SEO. Alt tags provide better image context/descriptions to search engine crawlers, helping them to index an image properly.

How to write good alt text

• Describe the image as specifically as possible.Alt text should provide text explanations of images for those users who are unable to see them.
• Keep it (relatively) short.The most popular screen readers cut off alt text at around 125 characters, so it’s advisable to keep it to that character count or fewer.
• Use your keywords Alt text provides another opportunity to include your target keyword on a page, and another opportunity to signal search engines that your page is highly relevant to a particular search query.
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Google won’t dock you points for poorly written alt text, but you’ll be in trouble if you use your alt text as an opportunity to stuff as many relevant keywords as you can think of into it. Aim for description and context. Be smart. Remember that just as good content has become nonnegotiable, so are good alt tags.
• Don’t include “image of,” “picture of,” etc. in your alt text. It’s already assumed your alt text is referring to an image, so there’s no need to specify it.
• Don’t neglect form buttons. If a form on your website uses an image as its “submit” button, give it an alt tag. Nothing surprising here—the button is a graphic and deserves an image label and alt tag in the same way that all of your other images do.

Do you have questions about the importance of images and alt tags in your content marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and internet marketing experts.