Feel like you’re running on empty for fresh ideas for your blog posts? Don’t panic when you can set aside a little extra time to research and write a quality pillar post. The effort can be worth it when you begin attracting new readers and prospects as well as bringing you lasting search engine traffic.

Quite simply, a pillar post is an especially detailed and in-depth article addressing a concrete question, point of concern, or other matter on your prospective clients' minds so that they will stop in their browsing tracks and observe, "Bingo. That’s what I’ve been looking for." A pillar post demonstrating distinct knowledge of and authority within your field can be publicly referenced and shared, and revisited in your subsequent posts. Here are a few basic guidelines for putting together and promoting your own pillar post:

Research is Not Just for Keywords — For the purposes of cultivating traffic, you will certainly want to center your pillar post topic around one or two high traffic, low competition keywords. Next comes deciding on and researching a single, relevant topic. Look at Google trends, as well as those on popular social media related to your field. Rather than offer a quick fix for a passing setback, address an essentially timeless issue that will always have new, interested readers. My Los Angeles website design blog might offer Ten Guidelines for Choosing the Right Web Designer.

How Do I Structure a Pillar Post? How-To's, glossary definition pages, original arguments or theories, and abstract concepts conveyed through practical examples are all good starts. However, in any case, write your pillar post with the realistic attention span of most web users in mind; that is, don’t overwhelm them with War and Peace-sized blocks of text. No matter how informative and helpful your post is, a lot of readers will just bounce. Instead, use numbered lists and bullet points to break it up, and certainly add images and instructional videos. Have a cooking blog? Show (and tell) us How to Make the Perfect Holiday Turkey (it works for multiple occasions, and there will always be new people seeking to learn).

Internal Linking, Anyone? Since your pillar post offers information and advice that is rooted in the core concepts, products, and services behind your business, you should certainly be referring back to it in future blog posts. Linking keywords back to your pillar post will not only draw newer readers back to it, it will strengthen your website's overall internal linking.

Promote, Promote, and Promote Again — There’s hardly any sense in devoting time and research to writing a lengthy, informative pillar post if no one knows it’s there, so Tweet, Facebook post, and blog comment to your heart's content. You can even mention it in a subsidiary guest blogging post. Once again, the content of this post is something you can link to often so it continues to build traffic over time and show that yours is a brand of credibility and longevity.

Thanks for reading. Jason.
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