Cornerstone content consists of the best articles and pages on your site that you want search engines to see. Cornerstone content is the mechanism of making it easy for readers to find information and related content.
Below are some of the top tips from content experts for getting the most out of cornerstone content.
1. Optimize for Readers First
Cathy Mc Philips, VP of Marketing at Content Marketing Institute explains “For us, our cornerstone content answers the basic questions. We’ve optimized them based on keywords, based on how we answer the questions, and based on the questions themselves. The best page on our website is the ‘What is Content Marketing?’ page. By writing for the customers, not for search engines, many of the keywords came out naturally.”
2. Avoid Content Overload
Jenny Mudarri, Wistia explains “The main challenge in cornerstone content is to know when to stop adding more content. The last thing any marketer wants is for anyone to bounce back once they hit your page. My tip is to be intentional about what you want to incorporate into any given cornerstone piece. I would recommend being deliberate about what you want to incorporate cut off the post’s subtopics if they feel too tangential.”
3. Consider Outsourcing
Kaleigh Moore, a SaaS Marketer explains, “Producing content requires lots of keyword research, a ton of writing, and competitive advantage. If you have a small team, this can be a major time-suck and it can pull your in-house team members away. That’s why it’s always wise to outsource the execution of the pieces to freelance writers who are experts on the topics.
This creates time and staff resources to allow you to tap into an expert’s existing knowledge base instead of spending hours researching on your own. This makes scaling up of this content more realistic.”
Jimmy Daly, Marketing Director of Animalz said, “It’s easy to publish an article, but it’s always hard to build it in an optimal way to your site structure. Content creation is one step and you should make sure you leave time, budget, and energy to build internal links and improve your design and navigation as required.”
5. Find High-volume Search Terms Within a Topic Area
Louis Grenier, Content Lead at Hotjar explains “It all starts with identifying what people are actually searching for. Knowing what people search for on Google is like understanding people’s minds.
Once you identify what keywords people search for, those relevant to your business, the number of people that search for those, and how to rank for them, you should get a prioritized list of topics you want to cover. A cornerstone content strategy should take into consideration the topics you need to cover and the core page you need to build.
