Pillar pages

What a pillar page is

A pillar page is one long page that covers a whole subject your business wants to be known for, organised by the questions people ask about that subject, and linked to and from the narrower pages that answer each question in full. It is the page you would want a searcher to land on when they type the subject itself rather than one detail of it.

It is not an "ultimate guide" that says a little about everything and settles nothing. And it is not a supporting article, which answers one narrow question completely. The pillar gives the shape of the subject and the plain answer to each part; the supporting pages carry the depth. A pillar without them is a long page; a pillar with them is a topic cluster.

When you need one

You need a pillar page when there is one subject that most of your revenue comes from, buyers search for that subject by its general name as well as its details, and your site currently answers it in scattered pieces or not at all. A roofer whose income is mostly re-roofing needs a re-roofing pillar. A bookkeeper who mostly serves restaurants needs a restaurant bookkeeping pillar.

You do not need one if your buyers only ever search for the specific thing, such as a product code or a service plus a town. Those searches want a landing page or a local SEO page, and a pillar would sit between the searcher and the answer. You also do not need one before you know which subject to choose; that is what keyword and topic research settles.

What goes in it

The page is structured by the questions buyers ask about the subject, in the order they ask them, each as a heading a reader can scan. Under every heading sits the plain answer in the first two sentences, then enough detail to act on, then a link to the supporting page if the full answer needs one. That structure is the point: a person who scans only the headings should get the whole argument, and a person who reads one section should get a usable answer without reading the rest.

Beyond that structure, the page carries what a searcher expects to find on the definitive page and rarely does.

• A definition in your own words in the first paragraph, so a reader who typed the bare subject knows they are in the right place.
• Costs, with ranges and what moves them, because "what does it cost" is the question most pages on any subject avoid.
• How to choose, stated as a decision, with the cases where the answer is "not this, that".
• What goes wrong, from your own experience of the trade, because it is the section a competitor cannot copy.
• Dated facts and sources for anything that changes, so the page can be checked and refreshed.

It does not carry the same paragraph rewritten with a different keyword in it, a glossary the reader did not ask for, or a "conclusion" that repeats the introduction.

What you get

The page. Usually 2,500 to 4,000 words as an editable document, with headings, the internal links marked, and the title tag and meta description written. Delivered ready to paste into your site, or entered for you as CMS content entry if you would rather.

The cluster map. One page listing the supporting pages the pillar links to: which already exist and need a link back, which need a refresh, and which do not yet exist. Each missing one has a one-line brief.

The source list. Every figure and dated fact on the page, with where it came from, so whoever refreshes it in a year can check it in ten minutes.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A heat pump installer serving the Okanagan has 14 pages. The research finds that buyers search for "heat pump" with a town name, but before that they search the subject itself: whether a heat pump works at minus twenty, what it costs installed, what rebates exist, and whether to keep the furnace. Eight blog posts touch on those questions, none answers one fully, and two contradict each other on cost.

The pillar is a 3,200-word page, "Heat pumps in the Okanagan", with eleven headings taken from those searches. Each section answers in two sentences and then explains: cold-weather performance in plain terms with the model classes named, an installed-cost range with the four things that move it, the current rebate programmes with the date they were checked, and the honest cases where a furnace should stay. The cluster map lists six supporting pages: two exist and get refreshed, four are written over the next two months. The eight old posts are merged into those or removed. The installer now has one page to send every inquiry to.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What the subject is, why it matters to the business, and what you already have on it. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope and number agreed before anything starts, including whether research is needed first.
3. The interview. Sixty to ninety minutes with whoever knows the subject best in your business, recorded. This is where the sections a competitor cannot copy come from.
4. The draft. Ten to fifteen working days after the interview. You read it for accuracy first, style second.
5. Revisions and delivery. One round of changes, then the final page, the cluster map and the source list, with the internal links marked.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on the length the subject needs, how much of it must be researched from sources rather than taken from your interview, and whether the supporting pages are included or written later. The pricing page shows how fixed pricing works here and the published bands for the services that have them.

What happens next

The pillar earns its keep when the pages around it exist and link to it. Most people commission the missing supporting articles next, one at a time or as a topic cluster. The internal linking pass then points the rest of the site at the pillar, and a refresh every twelve months keeps the dated facts current.