Picture this…
Your friend refers you to a new web site about an issue that interests you.Let's say that this website is ready building a new blog (in all probability a thing that you have been searching to do for some time now).So you used the link your friend shared and landed on the blog component to the new site and read some stuff.You even became interested in learning some more. But you could not have the ability.There was no roadmap to steer you. The site's menu had the simple alternatives and not anything greater than that.If this website only had a committed page that lead you to its most essential sections, would you not have liked it some more?
Maybe an identical page even had a subscription form that you may have used to join all the updates from that web site.Well, this dedicated page is known as the CORNERSTONE CONTENT page, and all the content on it is the blog's cornerstone content.Websites that have a committed cornerstone content page make certain that their new visitors don't feel lost and have access to the most crucial content on the site via a single piece of content material, purchasable easily from their homepage.Cornerstone content is a compilation of your blog's most unmissable content material.
Your blog's unmissable content may well be a few of its most read, shared, and appropriate posts. Such posts are cornerstone content pieces — ones that you simply link to from your cornerstone content page.A cornerstone content material page is a simple page on your web site that lists all your cornerstone content material pieces.In Brian Clark's words: "A cornerstone is … basic, a must have, necessary, and the executive basis upon which a thing is constructed or built. It's what people wish to know to make use of your site and do commercial with you."
What does it mean in your site?
Well, your cornerstone content material is like your web site's thesaurus page.A lot of new guests on your website will only be able to make sense of your site when they're noted this word list page or at the least when it's accessible to them.
Your average readers (or people who're already doing business with you) would possibly not need it quite a bit because they know what your website is about and so they know their way around it. But new visitors may need some sort of a compass on your web site to show them the best way. This compass is your cornerstone content.
In his case study on Brian Clark, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers shares that Copyblogger Media began with two pieces of cornerstone content called "Copywriting 101" and "Blog Triggers. "
So it's clear:
Cornerstone content links to the most important and appropriate pieces of content on your web site and directs your readers to them.You can use a wide variety of content types as cornerstone content pieces:
- An ebook or a complete library
- A simple PDF
- A series of podcasts
- A set of videos
- … Or simply a compilation of you best and most strategic content material pieces
Anything goes…
For example, Neil Patel offers some invaluable guides on his private blog. They are about online affiliate marketing, SEO, and content material advertising and marketing among many other things.If you look at the themes of the guides, you will see that they map directly to his commercial.That's a key feature of a cornerstone content material piece, i. e., it's highly correct.
Here's an alternate one from John Morrow from Boost Blog Traffic.His cornerstone content piece is a headline swipe file called Headline hacks. (BTW, it's a good book, get it!)
Since Boost Blog Traffic is all about getting more people to your blog, a crucial content material piece about writing clickworthy headlines makes ideal sense for qualifying to be linked or featured as a cornerstone content material piece.
Now that you could find them using the location search function and compile a list of 8-10 great posts and put in combination a page (your cornerstone content page) listing all of them.To use the site search functionality, type in your web site's URL in Google, and add a ":" followed by your seed key phrase.Syntax: yourwebsite. com: seed keyword
For instance, if I were to create a cornerstone content page for MakeAWebsiteHub, I'd just go to Google and sort in — makeawebsitehub. com: WordPress
As which you can see, Google fetched all of the results it thinks are proper for the keyword "WordPress" on MakeAWebsiteHub.Such as these guides to:
- Speeding Up WordPress
- WordPress Security
- WordPress Hosting
So I'd just compile a list of these kind of post titles, add little descriptions, and link to them. And my cornerstone content material page would be ready.Since a new site has very little content, you are not anticipated to have all of the posts ready to link to from your cornerstone content page.
However, list all of the expertise topics that you'll be able to be protecting, and as you write them, carry on updating your cornerstone content material page with links to them. By directory all of the advantage topics on your cornerstone content page, you'll make certain that you just in reality cover them.Here's a procedure that you could follow to create a cornerstone content material page for a new website.First make a list of key phrases that you simply want to target.You'll need keywords to place in all the appropriate places on your cornerstone content material page. You can find some marvelous advice about key phrase research here and here..For example, if you want to begin a blog about online marketing, be sure to begin by brainstorming some initial keywords.For this preliminary brainstorming, I'll put forward going straight to Ubersuggest. It's a tool that uses Google's auto-complete assistance to come up with many advantage keywords.Just enter your seed keyword (online affiliate marketing in this instance) and click on imply.
Ubersuggest will then imply a few longtail key phrases.In my instance, I found a few particularly constructive:
- best (free) affiliate marketing tools
- internet marketing to (appeal to the) millennials
- online marketing (pointers to get) site visitors
- online marketing tips for small businesses
- online affiliate marketing terminology
- online affiliate marketing templates
If you noticed, I used the knowledge key phrases and came up with a few tentative post titles.When you do this endeavor for your website, you'll want to in reality create these types of posts as a result of your viewers searches for them. Once you've these kind of posts ready, you'll link back to them out of your cornerstone content page.You should aim for approximately 8-10 such key phrases.
You could also use a tool comparable to SEMRush to find more key phrase ideas. You can read how to try this during this guide to SEMRush.Now you will possibly not have covered any of those topics yet, still go ahead and add them to your cornerstone content page since you'll are looking to cover them finally.
For key phrases that are not coated yet, that you can simply add some boilerplate text like "This post is in the making. Subscribe to my blog to be the 1st one to understand". Something along these lines. If feasible, give a sneak peek into what you may cover on that topic.In both the cases (established or new websites), whenever you write a bit that turns into popular along with your blog readers, update your cornerstone content material page with it.
Since all the posts that make it to your cornerstone content material piece are closely related, find ways to link them to one another.Step #1. Create a new page on your website and make contact with it "Cornerstone content material page" for now.Step #2. Link to this page out of your main menu (that you can call it a specific thing like "Start here")
Step #3.Write content for your cornerstone content page(I've mentioned ways to arise with this content in the above segment. )
In his cornerstone content blueprint, Demian Farnworth from Rainmaker Digital says:
Consider writing:
A 150-to-200-word introduction
A short description for each link you share on the page (about 200 words total for this phase)
A 100-word end
Call-to-action copy
As you notice, a substantial cornerstone content page can be over 1000 words.
Jason Acidre uses this tactic continually to create useful resource lists so people can easily find his best articles on topics reminiscent of SEO.Step #4. Add a CTA
Now that you have some decent cornerstone content material, it is time to think of what you would like the people that read your cornerstone content material to do.
Do you wish them to:
- Subscribe to your blog
- Signup on your online course
- Download a freebie
Once you've decided what you wish your readers to do, add your CTA to your cornerstone content page.Remember:
Your goal is to create a positive page in place of a "cute" or "fancy" page.Step #5. Publish
:) Congrats.Your super-valuable cornerstone content material page is now live!
Accessibility
Once you've created a good cornerstone content page, you are looking to link to it out of your homepage.
Yoast recommends: Cornerstone articles should appear very high in your site's pyramid. Ideally, one can be in a position to immediately click from your homepage to your cornerstone content material page. "
An instance of a constructive cornerstone content page
Like I said in the beginning, a good cornerstone content material page acts as a compass to a new guest. It links the guest to the main crucial sections of a website.
If you would like some concept, be sure you have a look at WPMayor's cornerstone content material page.After a small creation, it introduces a few of the most important sections (and posts) on the website that their viewers might be drawn to.
It sure doesn't tick all of the boxes of the ideal cornerstone content material page we just mentioned, but it's a very arranged one.
Using cornerstone content page to get oneway links, leads, and social shares
Your cornerstone content material page's job is to aid new visitors find their way on your site.But it can also get you more traction on your website by:
- Getting back links: Because a cornerstone content material page is so rich in suitable content, it draws a lot of one-way links.
By linking back to your cornerstone content page while doing outreach activities like guest posting, which you could boost your site's SEO. With a lot of satisfactory backlinks, your cornerstone content material page's authority will soar, and its ratings will recuperate in the search engine consequences.By preserving social sharing icons handy on a cornerstone content page, that you could boost your social alerts.
Social alerts are actually known to be a part of Google's ranking algorithm. So make it easy on your visitors to share your cornerstone content page.By adding a subscription form to your cornerstone content page, that you would be able to start collecting highly focused leads.There's no formulation to validate a cornerstone content material piece a bit like there's no template for a cornerstone content page.How you have chose topics to include in your cornerstone content and how you design your cornerstone content material page is is truly up to you.However, aim to be HELPFUL.Now that you know the ingredients that make useful cornerstone content pieces and a page, create one in your site today.