Cornerstone content is a concept that has become fashionable, thanks in particular to the formidable WordPress plugin Yoast SEO. Cornerstone content is a very important issue in an effective content strategy: it is, therefore, an excellent way to attract Internet users, retain visitors, and possibly make conversions.
Definition of cornerstone content
Cornerstone content, literally the cornerstone of content, is an article or page that is very important to your site. It is located in a strategic position in your tree structure, in your semantic cocoon, for example. It attracts a large number of visitors or simply because this content is essential to presenting your website, your activity, or your universe.
This premium content requires great rigor in its implementation. It is impossible to make mistakes on these pages because they serve as landing pages for many Internet users. Well written pleasant to read by Internet users, it must also respect the rules of search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. The positioning on the SERP of the cornerstone content must be the best possible. Cornerstone content must be seen as the pillars that support the entire site.
Yoast SEO, a WordPress plugin, has a new feature. You will be able to check the “ This post is an important post ” button and get new possible improvements.
What is your Cornerstone Content?
It may seem difficult to identify your cornerstone content before knowing about its existence. Ask yourself the right questions!
- Which page, article attracts the most traffic? Use Google Analytics.
- Which page, article converts the most? Use Google Analytics.
- Which page, article gets the most backlinks? Use Majestic SEO.
- Which page, article shows my expertise?
- Which page, article should be seen by all visitors to my site?
It will then be easier to determine the cornerstones of your content or which ones should be. The number of strategic pages or articles depends, in particular, on your activity, objective, and website size. On a fairly restricted e-commerce site, the category pages can be the cornerstone content. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) content optimization will then be done on the category title.
What role does premium content, the cornerstone, play in SEO?
Cornerstone Content is particularly important for your website's natural referencing or SEO. It constitutes a major On-Site optimization. It is not easy to position many pages of your website on many different requests, in particular on generic and popular keywords. Determining a few pages or articles that Google should highlight allows you to focus on specific content and reach the best positions more easily.
Internet users who arrive at premium content tend to stay on your website. Premium content seems of better quality and provides answers or information. Your bounce rate will decrease, and your SEO will be even better!
How to create cornerstone content?
A Cornerstone content approach involves highlighting a portion of the content to improve the site's SEO and visibility.
1. Work on semantic SEO, keywords
This strategic content needs to be refined. Real thought is needed to understand which keywords are the best to position yourself on. Do these keywords correspond to a high volume of requests ( opportunity ), low competition ( feasibility ), and a match with my site and my activity ( relevance )?
2. Find your best articles
The best articles are often the ones you like to highlight on social networks. They are detailed, long and relevant and highlight your expertise. As many Internet users as possible should be interested and able to understand your article: don't be too technical and explain more complex terms or concepts.
3. Create a strong internal mesh
For Google to understand that you want to highlight a particular content, you must help it. To do this, it is possible to create internal links that point to this reference page or article. In addition, if you can obtain strong backlinks, it is interesting to point them directly to these pages.
In addition to your premium content, cornerstone content, you can also optimize the rest of the articles on long tail queries, complementary to the main query. At 1st Position, the team responsible for content creation, management and SEO optimization and the team dedicated to SEO work together to best respond to each website. A good way to optimize cornerstone content and gain visibility.