When you have the heart of an entrepreneur, there are few things more satisfying than starting and running your business. According to the FOX Business Network, almost half of all Americans harbor entrepreneurial dreams. Even with all the uncertainties that come with business ownership, people are still attracted to the startup world.

One of the biggest questions is how do you get your products and services known in your local area without spending thousands of dollars on radio, TV or direct mail marketing? You leverage the Internet, of course. This may sound like a challenge, but even the smallest businesses can rank high within search engines, if you follow this guideline and take advantage of Pillar Content. The first step in understanding pillar content and how to use it to rank on search engines is to know the basics, which we have compiled in a post for you here.

Search Engine Ranking through Pillar Content

An important part of local business marketing is the creation of Pillar Content content. Pillar Content is the foundation content for everything else you do on your website. Every blog you write should revolve around and link back to your pillar content. So, how do you decide what your Pillar Content should be?

Look at everything you do as a business. Now, ask yourself,what do you want your business to be known for? If you run a service business, it might be your most profitable service. If there’s one niche you’re better at than all your competitors, I would strongly suggest this as your cornerstone topic. While you will create more topics later, in the beginning, focus on a single topic like a laser beam.

After you determine your pillar content, create a page around it. This page must be very detailed, so you’re seen as an authority on the subject. Typically, it should be a long-form article, more like a guide than a regular blog post, that explains the key concepts of your topic in depth. It’s also a good idea to add videos to the page or at least one explaining your value proposition to your potential customer. Basically, if someone was reading your page, would they understand what you do and how you or the product can help them? Before you write this page, read our blog on creating a buyer persona. This will help you understand exactly who your ideal customer is and how to effectively communicate with them.


Setting Goals for you Pillar Conent

Once you’ve thought of your first topic, set a goal to measure the success of that post. For example, you may own a floral businesses. Your pillar content may be on floral arrangements with the best profit margin. Your goal might be to increase the product’s sales by a set percentage within a specific time frame. Make your goal challenging, but attainable. You don’t want to set yourself up for failure by setting a goal to sell 200% more arrangements in the next month. Try something more like increasing arrangement sales by 20% in six months.

Focus on this goal like a laser beam.

If you spend any money on digital marketing, spend on the creation of this content. When you write blog posts for your site or create landing pages, they should focus on the topics of your Pillar Content. If you spend money on Google Ads, or boosting Facebook posts, you will do it for this content.

After you reach your goal, decide whether to continue with the same topic and expand your local business marketing around it, or start focusing on a new topic. If you focus on a new topic, don’t completely neglect your previous topic. Go back to it from time to time and freshen it up, so it stays active and you don’t slip backwards.

Create Supporting Blogs

Once you have your pillar content written, you need to expand on the topic with supporting blogs. If you own a gym, you may write your pillar content on workout routines for those wanting to lose weight. You would then create subtopics on a more specific branch of the pillar content. This may be workout routines for those who want to lose weight, but don’t have the time to work out 5 days per week.

Whenever possible, you want to add the Pillar Content keywords into the title of the subtopics. This makes the subtopic a “long tail keyword.” Once you write your subtopic blogs, make sure you link it back to your pillar content. When search engines crawl this cluster, they will place a higher level of authority on the content.