After the Latest Google Update, Does Your Pillar Page Make the Grade?

Seeing your SEO rankings tank after Google’s March update and its new AI summary feature? Consider this an opportunity to upgrade your website strategy, especially for your pillar pages. 

You’re no stranger to agility if you’re still in business after the last several years. Hopefully, this has carried over into your marketing and sales growth strategy.

Well, the robots (AI’s preferred term over “Skynet”, FYI) never sleep, and the buyer journey is ever-changing. With the arrival of AI summaries, it’s time to tap into your flexibility and creative thinking to reevaluate your digital presence again.

Your website, and especially your homepage and pillar pages, need to do more than check off those traditional SEO boxes to engage, convert and generate revenue – now more than ever. Whatever you’ve learned about keyword content shortcuts, forget it. For Google and your prospects, it’s the thought that counts.

How to Stay Conversion-Ready

Creating a B2B pillar page that drives quality leads can transform your company’s visibility, establish you as a thought leader and drive quality leads. Pillar pages can serve different purposes, but they need to draw prospects deeper into your site and further along their buyer journey.

Here are four essential elements to make sure your pillar pages convert visitors into customers.

1. In-Depth, Valuable Content

A pillar page should be the ultimate guide on your topic, product or service and guide visitors to information that addresses their specific concerns (e.g., uptime, quality, total cost of ownership). 

Beyond clear, value-driven content itself, your page should:

• Break your content down into clear sections, each focusing on a specific challenge or benefit.
• Offer a blend of high-level and detailed practical guidance that elevates your solution as the best option.

Mix things up with infographics, videos and charts to encourage and track engagement.

2. User Experience and Design

If your page isn’t easy to use and nice to look at, people aren’t going to stick around, no matter where you come up in search results. Here’s how to make sure they do:

• Responsive Design: Your pillar page should look great on all devices, whether it’s a desktop, tablet or smartphone. Don’t get blackballed by the robots and disappear from search.
• Intuitive Navigation: Use a clean layout that guides users through the content effortlessly and loads quickly. Avoid slow-loading videos or design features. Your visitors won’t be patient, and neither are Google’s crawlers.
• Visual Hierarchy: Break up text with headers, sub-headers, bullet points and white space. This makes the content easy to scan and encourages visitors to explore your page.

3. Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Your pillar page is not a tourism site. You want your visitors to stay and move into the lead pipeline. Give them opportunities to access more content, sign up for your newsletter or take the next step for a sales call. Don’t just say what they can do and how to do it – tell them why.

• Strategically Placed and Compelling CTAs: Place your CTAs where they make sense – generally, at the end of sections or after a key piece of information. Make sure your offers are specific and directly related to the content. This way, they feel natural and not pushy. 
• A/B Testing: Don’t just set it and forget it. Test different placements and copy – and offers – if you’re not getting conversions. Keep tweaking based on what the data tells you.
  
  

4. Analytics and Continuous Improvement

A great pillar page isn’t a one-and-done deal. You need to keep an eye on it and make improvements over time. If Google Analytics has felt like your enemy, it’s time to make friends. 

You don’t need to get fancy, but you do need to align your data analysis with your strategy. Identify the right KPIs and get comfortable in the platform so you can track metrics like: 

• Page views 
• Bounce rate 
• Average time on page
• Conversion rate

If you’re not seeing the performance (aka leads) you want, go back to the user experience (UX). Improve load times, optimize mobile responsiveness and enhance navigation. 

If you have UX squared away and still aren’t meeting your goals, you’re probably looking at a bigger issue around your marketing strategy.

• Regular Updates: Keep your content fresh. Regularly review and update your pillar page to include the latest information, trends and best practices. This not only helps with SEO but also ensures your content stays relevant and valuable.

By integrating these four elements, you’ll build a powerful pillar page that drives engagement, establishes your brand as an authority and converts visitors into loyal customers.

Don’t Discount SEO Optimization Entirely

SEO is a moving target, thanks to Google’s updates. But especially for your middle journey or product-focused pillar pages, don’t disregard some of the tried-and-true tactics. Just know that without the above optimizations, you’re not going to see the same results. 

• Keyword Research: Start with strong keywords that reflect what questions your audience wants to answer. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find keywords that have a good mix of search volume and competition, then integrate them naturally into your content.
• On-Page SEO: Make sure your title tags, meta descriptions, headers and image alt texts are optimized with your target keywords. Google loves well-structured content, so use clear headings and subheadings to make your page easy to crawl.
• Internal Linking: Include links to other related pages on your site. This helps with SEO and keeps visitors on your site longer, increasing the chances of conversion.