Pillar page: A broad page that covers a whole topic at overview level and links out to the narrower posts that go deep on each part of it — and is linked back to by them.
What makes a pillar work
A pillar page is defined by its links as much as its words. A personal-finance blog’s “Beginner’s guide to investing” earns the name when it links to the posts on index funds, ISAs or IRAs, fees and rebalancing, each in a sentence that explains why the reader would go there, and when those posts link back. Without the links it is just a long article.
A good pillar answers the broad question well enough to rank on its own, then hands off the detail. It does not need to be 5,000 words. A local plumber’s “Boiler repairs” service page can be the pillar for posts on pressure loss, noisy radiators and annual servicing, at 800 words.
Pillar pages in WordPress
WordPress has no built-in pillar type; any post or page will do. Yoast SEO calls the idea cornerstone content and has a toggle to mark a post as one, in the sidebar of the block editor or the meta box of the Classic Editor; marked posts get a stricter content analysis. Some sites use a static page per topic; others use a well-written category page with an introduction. Either is fine as long as the page is easy to reach: linked from the menu or home page so its click depth stays low.
Common mistakes
- Writing the pillar but never going back to add links to it from older posts.
- Making the pillar compete with its own cluster posts by covering each subtopic in full, which can create cannibalization.
- Linking out to subtopics only in a list at the bottom, with no context.
The pillar is the centre of a topic cluster. Our own internal linking strategy guide is built as one, and planning pillars, clusters and silos explains how to plan the structure around it.