Importance of Cornerstone Content
A cornerstone, you can imagine a Cornerstone as the first stone of a new building. It is important because all other stones align themselves with it and thus determine the position and structure of the whole building.
Over time, setting the first stone became a festive ritual. Today it is still a cultural phenomenon in many countries. And this is exactly the same with your Cornerstone content. All your further content is based on these foundations. It is something very special that must be celebrated.
What is Cornerstone Content?
Cornerstone Content is a fundamental basic knowledge on which your conscience is built. You can imagine Cornerstone Content as a concrete foundation on which columns (your conscience) are placed.
It is the knowledge that your visitor must learn before buying your products and services. In the most remote sense, Cornerstone Content makes you an expert. It is content that defines you.
A few good examples from the blogs are headings, advertising texts and SEO texts. Especially the older ones are quite good.
Even easier, you can think of Cornerstone Content as a compelling series of articles that you pack into a resource. Cornerstone content is a great thing for people, but also for the search engines.
Let’s look at how you create your own Cornerstone content.
Choose a matching keyword: Logically, you must first find a matching keyword. Ask yourself what words does your prospective reader look for when looking for your solution? Brainstorm all the possible keywords first and then choose one.
Alternatively, you can also split your “big” topic into several small sub-topics. For example, I’ve divided “online marketing” into “headlines”, “advertising texts”, “SEO texts”, etc…
Here is the probability that there are interesting cornerstones for your readers. And the probability is also high that it is searched for.
Even if Cornerstone Content is more than a simple article series, let’s stick with this example. Therefore choose a keyword for the entire series.
Write a suitable heading: After you’ve selected a keyword, you’ll need to set a tempting heading for your entire cornerstone content. Treat them like a headline for a blog article. It is simply your “guideline”, hovering over all the individual cornerstone content.
Watch out for the title tag next to the H1 heading. Every SEO expert will tell you that the title tag is a damn important criterion. Actually these two elements are identical, but sometimes your heading is a little too long.
The great art is to grab the keyword into a tempting heading that promises a benefit , attracts attention , and includes the keyword .
Create appropriate content: So. You now have a keyword and a perfect heading. The next step is your individual Cornerstone content. Because your cornerstone content is so important, this must impress in quality and scope.
Dis-aggregate the selected keyword, which usually reflects a theme, simply into several building components. What must your reader know before buying your products and services?
Create a Content Landing Page: Even though we always say that you have to write blog articles with at least 1,000 words, your cornerstone content does not have to be that long. Cornerstone Content can also rank well with 300 words. If you do it right.
Your real content should be over 1,000 words long. But with the content landing page, it is enough if the text is relatively short. Once you have finished your individual content, you simply pack it on a content landing page and link it. The special thing about this is that now you have a great page, instead of many small “bad” pages, with which you shine.
But let’s look at some more benefits of Content Landing Pages:
- Archive – Content Landing Pages work as an archive. Your reader can always go back quickly if he wants to refresh his knowledge.
- Shares – Because Cornerstone content provides a lot of added value, it is shared more often. It’s like you’re making a chapter of your book available for free.
- Links – I just mentioned it. You concentrate all your internal and external links on a destination. And in general, it makes the thing easier if all link to a page.
- Influencer – When influencers find your content landing page, it’s just a goal they need to link or share with their followers. That makes the whole thing easier.
- E-mail subscribers – at the end you’ll end up with an opt-in and viola, and you’ll regularly get new subscribers through these attention-grabbing pages.
Create new content regularly: not only, are your subscribers looking for new content, but also the search engines. Therefore, after you have written your Cornerstone content, you have to go into other relevant topics. And if it fits, then link from internal, but also from external sources always to your Content Landing Page.
Conclusion: Cornerstone contents are important cornerstones of your blog. These are important because your other content is completely aligned.
In the plaintext, this means: Write an article series, put these articles together on a content landing page, focus on a keyword, put a tempting, SEO-optimized heading, and place an opt-in at the end.
But also note that Cornerstone Content is more than a simple article series. It is fundamental basic knowledge that your reader must know before buying your products and services. Cornerstone content is an important element that many unfortunately overlook. Are you using Cornerstone Content?