Cornerstone Content Strategy

Cornerstone Content Strategy is a breakthrough concept. And we have a lot to explain. Keep in mind as you read on, that one of the most powerful, lasting and structurally elegant constructions in history is the pyramid.

As you build your cornerstone content pyramid and share content via social media, email and article submissions, it funnels readers through the stages that create more revenue for your business.

Introduction to Cornerstone Content Strategy

Cornerstone Content Strategy is a new concept that is an evolution of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keyword strategy. The concept was first proposed by SEO Yoast. Yoast is used to managing SEO inside of WordPress.

Years ago, we did individual keyword focus for series of pages. The concept was to do lots of pages, each to rank for one keyword or phrase. The shift is to the idea of focusing on groups of keywords, or keyword baskets across several pages. This is the main principal of cornerstone content strategy.

With Cornerstone Content Strategy we look at three to five baskets, no more. The reason to limit cornerstone keywords is the amount of work that it takes to develop a cornerstone content strategy is significant. The key is to focus your efforts on the ones that will drive the most targeted, revenue-producing traffic.

That focus has a key benefit. Focus ensures Google understands clearly what your cornerstone keywords are. That way, they can easily determine where to grant you the authority on these topics.

This is a very powerful thing never to lose sight of. First, we're going to pick three to five baskets based on extensive keyword research. Then we're going to look at related terms. For example, if you're going to write about chocolate, you're going to write about white chocolate, dark chocolate, Belgian chocolate, orange chocolate, etc. If you are going to write comprehensively on the topic of chocolate, you would use a variety of related, relevant keywords. That's your basket.

In SEO speak they're called, "semantic keywords." These are related keywords that enrich your main content. It also makes it easy for search engines to measure the value of a page. Now Google can look at the patterns that you create, and the words that you use. That helps the search engines understand what your page is about and how it relates to linked pages.

The page topic has to clear to Google (and other search engines), and equally important, is to make it clear to the reader. Your content will be clear and focused on both search engines and for your readers when you follow this strategy.

Recap of Cornerstone Content Strategy so far:

Your most important content topics (keywords) should have a dedicated page within your site's structure.
Focus on three to five major content topics on your website including your home page. This will affect your website design and architecture, the user interface.
Make sure what you are all about is very clear to the reader and search engines.
Menu titles can to reflect you cornerstone pages. Example: Menu title "Adventure Travel", the keyword basket includes the title and a series of 5-6 blogs like safaris, mountain climbing, helicopter skiing.
Cornerstone topics or baskets of keywords must be reflected in your page and related blog content.
A typical cornerstone topic is surrounded by a series of blog posts that share common semantic keywords that link from the blog to the main page.
This structure forms a linking strategy that lets the search engines know that this topic is linked to from several places internal to your website.

How does process work?

The keyword selection process starts with the first group of keywords that we're going to use for the homepage and blogs that will support the cornerstone strategy. In this case, the first page is being optimized with the added strategy focused on cornerstone content strategy. Then move on to the other main pages.

By choosing one focused keyword basket for main pages that have a broader perspective, we're able to get more bang for your buck without diluting other keywords when we get to the next pages. The next step is to write five or six blogs that relate to the main keyword in your cornerstone content strategy. These words would take a slightly different tack, and link back to the source page.

You'll need an editorial calendar of at least 20, 25 blog topics ready to go for all your cornerstone blog pages. Now we've set a content development strategy for your blogs that support the cornerstone content keywords that are your site's focus. That serves as an overview mapping structure (see the cornerstone diagram below).

Cornerstone pages require 900 plus words to be seen by search engines as cornerstones. You can there is a lot of work to be done in creating this content and getting it right. It also needs to be grammatically strong, it needs to be interesting, to have action keywords that engage people. It should make the reader want to learn more. You can also build out category pages from your blog posts that create other powerful, linked pages for the search engines to crawl.

To read more about cornerstone content on SEO Yoast click here.

Key Takeaways for Cornerstone Content Strategy

In this far-reaching SEO and content strategy, your website gets built or rebuilt around focused keyword baskets and cornerstone content. This important process leads to long-term organic SEO gains and major internet visibility. Once you have the concept under your belt, it's easier understand what content you need to build out your main pages, and your blog editorial calendar. As you become clearer in your purpose, you become clearer in your writing and drive a lot more relevant traffic to your site. That's the magic of cornerstone content strategy.

This might seem like a big bite and a real shift in marketing strategy. It is.
But we are here, ready to help you "eat the elephant one bite at a time".

SEO Management strategies and techniques of using a short-tail and long-tail keywords can be very challenging.

Cornerstone Content Strategy

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