What makes a page cornerstone content
- It covers a core topic for your business thoroughly, often as a long guide.
- It targets a competitive, high-value keyword.
- It is kept up to date and reflects your best knowledge.
- It sits high in the site structure, a click or two from the home page.
How to build cornerstone content
- Choose the three to five topics that matter most to your customers and your business.
- Write or improve one comprehensive page for each.
- Link to it from every related article with descriptive anchor text, and link from it to the detailed articles.
- Update it regularly, and redirect older posts that overlap with it.
Cornerstone content works like the pillar page of a topic cluster: the related articles are the cluster pages that support it.
Cornerstone content example
This example is illustrative. A dental clinic picks “teeth whitening” as a cornerstone topic. It writes one complete guide covering how whitening works, options, safety, aftercare and costs, reviewed by a dentist. Shorter posts, such as “how long does whitening last” and “whitening for sensitive teeth”, link to the guide, and the guide links back to them.
Cornerstone content checklist
- One page per core topic, kept to the main subject.
- Complete and accurate, with sources and a named author.
- Linked from every related post with descriptive anchor text.
- Linked to the detailed posts it summarizes.
- Reviewed and updated every few months.
Cornerstone content mistakes
- Marking every page as cornerstone.
- Letting the page get old.
- Several overlapping cornerstone pages for one topic.
- No internal links pointing to it.
Cornerstone content FAQs
How is cornerstone content different from a pillar page?
They are close. Both are the main page on a topic, supported by related articles. See SEO cluster.
How many cornerstone pages should I have?
Three to five for most small sites. A few strong pages beat many weak ones. For an example, see our guide to search engine optimization.