SEO
8 Pillar Page Examples to Get Inspired By

Pillar pages are high-level introductions to a topic. They then link to other pages, which are usually more detailed guides about parts of the main topic.
Altogether, they form a content hub.

But not all pillar pages look the same.
In this guide, we’ll look at eight examples of pillar pages to get your creative juices flowing.


Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 1,200
Backlinks: 6,900
Referring domains: 899




This is our very own pillar page, covering the broad topic of search engine optimization (SEO).
Why I like it
Besides the fact that I’m biased, I like the custom design we created for this page, which makes it different from the articles on our blog.
Even though the design is custom, our pillar page is still a pretty classic “hub and spoke” style pillar page. We’ve broken the topic down neatly into six different chapters and internally linked to guides we’ve created about them. There are also custom animations when you hover over each chapter:




We’ve also added a glossary section that comes with a custom illustration of the SERPs. We have explanations of what each element means, with internal links to more detailed content:




Finally, it links to another “pillar page”: our SEO glossary.
Takeaway
Consider creating a custom design for your pillar page so that it stands out.




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 92,200
Backlinks: 21,600
Referring domains: 1,700




Diet Doctor is a health company focusing on low-carb diets. Its pillar page is a comprehensive guide on the keto diet.
Why I like it
On the surface, it doesn’t exactly look like a pillar page; it looks like every other post on the Diet Doctor site. But that’s perfectly fine. It’s simply a different approach—you don’t have to call out the fact that it’s a pillar page.
Diet Doctor’s guide is split into 10 different sections with links to its own resources. The links bring you to different types of content (not just blog posts but videos too).




Unlike the classic pillar page, Diet Doctor’s guide goes into enough detail for anyone who is casually researching the keto diet. But it also links to further resources for anyone who’s interested in doing additional research.
Takeaway
Pillar pages need not always just be text and links. Make it multimedia: You can add videos and images and even link to your own multimedia resources (e.g., a video course).




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 5,600
Backlinks: 2,800
Referring domains: 247




Wine Folly is a content site devoted to wine knowledge and appreciation. Its pillar page, as expected, is about wine.
Why I like it
Wine Folly’s pillar page is a classic example of a “hub and spoke” style pillar page—split into multiple sections, with some supporting text, and then internal links to other resources that support each subsection.




This page doesn’t just serve as a pillar page for ranking purposes, though. Given that it ranks well and receives quite a significant amount of search traffic, the page also has a call to action (CTA) to Wine Folly’s book:




Takeaway
While most websites design pillar pages for ranking, you can also use them for other purposes: capture email addresses, sell a book, pitch your product, etc.




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 11,100
Backlinks: 3,400
Referring domains: 457




Yoga Journal is an online and offline magazine. Its pillar page is an A-Z directory of yoga poses.
Why I like it
Yoga Journal’s pillar page is straightforward and simple. List down all possible yoga poses (in both their English and Sanskrit names) in a table form and link to them.




Since it’s listed in alphabetical order, it’s useful for anyone who knows the name of a particular pose and is interested in learning more.
What I also like is that Yoga Journal has added an extra column on the type of pose each yoga pose belongs to. If we click on any of the pose types, we’re directed to a category page where you can find similar kinds of poses:




Takeaway
The A-Z format can be a good format for your pillar page if the broad topic you’re targeting fits the style (e.g., dance moves, freestyle football tricks, etc.).




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 115,200
Backlinks: 3,200
Referring domains: 860




Atlassian is a software company. You’ve probably heard of its products: Jira, Confluence, Trello, etc. Its pillar page is on agile development.
Why I like it
Atlassian’s pillar page is split into different topics related to agile development. It then has internal links to each topic—both as a sticky table of contents and card-style widgets after the introduction:








I also like the “Up next” feature at the bottom of the pillar page, which makes it seem like an online book rather than a page.




Takeaway
Consider adding a table of contents to your pillar page.




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 114,400
Backlinks: 2,900
Referring domains: 592




Muscle and Strength’s pillar page is a massive database linking to various categories of workouts.
Why I like it
Calling it a pillar page seems to be an understatement. Muscle and Strength’s free workouts page appears to be more like a website.
When you open the page, you’ll see that it’s neatly split into multiple categories, such as “workouts for men,” “workouts for women,” “biceps,” “abs,” etc.




Clicking through to any of them leads us to a category page containing all sorts of workouts:




Compared to the other pillar pages on this list, where they’re linking to other subpages, Muscle and Strength’s pillar page links to other category pages, which then link to their subpages, i.e., its massive archive of free workouts.
Takeaway
Content databases, such as the one above, are a huge undertaking for a pillar page but can be worth it if the broad topic you’re targeting fits a format like this. Ideally, the topic should be about something where the content for it is ever-growing (e.g., workout plans, recipes, email templates, etc.).




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 39,100
Backlinks: 1,100
Referring domains: 308




Tofugu is a site about learning Japanese. And its pillar page is about, well, learning Japanese.
Why I like it
This is an incredible (and yes, ridiculously good) guide to learning Japanese from scratch. It covers every stage you’ll go through as a complete beginner—from knowing no Japanese to having intermediate proficiency in the language.
Unlike other pillar pages where information is usually scarce and simply links out to further resources, this page holds nothing back. Under each section, there is great detail about what that section is, why it’s important, how it works, and even an estimated time of how long that stage takes to complete.
Another interesting aspect is how Tofugu has structured its internal links as active CTAs. Rather than “Learn more” or “Read more,” it’s all about encouraging users to do a task and completing that stage.




Takeaway
Two takeaways here:
- Pillar pages can be ridiculously comprehensive. It depends on the topic you’re targeting and how competitive it is.
- CTAs can be more exciting than merely just “Read more.”




Key stats
Estimated organic traffic: 890
Backlinks: 4,100
Referring domains: 1,100




Zapier allows users to connect multiple software products together via “zaps.” It’s a 100% remote company, and its pillar page is about remote work.
Why I like it
Zapier’s pillar page is basically like Wine Folly’s pillar page. Break a topic into subsections, add a couple of links of text, and then add internal links to further resources.
In the examples above, we’ve seen all sorts of execution for pillar pages. There are those with custom designs and others that are crazily comprehensive.
But sometimes, all a pillar page needs is a simple design with links.
Takeaway
If you already have a bunch of existing content on your website, you can create a simple pillar page like this to organize your content for your readers.
Keep learning
Inspired by these examples and want to create your own pillar page? Learn how to successfully do so with these two guides:
Any questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter.
SEO
Microsoft Announces ChatGPT Capabilities Coming To Bing


Microsoft announced today that it is bringing cutting-edge AI capabilities to its Bing search engine, with the addition of a new ChatGPT-like feature.
Microsoft revealed its plans for integrating ChatGPT at a private event held at its Redmond headquarters today, which centered around its partnership with OpenAI.
Unlike recent virtual events, this particular press conference was held in person and not broadcast online.
During the event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted the significance of this new feature and how it will revolutionize the way people interact with search engines.
“I think this technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category,” says Nadella.
Nadella proclaimed, “The race starts today,” and Microsoft is going to “move and move fast.”
The event attendees were given a sneak peek at the latest search experience, which Microsoft refers to as “your AI-powered copilot for the web.”
This new experience combines the all-new Bing search engine and Edge web browser, which are designed to complement each other.
Nadella explained that the new Bing would provide direct answers to questions and encourage users to be more creative.
He also stated that the current search experience is not working as efficiently as it should be, as 40% of the time, people click on search links and then immediately click back.
This clearly indicates that the search experience needs to be updated and improved. Nadella claims that the search engine user experience hasn’t changed in 20 years, and it’s time for Microsoft to adapt.
Introducing The New Bing
The new Bing is powered by a next-generation language model from OpenAI, which has been specifically customized for search purposes. It’s even more powerful than the ChatGPT model.
Microsoft has implemented a new way of working with OpenAI called the “prometheus model,” which enhances the relevancy of answers, annotates them, keeps them up to date, and more.
The search index has also been improved by applying the AI model to the core search algorithm, which Nadella calls the largest jump in relevance ever.
It runs on a new user experience with an expanded search box that accepts up to 1,000 characters. Examples shared during the event look exactly like recent leaks.
The new Bing includes a chatbot that behaves similarly to ChatGPT, allowing users to interact with Bing in a natural language.
Bing’s new ChatGPT-like feature will take it a step further by allowing users to have an actual conversation with the search engine, with the ability to follow up on previous questions and provide more context for their search.
The new Bing is now available for a limited preview on desktop, and anyone can try it out by visiting Bing.com and performing sample searches.
You can also sign up to be notified when it becomes more widely available.
The preview will be expanded to millions of users in the near future, and a mobile version will be available soon.
The New Edge Browser
The chat interface Microsoft demonstrated in Bing is available as a sidebar feature in Edge, allowing users to access it without navigating to the Bing website. The interface can run alongside any webpage and interact with it.
During a demonstration, the AI assistant in Edge could summarize a 15-page PDF with one click and even translate a code snippet from Stack Overflow into another programming language.
Another benefit of the Edge browser’s “AI co-pilot” is having it complete tasks for you, such as filling out forms and writing emails.
In Summary
Microsoft has made a substantial leap in search engine technology by integrating a ChatGPT-like feature in its Bing search engine.
The new Bing is powered by a next-generation language model from OpenAI, which takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5.
Bing with the AI co-pilot is now available for a limited preview on desktop, and a mobile version will be available soon.
Additionally, the chat interface will be available as a sidebar feature in the new Edge browser, which has the ability to summarize information, translate code, and even complete tasks.
Source: Microsoft
Featured Image: Poetra.RH/Shutterstock
SEO
From Competitors To Partners: Conductor Acquires Searchmetrics


Conductor, a leading enterprise organic marketing platform, has acquired European-based competitor, Searchmetrics, to accelerate its expansion in the European market.
After acquiring ContentKing in 2022, the acquisition of Searchmetrics continues to strengthen Conductor’s position in the industry.
Seth Besmertnik, Conductor’s CEO and co-founder, said that the acquisition would bring the best of what Searchmetrics does to Conductor and its shared customers:
“Searchmetrics has been a competitor almost since we started Conductor, with a strong data foundation and a powerful presence in the European market. We are excited to bring the best of what Searchmetrics does to Conductor and to our now shared customers. Our goal is for customers to greatly benefit from this acquisition through delivery of more product value on a global scale.”
Matt Colebourne, the CEO of Searchmetrics, expressed his excitement for the company to join Conductor, calling it the “definitive global leader”:
“Conductor is indisputably the SEO space market leader. For years, we’ve admired their commitment to innovation for customers and their efforts to foster a dynamic and rewarding workplace culture for employees. By joining Conductor, we bring the best of what we do along with a large European customer base—solidifying Conductor as the definitive global leader. We cannot wait to build more for customers going forward.”
Ken Ogenbratt, Searchmetrics’s Chief Financial Officer, said the acquisition is a “pivotal step” for the SEO industry as the two companies move forward as partners with the opportunity to drive even greater value to customers.
With this acquisition, Conductor continues its commitment to creating a single, global platform that integrates all parts of the SEO workflow.
With Searchmetrics’ strong European presence and solid customer base, the acquisition will significantly accelerate Conductor’s growth in Europe.
Conductor has completed its second acquisition in a year with the purchase of Searchmetrics, which follows the company’s significant funding round from Bregal Sagemount in 2021.
This acquisition is seen as a sign of Conductor’s recent growth. It is expected to solidify its position as a leading player in the SEO space by incorporating the strengths of both companies for their shared customers.
Featured Image: dotshock/Shutterstock
SEO
How to Execute the Skyscraper Technique (And Get Results)


In 2015, Brian Dean revealed a brand-new link building strategy. He called it the Skyscraper Technique.
With over 10,000 backlinks since the post was published, it’s fair to say that the Skyscraper Technique took the world by storm in 2015. But what is it exactly, how can you implement it, and can you still get results with this technique in 2023?
Let’s get started.
The Skyscraper Technique is a link building strategy where you improve existing popular content and replicate the backlinks.
Brian named it so because in his words, “It’s human nature to be attracted to the best. And what you’re doing here is finding the tallest ‘skyscraper’ in your space… and slapping 20 stories to the top of it.”
Here’s how the technique works:


Follow these three steps to execute the Skyscraper Technique.
1. Find relevant content with lots of backlinks
There are three methods to find relevant pages with plenty of links:
Use Site Explorer
Enter a popular site into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Next, go to the Best by backlinks report.




This report shows you a list of pages from the site with the highest number of referring domains. If there are content pieces with more than 50 referring domains, they’re likely to be good potential targets.
Sidenote.
Ignore homepages and other irrelevant content when eyeballing this report.
Use Content Explorer
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer is a searchable database of 10 billion pages. You can use it to find mentions of any word or phrase.
Let’s start by entering a broad topic related to your niche into Content Explorer. Next, set a Referring domains filter to a minimum of 50.
We can also add:
- Language filter to get only pages in our target language.
- Exclude homepages to remove homepages from the results.




Eyeball the results to see if there are any potential pieces of content you could beat.
Use Keywords Explorer
Enter a broad keyword into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Next, go to the Matching terms report and set a Keyword Difficulty (KD) filter to a minimum of 40.




Why filter for KD?
The reason is due to the method we use at Ahrefs to calculate KD. Our KD score is calculated from a trimmed mean of referring domains (RDs) to the top 10 ranking pages.
In other words, the top-ranking pages for keywords with high KD scores have lots of backlinks on average.
From here, you’ll want to go through the report to find potential topics you could build a better piece of content around.
2. Make it better
The core idea (or assumption) behind the Skyscraper Technique is that people want to see the best.
Once you’ve found the content you want to beat, the next step is to make something even better.
According to Brian, there are four aspects worth improving:
- Length – If the post has 25 tips, list more.
- Freshness – Update any outdated parts of the original article with new images, screenshots, information, stats, etc.
- Design – Make it stand out with a custom design. You could even make it interactive.
- Depth – Don’t just list things. Fill in the details and make them actionable.
3. Reach out to the right people
The key to successfully executing the Skyscraper Technique is email outreach. But instead of spamming everyone you know, you reach out to those who have already linked to the specific content you have improved.
The assumption: Since they’ve already linked to a similar article, they’re more likely to link to one that’s better.
You can find these people by pasting the URL of the original piece into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and then going to the Backlinks report.




This report shows all the backlinks to the page. In this case, there are 441 groups of links.
But not all of these links will make good prospects. So you’ll likely need to add some filters to clean them up. For example, you can:
- Add a Language filter for the language you’re targeting (e.g., English).
- Switch the tab to Dofollow for equity-passing links.




It’s been roughly eight years since Brian shared this link building strategy. Honestly speaking, the technique has been oversaturated. Given its widespread use, its effectiveness may even be limited.
Some SEOs even say they wouldn’t recommend it.
So we asked our Twitter and LinkedIn following this question and received 1,242 votes. Here are the results:




Clearly, many SEOs and marketers still believe the technique works.
Sidenote.
According to Aira’s annual State of Link Building report, only 18% of SEOs still use the Skyscraper Technique. It’s not a go-to for many SEOs, as it ranks #20 among the list of tactics. I suspect its popularity has waned because (1) it’s old and SEOs are looking for newer stuff and (2) SEOs believe that content is more important than links these days.
Fundamentally, it makes sense that the Skyscraper Technique still works. After all, the principles are the same behind (almost) any link building strategy:
- Create great content
- Reach out to people and promote it
But why do people think it’s no longer effective? There are a few reasons why and knowing them will help you improve your chances of success with the Skyscraper Technique.
Let’s start with:
1. Sending only Brian’s email template
In Brian’s original post, he suggested an email template for his readers to use:
Hey, I found your post: http://post1
<generic compliment>
It links to this post: http://post2
I made something better: http://post3
Please swap out the link for mine.
Unfortunately, many SEOs decided to use this exact template word for word.
Link building doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If everyone in your niche decides to send this exact template to every possible website, it’ll burn out real fast. And that’s exactly what happened.
Now, if a website owner sees this template, chances are they’ll delete it right away.
Sidenote.
Judging by my inbox, there are still people using this exact template. And, like everyone else, I delete the email immediately.
I’m not saying this to disparage templated emails. If you’re sending something at scale, templating is necessary. But move away from this template. Write your own, personalize it as much as possible, and follow the outreach principles here.
Even better, ask yourself:
“What makes my content unique and link-worthy?”
2. Not segmenting your prospects
People link for different reasons, so you shouldn’t send everyone the same pitch.
Consider dividing your list of prospects into segments according to the context in which they linked. You can do this by checking the Anchors report in Site Explorer.




You can clearly see people are linking to different statistics from our SEO statistics post. So, for example, if we were doing outreach for a hypothetical post, we might want to mention to the first group that we have a new statistic for “Over 90% of content gets no traffic from Google.”
Then, to the second group, we’ll mention that we have new statistics for “68% of online experiences.” And so on.
In fact, that’s exactly what we did when we built links to this post. Check out the case study here:
3. Not reaching out to enough people
Ultimately, link building is still a numbers game. If you don’t reach out to enough people, you won’t get enough links.
Simply put: You need to curate a larger list of link prospects.
So rather than limiting yourself to only replicating the backlinks of the original content, you should replicate the backlinks from other top-ranking pages covering the same topic too.
To find these pages, enter the target keyword into Keywords Explorer and scroll down to the SERP overview.




In this example, most top-ranking pages have tons of links, and all of them (after filtering, of course) could be potential link prospects.
Pro tip
Search for your keyword, set a Referring domains filter, and you’ll see relevant pages where you can “mine” for more skyscraper prospects.




4. Thinking bigger equals better
Someone creates a list with 15 tools. The next person ups it to 30. Another “skyscrapers” it to 50, and the next increases it to 100.
Not only is it a never-ending arms race, there’s also no value for the reader.
No one wants to skim through 5,000 words or hundreds of items just to find what they need. Curation is where the value is.
When considering the four aspects mentioned by Brian, don’t improve things for the sake of improving them. Adding 25 mediocre tips to an existing list of 25 doesn’t make it “better.” Likewise for changing the publish date or adding a few low-quality illustrations.
Example: My colleague, Chris Haines, recently published a post on the best niche site ideas. Even though he only included 10, he has already outperformed the other “skyscraper” articles:




He differentiated himself through his knowledge and expertise. After all, Chris has 10 years of experience in SEO.
So when you’re creating your article, always look at any improvement through the lens of value:
Are you giving more value to the reader?
5. Not considering brand
As Ross Hudgens says, “Better does not occur in a branding vacuum.”
Most of the time, content isn’t judged solely on its quality. It’s also judged by who it comes from. We discovered this ourselves too when we tried to build links to our keyword research guide.
Most of the time, people didn’t read the article. They linked to us because of our brand and reputation—they knew we were publishing great content consistently, and they had confidence that the article we were pitching was great too.
In other words, there are times where no matter how hard you “skyscraper” your content, people just won’t link to it because they don’t know who you are.
Having your own personal brand is important these days. But think about it: What is a “strong brand” if not a consistent output of high-quality work that people enjoy? One lone skyscraper doesn’t make a city; many of them together do.
What I’m saying is this: Don’t be discouraged if your “skyscraper” article gets no results. And don’t be discouraged just because you don’t have a brand right now—you can work on that over time.
Keep on making great content—skyscraper or not—and results will come if you trust the process.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.”
Final thoughts
The Skyscraper Technique is a legitimate link building tactic that works. But that can only happen if you:
Any questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter.
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