A pillar page is the main article of a topic cluster: the broad, complete article that every other article on the topic links to. It is the page you want to rank for the topic’s broadest search, and the natural starting point for a reader who is new to the subject.
The most common problem is not a missing pillar but too many of them — five articles that all try to be the main one, so none of them stands out.
What makes a good pillar
- Broad: it covers the whole topic, not one part of it. “Museums in Stockholm”, not “The Vasa Museum”.
- Complete enough to stand alone, with an overview of every important part of the topic.
- Linked out: it points to the supporting articles for readers who want depth.
- Linked in: every supporting article links back to it.
A pillar doesn’t have to be the longest article. It has to be the best starting point.
One per topic — at most two
A cluster works best with one clear main article. Two can make sense in a large cluster with two distinct angles (for example a guide and a practical planner), but more than that splits your links and your signal to search engines between pages that compete with each other.
If several articles are candidates:
- Choose the broadest, most complete one.
- Make the others supporting articles: narrow their angle, and link them to the pillar.
- If two articles cover the same ground, consider merging them into the pillar and redirecting the old URL.
In ClusterIQ
ClusterIQ gives each cluster one pillar — two in clusters of 20 or more articles — by picking the best-linked article. You can choose it yourself with the medal button in Cluster Inspector; from then on, Improve this article flags every article in the cluster that doesn’t link to your pillar yet. With Pro, Link to the pillar adds a short link to it at the end of every article in the cluster, and Pillar & split check tells you whether the pillar fits — or which overview article to write when none does.
When no pillar exists
Sometimes a category has many articles and none of them is a broad overview. Then the pillar is your most valuable next article to write:
- Summarise each part of the topic in a short section.
- Link each section to the supporting article that goes deeper.
- Then go back and add a link to the new pillar from every supporting article.
Content gaps covers how to spot this and the other articles a cluster is missing.
Linking to the pillar
- Link to it near the start of each supporting article, where the broader topic is mentioned.
- Use natural, descriptive anchor text — see Internal linking.
- From the pillar, link to each supporting article once, in the section about its subject.
Back to the overview: Topic clusters.