How to create cornerstone content

So if you’ve read this post on what cornerstone content is and why you need it. Then you might now be asking yourself how to create cornerstone content? Well, fear not. I’m going to talk you through exactly how to create this type of content in six easy steps. Let’s begin,

STEP ONE: WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN CATEGORIES?

This is an easy one. What is your blog about? Are there five or six main topics on your blog? If so what are the keywords that you most want to rank for? For me, it’s starting a blog, growing your blog, email marketing, making money from blogging and social media tips.

Not only does having clear main categories make it easier for your readers to understand what your blog is about. But it makes it clear to search engine bots too. So once you know what your main categories are. Make sure they’re nice and visable on your home page too. So a new visitor would know instantly what your blog is about and what information they can find on your site.

Now if you have more than five or six topics that you cover. For instance, you might have beauty as a main category, but then make-up, skincare, haircare and nails as a sub-category. In this case, start by creating a piece of cornerstone content for your main categories. And then once you have some amazing content at the top level. Look at creating amazing content for your sub-categories too.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS

OK, so for each piece of cornerstone content, you should be aiming to rank for 1 search term. Preferably a longtail keyword. Now the keywords you want to rank for with this type of content will be different from the keywords you want to rank for your regular blog posts. These cornerstone articles are meant to be the ultimate guides to give your reader absolutely everything they need to know about that particular topic.

STEP THREE: WRITE AWESOME CONTENT

Now you know how to create cornerstone content. You need to write some. Your cornerstone articles need to be the best content you’ve ever written. I’m talking SEO-optimised. Great readability and flow. These articles will be much longer than your usual content (at least 900 words). And should be incredibly informative on your chosen topic. After all, these will help you become an authoritative figure on your subject, so make sure your article is informative with absolutely everything your reader needs to know.

But you don’t need to write new content if you have old content you can re-purpose. Now those of us who have hundreds of blog posts on our site will surely have something that can be easily transferred into cornerstone content. Just look for the best and most complete post for the keywords you want to rank for. Ideally, content that is already popular. And re-write it. Make it longer. Make it more authoritative. And more complex.

STEP FOUR: GET BACKLINKING TO YOUR ARTICLE

A key part of cornerstone content is ensuring that you have the most amount of backlinks pointing towards them. The more backlinks you have, the more Google will know that this is an important article on your site for that keyword. So just find all the posts that are relevant to your cornerstone content, and edit each post to include a backlink, with the keyword as the anchor text.

Just make sure the internal links are within the actual content. Links in your footer or sidebar aren’t as valuable as the ones within the body of text.

STEP FIVE: PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE

So now you have your cornerstone content, you need to get out there and promote it! Share it on your social media channels. In your email list. In other blog posts. And if you can, use this as an opportunity to write guest posts on your key blog topics, linking back to your cornerstone content. Not only with this help with the visibility of your content, but it will also boost your authority on the subject and give you a valuable backlink.

STEP SIX: KEEP IT UPDATED

Not only is your cornerstone content in-depth, informative and authoritative. But it also needs to be up to date. Make a note in your calendar to check it once a month or once a quarter and amend if anything has changed or you’ve learnt something new on the subject.

So that is how you create cornerstone content. I hope you’ve found it useful and let me know in the comments what your cornerstone content is.