Today I intend to show you how you can improve the search engine ranking of your site with Cornerstone content. I will explain Cornerstone Content soon in the article, so keep reading. Different pages of a website rank differently as a result of the quality of content and links to it. Search engines determine the relevance of a page by the number/variety and quality of backlinks to it.
Of course it won’t be easy to rank high for all your keywords in a multi-niche blog like mine but then if you have such a blog you can strategically rank for certain keywords and the traffic can always overflow into other posts on your blog. Blogs mostly show recent posts and at times our best articles are lost in the inner pages of the archive and as such a new visitor to our blog may not know what we have done previously.
Cornerstone content is the hub of your website. Publishing a thousand articles on your blog won’t matter if you do not have a hub content to connect them all. Search engines these days consider quality ahead of quantity when it comes to content and as such you should focus on producing quality contents that can rank.
Just like the name sounds, Cornerstone content is the pillar at which your blog stands; Cornerstone content is what your audience needs to know what your blog is all about. Cornerstone pages allow you to show your most important archived contents. Let’s say you have several posts published about “blogging tips” or “traffic”, a first time visitor on your blog may have questions the article may not have covered and may not know how to know if you have treated it somewhere else or not, but if you have a Cornerstone page about “Blogging tips” or “traffic” as the case may be, such visitor landing on such page can easily see all the topics you have covered under that keyword.
Cornerstone pages are great targets for link building campaigns, they can help build you a stronger subscriber base, attract links and most of all increase traffic. Simply create a page on your blog, highlight all the posts you have published under similar keywords, optimize the page very well and promote it to rank. You can also add it to a sidebar where it can be easily seen. If you noticed by the lower right corner of my blog, you will see a banner that says “How to start your own blog” though you will have to give Netmediablog a like to access this page. It is a cornerstone page. Check it out and see how I intend to rank for my chosen keyword by aggregating all the posts I have published previously related the keyword.
You can create more Cornerstone and add them as a list on your sidebar for your visitors to see, your Cornerstone pages will contain all the other posts you have previously published under your chosen keywords and you can easily rank for few pages than trying to rank for all your post pages.
How to create Cornerstone content:
The best way to create a Cornerstone content is to first create a page in your blog, you can get rid of the sidebars so as not to distract your visitors, then write a post from scratch and list all the related topics you have previously published on your blog related to your Cornerstone page keyword.
Ensure to research very well before choosing a keyword, check the competition on search engine and be sure you can outrank the ones dominating the first page before choosing such a keyword. Then optimize the post very well obeying every SEO rule, remember to include the keyword in your page Title, description, Meta tags, image alt tag, and within the content etc. Then promote your Cornerstone content and build backlinks to it and see it rank on search engine.
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So instead of you trying to rank for all your posts, try and rank for your Cornerstone page and the traffic will be distributed among the links you listed on this page. Make such a page your landing page for such keyword and enjoy the massive traffic it will bring to your blog every day.
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Wow! never hear of this thing before. But I can’t use this tool now, because my blog is still new and it might seem that I am trying to force visitors to like my Facebook page. This tool will come in handy after building a loyal fanbase who trust you.
And one more thing, your commentluv plugin is not working as intended. I had to unclick then reclick, then it showed up my recent post. Please do look in to that.
Will have to get another one…thanks for your comment.
Very nice post. But only the length of the post is little less but still it makes full sense. Nice work!
Hi Nwosu,
This is also another provoking post.
Creating a cornerstone post should be the target.
And that’s the aim.
This post is really great and informative brother thanks for sharing it !
I really want to give this tool a try, But I couldn’t find a link for it Huh?
thanks Buddy ;)
Of course, Google has made it clear that it will see to only CONTENT. It becomes very necessary to gear up for the challenge ahead.
Hello Mavtrevor,
You have out done it again with this beautiful and well written post. I have not heard of cornerstone before but with this your post, i am sure getting the hang of it all. thanks
Hi Nwosu,
This is smart, a really smart way to drive targeted, passive traffic to your blog.
This is why most big blogs like Mashable link up through cornerstone content. First time visitors arrive for many different reasons and wish to find 1 stop shopping for their needs. Seeing a linked up page covering their preferred keyword in detail helps them find what they want, AND stick around.
Thanks!
Thanks for your comment just wanted to write it in a way people will understand the concept before i drive them off the idea with a long post.
Thannk Emmanuel for your contribution…
What link do you mean?
Thanks for your comment Ambika Choudhary Mahajan
If you have any questions you can ask me in case i left any area uncovered.
Ryan you really understand the concept very well, thanks for your comment.
Nwosu,
You are the first who has told me about cornerstone content. I just have archives. I will revisit this idea. Thank you.
great post Nwosu,
Cornerstone contents are really important for the success of any blog, these are the kind of contents that will keep on bringing traffic to your blog months and years after you have published.
I will like to add that a Cornerstone content must be long, detailed and informative, it is not the kind of content you rush to write within an hour.
You are welcome Jennifer Cunningham, i am glad you found the article informative. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks Joseph Adediji for your contribution, that was why i said you must research the keyword very well, check out the example i gave in the article.
Great information Nwosu ! yes your correct content is king valuable information for Cornerstone Content
its really useful for us thanks for sharing keep up your good work doing
Hi Desmond, Content is king is the popular quote. Google would favour a blog if it can provide quality and superb cornerstone content for its readers.
I will like to shed more light on how to find related content based on a new article. How i do this for my blog is:
Go to http://www.google.com >> then type in “site:yoursite.com your topic/keyword”.
This will definitely gather all your related posts so that you know how to link the articles together in order to create your desired cornerstone content.
Thanks for the article. I love it.
Yes, it is never possible to rank every pages for every keyword. You’ve pointed out a great strategy creating hub pages in blogs. It will be beneficial not only for search engine favor but will be useful to the visitors as well.
I’ve some pages in my blog that can be called ‘corner stones’ as you have defined here. Now needs to optimize them and promote better. Thanks for reminding.
Thanks for your comment
Thanks Jamiu for adding that, its a perfect way to know the posts Google values and link them all up on a page and rank for such keyword.
Suresh, i am glad you found this article interesting. Thanks for your comment.
Hey Bro,
I do agree they way you have represent the steps yes we need to highlights the post as like you did on your sidebar and also need to have good keywords research before writing a post sure we can rank those post better tool i always prefer google adwords whats your thought about this tool and experience
Google adword is a great tool for keyword research and i have found it very useful and i also use it on daily basis. Thanks for your comment.
Interesting post, I dun really understand what cornerstone content all about.
Do you mind giving me an example?
Thank you
Michael Ng
If you read the article you will see a link i shared where i comprehensively tried to rank for a keyword by making a master post of all the related posts on the keyword and placed it on a page. Read through the article once more and you will understand.