Are core pages considered "cornerstones"?
-
To check that I understand the terminology, "cornerstone articles" are posts (or pages) that have some extensive, detailed, important information about a subject that other blog posts and articles can link to in reference, right? For example, a website for an auto repair shop might have a blog post about what cold weather does to a car's transmission and that post could link to a cornerstone "explainer" article that goes into more detail explaining to car-dummies like me what a transmission even DOES.
But are core pages also in this category of cornerstone content? Or are they something entirely different and should be constructed accordingly? By "core pages", I mean the base-level pages about what your business is and does. For the repair shop example, I mean things like an "About Us" page or a "Services" page*.
*or broken up into individual pages listing the services related to brakes, engine, wheels, etc.
Thanks!
-
That's so nice of you to say, Roman. Thank you.
-
I always love to read your answer, Miriam Ellis
-
Hey Brian!
Thank you so much for clarifying that you were seeing this as part of a tool's terminology, as well as some references elsewhere. Sometimes, different folks have different names for things. Here at Moz, I think we'd be more inclined to refer to this as "Evergreen Content" or even "10x Content" (see: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-create-10x-content-whiteboard-friday). While I'm not sure I agree with the Yoast quote Roman found about needing to build another website if you have more than 10 superlative pages (if you are a local business, creating multi-sites is generally a BIG no-no), I think the main idea here is that every website should have a set of pages that are:
-
Frequently linked to internally because they provide the most authoritative answer to a question
-
Way better pages than your competitors have created
-
Perennially useful
If this can be used as a a definition of "cornerstone" or "evergreen" content, then I wouldn't limit this to having to be a landing page. It could be a core page (like an about page). It could also be a video or an infographic. It could be a landing page, or it could be a blog post.
I think the key here is not confining this to a specific format of content, but, instead, identifying your best and most useful pages and remembering to internally link to them so that they are easily discovered by consumers. Looking at your analytics, the findings of tools like Moz Pro, and listening to your customers is going to help you identify which pieces of content are your best. And, typically, best is going to equal the content that specifically supports the various stages of the user journey, be that awareness, consideration, decision, or conversion. Conversion is almost always the end goal of content, but each stage has to be supported, and evergreen content can play a role at each stage of the journey.
So, summing up, I wouldn't confine the definition of this type of content to a single format (it could be any type of page or form of media), and I also wouldn't state that you can only have X number of cornerstone pieces on a given website. A small site might only have 3-5 of these, but a larger site could have 20, 30, 100. Identify the most important topics for supporting the consumer journey, and then be sure that your resources are better than your competitors. Finally, be sure you are intelligently linking to these cornerstone pieces internally, so that they are ideally accessible.
Hope this helps, Brian!
-
-
But it is specifically about articles and not basic pages, right?
-
Does this mean that a website for a local business can't/shouldn't have more than 10 pages? The thing I'm hung up on (and maybe this is just a semantic thing) is how all these definitions talk about cornerstone content as articles. This makes sense for a website that is already primarily a collection of articles and posts. But for local service businesses, I feel like there's a third level of page that I'm don't know how to classify. I don't mean the category or tag pages. I mean the services page, the service area page, the about us page, the contact information page. Blog posts and articles are very useful and important, but I feel like they are supplemental to the website.
An example of the kind of page I'm unsure if it should be considered a "cornerstone article" (just a random repair shop I found, I have no relation with the company). Would this count toward the "maximum of 8-10 cornerstone articles"? http://www.friedmanautorepair.com/services/brakes/
If you were to remove the cornerstone content from a local business's website, would there still be "a website" left? I don't know, maybe this is a meaningless distinction I'm worrying about between website structure and content marketing. Maybe I'm just dancing around some kind of ontological epiphany about "what IS a website?"
-
Yoast, primarily. But also I'm seeing it mentioned in various blogs and some webinars I've seen.
-
You are Welcome Miriam Ellis
-
Thanks for clarifying, Roman.
-
It's a Yoast Advice, keep in mind that their main audience are small business websites, and bloggers, affiliates, so their course and content works fine for that audience. I've already ranked a couple of websites using their techniques. But it will not work on biggest websites with hard competition (This is my personal opinion I took 2 of their courses and read it a couple of their ebooks in the past)
-
Hey Roman!
Thank you so much for joining this conversation. For my own clarification, is this your advice, or Yoast's:
Websites should have a minimum of one or two cornerstone articles and a maximum of eight to ten. If you want to write more than ten cornerstone articles, you should probably start a second website.
-
According to Yoast cornerstone content are the most important articles on any website. This is the content that exactly reflects the business or the mission of a website.
Category pages or tag pages could make great cornerstone ‘articles’ as well. If you want to optimize your category pages for cornerstone content, it is of great importance to provide really awesome introductory content. You should make sure that this page is a compelling overview of the subject and invites visitors to read even more content on your site.
For example, on an Italian food blog, there might be an original recipe to make pasta. That recipe could be used in every blog post about pasta. So this original recipe would have the potential to be a cornerstone article. The bloggers should place it on the category page of ‘pasta original’. On top of that, they could add links there to all the blog posts that use the recipe.
Pasta Original > Cornerstone Content > Main Keyword or Topic
Place to buy ingredients > **Long Tail Keyword **
The history of the pasta > **Long Tail Keyword **
Alternatives for the pasta > **Long Tail Keyword **
Healthy ingredients > **Long Tail Keyword **Cornerstone articles should be explainers, they should be informative articles. Even on a webshop, the cornerstone content should be informative articles. Perhaps you can write about the use of the products you sell or their history. Think about all the places you can link this cornerstone content, like in a blog post on new developments and in the actual product description in your shop!
Websites should have a minimum of one or two cornerstone articles and a maximum of eight to ten. If you want to write more than ten cornerstone articles, you should probably start a second website.
Linking structure for cornerstones
Cornerstone articles should appear very high in your site’s pyramid. Ideally, someone would be able to click from your homepage to your cornerstone articles instantly. You should link all your other posts about similar topics to that particular article. Subsequently, you will write tons of new blog posts focussing on new angles of the topic of your cornerstone article. From every single one of those blog posts, you’ll link to your original cornerstone article. Such an internal linking structure will increase the chance of your cornerstone content article ranking in Google.
Taking the Yoast website as an Example their cornerstone content is:
- _Yoast SEO for WordPress, _
- _Online SEO training, _
- SEO blog
All the content in the website link to those articles/pages/content, you can check it by yourself. Let's take the URL (https://yoast.com/academy/courses/) go to your MOZ Open Site Explorer filter the result ok the backlinks (Just Internal Links) and you will see that practically all the site point to that page if compare it with any other random article you will notice the difference, in that way they tell to Google hey this is one of the most important Articles in my website and of course, is about SEO training then Google will compare it with other SEO training websites and decide which will be in first place
IN SUMMARY
Answering your question. Yes category pages can be a cornerstone content (you can consider core pages and cornerstone content as the same thing)
IF THIS ANSWER WERE USEFUL MARK IT AS A GOOD ANSWER
-
Hey Brian,
Thanks so much for asking about this. Before diving in, may I ask, are you seeing the word "cornerstone content" being used as a metric/descriptor in a particular SEO tool? Like maybe Yoast SEO or something like that? It's not a term I see used frequently, and want to be sure I understand.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Meta descriptions in other languages than the page's content?
Hi guys, I need an opinion on the optimization of meta descriptions for a website available in 6 languages that faces the following situation: Main pages are translated in 6 languages, English being primary >> all clear here. BUT The News section includes articles only in English, that are displayed as such on all other language versions of the website. Example:
Local Website Optimization | | Andreea-M
website.com/en/news/article 1
website.com/de/neues/article 1
website.com/fr/nouvelles/article 1
etc. Because we don't have the budget right now to translate all content, I was wondering if I could add only the Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions in the specific languages (using Google Translate), while the content to remain in English. Would this be accepted as reasonable enough for Google, or would it affect the website ranking?
I'd like to avoid major mistakes, so I'm hoping someone here on this forum has a better idea of how to proceed in this case.0 -
Question about partial duplicate content on location landing pages of multilocation business
Hi everyone, I am a psychologist in private practice in Colorado and I recently went from one location to 2 locations. I'm currently updating my website to better accommodate the second location. I also plan continued expansion in the future, so there will be more and more locations as time goes on. As a result, I am making my websites current homepage non-location specific and creating location landing pages as I have seen written about in many places. My question is: I know that location landing pages should have unique content, and I have plenty of this, but how much content is it also okay to have be duplicate across the location landing pages and the homepage? For instance, here is the current draft of the new homepage (these are not live yet): http://www.effectivetherapysolutions.com/dev/ And here are the drafts of the location landing pages: http://www.effectivetherapysolutions.com/dev/denver-office http://www.effectivetherapysolutions.com/dev/colorado-springs-office And for reference, here is the current homepage that is actually live for my single Denver location: http://www.effectivetherapysolutions.com/ As you can see, the location landing pages have the following sections of unique content: Therapist picture at the top testimonial quotes (the one on the homepage is the only thing I have I framed in this block from crawl so that it appears as unique content on the Denver page) therapist bios GMB listing driving directions and hours and I also haven't added these yet, but we will also have unique client success stories and appropriately tagged images of the offices So that's plenty of unique content on the pages, but I also have the following sections of content that are identical or nearly identical to what I have on the homepage: Intro paragraph blue and green "adult" and child/teen" boxes under the intro paragraph "our treatment really works" section "types of anxiety we treat" section Is that okay or is that too much duplicate content? The reason I have it that way is that my website has been very successful for years at converting site visitors into paying clients, and I don't want to lose aspects of the page that I know work when people land on it. And now that I am optimizing the location landing pages to be where people end up instead of the homepage, I want them to still see all of that content that I know is effective at conversion. If people on here do think it is too much, one possible solution is to turn parts of it into pictures or put them into I-frames on the location pages so Google doesn't crawl those parts of the location pages, but leave them normal on the homepage so it still gets crawled on there. I've seen a lot written about not having duplicate content on location landing pages for this type of website, but everything I've read seems to refer to entire pages being copied with just the location names changed, which is not what I'm doing, hence my question. Thanks everyone!
Local Website Optimization | | gremmy90 -
Need Awesome Examples of Well-Designed Service & Product Pages
I'm looking for some examples of really well built product/service pages that have great conversion points on them. I find most small businesses do a terrible job at highlighting their features & benefits (the "why") for their services and wanted some inspiration from those that are doing a fabulous job.
Local Website Optimization | | JoyHawkins0 -
One locations page, or multiple pages?
Hi, I represent a franchisor who does all marketing- including local seo- for our franchisees. I've read a lot about local SEO and understand the basics, but have some remaining questions. 1- If our typical territories are quite large and encompass more than one major city, should we create multiple location pages for the same franchise owner? I believe the answer should be yes from an SEO stand point, but the problem is that most of our franchisees naturally just have one business address (their home). Since PO boxes and virtual offices aren't the way to go, what's the best course of action? And when I say major cities, I'm really talking about major cities (and not just small towns/boroughs). Can they just use a friend's/relative's address? 2- There's a lot of info out there about "locations pages," but it's not really clear whether or not you should really just have ONE page for each location, or several pages with different content? For instance, it looks like a lot of businesses are creating just one, "home-page" looking landing page for their individual locations, with everything from services to testimonials on just that one page. Is this preferred over creating several different local pages for that one location? The latter is what we currently do. From the user stand-point, it looks like each franchise location has it's own "mini website" on our main website. For instance, a landing page optimized for the local business name, a local services page, a project/photo gallery page, local review page, etc. It seems like a lot less work just building one landing page for each location, but is the payoff the same? I'm torn between the two strategies- is it really worth the extra work (in terms of traffic + local ranking) to build out the individual pages for the one location? Thanks Moz Community!
Local Website Optimization | | kimberleymeloserpa0 -
Seeking advise about my new landing pages for different cites
I have just created 6 new location landing pages for my Dallas insurance agency. Each one is for a different city, but I have a feeling I did it wrong 😞 Because my site is rather large, I put two different lines of insurance on each page. Homeowners insurance and business insurance. Now I'm wondering if I should of done 12 different pages? i.e **1 city + 1 product = 1 page ** Here's one of the new pages: http://thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/frisco-insurance I'm having a guess here, but would it be better if the Navigation was; thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/frisco thumannagency.com/business-insurance/frisco ??? Thank you so much in advance!!
Local Website Optimization | | MissThumann0 -
Ecommerce Site with Unique Location Pages - Issue with unique content and thin content?
Hello All, I have an Ecommerce Site specializing in Hire and we have individual location pages on each of our categories for each of our depots. All these pages show the NAP of the specific branch Given the size of our website (10K approx pages) , it's physically impossible for us to write unique content for each location against each category so what we are doing is writing unique content for our top 10 locations in a category for example , and the remaining 20 odd locations against the same category has the same content but it will bring in the location name and the individual NAP of that branch so in effect I think this thin content. My question is , I am quite sure I we are getting some form of algorithmic penalty with regards the thin/duplicate content. Using the example above , should we 301 redirect the 20 odd locations with the thin content , or should be say only 301 redirect 10 of them , so we in effect end up with a more 50/50 split on a category with regards to unique content on pages verses thin content for the same category. Alternatively, should we can 301 all the thin content pages so we only have 10 locations against the category and therefore 100% unique content. I am trying to work out which would help most with regards to local rankings for my location pages. Also , does anyone know if a thin/duplicate content penalty is site wide or can it just affect specific parts of a website. Any advice greatly appreciated thanks Pete
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC120 -
Search Result Discrepancy: Keyword "Dresses" shows international sites in the search results of Google.co.in.
Hi All, What would be the reason that Google shows international websites in the first page results while there are huge local players available. Eg: Dresses - Keyword that shows results with almost all the results from International websites whereas the local big players in the same category are not shown. This is not the case for other keywords like Women dresses, Clothing, Shoes etc., Is it a bug or any particular reasons? Thanks,
Local Website Optimization | | Myntra0 -
Has anyone had any success buying a local domain website, getting it on first page and then selling it to a local business? I have found some good domains that this might work for but I am wondering if anybody has tried this before.
I would like to buy a local domain like scottsdalepaintingcontractor.com and then seo it to first page before I sell it. Has anybody tried such strategy?
Local Website Optimization | | BWoods3