Content strategies for your blog: Hub & Spoke and Pillar

Do you have content strategies for your blog or company website? If not, here are two ideas worth looking at: hub & spoke and pillar. What are they and which one could you incorporate as your content marketing strategy? Read our article to find out!

Content strategies for your blog – table of contents:

1. SEO Marketing Strategies
2. Hub & spoke: an SEO strategy. What are its characteristics?
3. Model structure and purpose of Hub and Spoke
4. SEO strategy. Benefits of Hub and Spoke strategy
5. Hub & spoke vs Pillar content. What is the difference?
6. What makes Pillar content strategy successful?

SEO Marketing Strategies

In marketing nomenclature, there are many terms put in various contexts with vague meanings. Some of them are used interchangeably, while others gain new meaning in the face of emerging opportunities. Numerous companies interpret already known terms to create their corporate jargon. This makes the marketing language extremely annoying, not to the point or even gibberish. But not in today’s case. In this article, we will outline the similarities, differences and main features that distinguish two SEO marketing strategies: hub and spoke, and pillar content.

Hub & spoke: an SEO strategy. What are its characteristics?

It is no coincidence that the name of the hub and spoke strategy correlates with bicycle nomenclature. This strategy model can be compared to a wheel, in which the hub forms the central part (hub) and individual spokes branch off from it, providing strength and support (spoke).

Sales strategies, operating under the h&s model, are designed to peer with others using the desired keyword. This is a more effective form of competition: a single blog post (on a single keyword) is usually not enough to effectively position a site against competing entities.

Model structure and purpose of Hub and Spoke

In the hub and spoke strategy, two main elements combine to make a whole. These are the hub (the home page) and the spokes (subtopics, periphery). The hub aims to direct website visitors to particular subpages. The home page includes a certain set of links, a table of contents, navigating to articles covering the subtopics.

To increase the effectiveness of such an operation:

• the hub should be connected to all links (spoke);
• each spoke should be associated with other spokes;
• there must be feedback: each spoke should return to the hub

SEO strategy. Benefits of Hub and Spoke strategy

The hub and spoke model is effective by taking full advantage of the site structure. It’s one of the best ways to develop your competitive edge, especially when others aren’t taking advantage of the potential of creating technical SEO content.

The H&S strategy works in a closed-loop. Each sub-page can generate some organic traffic, even though the primary goal is to get a lot of impressions on the central page. Another positive aspect is the low bounce rate on the parent site. The interweaving of all strategy elements with each other also works in its favor: it increases the time spent on the pages and makes navigation easier for the user.

Hub & spoke vs Pillar content. What is the difference?

The pillar content strategy refers to the creation of long, valuable content that exhausts the discussed topic. Its main purpose is to attract and keep a visitor on a given website. In marketing nomenclature, this model of strategy execution is also referred to as flagship content, cornerstone content, etc.

Websites operating in the pillar model concentrate all the content in one place, and not – as in the case of H&S – on various subpages. The potential of such websites is confirmed by research:

Content longer than 3,000 words receives over 75% more referral links than articles shorter than 1,000 words.

What makes Pillar content strategy successful?

Internet users may prefer a single, comprehensive article to a collection of shorter articles scattered in different places. Moreover, long, complex content reinforces the message and attests to the authority of the creator. Also in such a case, the table of contents, placed in the upper section of the website, proves to be handy and is considered as a standard. It facilitates Internet users to navigate the subpages efficiently.

The pillar content is a collection of all spokes (connections) and a hub. This strategy concentrates all content in one place, without the need to painstakingly set up separate pathways between the hub and subject articles.

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