25 best-in-class pillar page examples to help you get started

A great pillar page is the starting point for a successful topic cluster model.

It should give a full overview of a topic that is highly relevant to your brand – covering all of the key elements and questions that your target audience have in relation to the topic, but without going into too much detail (the cluster content will do that).

It needs to be high-quality content, providing enough information and value to your target audience that search engines recognise it as a trustworthy piece of content. 

Pillar pages also tend to be pretty templated by nature.

They’ll have headlines like: 

• The ultimate guide to [topic]
• [Topic]: The complete guide
• Everything you need to know about [topic]
• A step-by-step guide to [topic] 
• An introduction to [topic]
• A beginner’s guide to [topic]
• Best practice approaches to [topic]

And they’ll follow a relatively standard format to give a broad overview of a topic.

To help you get started, in this article you’ll find 25 pillar page examples from some of the best brands in the business who are using the topic cluster model successfully – as well as a few examples from my own content projects. 

Hubspot pillar page examples

Hubspot have been talking about topic clusters since 2017, when they made the decision to restructure the Hubspot blog based on the topic cluster model.

Because of this, the Hubspot blog is a great place to find pillar page examples, such as:

• The ultimate guide to sales qualification
• How to use Instagram: A beginner’s guide
• Here’s Why Customer Retention is So Important for ROI, Customer Loyalty, and Growth
• The ultimate guide to SEO
• The ultimate glossary: 44 email marketing terms that marketers must know

Zapier pillar page examples

Automation tool Zapier has also seen success through adopting the topic cluster model for content marketing as a startup.

Their ‘remote work’ pillar page is particularly interesting to me, as they take things to the extreme by simply listing in bullet points the various pieces of cluster content for that topic area.

• The ultimate guide to remote work
• 33 email marketing best practices
• An introduction to APIs
• The small business guide to automation
• Everything you need to know about Google Hangouts 
• A step-by-step guide to competitive market analysis

Semrush pillar page examples

Semrush is another great one for content cluster examples – unsurprisingly, given that they’re an SEO tool themselves.

Here’s a few of their pillar page examples:

• The ultimate guide to creating a content marketing strategy
• What Is Ecommerce? A Beginner’s Guide to Online Business
• Google Analytics for Beginners: Getting Started with GA4
• SEO Strategy: How to Create One for 2024 (+ Template)
• What Is Marketing? Types, Channels, and Strategies
• Paid Advertising 101: A Beginner’s Guide
• What Is a Competitive Analysis & How to Do It (With Template)

Ravio pillar page examples

I set the foundations for content marketing at HR tech startup Ravio, as their first content marketing hire. I’ve then continued to support the team through freelance content writing projects – including long-form pillar pages like the following:

• The complete guide to equity compensation for startups
• EU Pay Transparency Directive: complete legislation guide and FAQs
• The complete guide to compensation reviews
• A best practice approach to salary bands
• What to include in a best practice compensation framework
• Salary benchmarking: What is it and how do you do it?
• Pay equity explained: What it is and why it matters

📖 Outsource your pillar page creation to a trusted freelance content writer

Building long-form pillar page content can take a lot of time – time that you and your content team may not have amongst other priorities.

Working with a freelance content writer who has experience with writing pillar pages that rank on page 1 of Google takes the pressure off.

Get in touch