What is the difference between pillar page and landing page?

If you’re publishing a blog, you want to rank higher for the target keywords on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Yandex. Whereas, if you’re creating a product page, the goal is to convert website visitors into leads and ultimately into customers. 

In a content-driven business world, developing web pages with a specific goal in mind is crucial for measuring digital marketing success. 

Yes, content is the king of the internet, but its effectiveness depends on clear goal settings that help you focus your inbound marketing efforts in a unified direction. From the word count, keyword research, and visual elements to call-to-action for contact information, everything depends on the kind of page you're developing.

In this blog, we will discuss two specific types of pages, namely, pillar pages and landing pages, and go through some key differences between a pillar page vs landing page. The first step in that process is going through some of the basics.

What is a pillar page?

A pillar page is usually an ungated long-form content piece that acts as the center for exhaustive information about a broad main topic on a single page. It provides helpful internal links to detailed pieces of related content on specific subtopics mentioned in the pillar page content. 

As a marketing strategy, pillar pages help build trust with your website visitors. If you want to take a deep dive into pillar page content strategy, here is a helpful blog we have written on what is a pillar page and how they help with SEO ranking. 

There are many types of pillar pages you can create to boost traffic on your website. For example, you can create a 10x pillar page like Wine Folly on a broad topic like “What is wine?.” This is an ideal example for inbound marketers to understand pillar pages. 

Best Practices for pillar page content

• Conduct thorough research (competitor and keyword) to understand how well others have covered a topic and the keywords they have used. 
• Start from zero and create an extensive topic cluster covering all the subtopics of the core topic. 
• Include a table of contents on your pillar page for easy navigation, a better user experience, and enhanced search engine indexing. 
• Use a healthy mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords in your content. 
• Answer all the questions related to a search query in your content. 
• Make your pillar page shareable by giving direct share links to popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. 

For more pillar page best practices, refer to this in-depth Scalenut blog on “Pillar Page Best Practices.”

If you need some inspiration on how you can create a pillar page for your website, here are 10 content pillar page examples to help you get started. 

What is a landing page? 

A landing page is a web page that showcases an offering (product, service, templates, or information) with the goal of collecting visitor information (name, email, phone number, etc.).

Best Practices for landing pages

• Keep your landing pages easy to understand and navigate. Distribute your CTAs evenly across the page. 
• Craft engaging copies that hook visitors with emotive and action words loaded with keywords. 
• Focus on creating a visual experience for your visitors to maximize the chances of generating leads. 
• Employ technical on-page search engine optimization for better visibility in SERPs. 
• Include only relevant hyperlinks to useful product pages and related blog posts. 
• Make sure your landing page is easily shareable on social media platforms to maximize ROI. 

Marketers use both pillar pages and landing pages in their content strategy. But isn’t the goal of both these pages to generate leads one way or the other? 

Let’s find out. 

The difference between pillar pages and landing pages

The answer to ‘are pillar pages and landing pages the same?’ is no, they are not. Each has its own way of engaging visitors and achieving the end goals. The following are the key differences between pillar pages and landing pages.  

Purpose

A pillar page aims to build your brand’s authority on a specific topic, whereas a landing page aims to generate leads for follow-up marketing campaigns. 

Word Count

Pillar pages are generally text-heavy (more than 2000 words) while landing pages only contain short-form copy and CTAs.

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Design

The UI/UX of a pillar page looks like a long blog post with visual elements for quick access and to break complex ideas into easy-to-understand images. To focus on pillar page UI/UX is to enhance the user experience and help them derive maximum value out of the content. 

A landing page is a website page with advanced UI/UX integrating design elements that attract visitors and nudge them to take the desired action. The goal of landing page UI/UX is to inspire visitors and make them perform a specific action.  

Stage of the buyer’s journey

A pillar page almost always targets buyers in the initial stages of their journey (awareness, consideration). Landing pages, on the other hand, can be adapted to fit all the stages of the buyer’s journey. 

For example, landing pages that offer an ultimate guide on something as an ebook download target the awareness stage, whereas pages that redirect visitors to the eCommerce page target buyers in the final decision-making stage. 

Interlinking

Another effective way of differentiating between the two types of pages is through internal links. Pillar pages are created with the goal of interlinking individual blogs or web pages relevant to the topic.

In contrast, landing pages may or may not link to different pages on your website.

For instance, if you’re offering a DIY template download on a landing page, you may not link to any page on your website.

On the other hand, if you’re selling a product, you may link to the product's purchase page or other related products. Generally, they link to product or service-related pages only. 

Backlinks

Over time, the organic traffic on pillar pages generates backlinks automatically, while landing pages need conscious efforts to get backlinks. There is also no or minimal backlinking for landing pages, whereas pillar pages have heavy interlinking.

Also, backlinks to pillar pages enhance the SEO rankings of your website, but backlinks to landing pages may not have a considerable effect on your SERP rankings. 

Whether you’re creating a pillar or a landing page, the ultimate goal must be to curate an enjoyable user experience for your visitors. By now, we hope you have a fair understanding of both. Use the points mentioned above to differentiate your pillar pages and landing pages clearly. 

Automate your pillar page strategy with Scalenut

Identifying content gaps, creating a mix of keywords (short and long), including all the possible subtopics, and creating content for each pillar page can be overwhelming. However, you can make this a walk in the park with Scalenut. 

The all-in-one SEO and content marketing platform can help you at every stage of the pillar page creation process. 

For instance, you can use the Topic Cluster generator by Scalenut to find relevant keywords and create subtopics. And when it comes to creating content, you can use the AI-powered SEO Hub or Cruise Mode (our 5-minute AI Blog Writer) to create search engine optimized content with the help of AI. 

Can’t believe it? Get a taste of the Scalenut platform, start a free trial today.