What is Cornerstone Content?

Cornerstone content refers to your site's most important, comprehensive pages on your core topics. These are the posts you want to rank highest, typically targeting your most valuable keywords and serving as the definitive resource on key subjects.

Think of cornerstone content as the foundation of your site's topical authority. These are your flagship pieces that demonstrate expertise and provide the most value to your audience.

Why cornerstone content matters

Cornerstone content attracts the most organic traffic, earns the most backlinks, and represents your site to both search engines and readers. These pages often account for a disproportionate amount of your overall traffic.

By identifying your cornerstone content, you can strategically strengthen it with internal links, prioritize updates, and ensure it receives the most attention in your content strategy.

How to identify it

Your cornerstone content targets your most important keywords. These are typically short-tail keywords or core topics central to your niche.

They should be comprehensive, evergreen resources that thoroughly cover a subject. Not quick posts or narrow topics, but definitive guides that fully satisfy search intent.

Most sites have 3-10 cornerstone pieces depending on their niche breadth. For a blogging resource site, cornerstone content might include "What is SEO," "How to Write Blog Posts," and "Content Marketing Guide."

How to optimize it

Make cornerstone content more comprehensive than competing pages. These should be your longest, most detailed posts with examples, visuals, and actionable advice.

Link to cornerstone content from throughout your site. Every related post should include internal links pointing to your cornerstone pieces, passing link juice and signaling their importance to search engines.

Keep cornerstone content updated. Review these pages regularly to ensure information stays current. Add new sections, update examples, and expand based on questions from readers.

Focus external link building efforts on cornerstone pages. When doing outreach or guest posting, prioritize getting backlinks to these strategic pages over less important content.