I write a lot about creating content pillars and why having far more than just one article on a topic is important to show Google that you are an authority. (It also helps with the E-E-A-T SEO strategy for real estate).
I wanted to us a quick real-world example for my own business to help demonstrate how to use Google Search Console (Sometimes called webmaster tools) to show you some behind the scenes of how a professional search engine optimization consultant approaches pillar topic selection.
Since our topic is “real estate SEO” we’ll actually use that as the basis for this topic / article.
Step 1: Head over to the search console and search SEO-related keywords:
I like to sort them by impressions (note you actually have to rank top 100 to actually register impressions, so hopefully you have done “some” SEO already.
Step 2: Group the related terms (that might fit on the same page or topic) and discard any phrases that are too generic or not targetted enough to justify SEO
In this case “Real Estate SEO” and “SEO Real Estate” are just the reverse of each other, so they are fine to be on the same page (with some supporting pillar pages for each variation of course)
Then I see some other ones like “SEO for real estate” and “SEO for Realtors”
I’m going to make a note of the “for” keyword and dig down deeper, it might make sense to do a pillar around “for” keywords.
What else is in there “Services” “experts” “company” “agency”
There is lots of themes! So for each that I decided to go after, I am going to drill down a bit further and see if there are extra keywords I should take note for
Let’s use the “SEO for” keyword to drill down. I’m going to zoom out to 16 months (as far back as I can go) and see what I come up with.
Check it out, there are LOTS of keywords and impressions for that keyword
Looks like I have a winner for a pillar: “SEO for” (and all related keyword phrases)
Now since there are so many logical sub topics, it is also perfect for a pillar since each sub topic can be used to create several content types (in my case sub pages, blog posts and forum posts).
Step 3: Now that I’ve grouped some terms, it’s time for me to come up with a content strategy for how I am going to create the pillar. This is pretty simple in most cases since there is typically a most competitive term or phase and then logical sub phrases.
So since the highest traffic term (and likely most competitive) is “SEO for real estate” - I am going to make that my main page.
I know that I’ll need to create as super awesome main page, but also sub-pages around the topic. in my case these will be somewhat commercial/lead generation pages.
From there, I need to ensure I have a logical way to create other content using the “related terms” using “SEO for real estate”
Let’s use this very post as the first example - notice anything about the title? It has “SEO for real estate” in it 
And it’s long-form, interactive, experiential and authoritative (and if I’m lucky I’ll get some great comments, likes and shares on social from it too)
Another format I’ll create a blog post. Instead of making it a learning article like this one (which encourages interaction) I’ll put a bit more effort into graphics, layout, and structure and ensure I am clearly identified as an “authority” within the topic.
I’ll probably also create some FAQ’s since that such an easy quick win for increasing CTR and adding additional keyword variations to the page.
Step 4 link your SEO for real estate content together.
Once I create the actual main landing page, I’ll come back here and ensure I link back to it. I’ll also link all the other keyword phrases that eventually will have main pages, blog posts etc within the context of the article as well, creating the pillar structure I’m looking for.
Step 5: Get programmatic with your SEO (advanced)
I plan on creating a lot of content, and then linking it together. Having to do that manually is a real pain, so since I am using database powered content platforms (REW Blogs, forums, CMS etc) with some creative programming I can create quick ways to automatically reference related content.
For example here on the forums, it has a native “tags” function. So I had my programmers create me a module that allows me to reference those tags on a page.
So let’s say I use the “SEO” tag -
Now I can go into my module, and on my SEO page, I can include that tag dynamically, so all future articles with that tag show where I want them to
Like so: (I created one for blogs as well, and since we were in there, we also created some extra options like choosing from specific design styles we custom created, and also determining if we want to limit how many of the most recent posts go on the page, if we us the images that sort of thing)
Pretty cool right?
Now when I write blog posts and forum posts, I can super easily connect them together using this tagging system.
And I get really nice, keyword rich, topic specific outputs on my page:
Like so
Blog example output
Forum output:
I even used my “tags” as labels in the output to ensure we are always getting contextual references within the element.
I get this is a bit of a complex tactic for creating pillars, but hopefully it helps create some ideas of your own when you’re doing SEO for real estate, and of course (as always) please feel free to leave a comment or question below if you’re curious what any of this means, or if you have other ideas or suggestions.