Pillar Content

Pillar content is the handful of pages you most want to rank: the guide that covers a subject end to end, the main service page, the page every related post should point to. From version 0.0.31, Hydrogen SEO lets you mark those pages, shows a Pillar badge beside them on the Posts screen, and adds a filter that lists the pillar pages with too few internal links pointing to them. Nothing is printed or changed on the front end of your site. It is free and needs no account.

Mark a page as pillar content

In the editor

1. Open the post or page and open the SEO Settings sheet.
2. Open the Robots Meta section.
3. Switch on Pillar content. Its description reads: "Mark the pages you most want to rank. They get a badge on the Posts screen and a filter to find the ones with few links pointing to them."
4. Save.

The switch is there for posts, pages and custom post types that have the sheet. It is not shown for categories, tags or other terms.

With Quick Edit

On Posts → All Posts (or Pages, or another post type), hover a row, click Quick Edit, tick Pillar content in the SEO fields and click Update. Only a field you changed is saved.

With Bulk Edit

1. Tick the posts, choose Edit from Bulk actions and click Apply.
2. Under the SEO fields, set Pillar content to Mark as pillar content or Not pillar content. — No Change — leaves each post as it is.
3. Click Update.

The Pillar badge

A marked post shows a Pillar badge in the SEO column of its list screen, next to its score and indexing status. Hovering it reads "Pillar content: one of the pages you most want to rank." The badge appears whatever the post's status, so a draft you have marked carries it too.

Find pillar content

The All SEO dropdown above the list has two new options. Choose one and click Filter.

The filters combine with the category and date filters beside them, and apply to the post type whose list you are on. Check Pages and Posts separately if you have pillar content in both.

The under-linked filter

A pillar page should be the best-linked page on its subject. The second filter finds the ones that are not.

• It needs the internal link counter. The filter reads the "posts link here" number kept by the internal link counter, so it is listed only while Count Internal Links is on under Hydrogen SEO → General → Links. With counting off, the option is not in the dropdown; the plain Pillar content filter still is.
• Incoming links are counted in posts, not links. A post that links to the pillar page three times is one. Only links written into the content of published posts count; menus, widgets, footers and archive listings do not.
• Posts without a count are not listed. A draft, or a published post the counter has not reached yet, has no number, so nothing is known about its links. While the first count of an existing site is running, a notice above the list says: "Hydrogen SEO is still counting the links in your existing content. Until it finishes, this list can miss pillar content whose links have not been counted yet."
• Three is a default, not a rule. Developers can change the number with the filter below, and the option's label changes with it.

What to do with the list

For each page in the list, find posts on the same subject (the search box on the Posts screen is enough) and add a link to the pillar page from the ones where a reader would want it, in a sentence, with anchor text that says what the page is about. Save those posts and the count updates. A method with examples is in pillar pages and internal links.

What marking a page does not do

• It does not change the page's title, meta tags, schema, sitemap entry or anything else visitors or search engines receive. Search engines cannot see the flag.
• It does not change the SEO score or how it is calculated.
• It does not add links for you. It tells you where links are missing.

The flag is for you and the people you work with: a short, visible list of the pages that matter most, kept where content is managed.

Imported from your previous plugin

Import SEO Data now brings cornerstone and pillar flags across from Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO, so pages you had marked there arrive already marked. A flag the previous plugin held on a category or tag is listed in the import report, since pillar content can be marked on posts and pages only.

Where the data is kept

One post meta row per marked post. Unmarking a post removes the row. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Limits

• The under-linked filter depends on the link counter, with its limits: it sees links in post content only, and counts are updated when posts are saved.
• There is no site-wide list across post types. Each list screen shows its own post type.
• Terms cannot be marked. Category and tag archives have no flag.
• The flag carries no weight by itself. Marking forty pages as pillar content makes the list as long as the problem it was meant to shorten.

Developer filter

hydrogen_seo_pillar_min_incoming_links

Filters the number of incoming internal links below which pillar content is listed by the under-linked filter. One argument: $min (int, default 3, at least 1).

// Expect at least five posts to link to each pillar page.
add_filter( 'hydrogen_seo_pillar_min_incoming_links', function () {
    return 5;
} );

With this in place the option reads Pillar content with fewer than 5 incoming links.

Performance

Nothing is read or printed on the front end. On the list screens the badge reads one post meta value per row, and each filter is a meta query on one or two keys.

FAQ

Is pillar content the same as cornerstone content?

Yes. Different tools use different names for the same idea: the pages you most want to rank and that related content should link to.

Why is the "fewer than 3 incoming links" option missing?

Link counting is off. Switch on Count Internal Links under Hydrogen SEO → General → Links and let the count finish.

I marked a page but it is not in the under-linked list, though nothing links to it. Why?

It has no count yet. Either it is not published, or the first count has not reached it. A published post shows Links not counted yet in the SEO column until it has been read.

Does marking a page help it rank?

Not by itself. Nothing about the page changes. What helps is what you do with the list: making sure each marked page has links from related posts, and that it is kept up to date.

How many pages should I mark?

As many as you would name without looking: usually one per main subject or service. If a page would not be among the first you would show a new customer or reader, it is probably not pillar content.

Can a menu link count as an incoming link?

No. The counter reads links in post content. A pillar page that is in the main menu is reachable, and still benefits from links in the text of related posts, which carry context a menu link does not.

Related reading

• Internal link counter and orphaned content
• SEO on the Posts screen
• The SEO settings sheet
• Pillar page and topic clusters in the glossary
• Pillar pages and internal links: finding the under-linked ones
• Internal linking strategy