Pearce Webster Dugdales - Authoritative Content Strategy

Pearce Webster Authoritative Content Strategy

Summary

The Pearce Webster site should build out more content on the services category and services pages, before fully committing to news/blog posts. The services category pages can be adjusted by adding a table of contents and interlinking pages together in a topic structure.

Goal

The goal of this authoritative content strategy is to build and structure content that will increase the authority of the site. Site authority is when Google sees a website as a trusted source on a topic and will use excerpts and other information from that site to answer user search queries. This authority is a major ranking factor for a site and can greatly increase page rank site wide.

We have built a strategy and generated a content plan and guidelines to increase the site’s authority by building structured and authoritative blog content.

Content Strategy

The current content strategy is inline with the strategy we would recommend, however there are a few changes that would optimise the structure from both an SEO and UX perspective. When building out an authoritative content strategy using a topic cluster model, we are looking to develop three aspects - pillar pages, sub topic pages, and structured interlinking. The pillar page links down to subtopic (blog) pages, that will in-turn either link further down to more specific subtopic pages or instead link back up to the pillar page. This type of structured interlinking is used to direct the flow of authority to the correct pages. Below is a visual representation of the Topic Cluster Model.

Pillar Page

A pillar page will be the centre of the content strategy. The idea behind the pillar page is essentially to create a large blog page that encapsulates the entirety of a targeted topic. The pillar page broadly covers the topic as a whole by addressing frequently asked questions/searches and other relevant information, which will then have links to more detailed information about the specific subtopic/question being covered.

Sub-topic/general blog pages

These are additional pages created to answer the questions in more depth. These pages will have more specific subtopics or general blog content that is relevant to the pillar page topic. For example, if ‘movies’ is the topic for your pillar page, ‘romance movies’ or ‘comedy movies’ would be subtopics that you could go into more depth about in separate blog articles.

Pearce Webster Dugdales

In the case of Pearce Webster Dugdales, the blog section encompasses the service categories and service subcategory pages. The service category pages are currently set up as the ‘pillar page’, and the subcategory pages act as the subtopic pages. The site uses large ‘services-category/family-law/ ‘ style pages with topic headings and content that links out to ‘read more’ pages like ‘services/parenting-and-childrens-orders/’.

This structure is already effective for building authority, but can be improved with a few technical optimisation adjustments.

Content Map

Content Creation

Content created for the pillar and sub topic pages should be done in such a way that it will appeal to both search engines and users. We will provide a set of guidelines for the content and the structure of the content to ensure that it is seen as authoritative.

Pillar Page

Pearce Webster Dugdales has pillar pages set up under the categories:

• Commercial Law
• Estate Administration
• Family Law
• Litigation and Dispute Resolution
• Property Law
• Wills and Succession Planning

Sub-topic/general blog pages

Pearce Webster Dugdales already answer a majority of the questions asked by clients on their subcategory pages, however, we have compiled a list of topics based on related searches on Google that would be beneficial to answer. Answering these questions would allow Google to take excerpts from the Pearce Webster Dugdales website to provide as answers to searchers, and would therefore increase authority in Google’s eyes and increase overall site rank.

Here is an example of additional queries that Pearce Webster Dugdales could answer on the Family Law pillar page:

Family Law

• What is the concept of family law?
• What age can a child refuse to see a parent in Australia?
• What are the main features of family law?
• Can a mother deny a father Access Australia?
• Can a mother keep the child away from the father?
• Can I stop my ex partner from seeing my child?
• How much contact should a father have?
• Can a mother take a child without father's permission?
• Can I stop my son seeing his dad's new girlfriend?

For more examples of subtopics to cover head to the document linked below.

Recommended Improvements

Table of contents

One recommendation we have is to include a table of contents on each service category page that allows users to jump to specific topics from the top of the page. A table of contents that links to all the headings on the services-category pages is an effective means of not only increasing user experience, but helping Google associate each section of these large pages with corresponding keywords and headings.

Structured Interlinking

We will establish a structure for keywords to be interlinked from the services-category to the services pages to direct authority where we want it to go. We will optimise this strategy and will update it when new content is added to each page.

Conclusion

To conclude, Pearce Webster Dugdales already employs a good content structure in regards to topical authority. The only updates we would suggest would be to add in a table of contents to each page, employ structured linking, and utilise the subtopics we have found based on commonly asked questions on Google as a basis to continue adding content to the pages.

Mapping Data and Analysis

The content guidelines can be found here

The content data and information can be found here