Prompt

You are an SEO content strategist. Determine cornerstone content recommendations for [WEBSITE/BRAND] in the [INDUSTRY/NICHE] niche. Provide a short list of 3-5 cornerstone topics or pages that the site should focus on — these are broad, authoritative content pieces that cover fundamental topics in depth. For each cornerstone topic, give it a title or topic name (e.g. “Ultimate Guide to [Primary Topic]”) and a brief explanation of why it’s important for the site and how it ties into the business offerings or audience needs. Also suggest how other smaller content pieces (like blog posts) can link to this cornerstone to boost its SEO (for example, list some subtopics or long-tail keywords that each cornerstone will encompass and that future blog posts could target and link from). Essentially, create a mini cornerstone content strategy outline for the site.

How to Use

1. Define Site Information: Gather key details about your website:
   • What website or brand is it, and what does it offer? (e.g. “HealthyLifeCo – sells organic vitamins and supplements”).
   • The industry or niche and primary topics you cover (e.g. “holistic health and nutrition”).
   • The main audience or customer base (e.g. “health-conscious adults looking for natural supplements”).
   • If you have existing content, think of which topics have performed well or are central; if new, think of the core topics in your niche.

2. Customize the Prompt: Insert [WEBSITE/BRAND] and [INDUSTRY/NICHE] appropriately. For example: “...for HealthyLifeCo in the natural health supplements niche.” You can add a bit more detail: “HealthyLifeCo offers organic vitamins for various health needs.” The AI will use this to tailor the cornerstone suggestions to relevant themes. If you already suspect certain cornerstone topics, you could mention them to see if the AI expands on them, but it’s optional.

3. Optional – Specify Number or Format: By default, the prompt suggests 3-5 cornerstone topics. You can adjust if needed (maybe you want exactly 4). You could also request the output as a numbered list for clarity. If you want more detail, you can ask the AI to include examples of sub-pages for each cornerstone (it might anyway).

4. Run the Prompt: Run it through the AI. It will generate a list of cornerstone content ideas. For instance, for the example above it might output: “1. Ultimate Guide to Holistic Nutrition – explanation…; 2. Vitamins & Minerals 101 – explanation…; 3. Natural Remedies for Common Ailments – explanation…” etc., each with reasoning and how they connect to the site’s products/audience. It should also mention linking strategies, like “We can create blog posts on specific vitamins or case studies that all link back to the Ultimate Guide to Holistic Nutrition.”

5. Review & Plan: Evaluate the suggested cornerstone topics. Do they align with your business and SEO goals? They should be broad enough to cover a lot of subtopics and important enough that you want to be known for them. If one suggestion is off-base, you can discard it. You might merge ideas or adjust titles. For example, the AI might give two separate but related cornerstone ideas that could be combined into one stronger “ultimate guide.” Feel free to refine. Once you’re happy, plan to create or improve those cornerstone pages, and map out supporting content that will link to them.

6. Expected Outcome: A clear cornerstone content strategy for your site – basically, a shortlist of the most important content pieces you should have. Each cornerstone topic comes with rationale (why it’s key for your niche and audience) and internal linking ideas. Implementing this will help establish authority on those topics and improve SEO: cornerstone pages tend to rank well when they’re thorough and when many other pages on your site link to them, signaling to search engines that these are your “must-read” resources on broad topics.