# Pillar pages and supporting pages

## What it does

Each pillar in the content strategy has one **pillar page**: the main page for that topic. The **supporting pages** are the other pages and articles filed under the pillar. Nexus uses both when it writes. A supporting article links up to its pillar page and to its sibling pages, and the pillar page links down to its supporting pages. The brief tells the writer which of the two a piece is.

A pillar is a topic the client chooses to own. A keyword theme is a group of searches in the keyword universe. A pillar lists the keyword themes it covers.

## Set it up

1. The content strategy must exist; its pillars are the client's pillars.
2. **"Show each pillar's pages."** Nexus lists every pillar with its pillar page, its supporting pages and its keyword themes. Where no pillar page is set, it suggests one.
3. Choose the pillar page: **"Use the suggested pillar page for Emergency Repair."** or **"Make /services/ac-repair the pillar page for Emergency Repair."**

On the internal link inventory dashboard, the Pillars table shows the same list. Accept a suggestion there, or use "Make pillar page" on any page row.

When a website sitemap is approved, each pillar's hub page in it becomes that pillar's pillar page if the pillar has none yet. A pillar that already has one keeps it, and Nexus tells you the sitemap chose a different page.

## Check and curate

- Pages are filed under a pillar automatically when Nexus reads the site's sitemap. Change a page's pillar in the Pillar column of the dashboard, or ask: **"These pages belong to the Maintenance pillar: /blog/filters, /blog/tune-up."**
- Take a page out of every pillar: **"/blog/company-news doesn't belong to any pillar."**
- A page you file yourself stays where you put it; automatic tagging won't move it again.
- **"Which pillars have no pillar page?"** The content calendar also names them when it plans new pieces, and content QA warns when an article doesn't link up to its pillar page.
- A keyword theme should belong to one pillar. Nexus flags a theme two pillars share, on the dashboard and after a strategy edit.

## Troubleshooting

- **Nexus says the page is already another pillar's pillar page.** A page can be the pillar page of only one pillar. Remove it there first: "Remove the pillar page for Maintenance."
- **Nexus says the client still reads its pillars from content-clusters.json.** The client has an older second list of pillars. Unify it first: "Unify the content pillars."
- **Nexus says the page isn't in the site inventory yet.** It's saved as the pillar page. Internal links to it start once Nexus has read it from the sitemap: "Reingest the sitemap."

## Prompts

- "Show each pillar's pages."
- "Which pillars have no pillar page?"
- "Use the suggested pillar page for Emergency Repair."
- "Make /services/ac-repair the pillar page for Emergency Repair."
- "Remove the pillar page for Maintenance."
- "These pages belong to the Maintenance pillar: /blog/filters, /blog/tune-up."
- "/blog/company-news doesn't belong to any pillar."