Publish the pillar page first or the supporting posts?

Publish the pillar page first or the supporting posts?
Q: Starting a new cluster. Big pillar guide first, or the small posts?

A: Short answer: supporting posts first, pillar last.

Longer answer: a pillar published into a vacuum has nothing to link to and nothing linking to it — it just sits there thin. If you write 6-8 specific supporting posts first, you learn the subject deeply, you find the real subtopics readers ask about, and by the time you write the pillar you can link out to genuine depth and pull those posts up with you. The pillar becomes a real hub, not a lonely table of contents.

Exception: if you're targeting a competitive head term and need a foundation URL indexed early, stub the pillar, then flesh it out as the cluster fills in.

Anyone want me to go deeper on this? React 👍