Design a pillar page outline that actually unifies a scattered set of existing posts instead of duplicating them

Pillar page purpose: Everything a small business needs to know about 1099 contractor compliance.

Existing related posts (title + brief summary each): '1099 vs W2: What's the Difference' (basic comparison); '5 Contractor Misclassification Red Flags' (compliance-focused); 'How to Send a 1099-NEC' (tax filing mechanics); '1099 vs W2: Which Should You Hire' (near-duplicate of the first post, different angle).

Business goal for readers landing on this pillar: Trust us enough to start a free trial of our contractor payment and compliance tool.

Before outlining anything, first sort the existing posts into three categories: posts that should become sections summarized within the pillar with a link out to the full post, posts that substantially overlap with each other and should probably be merged into one before the pillar links to it, and posts that don't actually belong under this topic even though they're tagged similarly and should stay unlinked from this pillar. Explain your reasoning for anything in the second or third category — do not just move it silently.

Then draft the pillar page outline itself as H2/H3 headings that represent the complete topic at a survey level, each with one line describing what that section covers directly on the pillar page (not just a link) and which existing post(s), if any, it should link out to for depth. The pillar page's own text must add real value beyond being a table of contents — each section needs enough original framing that someone who reads only the pillar and clicks nothing still understood the topic at a useful level.

Flag any part of the topic that isn't covered by any existing post — these are new subtopics we'd need to write, not just link to.

End with a one-paragraph internal linking note: which existing posts should link back up to this new pillar, and any anchor text suggestions that would need updating on those pages.

Output as: (1) the sort of existing posts into the three categories with reasoning, (2) the full H2/H3 outline with linking notes, (3) the coverage gaps, (4) the backlink note.