Silo Arcitecture Linking Question

[jurky]

Originally Posted by James-

Hi Yukon,

I am now trying to set up an authority site based on this format, the layout is exactly what I am after. In principle it seemed pretty easy but as always, i have run into unforeseen complications.

By setting my site up like this, I assume we should be using the permalinks /%category%/%Postname%

Going by your example, i assume your green landing page for 'stop dog barking' is a category page. By doing this one of the posts within that category will turn out to be like this:
http://domain.com/stop-dog-barking/s...g-in-the-crate

...and that's fine. Exactly as i want it.

My issue is that for that green landing page you mention, that is the page I would want to rank for the term stop dog barking since i have supporting posts linking to that page etc.

So we have 5 posts or so, all linking to the green category page which doesn't have a unique post on. It simply has a link to related posts or excerpts.

What I am trying to achieve is having that green landing page showing as a unique post or page just like the 5 linking to it with the URL: http://domain.com/stop-dog-barking

How is this possible? For me it is highly important that the green landing page is showing a unique page worth of content, not some pointless category page where it links to posts already showing in my sidebar or to anything else that is already available via another link

Really have no idea where to go with this one!

James

Hey there. You need Thesis or Headway themes to do this. You can set the category page as you like (if you want the category page to actually have real unique content on it...to make it look like a post). Clickbump can also do this.

[webjedi]

I have built my pages in silo form in last couple days pretty stupid using a SERP ranking #3 site to screw around with .. Now I am researching if I want to make the links in my drop down menu nofollow.

I am thinking about PR flow here and have each silo flow down and up .. the silo.
All advice I have seen is every silo page links to every other page in the silo. I am wondering if each silo page should link home.

I no-followed my home button already but should I nofollow the menu? Seems totally logical to me.

WJ

[outwest]

I doubt thesis or headway can do a true silo

Clickbump? yes they can, . As far as I know though, Clickbump is the ONLY wordpress theme engine capable of this


its not as simple though as 1,2 3, silo structure. You need to study what a true silo structure is, so that you can ensure you turn off and turn on what needs to be turned off and on. Silo cant be learned in one day. It took me several months to really understand it

by the way , Yukon is the resident Silo Expert. anyone here who learned it on the board learned it from him

[jurky]

Just a note, I'll be coding a perfect silo-ed (as per Yukon's instructions), SEO-d theme for Blogspot, and I'll share it for free to anyone who joins the WSO project of Packerfan here. I am in no way, shape or form affiliated with him, but when I saw that people can still post honest sales pitches which only promise hard work, I decided to help out (for people that don't have the thesis Theme).

[webjedi]

Originally Posted by outwest

its not as simple though as 1,2 3, silo structure. You need to study what a true silo structure is, so that you can ensure you turn off and turn on what needs to be turned off and on. Silo cant be learned in one day. It took me several months to really understand it

Disagree it's 1,2,3 no problem sheesh I just never thought of spreading around the pr throughout the silo. I think of it like a linkwheel.

I suppose having it all linking on all silo'd pages will be fine. I want to leak the PR from each page to the home page, tempting and might do it....

[pspro]

This is a really informative silo linking thread, thank you to all the contributors! One thing that I have not seen covered is what to do with the necessary website pages, the "contact","privacy","disclaimer","TOS"??

Can anyone share insight on how to handle these pages?

Obviously they are not related to the silos so they would be breaking the "link leak" rule so what do you do with them? I thought about putting them in their own category/folder/silo (whatever you want to call it) and that makes sense to me but where would the links go for this?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by outwest

I doubt thesis or headway can do a true silo

I just set up my first authority site using Thesis. Kinda follow a similar structure to what's been described in this thread. You need to play around with custom code a bit, but it's definitely doable and the site looks ****ing awesome! So excited!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by pspro

This is a really informative silo linking thread, thank you to all the contributors! One thing that I have not seen covered is what to do with the necessary website pages, the "contact","privacy","disclaimer","TOS"??

Can anyone share insight on how to handle these pages?

Obviously they are not related to the silos so they would be breaking the "link leak" rule so what do you do with them? I thought about putting them in their own category/folder/silo (whatever you want to call it) and that makes sense to me but where would the links go for this?

That's a good question & it totally depends on what your monetizing the site with. For example, If I remember correct the Google pdf for Adsense that was leaked mentioned something about turning on/off javascript, when a manual review was being done.

Javascript is the best way to control link flow on a page, however I strongly suggest that you don't use javascript to create links to any pages that are required by the Adsense TOS (Privacy Policy page, etc...).

For pages like the Privacy Policy that are required by the Adsense TOS I would simply do a NOFOLLOW on the link. The NOFOLLOW tag sucks as far as controlling PR leaks, but it's about the best you can do. I would also do a NOINDEX on the actual Privacy Policy page & similar page types.

I would add those types of pages to a Wordpress Page (not post), since they don't really need a category or a feed for those page types.

[bnetwork]

yukon, got a quick question.

Using your site structure (I used a different structure building my 1st large site - same result though), how do you create the homepage?

I assume the homepage should be "static"? Do you just assign a static homepage in WP settings (in which case, what do you choose for a blog page? Just leave it empty? Your posts go on the blog page...).

Thanks!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

yukon, got a quick question.

Using your site structure (I used a different structure building my 1st large site - same result though), how do you create the homepage?

I assume the homepage should be "static"? Do you just assign a static homepage in WP settings (in which case, what do you choose for a blog page? Just leave it empty? Your posts go on the blog page...).

Thanks!

I noticed your running the Thesis WP-theme, I'm not sure what that theme can do as far as a WP-Category page.

The silo theme I'm working on now is setup so that I can write a 100% unique article directly on the WP-Category page, it's not a blog Post, it's not a WP-Page, it's not a redirect of any kind, it's an actual WP-Category Page. I create my WP-Category article directly inside the WP-Category Admin page. I have this WP-Category Article code already up & running & tested, works great.

When you land on my themes WP-Category page you would think your looking at a regular blog Post, instead it's an actual Category page. Then I link out from that Category Article page to all the WP blog Post inside that Category.

Notice the example below, that would be my WP-Category page/article, the links below the Category Article are all the WP-Post inside that same Category.

This example below would be my silo landing page (Category page).

Red Cars

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec ac nulla magna. Cras eu magna erat. Suspendisse scelerisque pretium leo, in porta nibh tristique in. Nullam molestie tellus ut mi porttitor suscipit. Morbi urna magna, condimentum vel iaculis quis, fermentum eget leo. Pellentesque vitae mi urna, vulputate sagittis tellus. Maecenas sodales dignissim velit eget porttitor. Donec iaculis viverra turpis, in placerat ipsum vestibulum id. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Duis sollicitudin iaculis leo at convallis. Phasellus pharetra, diam eget pellentesque auctor, enim odio vulputate nisl, id mollis ipsum metus non massa. Nullam ac ultricies metus. Aliquam faucibus lobortis dolor in fringilla. Integer vel libero non lectus dignissim accumsan quis in neque. Phasellus sit amet mauris pharetra neque varius porttitor. Duis euismod sollicitudin est, in tempus tellus scelerisque sed.

Some things about Red Cars
Aenean nec quam et dui vestibulum rhoncus a a mi. Curabitur semper dui vitae velit mattis in sodales arcu auctor. Proin hendrerit eleifend mi, sit amet dapibus sapien eleifend nec. Etiam sed tellus et lectus convallis sagittis. Vestibulum sed pharetra elit. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aenean eu risus libero. Quisque semper orci in dolor auctor eu rhoncus nibh facilisis. Vestibulum quis nunc dui. Duis ultrices nisl magna. Curabitur dictum nulla at magna fringilla sagittis. Praesent tortor ipsum, congue eget malesuada vitae, tempor sit amet quam. Quisque mi dui, mollis tempor congue vitae, tempus id mi. Cras libero dolor, vestibulum at condimentum vitae, placerat sit amet leo.

More things about Red Cars
Donec adipiscing, mauris in dignissim sagittis, magna metus cursus metus, ac varius elit mi quis lectus. Nulla id risus sem. Maecenas posuere euismod arcu a accumsan. Vivamus ultrices nisl pulvinar nulla ullamcorper egestas. Mauris vitae orci in orci rutrum suscipit. Aenean pulvinar aliquet sapien, ut placerat lectus aliquet ac. Mauris vitae consectetur sapien. Donec dignissim nibh vitae eros vestibulum pulvinar rutrum tellus venenatis. Aenean eget commodo mauris. Integer luctus pretium faucibus. Ut convallis sollicitudin pellentesque. Sed gravida ante id nisi dapibus imperdiet eu nec justo. Cras nec turpis in est interdum molestie.

Even more things about Red Cars
Morbi eget nisl vel massa consequat rutrum. In suscipit placerat sapien, a facilisis magna faucibus nec. Etiam auctor ultrices tortor sed ullamcorper. Phasellus nec purus quam, quis commodo magna. Fusce a tortor odio, condimentum condimentum tortor. Aliquam non venenatis est. Nam vestibulum justo magna, nec malesuada massa. Mauris elementum aliquet velit, sit amet scelerisque enim vestibulum sed. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Duis molestie vehicula lorem in bibendum. Etiam lacinia dictum vulputate. Morbi justo sem, cursus sit amet viverra quis, commodo in metus. Nulla facilisi. Sed tempor mattis odio, et porta odio scelerisque eu.


New Red Cars are Fast
Red Cars Have Tires
Red Cars are Made in the USA
Xinc Recalls Red Cars
Red Cars are Safe
Red Cars make a Great Tax Deduction

The Index page would contain links pointing at all my WP-Categories (landing pages). What you do with your Index page really is all about the WP-theme & will take some custom WP code. I link to my Categories on the Index page like most blogs link to their recent WP-Post.

I don't link to any WP-Post from the Index page, only Categories, well that & my Privacy Policy etc... You can still fill the page up with content in the sidebars & footer, you just have to be creative in how you display the content (javascript, etc...).

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by yukon

I noticed your running the Thesis WP-theme, I'm not sure what that theme can do as far as a WP-Category page.
<snip>

Cool, thanks for the reply man. I get the structure, not a problem. I've a blog running on Thesis with category pages just as you have described (unique content, looks like a blog post/page).

Ignore my question - just realised I was looking at a batch of blogs that were set up in a different way (client asked for some random custom permalink stuff). Got a bit confused.

[JB777]

Originally Posted by yukon

The silo theme I'm working on now is setup so that I can write a 100% unique article directly on the WP-Category page, it's not a blog Post, it's not a WP-Page, it's not a redirect of any kind, it's an actual WP-Category Page. I create my WP-Category article directly inside the WP-Category Admin page. I have this WP-Category Article code already up & running & tested, works great.

Approx how many words have you been using for these? I've only been using short descriptions, 150 words or less.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by JB777

Approx how many words have you been using for these? I've only been using short descriptions, 150 words or less.

Depends how many pages you have in the Category. I use the category page to summarize each individual WP-Post page with a single paragraph per WP-Post, in that same category.

I do suggest you keep everything on the Category article/page 100% unique, otherwise you'll have pages ending up in supplemental SERPs because of duplicate pages.

[LEIVA]

Yukon thanks for all the info, now what about having a existing site not a silo structure just a regular blog with 20 post.

1: I was thinking in remove and start again or re-structure the site with the silo structure.

2: Or buy a new domain and apply the silo from scratch

i will prefer the option 1 with re-structure but doing that will make the site go down or up and stronger.

What you think

[The Expert]

Here's how I build silo structures with wordpress:

1) Scategory Permalinks Plugin - this plugin allows you to easily build your site with a silo structure in the yoursite.com/category/postname format. So if you were running iphoneaccessories.com and were looking to optimize for "iphone covers" you would just create that category and then assign it as the "primary" category via scategory permalinks when creating the post.

The primary category is what gets built into the url. So if you have a blue hardshell cover from siefer and create the post you might assign it to the iphone accessories, iphone covers, siefer products, and siefer iphone covers categories but the main purpose of the post is to strengthen your silo category page for "iphone covers". So when building the post you select all those cateogries and then set "iphone covers" as the primary. The structure would then be iphoneaccessories.com/iphone-covers/blue-siefer-hardcase-iphone-cover/

2) Build Custom Category Silo Pages - I hate the category pages which Wordpress builds. They are not flexible or easy to customize. So I build a custom page with a custom template which allows me to type my intro content as normal but I then assign a few variables to custom fields (like the category #) and when the page is published it displays the intro content like a page but it also runs a list of the most recent posts in blog-style format below it.

I only have it display the 7 Newest Posts in the category and then there is a link to a full index (also a custom designed page) which lists all the items in that category in alphabetical order (instead of order of publication) with pagination at the bottom.

In order to avoid any duplicate content issues, I build all posts with a custom excerpt. The main silo pages (with the 7 newest posts) display the initial 350 characters of the post using the_content() and then the alphabetical index pages display the blurb using the_excerpt(). This way not only is the what is shown on the main silo category page different in order from what is shown on the index page, it's also completely different because the content displayed is different.

3) Redirect Category URLS - Once everything is set to go, I 301 Redirect the Category URLs to the main Silo page that I'm working to rank.

[segaituk]

Absolutely useful thread for newbie like me. Thanks to Yukon for sharing his knowledge.
I do understand the whole idea of having a one main page per keyword we want to rank and bunch of supporting pages linking to it. However there is one thing I seem not to be able to grasp. Even started a thread on my own (before I found this one), but not much activity in there. So I would like to ask here as well, hoping that Yukon or someone else could provide some explanation:

Should this keyword “main page” (talking about wp) be:
a) static page
b) the category page with structure /%category%/%postname%
c) any single post page we choose

From what I see in the Yukon’s chart it is most likely the category page. If so, then the question about the page content comes. No permanent content in the page, unless we put a static text in there.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by segaituk

Absolutely useful thread for newbie like me. Thanks to Yukon for sharing his knowledge.
I do understand the whole idea of having a one main page per keyword we want to rank and bunch of supporting pages linking to it. However there is one thing I seem not to be able to grasp. Even started a thread on my own (before I found this one), but not much activity in there. So I would like to ask here as well, hoping that Yukon or someone else could provide some explanation:

Should this keyword “main page” (talking about wp) be:
a) static page
b) the category page with structure /%category%/%postname%
c) any single post page we choose

From what I see in the Yukon’s chart it is most likely the category page. If so, then the question about the page content comes. No permanent content in the page, unless we put a static text in there.

It would be like this:

Example Silo-1:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Stop dog barking
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Stop dog barking at night

Example Silo-2:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Dog food
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Best dog food for older dogs

Example Silo-3:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Dog kennels
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Dog kennels for large dogs

Notice the keyword patterns per silo, the index page keyword stays the same since it's the root keyword/page.

[segaituk]

Originally Posted by yukon

It would be like this:

Example Silo-1:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Stop dog barking
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Stop dog barking at night

Example Silo-2:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Dog food
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Best dog food for older dogs

Example Silo-3:
1) Index page keyword = Dog
2) Category page keyword = Dog kennels
3) Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Dog kennels for large dogs

Notice the keyword patterns per silo, the index page keyword stays the same since it's the root keyword/page.

Yes, thank you! I got that the category page are the main URLs to rank for different long tail keywords like “stop dog barking”, “dog food”, etc.. . What I have now is niche site with 5 different longtail keywords I would like to rank for. They don’t have the same phonetic root with common word like “dog” although they are closely related within the same field. For example: “Plastic surgeon”, “how to find good plastic surgeon”, “the best breast implants”,”the best lips implant” with domain plasticsurgeon.com.

So what I thought of doing was to try ranking the index page (with static text on it) for the most relevant to the domain keyword “plastic surgeon” and have category for each of the rest of the keywords with the category URL as the main target page and all the new coming post pages supporting and link pointing their categories.

I is that right way to go? An also, as mentioned, if the categories pages have changing short excerpts from the posts won’t that hurt it SEOwise?

[jurky]

Hey guys, I'm building a new web site which covers on page SEO from scratch, and I go into every possible detail that I can think of. One of the topics that I came to is the Silo structure.

Everything is completely free, no opt ins, nothing. You can check it here, I hope that you'll understand some silo principles in more detail:

www.voiceofseo.com

Keep in mind that I'm still building this page (my estimations that it will take about a full month to finish it completely), but in the end, its gonna be worth it, I promise .

[mightiest]

My question is pretty simple -- how do you back up the pages that are in the silo?

Let's say I have a website about rock climbing and the main keyword I'm trying to rank for is "rock climbing," but I've also found that related KWs like "how to do rock climbing," "rock climbing equipment," and "rock climbing technique" are also pretty non-competitive and I want to rank for them.

Is it best to structure my site as so:

Category: Rock Climbing

• how to do rock climbing
• rock climbing equipment
• rock climbing technique

Or with each of those KWs as its own category and then have content supporting each one? I ask because it seems to me like you're going to wind up with a lot of redundant support articles in the 2nd method.

[eshapard]

The SEO Ultimate wordpress plugin does a pretty good job of creating a silo. You can replace the regular categories widget with a silo categories widget. It shows your categories on the home page, and links to category posts in category pages. SEO Ultimate will also get rid of 'category' in your category page urls. There's also a feature called deep-link juggernaut that automatically creates links to certain posts where the anchor text you define exists in another post. You can confine this to only posts within the same category.... Maybe not the most ideal silo, but pretty good for a free plugin.

[money200]

Excellent Chart Yuko,These charts are giving me full overview of Links.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by mightiest

My question is pretty simple -- how do you back up the pages that are in the silo?

Let's say I have a website about rock climbing and the main keyword I'm trying to rank for is "rock climbing," but I've also found that related KWs like "how to do rock climbing," "rock climbing equipment," and "rock climbing technique" are also pretty non-competitive and I want to rank for them.

Is it best to structure my site as so:

Category: Rock Climbing

• how to do rock climbing
• rock climbing equipment
• rock climbing technique

Or with each of those KWs as its own category and then have content supporting each one? I ask because it seems to me like you're going to wind up with a lot of redundant support articles in the 2nd method.

"How to do rock climbing" & "Rock climbing technique" are basically the same things so you wouldn't want two separate categories for the same subject. I would keep one & use the other as a supporting page title/keyword.

I would do something like this below for the rest of the keywords in your example:

Example Silo-1:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Techniques
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Use Basic Foot Positions - Climbing Technique
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Don’t Hug the Rock - Climbing Technique
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Look, Think, Then Move - Climbing Technique

Example Silo-2:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Safety Harness - Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Rope, Cord, & Webbing - Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Steel Carabiner - Climbing Equipment

Rock Climbing Equipment - is something you buy.

Rock Climbing Techniques - is something you physically do.

The two keyword phrases above are good Categories/"Silo Landing Pages" since both are related to the root keyword Rock Climbing, yet both are separate subjects for the root keyword (Rock Climbing).



Possible additional Silo for the root keyword Rock Climbing.

Example Silo-3:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Exercises
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Hanging side crunch/twist - Climbing Exercise
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Pull Ups - Climbing Exercise
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Forearms - Climbing Exercise

[stallion317]

Hey yukon . Thanks a lot for the information you have provided. I have learnt a lot regarding the silo structure.. I have created a site based on your diagram. I guess its been optimized for the search engines, the only problem i feel is the user experience, the user will have to go to my homepage each time if he wants to go to different category.. As u have mentioned in the above post using javascripts to create menu which is not crawled by google, is there any wp plugin which will do the needfull. I have 0 knowledge on coding...I just need to fix this to complete my 1st silo site..

Thanks Again For All The Info
Regards..

[mightiest]

Originally Posted by yukon

"How to do rock climbing" & "Rock climbing technique" are basically the same things so you wouldn't want two separate categories for the same subject. I would keep one & use the other as a supporting page title/keyword.

I would do something like this below for the rest of the keywords in your example:

Example Silo-1:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Techniques
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Use Basic Foot Positions - Climbing Technique
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Don’t Hug the Rock - Climbing Technique
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Look, Think, Then Move - Climbing Technique

Example Silo-2:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Safety Harness - Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Rope, Cord, & Webbing - Climbing Equipment
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Steel Carabiner - Climbing Equipment

Rock Climbing Equipment - is something you buy.

Rock Climbing Techniques - is something you physically do.

The two keyword phrases above are good Categories/"Silo Landing Pages" since both are related to the root keyword Rock Climbing, yet both are separate subjects for the root keyword (Rock Climbing).



Possible additional Silo for the root keyword Rock Climbing.

Example Silo-3:

• Index page keyword = Rock Climbing
  • Category page keyword = Rock Climbing Exercises
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Hanging side crunch/twist - Climbing Exercise
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Pull Ups - Climbing Exercise
  • Blog post (supporting page) keyword = Forearms - Climbing Exercise

I get it!

Thanks man. I really appreciate the time you've taken out of your day and the concrete examples you've given. A lot of this stuff is abstract and it gets confusing until you see it laid out.

How do you handle different tenses of a keyword? I'll use a different example that makes more sense... say you're targeting "Room Cleaning" and "Room Cleaner." Obviously, they're related terms and I know that Google can symantically understand that they're related, but do you create a separate set of pages to target both sets of words?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by stallion317

Hey yukon . Thanks a lot for the information you have provided. I have learnt a lot regarding the silo structure.. I have created a site based on your diagram. I guess its been optimized for the search engines, the only problem i feel is the user experience, the user will have to go to my homepage each time if he wants to go to different category.. As u have mentioned in the above post using javascripts to create menu which is not crawled by google, is there any wp plugin which will do the needfull. I have 0 knowledge on coding...I just need to fix this to complete my 1st silo site..

Thanks Again For All The Info
Regards..

I don't know of any plugins that would create a javascript menu on a WP-theme, it's possible they exist, I just haven't seen any.

I usually hard code things like javascript into my themes.

[ActivePresent]

Thanks good chart yukon

[yukon]

Originally Posted by mightiest

I get it!

Thanks man. I really appreciate the time you've taken out of your day and the concrete examples you've given. A lot of this stuff is abstract and it gets confusing until you see it laid out.

How do you handle different tenses of a keyword? I'll use a different example that makes more sense... say you're targeting "Room Cleaning" and "Room Cleaner." Obviously, they're related terms and I know that Google can symantically understand that they're related, but do you create a separate set of pages to target both sets of words?

"Room Cleaning" - would be a physical action.

"Room Cleaner" - could be a person or a product, about the best you can do is define what your keyword is with on-page text.

I would create separate Categories/Silos for both keywords (Room Cleaning & Room Cleaner).

[LEIVA]

yukon, and how about doing it on html no-wordpress can be better or is practically the same thing. thanks

[yukon]

Originally Posted by LEIVA

yukon, and how about doing it on html no-wordpress can be better or is practically the same thing. thanks

If your building a small site, sure, go for it.

An html silo is pretty much the same, only you can use folders, it's basic site structure.

Creating a silo with wordpress is a virtual silo considering we don't structure the site with folders like an html site. All the silos on a WP theme are created with on-page hyperlinks.

I wouldn't recommend creating large silo sites with html, it would be a lot of long term work.

What's nice about WP & a virtual silo is, you can edit the theme template files to do all the work for you.

Still, If you have a small site, a standard silo would be ok to build.

To answer your question, they both (html & WP-theme) can return the same or very similar html code when viewing the sites source code in a browser.

[LEIVA]

Originally Posted by yukon

If your building a small site, sure, go for it.

An html silo is pretty much the same only you can use folders, it's basic site structure.

Creating a silo with wordpress is a virtual silo considering we don't structure the site with folders like an html site. All the silos on a WP theme are created with on-page hyperlinks.

I wouldn't recommend creating large silo sites with html, it would be a lot of long term work.

What's nice about WP & a virtual silo is, you can edit the theme template files to do all the work for you.

Still, If you have a small site, a standard silo would be ok to build.

To answer your question, they both (html & WP-theme) can return the same or very similar html code when viewing the sites source code in a browser.

Thanks a lot yukon, yeah it can be a lot for long term work.

Now talking about hardlinks/backlinks i know is good to have backlinks to all the silo pages but what will be the main backlink to point, it will be to the Home/index or the silo/page.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by LEIVA

Thanks a lot yukon, yeah it can be a lot for long term work.

Now talking about hardlinks/backlinks i know is good to have backlinks to all the silo pages but what will be the main backlink to point, it will be to the Home/index or the silo/page.

I point approx. 50% of my external backlinks at the silo landing page (category page). The other approx. 50% external backlinks are pointing at my silo supporting pages.

The 50/50 isn't set in stone.

Example, say I have a supporting page ranking at #9 in Google SERPs for a long-tail keyword, & this page is getting good traffic. I'll build more external backlinks pointing at that specific supporting page to try & get that page ranking at the top of Google SERPs (position #1, #2, or #3). If I hit position #3 in the SERPs for the long-tail keyword & traffic jumps a lot higher than my old position #9 then I'll re-think that supporting pages purpose (more backlinks, new silo, both?).

Ultimately the goal is to rank the silo landing page (category page), still supporting pages will also start ranking for long-tail keywords that you never thought of (it happens a lot).

I treat each silo as If it's a totally independent site, think of a silo like a mini site. Each silo landing page supports the Index page/keyword.

[discustipated]

Originally Posted by wm42150

Yukon,

Awesome, very helpful of you. It's funny, I read a bunch of info on siloing on different SEO blogs and they all seem to make everything super clear except that. I hope this helps others who are a little fuzzy in siloing.

So....I'm probably kicking a dead horse here but to be super clear....only the silo parent page is linked to from the main index, and then a link back to main index from the parent? I guess the idea is that all link juice from the main index will flow into the child pages through the parent page?

Also, I should make sure no links are pointed back to the main index from the child pages?

Thanks again!

It helped me. Thanks yukon. I havs the same questions.

[LEIVA]

yukon, i think im missing something here, when you have your (silo/category) done as you know in wp when you click the category it will show you a least the latest 10 post in that category.

So when all the site is done do i 301 redirect the (category/silo) to the post or page that has the same name that you want to rank.

Or edit the category/silo to looks like a normal page ?

[mrdomains]

Originally Posted by yukon

I treat each silo as If it's a totally independent site, think of a silo like a mini site.

Excellent advice.

I confess to being a silo fan and find this to be a valuable thread. Question: in almost all discussions about silo and WP, the topic of replacing categories comes up with plugins to do the job.

Isn't the same achieved by

• using a permalink format of only /%postname%/
• not showing any category widgets
• using pages as silos ("category" homepages) with unique article + links to supporting pages?

Just curious if using no category plugins have positive effects that I am not understanding

[Griffin]

Originally Posted by pspro

One thing that I have not seen covered is what to do with the necessary website pages, the "contact","privacy","disclaimer","TOS"??

Can anyone share insight on how to handle these pages?

Hi Guys, hope you don't mind me butting in here. I have just finished building the first stage of my second large 'silo' website and I thought I'd share what I do for these types of pages.

I put my 'Contact Us', 'Privacy Policy', 'Terms of Use' and 'About Us' pages in a pop-up lightbox. They are all comprised of images. I make a temporary webpage for each of them and then take screen captures of each page. I then format them in Photoshop. They end up looking exactly the same as the website text and the only way people would know it's not html text is if they try to Copy and Paste.

It's a bit more work but this way I can keep all my silos in-tact and still have all these essential pages available.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by LEIVA

yukon, i think im missing something here, when you have your (silo/category) done as you know in wp when you click the category it will show you a least the latest 10 post in that category.

So when all the site is done do i 301 redirect the (category/silo) to the post or page that has the same name that you want to rank.

Or edit the category/silo to looks like a normal page ?

Yes, I edit the Category/Silo landing page to look the same as a regular blog post.

I don't do any 301 redirects like most people do, that's not necessary IMO.

I do run custom WP-Category code on my new theme I'm still working on.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by mrdomains

Excellent advice.

I confess to being a silo fan and find this to be a valuable thread. Question: in almost all discussions about silo and WP, the topic of replacing categories comes up with plugins to do the job.

Isn't the same achieved by

• using a permalink format of only /%postname%/
• not showing any category widgets
• using pages as silos ("category" homepages) with unique article + links to supporting pages?

Just curious if using no category plugins have positive effects that I am not understanding

Most WP themes are just bloated with random things, that are not needed for a silo theme. Chances are high that you'll still have to edit the theme source code to remove a few things.

Even If you use /%postname%/ you'll still get a URL like:

domain.com/category/this-is-my-latest-blog-post/

I posted a plugin that will fix that, the links on here somewhere.

You can use Pages, like I said above, I'm running custom Category page code that lets me create a regular article on my WP-Category page (looks like a regular blog post). Anything you can post in a regular blog post, I can post the same on my Category/Silo page. Again, I don't do 301 redirects.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Hi Guys, hope you don't mind me butting in here. I have just finished building the first stage of my second large 'silo' website and I thought I'd share what I do for these types of pages.

I put my 'Contact Us', 'Privacy Policy', 'Terms of Use' and 'About Us' pages in a pop-up lightbox. They are all comprised of images. I make a temporary webpage for each of them and then take screen captures of each page. I then format them in Photoshop. They end up looking exactly the same as the website text and the only way people would know it's not html text is if they try to Copy and Paste.

It's a bit more work but this way I can keep all my silos in-tact and still have all these essential pages available.

I would be careful having your Privacy Policy as an Image.

Anything that Google requires in the Adsense TOS should be in plain text, IMO.

The reason I say this is, If a manual reviewer isn't running javascript or is running a text based browser (you never know). I haven't double checked yet, but I think I remember reading something about javascript & images possibly being turned off during a manual review, from the leaked Adsense pdf a couple months back.

I have a copy of that pdf I'll try & look it up later on.

[Griffin]

Hi Yukon, yeah I was initially worried about this too but haven't been able to find anything suggesting it would be a problem. I've had it on 2 sites for about 3 years so far and no problems - I know that doesn't mean anything though

I have that leaked document too but it's on another hard drive in another country at the moment and I won't have access to it for few months so I'd be interested to see what you find out. This is one aspect of a silo site that most 'experts' never talk about - and a pretty important one at that.

[Kris79]

Originally Posted by yukon

I would be careful having your Privacy Policy as an Image.

Anything that Google requires in the Adsense TOS should be in plain text, IMO.

The reason I say this is, If a manual reviewer isn't running javascript or is running a text based browser (you never know). I haven't double checked yet, but I think I remember reading something about javascript & images possibly being turned off during a manual review, from the leaked Adsense pdf a couple months back.

I have a copy of that pdf I'll try & look it up later on.

Thank you Yukon for all this knowledge.
I wasn't know about term "silo" until I read your post. I known this from "pagerank sculpting" from different point of view.

Here are my suggestions or more like questions for verification:

1. IFRAME - put Privacy Policy, About, Contact links in IFRAME, this way it will not be followed by google bot. But I'm not sure what about AdSense and how manual review would go with this.

2. "#" hashtag - put Privacy Policy, About, Contact on a single page and then link to it using "#":
yourdomain. com/about
yourdomain. com/about#contact
yourdomain. com/about#about
Google do not read anything after "#" so it will treat all links as one link to about page.

BTW: do you know a plugin for WP that allows using "#" on much bigger scale?
For example:
yourdomain. com/#about
or
yourdomain. com/#/about

and when you click on it your are redirected to:
yourdomain. com/about
and not to a section of homepage?


3. You mentioned on the first page of this thread that dafont is using javascript to generate category menu for humans. But isn't it illegal from Google's point of view?
I was reading Matt Cutts that showing different content to google bot and visitor is not good. But it was more about competelly different content. I'm not sure how Google treats that kind of difference as dafont is doing.

4. Leaked Adsense pdf - I was looking for this but couldn't find, could you post a link?

Thanks

Kris

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Kris79

Thank you Yukon for all this knowledge.
I wasn't know about term "silo" until I read your post. I known this from "pagerank sculpting" from different point of view.

Here are my suggestions or more like questions for verification:

1. IFRAME - put Privacy Policy, About, Contact links in IFRAME, this way it will not be followed by google bot. But I'm not sure what about AdSense and how manual review would go with this.

2. "#" hashtag - put Privacy Policy, About, Contact on a single page and then link to it using "#":
yourdomain. com/about
yourdomain. com/about#contact
yourdomain. com/about#about
Google do not read anything after "#" so it will treat all links as one link to about page.

BTW: do you know a plugin for WP that allows using "#" on much bigger scale?
For example:
yourdomain. com/#about
or
yourdomain. com/#/about

and when you click on it your are redirected to:
yourdomain. com/about
and not to a section of homepage?


3. You mentioned on the first page of this thread that dafont is using javascript to generate category menu for humans. But isn't it illegal from Google's point of view?
I was reading Matt Cutts that showing different content to google bot and visitor is not good. But it was more about competelly different content. I'm not sure how Google treats that kind of difference as dafont is doing.

4. Leaked Adsense pdf - I was looking for this but couldn't find, could you post a link?

Thanks

Kris

1) Again, If your running Adsense on the site I highly recommend creating a regular TOS page, NOINDEX the TOS page, NOFFOLLOW any TOS links on the site. That's about the best you can do & still follow the TOS.

2) That's exactly what I'm planning for my own theme. I'll have a single page that includes everything About, TOS, Contact Us, this page will use jump-links. This way you can NOINDEX the single page & only have a single link in the footer that points to everything on that single page.

So instead of 3 links like this in the footer:

About | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

I would have 1 link in the footer like this (with NOINDEX on the page & NOFOLLOW on any of the TOS links site-wide):

About | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

I haven't done this yet, but I seriously don't see anything wrong with combining all these pages into a single page & then having jump-links on the page for easier navigation for traffic. Really who visits these types of pages on a site?

I still make the pages legit & look nice, but that's only for the TOS.

This would have to be all hard coded, no plugins really needed IMO.


3) Thing is, most times it's hard to prove that a site is intentionally trying to control PR flow. For example, plenty of webmasters don't know that some javascript Nav. links won't show up in a text only browser. So it's kinda hard to prove anything. It could be simply lack of understanding page design.

My advice is never javascript important TOS links.

4) PDF link: Rating Guidelines

Look at page #98 in the pdf (link above) - Disabling JavaScript.

Again, I don't recommend having your Privacy Policy links in javascript If it's an Adsense site.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Hi Yukon, yeah I was initially worried about this too but haven't been able to find anything suggesting it would be a problem. I've had it on 2 sites for about 3 years so far and no problems - I know that doesn't mean anything though

I have that leaked document too but it's on another hard drive in another country at the moment and I won't have access to it for few months so I'd be interested to see what you find out. This is one aspect of a silo site that most 'experts' never talk about - and a pretty important one at that.

I still wouldn't have a Adsense TOS inside an image.

Not trying to sound paranoid, but look at page #97-#98 (disable CSS & javascript) in the leaked pdf above, in my last comment.

Disabling javascript & CSS might not allow your TOS/image to show during a manual site review? All depends how your TOS/image is coded.

It's safer to have plain text, IMO.

[Kris79]

Originally Posted by yukon

1) Again, If your running Adsense on the site I highly recommend creating a regular TOS page, NOINDEX the TOS page, NOFFOLLOW any TOS links on the site. That's about the best you can do & still follow the TOS.

2) That's exactly what I'm planning for my own theme. I'll have a single page that includes everything About, TOS, Contact Us, this page will use jump-links. This way you can NOINDEX the single page & only have a single link in the footer that points to everything on that single page.

So instead of 3 links like this in the footer:




I would have 1 link in the footer like this (with NOINDEX on the page & NOFOLLOW on any of the TOS links site-wide):



I haven't done this yet, but I seriously don't see anything wrong with combining all these pages into a single page & then having jump-links on the page for easier navigation for traffic. Really who visits these types of pages on a site?

I still make the pages legit & look nice, but that's only for the TOS.

This would have to be all hard coded, no plugins really needed IMO.


3) Thing is, most times it's hard to prove that a site is intentionally trying to control PR flow. For example, plenty of webmasters don't know that some javascript Nav. links won't show up in a text only browser. So it's kinda hard to prove anything. It could be simply lack of understanding page design.

My advice is never javascript important TOS links.

4) PDF link: Rating Guidelines

Look at page #98 in the pdf (link above) - Disabling JavaScript.

Again, I don't recommend having your Privacy Policy links in javascript If it's an Adsense site.

Thank you for your answers.

I have one more a little bit more complicated

My problem is about page structure. Your architecture is clear: if you have 4 silo landing pages you don't link between them, only link between pages within a specific silo.
But if you have 1 silo completely build:
1 silo landing page + 10 supporting pages
and you want to build another silo within this one, transforming one of supporting pages into sub-silo with its own supporting pages, sort of new branch.
The question is: how to build links if you have nested structures when supporting page of mail silo is becoming also a silo with its own supporting pages?

I hope it's not too messed up

Kris

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Kris79

Thank you for your answers.

I have one more a little bit more complicated

My problem is about page structure. Your architecture is clear: if you have 4 silo landing pages you don't link between them, only link between pages within a specific silo.
But if you have 1 silo completely build:
1 silo landing page + 10 supporting pages
and you want to build another silo within this one, transforming one of supporting pages into sub-silo with its own supporting pages, sort of new branch.
The question is: how to build links if you have nested structures when supporting page of mail silo is becoming also a silo with its own supporting pages?

I hope it's not too messed up

Kris

Personally I wouldn't nest more than 1 silo deep, the reason is, everything starts getting more complicated & the URLs start getting longer which isn't good IMO.

hxxp://domain.com/silo-landing-page-1/supporting-page/

hxxp://domain.com/silo-landing-page-1/silo-landing-page-2/supporting-page/

I suppose it depends what your site is trying to accomplish, but I have a few niche sites with +1,000 pages of content that only nest 1 silo/category deep.

If your only adding a few pages to compliment a supporting page that is getting good traffic, then the first thing I would do is add more pages in the same silo that are relevant to the supporting page keyword that is generating good traffic.

If that's not enough or you need to build a lot of pages for the supporting page keyword, build another top-level silo landing page & supporting pages all focused on that keyword.

Again, I prefer to keep it as simple as possible, it just makes life easier managing the site long term.

[jdooley13]

Yukon, I bought the 100K adsense course and have installed the WP theme that came with the program (the updated, post ads above the fold "Zone Theme 3.0" version). I don't know if you are familiar with that theme but, if you are, I was wondering if there was anyway to properly silo that theme?

[Black Hat Cat]

Originally Posted by Griffin

This is one aspect of a silo site that most 'experts' never talk about - and a pretty important one at that.

They don't talk about it because it's a non-issue. In the grand scheme of things, what you do with your TOS, Privacy, etc is going to have no effect on your rankings one way or the other, silo or not.

[LEIVA]

yukon, are you using thesis theme (i have it) or another theme?

[eduf]

yukon, what do you think about menus? dofollow or nofollow?

assuming that the menu is:

Home | Silo 1 | Silo 2 | Silo 3 | Silo 4 | Terms and Contact (nofollow&noindex)



I'm using at the end of the text the following structure:


See more about <a>main silo keyword</a>
<a>sub-page 1</a>
<a>sub-page 2</a>
<a>sub-page 4</a>

thankyou!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by LEIVA

yukon, are you using thesis theme (i have it) or another theme?

I use my own themes.