Silo Arcitecture Linking Question

[wm42150]

I think I have the silo/theme idea down pretty well, but there's one question I have that hasn't isn't clear about exactly what links to what.

So for example.....

I have parent page called "Stop Dog Barking"

under that there is "Stop Dog Barking in the Crate"
"Stop Dog Barking at Night"
"Stop Dogs Barking at Other Dogs"
"Stop Dog Barking on Walks"
"Stop Dog Barking When Left Alone"

1. Should every page in the silo have a link to ALL the other pages in the silo?

So.. "Stop Dog Barking" would link to all the others?

All the others link back to "Stop Dog Barking"?

Each page links to every other page in the silo?

Essentially each page in this example silo structure would have a total of 6 links?

Please let me know if I have this right!

Thanks!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by wm42150

I think I have the silo/theme idea down pretty well, but there's one question I have that hasn't isn't clear about exactly what links to what.

So for example.....

I have parent page called "Stop Dog Barking"

under that there is "Stop Dog Barking in the Crate"
"Stop Dog Barking at Night"
"Stop Dogs Barking at Other Dogs"
"Stop Dog Barking on Walks"
"Stop Dog Barking When Left Alone"

1. Should every page in the silo have a link to ALL the other pages in the silo?

So.. "Stop Dog Barking" would link to all the others?

All the others link back to "Stop Dog Barking"?

Each page links to every other page in the silo?

Essentially each page in this example silo structure would have a total of 6 links?

Please let me know if I have this right!

Thanks!

Yes link to the other pages in the silo, on each of the individual silo pages.

The reason I'm saying yes is, you'll stand a better chance at getting multiple listings in the SERPs for your keywords.

Two or three links in the SERPs for your keyword is a heck of a lot better than a single link for the same keyword.

You don't want a bunch of unrelated junk on any of the pages in the silo, things like latest post, etc... Keep the silo theme tight.

[outwest]

Good Chart Yukon

[yukon]

Originally Posted by outwest

Good Chart Yukon

Thanks, that's my handy dandy yed graph editor in action.

That software kicks @ss when making graphs, I use it all the time to map out my sites, just makes on-page seo easier when you start out with a plan.

The software is free btw.

[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!

[capone2009]

nice, i did not know that the articles have to link back to the category

[outwest]

Silo structure is not difficult to understand
what is difficult is programming wordpress to do that

the default structure of wordpress completely screws up Silo Structure
most plugins that work, (I have only seen a few) are expensive

I currently use
Clickbump which can easily be structured for Silo

[yukon]

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!

Yes, the green silo landing page is an authority page all by itself.

You want the green landing page to act as an authority buffer between silo supporting pages & the Index page. This will help later on (see double/triple SERP listings below). The goal is to rank the green landing pages for each individual keyword, it doesn't matter If the Index page ranks or not, chances are it will still rank for a variety of themed keywords.

The green landing pages support the Index page. When you start creating multiple silos all themed on the root keyword (dog), then 10+ silos later, you have some serious authority on the subject (dog).

Think of each silo as it's own micro site, the green silo landing pages would represent a micro sites Index page, while keeping each individual silo landing page 100% on the subject (dog).

It doesn't matter If you have 1 silo or 1,000 silos on the same site/domain, they still need to focus on the root keyword (dog). A focused site like this builds authority pretty quick.

There is no fixed number for supporting pages, however I try to keep at least 10 supporting pages in each individual silo as a minimum & really that all depends on competition.

If the #1 competition in the SERPs has 15 internal pages with my target keyword in their page titles:

( intitle:"keyword" site:domain.com )

Ill defiantly try & build more pages in that silo than they have for their entire site, maybe even double that number of supporting pages to 30 pages in a single silo. Something like 30 pages would be an above average competition that your trying to out rank in the SERPs.

Obviously I'm not going to build 1,000 supporting pages in a single silo, unless that keyword was bringing in some serious money at the top of the SERPs (position 1,2,3 in the SERPs).

Again, I start with 10 supporting pages, build my external backlinks, then let the SERPs settle down & see what needs to be done next (more supporting page, more backlinks, both?).

Expanding a silo site is pretty straight forward, like the screenshot below. Just remember the tighter the group of pages the better off that green landing page will be in the SERPs.

Then with the tightly grouped silo you start getting into some cool SERP things like double/triple SERP listings for the same exact keyword. It's very cool to own 2 or 3 positions on page #1 in the SERPs, you can sometimes double the traffic for that keyword by planning ahead with the silo structure, & really requires no extra work that you wouldn't already be doing, the difference is the site is very organized compared to an average blog/site.

Most folks just build a single new blog page then point external backlinks at the Index page or the new internal page, which is totally unorganized & just random posting.

I think If more webmasters understood what a simple silo can accomplish they would change a lot of what they do as far as seo & content publishing.

That link I posted to yed graph editor is one of the best things that helps keep me organized with my own silo sites. It's just awesome to be able to plan the site offline in a visual way, before I ever start building the site.

[wm42150]

Yukon, you're amazing! VERY good insight into this.....

One last question --

Where is the best place to insert links on a page when siloing? I'm asking because sometimes it may not look natural to readers with a bunch of links stuffed in the main body content.

What about anchor text?

[James-]

Originally Posted by yukon

The goal is to rank the green landing pages for each individual keyword, it doesn't matter If the Index page ranks or not,

Educate me here
Why would you trying to rank the page 'stop dog jumping' for the term 'stop dog jumping on children'

Would you not get better SERP results if you ranked the page 'stop dog jumping on children' instead?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by wm42150

Yukon, you're amazing! VERY good insight into this.....

One last question --

Where is the best place to insert links on a page when siloing? I'm asking because sometimes it may not look natural to readers with a bunch of links stuffed in the main body content.

What about anchor text?

Thanks,

You have a few options for the location of the links on the pages:

• Links in sidebar
• Links in content
• Links below content (recommended/related post)
• Links in CSS3

Links in the sidebar are ok, the catch is getting WP (Wordpress) to only display a list of links in a single category of the page your currently viewing. That might not sound like a big deal, but that's what controls your silo from leaking out in random directions.

Links in content are ok, like you mentioned your not going to want 30 supporting page anchor-text URLs spread out over a 500 word article, that would be horrible as a user experience.

Links below content as related post would be ok, with maybe 10 or less anchor-text links.

Links in CSS3 is a very good option that will allow you to do simple things like tabs. Each tab can hold a large number of links for example you might have 30 supporting pages (just an example), then you could do something like this in CSS3 code:

CSS3 Tab Demo here, notice the 2 tabs, more importantly notice the 2nd tab that has hidden content until you mouseover the 2nd tab title.

Now notice how both CSS3 tabs show all the tab content inside the Google Cache here.

User Freindly Web Page

Google Cache CSS3 Tab - SEO Links

Bottom line is everything needs to be user friendly & also perform well in seo.

[edit]
None of the text in the screen shots above matter, what's important in the CSS3 tabs is the ability to add links in a user friendly way & seo at the same time. Those links in the 2nd tab are all on the same page as your content will be, per individual page. The tabs don't pull data/links from a remote page, they pass authority as If the CSS3 tabs didn't exist.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by James-

Educate me here
Why would you trying to rank the page 'stop dog jumping' for the term 'stop dog jumping on children'

Would you not get better SERP results if you ranked the page 'stop dog jumping on children' instead?

That was only an example of silo supporting page titles, I did zero research on the subject. I was pointing out site structure, only.

Notice the last supporting page title "Stop Dog Jumping on the Mail Man", lol.

Again, I was adding to the OPs subject without doing keyword research, I needed page titles to fill the supporting page titles in the 2nd silo.

Keyword research is optional & billed at $57 an hour.

[brittlesnc]

Yukon,

Is the minimum amount of supporting pages you do for a landing page usually going to be 10? Even if you're trying to target 30+ keyword phrases in a niche?

Or if you're targeting 30+ keyword phrases, will some of the supporting pages be targeting some of those keyword phrases?

[outwest]

Yukon,
Your 10 supporting page for the Silo Landing page, Those are kw optimized Onpage SEO? For the kw they are targeting? or no

Btw I bookmarked this thread
Its not easy to find Silo structure logically explained, believe me I have tried

Basically the way I understand it the Silo Landing Pages are just categories, (or they can be viewed or structured this way) but the supporting pages should only link to the main Silo landing page, and not out of the Silo. But they can also link to each other right? as long as they dont break the silo with their links? That is how Clickbump does it

Each category (silo landing page) . each supporting page within the silo has a list of the other supporting posts within the silo, and also links back to the main Silo landing page, but NOT to any other posts outside of that Silo

I know the supporting pages link back to the main silo landing page
However I am not sure. Do they also link back to the Root Domain page? or should they, I should ask

[yukon]

Originally Posted by brittlesnc

Yukon,

Is the minimum amount of supporting pages you do for a landing page usually going to be 10? Even if you're trying to target 30+ keyword phrases in a niche?

Or if you're targeting 30+ keyword phrases, will some of the supporting pages be targeting some of those keyword phrases?

That number (10) is not set in stone, that's why I said before, it all depends on how tough the competition is for the keyword in the SERPs.

Ten supporting pages is what I try to start out with only because I'm not sure what's going to happen in the SERPs before I ever build the first page in the silo.

If your going to a fight (SERP competition) might as well come out swinging.

Also look at it like this, even If you could get by with creating 5 supporting pages & those 5 supporting pages along with a few external backlinks put your page at the #1 SERP position, there will be a day when new players step up & try to take that #1 SERP position away from you. Your 10 supporting pages just creates more work for the competition, they might see your serious & walk away from the keyword. A lot of people in IM are lazy, take advantage of that & build a solid tightly themed group of supporting pages to help hold your SERP position.

My point here is, get ranked, then top it off with a little extra work (supporting pages, quality external links), think long term, a little work now creates less work later.

Keep in mind it's all about the competition, If some webmaster is ranking #1 in the SERPs for a very profitable keyword, I guarantee they will be watching everyone on page #1 & probably page #2 in the SERPs to see If anyone is moving up the SERP ladder fast. Nobody wants to lose a #1 SERP position, especially If it's very profitable for them. The competition will keep their guard up, they would be crazy If they didn't. Make them nervous with some authority.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by outwest

Yukon,
Your 10 supporting page for the Silo Landing page, Those are kw optimized Onpage SEO? For the kw they are targeting? or no

Btw I bookmarked this thread
Its not easy to find Silo structure logically explained, believe me I have tried

Basically the way I understand it the Silo Landing Pages are just categories, (or they can be viewed or structured this way) but the supporting pages should only link to the main Silo landing page, and not out of the Silo. But they can also link to each other right? as long as they dont break the silo with their links? That is how Clickbump does it

Each category (silo landing page) . each supporting page within the silo has a list of the other supporting posts within the silo, and also links back to the main Silo landing page, but NOT to any other posts outside of that Silo

I know the supporting pages link back to the main silo landing page
However I am not sure. Do they also link back to the Root Domain page? or should they, I should ask

Yes, those Silo landing pages are your target pages to be ranked. The supporting pages will still rank on their own for longtail keywords (extra traffic/$$). A lot of times you can get those supporting pages to show for the same keyword (double/triple SERP listing depending on competition) with little effort other than they are all themed keyword pages & tightly grouped (silo).

When your setting up WP themes the Category page template is pretty much the easier route to take for the silo landing page IMO. Remember that WP-Category page is a web page just like any other web page on the net, it's up to everyone what they do with it (how they display content, links, etc...).

Yes, keep all the links contained in the individual silo. If you need to link to page XYZ, chances are page XYZ should have been in the same silo to begin with, why link to unrelated pages (other silos)?

Obviously having a link on every single page back to the Index page is a good user experience, there are ways to mask that link & only make it available for human traffic to control link flow.

Example, the nets most popular font site (here) has a large number of links only available to human traffic. Notice on most pages at dafont, they have a lot of category anchor-text links in the header of each page.

Then check the Google Cache (text version), those links don't exist (all the links in the red box + ABC... links). That example is controlled by javascript.

They controlled the links & at the same time created a good user experience.

Just in case anyone doesn't already know, dafont is the most popular font site on the net & ranks #1 in the SERPs for the keyword font.

[outwest]

Thanks Yukon.
I would assume that for making those internal backlinking sites to support each main silo landing page, there really is no time constraint, in other words you could add 10,20, 30 a day no problem . (I hope)
thanks again for all The Silo tips

I think most board members just pass right by threads like these, not realizing what they are missing as far as backlink power

btw Yukon, what is your take on the relative importance of Silo backlinks
as opposed to external backlinks to the Silo landing page? Are the internal silo links more important?

[Alex Barboza]

Hi Yukon. Your answers are always very detailed and easy to understand. Btw. do you have Google Alerts set for the keywords "silo structure"?

I am building a website following these principles and I have links to my homepage in each and every post in the website. I just use a keyword rich anchor text instead of "Home". Do you think I should make those links nofollow? I thought it was a good idea to have my main keyword linking to the root domain always as it would increase my internal linking power. Maybe I am wrong.

Thanks

[yukon]

Originally Posted by outwest

Thanks Yukon.
I would assume that for making those internal backlinking sites to support each main silo landing page, there really is no time constraint, in other words you could add 10,20, 30 a day no problem . (I hope)
thanks again for all The Silo tips

I think most board members just pass right by threads like these, not realizing what they are missing as far as backlink power

btw Yukon, what is your take on the relative importance of Silo backlinks
as opposed to external backlinks to the Silo landing page? Are the internal silo links more important?

Exactly, no time constraints on any of this.

That's what I like about silos & mapping out my site structure with yed editor. Things happen all the time that can throw a wrench in your work flow (creating supporting pages, landing pages, external backlinks, etc...), we all have offline lives to work into our schedules (family, etc...).

With silos & yed editor I can create a plan/map of exactly what I need to do today & in the future. So If I have an offline emergancy to deal with & I can't get back to my online work in a week or so, it doesn't matter, I have my yed graph that will visually show me exactly what I need to do. It's also easy to expand in the future.

IMO, it all brings order to the IM chaos.

As far as internal/external backlinks, they both are equal, you need both IMO to let Google know that very related pages link in/out of the silo. Google loves the whole themed keyword thing, you can see that in action on the SERPs (related search phrases).

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Alex Barboza

Hi Yukon. Your answers are always very detailed and easy to understand. Btw. do you have Google Alerts set for the keywords "silo structure"?

I am building a website following these principles and I have links to my homepage in each and every post in the website. I just use a keyword rich anchor text instead of "Home". Do you think I should make those links nofollow? I thought it was a good idea to have my main keyword linking to the root domain always as it would increase my internal linking power. Maybe I am wrong.

Thanks

Thanks Alex,

No I don't have Google alerts setup for "silo structure".

Is the link pointing at the Index page inside an article, or is it in the header or footer of the page?

If you are only targeting a single keyword I don't see anything wrong with it. If you decide to expand & create more targeted keyword landing pages I would reconsider how you handle global links. For example a privacy policy link on every single page can be wrapped in an iframe in the footer. The traffic will see the link as a normal hyperlink, Google will not count the link as diluting the page, you can verify that iframe comment on a Google Cache text only page, the content of the iframe won't show on the cache page.

[brittlesnc]

Yukon,

Can't wait for your 'Wordpress Silo' to be ready but hopefully it comes with a detailed explanation of how to set one up and other detailed info because some of the info you're posting about silos is going over my head...

iframes in footers, using javascript/masking links for link flow, etc.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by brittlesnc

Yukon,

Can't wait for your 'Wordpress Silo' to be ready but hopefully it comes with a detailed explanation of how to set one up and other detailed info because some of the info you're posting about silos is going over my head...

iframes in footers, using javascript/masking links for link flow, etc.

Hey brittlesnc,

Sorry about that, sometimes I get carried away & start rattling off about stuff assuming everyone has already done these things.

Sometimes I'll be talking about IM things to my wife, I'll be steady talking & look up & she'll have that look "What in the world are you talking about?" lol.

To answer your question, yes, I'll include details on masking links. Thanks for pointing that out.

[outwest]

Yukon, thanks all the tips
If I have asked this question before, apologies

lets say you find a kw with VERY low competition, the top 2 sites on google have less than 10 backlinks, maybe even 5 or less

Now, if it were you , would you risk having too many top rated pages? if you lets say put a silo landing page supported by 10 articles? Wouldnt each of those theoretically rank? and since there are so few backlinks for the top 5 sites, wouldnt that look spammy to rank so many pages (assuming that happened)

Of course I guess that
all the backlinks coming from OUTSIDE the site would only be pointed at the Silo landing page, so that page would probably be the first to rank, but. all this is new to me.

I have a bunch of kws that < I am not joking the top 3 sites have less than 10 backlinks, so thats why I am thinking hmm does the silo need that many supporting pages

[Noirmaybe]

Would this be possible/profitable or even work for CPA ?

[Alex Barboza]

Originally Posted by yukon

Is the link pointing at the Index page inside an article, or is it in the header or footer of the page?

The links are breadcrumbs above posts not inside the content. The links are like this:

Main Keyword for home page > Keyword for category page > article

[James-]

Originally Posted by yukon

That was only an example of silo supporting page titles, I did zero research on the subject. I was pointing out site structure, only.

Notice the last supporting page title "Stop Dog Jumping on the Mail Man", lol.

Again, I was adding to the OPs subject without doing keyword research, I needed page titles to fill the supporting page titles in the 2nd silo.

Keyword research is optional & billed at $57 an hour.

Haha, yea i know you were making up the keywords to explain the structure of the site/silos. But my query still remains if say all those keywords were real.

Would you still want to rank that 'green' main category page for all the keywords within the silo for optimum rankings for those keywords or would you target the keyword pages themselves. I would have assumed the latter, do you know?

Thanks so far.

[finne]

If there is a semantic connection between one silo subpage and the subpage from another silo should you link them? Logic says yes cause if its related link it.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by outwest

Yukon, thanks all the tips
If I have asked this question before, apologies

lets say you find a kw with VERY low competition, the top 2 sites on google have less than 10 backlinks, maybe even 5 or less

Now, if it were you , would you risk having too many top rated pages? if you lets say put a silo landing page supported by 10 articles? Wouldnt each of those theoretically rank? and since there are so few backlinks for the top 5 sites, wouldnt that look spammy to rank so many pages (assuming that happened)

Of course I guess that
all the backlinks coming from OUTSIDE the site would only be pointed at the Silo landing page, so that page would probably be the first to rank, but. all this is new to me.

I have a bunch of kws that < I am not joking the top 3 sites have less than 10 backlinks, so thats why I am thinking hmm does the silo need that many supporting pages

I'm not sure I follow that first question (risk to many ranked pages).

The landing page is the target page to rank for your best keyword in that silo. By best I mean best targeted traffic for that silo root keyword, example, stop dog barking. Targeted traffic equals more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

Yes, the supporting pages will also rank on their own in two ways. The supporting pages a lot of times (especially on very low competition keywords) create double/triple SERP listings below the silo landing page in the SERPs for the landing page keyword. That's just a huge bonus (extra traffic) & you know for a fact that keyword has reached real authority in the SERPs.

Google doesn't hand out double/triple SERP listings for a single keyword to just any old site. Google allows double/triple SERP listings when they find a site that has multiple interlinked 100% related web pages that are very focused on the keyword. That also depends on competition, you won't see everyone on the first page with double/triple listings, it's just not going to happen.

The second way the supporting pages rank are individually per longtail keywords, you'll defiantly pick up traffic with each individual page in the silo, both landing page & supporting pages. So don't think that the supporting pages won't bring in extra traffic, because they will. Also, those supporting pages need to be very focused on the landing page keyword but not in a spammy way, you want to pick up the longtail traffic, so stay on topic with related keywords.

Don't think of supporting pages as just work, look at them as free traffic.

Backlinks, don't only build backlinks pointing at the landing page, that's not a good idea. Every single page in the silo needs external backlinks pointing at them.

Don't panic...

My rule of thumb is to split 50/50 on the external backlinks, that's just a rough estimate, don't start counting links. Example, I'll point roughly 50% of the backlinks at the silo landing page & the other 50% divided between the silo supporting pages.

Keep in mind you need to track every single pages traffic (Google Analytics, etc...), If you see a supporting page pulling in a lot of SERP traffic for a longtail keyword, that's your signal to reevaluate that longtail keyword & take action to keep that page at the top of the SERPs for that longtail keyword.

Supporting pages are good for several reasons, I've already listed two. Another good thing about supporting pages is like I mentioned above. You can use supporting pages in your silo to fish for related traffic in the SERPs & support a silo landing page at the same time.

My suggestion is, If you know the keyword is very very low competition then build at least 5 supporting pages, get the landing page ranked #1 in the SERPs. If that #1 SERP position over delivers on traffic for what you expected then bulk up on additional supporting pages & external backlinks (50/50). Make that landing page rock solid in the SERPs so it doesn't drop so easy when new competition starts targeting the keyword, because it will happen sooner or later.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Noirmaybe

Would this be possible/profitable or even work for CPA ?

Absolutely, you can monetize this with CPA offers!

How you monetize any page in a silo is 100% up to each individual.

Silos are all about delivering traffic from the SERPs & at the same time being user friendly.

[outwest]

Yukon, Thanks I thought I had a rudimentary Understanding of Silos and I guess I did, but after your tutoring lessons in this thread I have a much more detailed understanding of some critical issues I was not yet clear on. I have a lot to learn, but without threads like this , it would take me tons more trial and error, Thanks friend for taking the time to post on this thread, I sure appreciate it

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Alex Barboza

The links are breadcrumbs above posts not inside the content. The links are like this:

Main Keyword for home page > Keyword for category page > article

Ok, I see what your saying now.

I use breadcrumbs on my own sites/pages, it's just easy to do & gets you extra links in the SERPs almost guaranteed, plus it only takes a few min. to setup.

To be honest for now I wouldn't worry much about that Index page link, in the breadcrumb. If you look at any breadcrumbs in the SERPs, you'll notice Google doesn't even use a hyperlink on the Index page text in the breadcrumb, it's just plain text. The following text after the Index page text are clickable hyperlinks.

It's hard to give a general rule of thumb on something like that when there are thousands of WP themes everyone is running. That's pretty much the reason I'm working on a new theme that will demonstrate everything I've been talking about as far as silos go.

If you followed my old thread SERP Breadcrumb Trick then your probably running the default WP-Breadcrumb php code, which is ok. After I finish this new theme I'll try & update that old thread with the same breadcrumb php code that I'll be running in the new theme.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by finne

If there is a semantic connection between one silo subpage and the subpage from another silo should you link them? Logic says yes cause if its related link it.

Yes logic says link If it's related, If it's 100% related it should be in the same silo.

If you absolutely need to cross link into another silo, I would link to that 2nd silos landing page only. That 2nd silo is your strongest authority page in the silo. You don't want to mix silo supporting pages with each other, then you start creating chaos within each silo & diluting everything (like a regular blog ).

[yukon]

Originally Posted by James-

Haha, yea i know you were making up the keywords to explain the structure of the site/silos. But my query still remains if say all those keywords were real.

Would you still want to rank that 'green' main category page for all the keywords within the silo for optimum rankings for those keywords or would you target the keyword pages themselves. I would have assumed the latter, do you know?

Thanks so far.

No the green landing page has it's own root keyword for that silo, so it's pretty much targeting a single keyword. That's not to say the landing page won't pick up additional long tail traffic, because it will. Most web pages pick up extra longtail keywords without even trying.

I answered to something similar in one of my post above (I think ). Individual supporting pages will also rank on their own, the thing is they are all so tightly grouped/linked in the silo, they bring additional authorty to the SERPs, unlike a random single page on a regular old blog trying to rank all by it's lonesome.

When I have a new keyword I create a new page. If it's a root keyword I create a landing page. If it's a sub-keyword I create a supporting page below the landing page keyword.

[packerfan]

Awesome thread!

Quick question.

Let's assume I have a category for Digital Camera Reviews with 10 supporting pages. Each supporting page is a review of a specific camera. How do I structure the site if I also want to rank those 10 supporting pages?

If I have an authority site I might have the following categories...

Digital Camera Reviews
Digital Camera Rumors
Digital Camera News
Digital Photography Tutorials
Advanced Digital Photography

So it seems it would a terrible user experience to have each review as it's own category. On the same hand, it kind of defeats the purpose of the whole silo thing if I build 10 supporting pages for each of the "main" supporting pages for digital camera reviews.

Hope that question makes sense.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by packerfan

Awesome thread!

Quick question.

Let's assume I have a category for Digital Camera Reviews with 10 supporting pages. Each supporting page is a review of a specific camera. How do I structure the site if I also want to rank those 10 supporting pages?

If I have an authority site I might have the following categories...

Digital Camera Reviews
Digital Camera Rumors
Digital Camera News
Digital Photography Tutorials
Advanced Digital Photography

So it seems it would a terrible user experience to have each review as it's own category. On the same hand, it kind of defeats the purpose of the whole silo thing if I build 10 supporting pages for each of the "main" supporting pages for digital camera reviews.

Hope that question makes sense.

For a larger site like that you would need to add a sub-category as a landing page per camera review silo.

I would be careful about nesting to deep on the sub-categories, you don't want URLs a mile long.

Still something like below (screenshot) would be ok, I wouldn't push it much further.

[James-]

Hi Yukon,

Just come back to this thread, you really have been the hero of this one!
Continuing what has been said with the structure, what permalinks do you suggest we use?

/%category%/%postname%/ - would seem to be the obvious setting here.
But thinking about it i have the following issue, that 'green' (parent silo) landing page would result in the URL:
http://domain.com/category/stop-dog-barking.

Now to me, that looks rubbish from a user experience, no one wants to see 'category'
I know we can get rid of this by just using the /%postname%/ permainks, but then for all the silo's sub pages you will not have the parent page within the URL.

How do you do your authority sites?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by James-

Hi Yukon,

Just come back to this thread, you really have been the hero of this one!
Continuing what has been said with the structure, what permalinks do you suggest we use?

/%category%/%postname%/ - would seem to be the obvious setting here.
But thinking about it i have the following issue, that 'green' (parent silo) landing page would result in the URL:
http://domain.com/category/stop-dog-barking.

Now to me, that looks rubbish from a user experience, no one wants to see 'category'
I know we can get rid of this by just using the /%postname%/ permainks, but then for all the silo's sub pages you will not have the parent page within the URL.

How do you do your authority sites?

I use a plugin that removes the default .../category/... from the URL.

WordPress › WP No Category Base « WordPress Plugins

Install the plugin & it will fix that problem.

[note]
Be very careful when tweaking URLs for any page that is already ranked in the SERPs.

If you use this on an existing older site that has ranked pages in the SERPs, you will need to 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL.

If it's a new site with no raked pages you don't need to worry about any 301 redirects.

[James-]

Yukon, that's exactly what i need, thank you so much!
FYI, it's for a new site i plan to build

Reallly appreciate the time you have given on this topic.

[kkchoon]

Another reference for SEO SILO here: How To Increase Google Ranking and Traffic With SEO SILO Content?

[onepace]

Yukon -

If you're linking your posts back to a category page I'm assuming you don't no index category or tag pages?

[ebrg]

Hey Yukon and Kok

You seem to have a difference in your silo designs: Both designs link back from the supporting page to the landing page, but only one design links from the landing page to the supporting page.

What are the pros and cons of these two approaches ?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by onepace

Yukon -

If you're linking your posts back to a category page I'm assuming you don't no index category or tag pages?

No, I don't NOINDEX Category pages.

If your creating a silo theme, I would make the typical WP-Tag hyperlink on a blog post either plain text (no hyperlink) & point the tag page directly at the blog post (use the WP-Tag page as a one-way support page), or just skip the WP-Tag page altogether.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by ebrg

Hey Yukon and Kok

You seem to have a difference in your silo designs: Both designs link back from the supporting page to the landing page, but only one design links from the landing page to the supporting page.

What are the pros and cons of these two approaches ?

His flow chart is only considering Google SERPs, my flow chart is built for human traffic & the SERPs.

Why build a site only for the SERPs? If human traffic can't navigate the site they'll bounce.

The whole point of ranking a page in the SERPs is for human traffic, doesn't serve much purpose If they bounce because they can't find navigation links.

[rptechworld]

nice chart for human traffic & the SERPs

[ebrg]

Originally Posted by yukon

No, I don't NOINDEX Category pages.

If your creating a silo theme, I would make the typical WP-Tag hyperlink on a blog post either plain text (no hyperlink) & point the tag page directly at the blog post (use the WP-Tag page as a one-way support page), or just skip the WP-Tag page altogether.

Would it be better to just hide the post byline that link to category and tag archive pages? You could then put in a direct link in the content to the landing page and/or to other posts in the silo. There are some themes where it is really easy to hide such bylines.

[packerfan]

I was having a look around about.com the other day just checking out how their site is structured...

Obviously I don't plan on having a site that size. But, it's interesting what they seem to do.

Index Page > Category Page > Subdomain Index Page >Subdomain category page > articles

So basically they have about.com/cars and nothing in that directory except a link to subdomains about cars. So you click on sports cars and it takes you to...

sportscars.about.com

Then click on black sports cars and you go to sportscars.about.com/black sports cars

Is there an advantage to using subdomains like this? Or does it have to do wtih the size of the site or something?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by ebrg

Would it be better to just hide the post byline that link to category and tag archive pages? You could then put in a direct link in the content to the landing page and/or to other posts in the silo. There are some themes where it is really easy to hide such bylines.

It all depends on the theme, no two themes are ever the same.

If your ranking the Category page, leave the link. The Tag link I would remove. You might have to edit the theme source code?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by packerfan

I was having a look around about.com the other day just checking out how their site is structured...

Obviously I don't plan on having a site that size. But, it's interesting what they seem to do.

Index Page > Category Page > Subdomain Index Page >Subdomain category page > articles

So basically they have about.com/cars and nothing in that directory except a link to subdomains about cars. So you click on sports cars and it takes you to...

sportscars.about.com

Then click on black sports cars and you go to sportscars.about.com/black sports cars

Is there an advantage to using subdomains like this? Or does it have to do wtih the size of the site or something?

Sites that are huge like about.com use sub-domains because they act like seperate sites & I'm sure it's a heck of a lot easier to manage the individual sub-domains than a single large site with hundreds of thousands of pages.

[example]

site:cars.about.com

The links pointing out of each sub-domain act similar to external links when pointing at other sub-domains in the network.

[James-]

Originally Posted by yukon

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

[webjedi]

Of course the good 'ol WF has a great post on this topic.
I have been educating all about the net and I have two questions with siloing.

One is that I see different linking structures and I imagine a silo page performing two tasks.. to pass PR up the silo to the silo index page, to pass PR to the main domain index page.

Now I was not considering having all of the silo member pages linked on every silo page. I was just going to pass like a closed linkwheel down the silo, one linking to the next, and the end silo page linking back to the top.

I have read that some webmasters link the last silo member to the index of the next silo but that defeats the purpose to me.

I never thought about all silo pages (in a silo) on each ember page.
What is your take on this guys?

I see a silo page as another entry point to the page, so I imagine having each silo member linking to the home page, also passing link juice to the home as well.

Geeze this is long-winded, my other question I have is where to find your top silo keywords?

Currently I am using Google KW tool and sorting my exact-local searches. Is Google giving me the related KW or is there a better tool?

Google contextual also groups them into related batches, but I am wondering what is the best related keyword discovery tool for this purpose?

WJ