Ranking Categories using Silo structure

5 replies
  • SEO
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So, I’ve attempted to customize a wordpress theme and use various plugins to create a somewhat “silo” styled authority amazon reviews/blog website. I’ve used a static homepage and a bit of HTML to style it and link to my categories. I am using a branded domain name that focuses on a broad niche (example: Home Fixtures).

The Idea is to have the category pages rank for their keyword, and have the post reviews support it (and also rank). I am not sure about the Nav… whether it should be nofollow… or if I shouldn't link to the homepage, contact us, about us and privacy policy all together…. I want a good user experience, but I also want the silos to be tight.

Plugins I used:
1. Auto Excerpt everywhere – custom excerpts adding unique content to category
2. Posts from a Category Widget – shows posts only within a selected category
3. Widget Logic – control which categories, posts and pages you would like specific widgets to be displayed
4. WP No Category Base
5. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (might not need this)

Also – this little piece of code allows your category description to be visible on the top of the category page – enabling unique content:

<?php echo category_description( $category_id ); ?>

Add before the <?php if (is_category()) { ?> in your archive.php.

This is my structure:
First of all, nothing links outside of it’s silo, except for the homepage, contact us, about us and privacy policy.

The homepage:
Links to all 9 categories
The homepage itself (nofollow)
Privacy Policy, About Us, Contact Us (nofollow)

Homepage ->

·Category1 - (example: kitchen faucet reviews)
·Category2 – (example: bathroom lighting reviews)
·Category3
·Category4
·Category5
·Category6
·Category7
·Category8
·Category9
·About Us (nofollow)
·Contact Us (nofollow)
·Privacy Policy (nofollow)

Each Category has unique content via plugins for the sidebar and custom excerpts for each review post.

Each review category looks like this:

Category Title: (Example: Kitchen Faucet Reviews):
Links to all reviews as posts: (product 123 review) and all recent posts within its category in the sidebar.
The main Nav links to Home, About Us and Contact us - Nofollow.

Category – Title: (Kitchen Faucet Reviews)
·Delta 9178-SS-DST review 1
·Delta 8097-DST review 2
·Product 214x4 Review 3
·Product 214x4 Review 4
·Product 214x4 Review 5
·About Us (nofollow)
·Contact Us (nofollow)
·Privacy Policy (nofollow)
·Homepage (nofollow)

Review Posts:
Post Title: (Delta 9178-SS-DST review)
Links to all posts within its category in the sidebar.
Main nav links to Home, About Us, Privacy Policy and contact us - Nofollow

Product Review Posts – Title (Delta 9178-SS-DST review 1)

·Product 214x4 Review 2
·Product 214x4 Review 3
·Product 214x4 Review 4
·Product 214x4 Review 5
·About Us (nofollow)
·Contact Us (nofollow)
·Privacy Policy (nofollow)
·Homepage (nofollow)
·Main Category Page - Title: (Kitchen Faucent Reviews)

Any suggestion on whether is a good direction? Should I use some type of java to cloak the internal linking from the nav? Like I said, I want the categories to rank for their keyword...

Thanks in advance.
#categories #ranking #silo #structure
  • Profile picture of the author Craig B
    I wouldn't nofollow the homepage. With the silo structure, you ideally want the PR to flow from the homepage to the categories to the posts.

    Another option would be to have your categories as static pages. That way you could link to all of the reviews within that category and have descriptions under each. Thus, your category pages would have unique content and you would have good PR flow to all your reviews.

    I wouldn't worry about cloaking.
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  • Profile picture of the author lutherlars
    The home page is your index page, why the heck would you nofollow it?
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  • Profile picture of the author WraithSarko
    second time in 24 hrs i've seen someone mention nofollow and home page together.

    this some advanced technique you guys didn't tell me about or what????
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    • Profile picture of the author xMizzlex
      Thanks for the replies.

      My homepage is nofollow because I am not building links to my homepage and I am not targeting any keywords.

      Maybe I'm confused how the silo should work..

      I plan to build links to my categories pages and a few of the posts.

      Also, all my categories have unique content. About 100 words in a sidebar text widget, and manually crafted excerpts.
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  • Profile picture of the author xMizzlex
    Okay. I found a way to not have my posts link to my homepage, but to the main category.

    Using this plugin: WordPress › Custom Post Template « WordPress Plugins
    And this guide: WordPress › Support » Multiple headers with different pages...

    I have also removed the nofollow so my category pages link to the homepage.

    I feel like I am good to go!
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