Silo structure, do you understand it?

I use sioling, but currently only on websites I wrote. The site you provided does make sense and sound like a good plan. The beginning is heavy on jargon, but once they start explaining things, it starts sounding good. I would try their technique on one set of keywords and then compare it to similar keywords on your blog that aren't sioled.

I may even test this on my blog.

After extensive Google Research
I found this plugin

SEO Siloing WordPress Plugin

Its free
I actually found it from Google from a thread on warrior forum, LOL

finding a plugin thats FREE? for wordpress for silo? Almost unheard of

I have really only ever found TWO other plugins for wordpress for Silo
One was $147
One was a membership site that wanted $398 to join and get the download
So if this plugin (free) works? it will be like Christmas

I will be extremely pleased

I am totally confused by that plugin...

Aren't category archives doing the same by default in any WP installation? i.e. listing all the posts in a category?

Hi guys,

I actually use a (paid) silo plugin on a couple of my sites.

Basically, the idea of a silo structure is as follows:

You usually have a top navigation, maybe category navigation, but if somebody would visit your page, click on let's say a category and then on a post, at some point he'd be "finished" browsing deeper into your page; all he could do is go back up another "level" in your homepage (so e.g. Home => Category ABC => Post 1; user can go back up to Category ABC and then select Post 2, but then it's the end again).

What the SILO structure does is basically interlink ALL pages/posts on your website, so that at the end of each post there's a link to another article, and at the end of that there's a link to another article/post, and so on.

So baiscally, if you end up on ANY page of your website, you can "click through" ALL PAGES of your website and will then end up again on the initial post.

This is supposed to make life easier for spiders, who can crawl through your WHOLE page once they land anywhere.

The pages I'm using it on are doing pretty well, so it makes sense to me to use it; on the other hand, there is a lot of other optimization going on, so I can't tell if the silo plugin/structure is the KEY....

Cheers,
Rob

Hi Istvan,

no overcomplicating here

I totally see the point that this is possible to interlink posts WITHIN categories using a next/previous post issue.

What's missing in your "handmade" solution, imho, is the flow over the WHOLE page:



so basically it linterlinks to the NEXT category once you've reached the "end" within a category.

(this is from the sales page of Dan Raine's plugin which I use).

I just had a look at the plugin code, it does some more stuff than that - some nofollow tricks, some stuff on archive pages and blogroll pages, making sure that certain themes don't get messed up - but yeah: nothing of this couldn't be done with some lines here and there in your theme.

IF - you know your way around, which isn't true for most beginners.
The plugin is really just set and forget.

But let's stop here :p or we'll probably confuse some readers more than we help, hehe...

Cheers from Switzerland,
Rob

Silo structure I have been studying it for about 4 months and it is by no means simple
it seems simple by the charts, and it does make sense
finding a plugin though that is designed to keep the silos tight is not easy

for example most default wordpress structures BUST the Silo structure by putting "recent posts" on all of the pages, by default

you dont want to do this since those recent posts could be any posts on any topic unrelated to THAT silo, and thus confusing to the serps

also even links to , contact us, privacy policy etc, IMO kind of break the Silo rule

This one

WordPress Silo Plugin - Dominate the Search Results

(no aff link)

Cheers,
Rob

Ya see $147 bucks too high IMO
I wouldnt pay that, Hell I only paid 97 for Market Samurai

I would rather pay my programmer to write a custom code, than pay someone 147
at least after that I could make money from it

I contacted my programmer in India MUmbai today
he is currently writing for me a silo plugin , which will later be for sale
this guy is an excellent programmer

I rather have my own custom software I had written if I am going to pay 150 bucks
How much you want to be I dont pay that much more to have it written?

Istvan is right. You don't need a plugin. The idea behind the silo system is to link "like" articles just like the above diagram illustrates.

It's easier manage using pages instead of posts. Use anchor text to link page to page.

- You need a launch page.
- Link to that launch page from your menu.
- Make a title for your topic and bold/underline it.
- Under that title use bullet points and and place a link to a page for a related article.

You'll notice in the diagram above they link from Post#5 in dogs to the Cats title. You place that last article from the get go and link it. Then all other article pages go above that article.

Then all you do is write and article using a page, and link it using anchor text. This way makes it easy to manage as you don't have to touch your last article that links to the different title.

Note: The easier way is to just link to like articles when you write a post or page. You'll get the same results without the hassle.

Trust me, you will never silo a Wordpress theme with a plugin.

Just like Istvan said, it's theme dependent, matter of fact it's 100% theme dependent.

Even with a silo plugin, If it siloed the site structure, you'll still have the rest of the theme to deal with (header, sidebar, footer, etc...).

It's just not going to happen with a plugin, you'll need a custom WP theme to clean up the other typical WP junk that most people think are cute, fun, or pretty (lol).

i Want to Thank Yukon for jumping into this thread. He is probably the MOST knowledgeable Warrior on this topic

Oh Ok Yukon I thought You said you were writing or attempting to write a plugin for silo structure

Are all the silo posts in each bucket Pages? Or just the main Silo Landing Pages are pages and the rest of the supporting articles(or whatever you call them) in each bucket are posts?

And Each page in the bucket (good analogy) links back to the Silo landing page for that bucket? And Vice versa? So each page in the bucket can see each other page in the bucket basically?

This is becoming more clear, if my above analogy is correct

OK, I don't consider myself an expert in this silo-thing... however, parts of the theory/technique are just common sense and good design + good content.

As far as I know, initially, the "silo" system in information management used to be a negative thing

Seemingly, these guys used the silo structure in web(flow) design as a positive - and effective - SEO technique the first time: Advanced SEO Tutorials and LSI

Now, he also has a graphic for exemplification here:
Silo Website Design (scroll down!)

If you look only at the arrows (and nothing else) then you'd see the linking from one silo to the next - as it was shown on the plugin's salespage.

HOWEVER! At a closer look you will realize the plugin author and many of his followers never really understood the CONTENT part of the technique: in the original example, if you read the topics in the 'boxes' are very much related - the sub-sub-themes are all different aspects of the same sub-theme (cat health care)... that's why you can go from the bottom of each to the next. It has never been intended to link unrelated silos with each other!

But the plugin creator just did that^^

It is also worth noting that applying mechanically such a structure without understanding the basics of LSI wouldn't help much. Actually, the whole idea grew out from doing SEO using LSI keywords as article topics in the silos.

I still think with a bit of theme/template tweaking and using
- categories
- category templates
- context-relevant menus and submenus
you can achieve the whole idea in WordPress - without any plugin.

[and some people think I am a monomaniac when saying all day long "you should know how to organize your CONTENT before even downloading WordPress"... ;p]

I understand how Silos are structured however I am confused if the Silo Landing Pages are the only pages, or the Supporting articles within each Silo(bucket as Yukon puts it) are also pages, or are those POSTS

and how are those linked with each other back and forth

Siloing seems at first glance to be somewhat logical but the longer you look at it the more you realize it is not as simple as it appears at first glance

In what Yukon posted I don't see any Page (as WP Page opposed to post)

All I see is categories and posts: the "green" webpage (not Page!) is a category archive with custom category template - needs some work but works perfectly.

The "yellow" stuff are posts in the same category. For navigation use: Function Reference/next post link « WordPress Codex and its pair.

If you need you can use conditional tags in the sidebar and display only navigation links inside this category.

My point is: you can really customize your silo-type website built with WP to give you the best results... if you are willing to dig a bit into the WP features & templates & template tags etc. Everything is there, people just don't use it.

This is a post Yukon Made In Another Thread, I think it makes a lot of sense, I cut pasted it, Yukon Hope you dont mind



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

I also respect yukon for his very knowledgeable posts and insight.

However, I don't think there is anything in hist posts (both what he posted earlier and what you quoted/pasted) that would contradict radically what I told you about the WP tools to be used. The contradiction seems to exist only in your perception.

Yukon gave (you and others) a general schema of the web pages organized in silos.
I gave you a specific description how to achieve it in a WP site. One possible way to do it (although I think it's the easiest in WP).

You get confused because you don't seem to realize there is a difference when we speak about pages and/or Pages.

A page = any webpage on the net or on your site... and Yukon was speaking in general about WEB-pages.

A Page (with capital P) related to WordPress is always that distinct entry type you create and which is not a post. And Pages don't have categories and cannot be "under" a category!

And again: Yukon did not talk specifically about WordPress-powered silo sites; what he outlined was the general idea of organizing webpages in silo structure - no matter how you created those webpages.

And what I gave you it was a concrete solution how to apply that general idea to a WP-powered site. You can use it or you can come up with your own solution using WP. Or you can argue here till the end of the times...

Oh, and don't assume... you know what they say about it (ass-u-me)

Finally, I have to repeat what I said about the content: make sure you plan exactly the structure of your content... the technicalities (post or Page) are irrelevant!

I could create Yukon's structure from the image in several ways using WordPress with custom templates. But because people get sidetracked if I give them more than one solution I just described the simplest one. Similarly straightforward would be a solution based solely on Pages and sub-Pages + conditional (context based) side menus for parent/child/sibling Pages.

hmm this reminds me of the Link Wheel strategy eh ... interesting

One thing I do not think has been discussed here, which NEEDs to be discussed very badly is

Link Structure for Silo Pages

All of the above IMAGE templates for Silo, do not really accurately address the linking structure , what links to what, and why.


I searched and searched for about an hour and finally found the below information
After watching about 30 youtube vids, after talking to multiple people on the board including Yukon and Istvan
I think that I am beginning to get a handle on this linking structure.

I do also think that given the restrictions of wordpress
That SILO structure is not really conducive to wordpress. unless you , as Istvan says, have a wordpress theme MADE FOR SILO, good luck finding one of those. I have decided to hand code my Silo site in html


Here is the linking structure instructions I found, These coincide the best with all of the tutorials I have read





Setting up your web site properly is very important. One structure to give some serious thought to is the silo technique. In the following overview, we'll take a look at what SEO siloing is, and how you can use the silo structure to gain authority and rankings with Google.

The main thought to siloing is that you are creating highly targeted sub-sections of your site. These sub-sections are going to allow you to create targeted sub pages to target the long tail keywords more effectively. In addition, using the silo structure is going to allow you to group these sub pages in such a manner that it will increase your authority on your main subject/topic/keyword.

To explain this better, let's take a quick glance at what Google might expect to find on a SEO site. To do this, I simply am using Google's keyword tool and typing in "SEO". It returns me a large list of keywords it would suggest based on that one word. In a round about way, this tells me what Google might expect on a highly authoritative site about SEO.

For this example, I am going to look at only the top five results, otherwise we could be here all day. The top five results returned were:

SEO optimization
SEO keywords
SEO software
SEO services
SEO techniques

So, using the siloing technique, my SEO site is going to be structured using these sub-categories. I will create these sub categories using folders, naming each folder (in lowercase letters) for the subject phrase.

To illustrate this, let's look at the SEO optimization folder. If our site is SEO.com, we will create a folder /seo-optimization, and place an index navigation page within that folder, so it will be SEO.com/seo-optimization/index.html. Another way to name this index page is with the same name as the folder, so barbeque.com/seo-optimization/seo-optimization.html in this example.

This index page should talk about the subject matter, and should target the keyword phrase used to name that folder. From that index page, you should create at least 3 sub-pages directly related to that folder topic. For this example, SEO optimization would be my main key phrase, and I would create 3 or more pages in that folder directly related to "SEO optimization".

For this example, I again used Google's keyword tool and took 3 of the top phrases to round out this silo. We would then create these pages:
SEO.com/seo-optimization/seo-optimization-companies.html
SEO.com/seo-optimization/seo-optimization-tips.html
SEO.com/seo-optimization/affordable-seo-optimization.html

So now I have a silo for my SEO optimization topic. You should link to each page within your silo from the index or home page of that silo. You should also link to the home page of your site. On each page within the silo, you should link to the other pages within the silo.

You should not cross link between silos, unless the page you are cross linking to is highly relevant. For example, you may want to link your SEO optimization companies page within the SEO optimization silo to a page or more from your SEO services silo, but you would not want to link from that page to say your SEO keywords silo pages.

The goal here is to create folders that are extremely relevant. Each of these folders is linking back to your home page, and this structure, along with high quality unique content, will help your site gain authority with Google. If you start mixing links without having good reason to (highly related topics and pages), it will reduce the effectiveness of this SEO silo technique.

One last thing we will look at here is how to use an .htaccess file to 301 redirect your old pages to their new location if you are overhauling an existing site. Simply create a document in notepad and name it htaccess. Here is the code you want to add for each page you want to redirect:
# Redirect old file path to new file path
Redirect /old-page.html http://yoursite.com/new-folder/new-page.html
Once you have added the code, upload your htaccess.doc to your site, then simply rename it in your directory, removing the .doc and adding the . in front of the htaccess name. We suggest testing as you go along so you can correct any mistakes quickly and easily.

Hi Thanks Yukon Happy Holidays
Yes wordpress might be able to handle it, but getting a wordpress theme set up so that
it smoothly handles the links , is, IMO way harder to do than hand coding this thing with folders in html.

wordpress always seems to want to slap links where you dont want them, and controlling the sidebars on "individual pages" seems very difficult, whereas on HTML its not

hmm... except when someone doesn't know basic html/css and has no idea how to make a webpage that has a sidebar :p

FYI: the HTML/CSS rules are the same on every website, regardless how it was made: with WP or handcoded.

Figured out the "sidebar"
issue, actually created a horizontal menu with mouseover in CSS

Yes I do not know CSS
but
after spending all day tinkering with it, it seems pretty straightforward actually

Hi and Happy New Year!
I've been researching the topic for some time and discovered that there is no well established options for siloing in WP. I've noticed that some forum members here - Yukon and Outwest in particular - are working to develop a WP plugin/theme for silo structure. Any success? I'd like to purchase one if it proves to be effective and foolproof

Clickbump has a "silo" theme
however as a default Clickbump can be hand tailored to Silo structure
I fiddled with it this week and its perfectly configured to do it now on my site

the only thing it is not capable of , is linking posts within each silo...........BACK .....to the main silo page

So I will do this by hand
just link out in the first paragraaph of each post back to the silo landing page..................

I believe
Yukon is working on either a silo plugin or
a silo theme.................for wordpress

I have contacted my programmer in Mumbai
and asked him if he does CSS and wordpress he said yes (great programmer)

So I may have him program a Silo theme for me
and then Sell it Later
I am sure it would get many buyers

according to
Yukon and others, Silo structure is theme dependent and cannot be
put correctly into a plugin

whether this is true or not I am not sure
silo can be quite complicated to set up otherwise

you might take a look at clickbump

Scott is working on a small change to Clickbump that will allow it to be a fully pure Silo Theme Structure. Not sure when it will be ready. Clickbump is already 90% Silo customizable, just a small change is needed

The guy is a genius at programming I figured much easier to get him to make a slight alteration than to have my Indian programmer in Mumbai program a Silo WP theme from scratch.
Also I think Istvan has something in the oven.

Thanks Scott, looking forward to it

It's now February....does anyone have a fully functional WP silo theme available for purchase?

I tried my hand at this once before. I didn't quite uderstand the benefits assosiated with its existance on my site in addition to my pre existing seo work, so I deleted it. It does not seem to have any obvious benefits though.

OK, there's something that bothers me about these silo threads. People are using the word 'silo' to mean different things... there's no consensus.

Some say that within a silo, all pages should link to every page in the silo...

However, outside of this forum it seems that references to silo structure insist that pages within a silo are linked together in a linear fashion. So to get from the landing page to the last article in a silo, you have to go through every page in between.

Some diagrams show that the links go one-way, others show links going two-ways.

Here's an article that clearly shows the two-way straight chain. They seem to at least attempt to justify it, but it sounds like hokus pokus. How to Easily Create Silo Site Architecture

So which works better? Linear-chained silos, or webbed silos? I don't think this can be answered without testing the two out and comparing the results.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet (including this forum and this thread )

Those (and a few similar to the link you posted) are just "pure" theories... and none of the authors have ever made or showed a site of theirs that is exactly like that. Mainly because nobody (I mean normal living human) would ever want to be on a site like that! Wouldn't that drive you crazy to not be able to navigate on a site?

Another smarta$$ silo guru admits on his site (in comments, not in an article) that he's making 2 menus:
- one BH with javascript that is invisible for search engines but it's for human navigation
- another one with html... as described in those theories (but unusable for humans)

And yes, you are right: the justification on the page you linked to sounds like a scientific gibberish BS

Thank you Istvan.

The thing i find most complicated is the term and the layout, the term silo structure i just see as a category sub category, and the east west display makes it look more confusing than it needs to be, ? maybe I am wrong.

But I do work with what I suppose is the called the silo structure here most days

working with googles own recommendations for structure in adwords, it makes great sense for me to build sites and structure them on the exact same structure, for both ease of use but secondly G loves and rewards this in most cases for what I do with very high quality scores.

from googles own guide below


-> Ad group 3: Vegetable seeds

If that is how Google wants a campaign set ( as above ) then why not build like?

anyway I use category sub category type talk to reference what i do not the word silo, and then just common sense.

so in building the site above the page layout / structure would look like this

-> Vegetable seeds

So I've been thinking about linear silos and silos where all posts link to every other post in the silo.

I've concluded that it doesn't make much of a difference which one you use if you're going for page-rank and relevancy.

I think both would spread the link juice around the silo in the same manner. Linking to every other post in the silo is actually pretty easy with SEO Ultimate's siloed categories widget and makes for a better user experience.

I think it's just easier to draw the simple linear silos, so that's what you see in most diagrams.

Hi,

yes one marketer said that.... another said make this.......
And nobody knows exactly what they mean when it comes to the silo topic.

I have that understood so;

Build a site about seo (example) with wordpress;

make categorys;

category 1ff page seo
category2: on page seo
category 3: seo linkbuilding (and so on you know what I mean)

So in each category I write a description about it and link in them to all 5 posts in that category like;
(each category has 5 posts)

read more about off page seo;(link to the 5 posts in them)

best off page seo methods
learn about off page seo (and so on)......

So, each post in an category will link to the other 4 posts in that category- is that right??? follow or nofollow??? And when nofollow-why??

So, each category post has a backlink to the main page too (home page) or a link back to the category ??? right??? follow or nofollow??? And when nofollow-why???

Or does each category has a backlink to the home page???? follow or nofollow??

And when nofollow- where are the seo benefits when I make it nofollow???

Have I understood this right??

Each category link back to the home page
Each post in a category link to the another 4 posts and link back to the home page???

Is that right???

What is best permalink for that; category/postname or only postname??? Also show the category keyword in the url or not??? Example; www.mysite.com/off-page-seo/best -off-page-seo methods ??
Or better; www.mysite.com:/best-off-page-seo-emthods without category keyword???


And with that method I rank easier and faster with high competitive keywords???



best wishes
marco005