Silo Structure / Authority Site - LIVE examples | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

14 years ago

Another example, but slightly more complex:
about.com

- Also uses sub-domains as silos.
- Example:acne.about.com acts as a parent page to all their acne related content.
- Important pages are permanently linked from the main page, and they have a feed with fresh content.
- They include related links at the bottom of the articles, and they also make use of wikipedia style internal linking to link other areas of the site including those outside of the current subdomain.

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mraffiliate

14 years ago

Worth noting: is the fact that they use sub-domains for silos. Sub-directories would probably be a better way to go for a site that is smaller.

This statement brought up about.com's use of sub-domains. It seems they rank for just about every keyword.

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retsek

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mraffiliate

This statement brought up about.com's use of sub-domains. It seems they rank for just about every keyword.

My feeling is it might be best to use sub-domains when you have a wide range of topics on your site. In their case, they seem cover everything from adhd to weight loss.

But if you have, let's say a site about dogs, and you publish everything dog food to dog training, then you'll best be served by using sub-directories.

It kinda makes sense. If you remember, right after Panda sites like HubPages and Suite101 switched to using subdomains as part of their strategies for recovery.

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DeskCoder

14 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

My feeling is it might be best to use sub-domains when you have a wide range of topics on your site. In their case, they seem cover everything from adhd to weight loss.

But if you have, let's say a site about dogs, and you publish everything dog food to dog training, then you'll best be served by using sub-directories.

It kinda makes sense. If you remember, right after Panda sites like HubPages and Suite101 switched to using subdomains as part of their strategies for recovery.

Just be careful about using trademarks in subdomains. I know a lot of companies that do not allow you to use their name in a subdomain ... like walmart.reviewsite.com

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lutherlars

14 years ago

Great idea!

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yukon

Banned 14 years ago

Amazon is a good example of a dynamic silo, the way they change URLs/links in the left sidebar based on whatever category you are currently viewing.

Amazon also does the same as Ebay & hides header links inside javascript, that returns plain-text in a Google Cache (text version). I wouldn't suggest this technique for an Adsense site, but any other site is ok.

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retsek

14 years ago

Another good example:
http://www.innerbody.com/

- the 12 body systems act as their categories or main silo landing pages
- under that is 19k pages of body parts that rank well for thousands of keywords ..most of which are top 5
- nice use of breadcrumbs and logical url structure

Look at how much content they have on each page. With several Panda iterations already run, I'd say that's proof you don't need a super long essay to rank. Just provide truly helpful content and think about the SEs last.

(They are being a bit greedy though by trying to rank for "healthcare job", "criminal justice" and "online education" related keywords. IMO, they shoulda put that on another domain or sub-domain, rather than risk fuxing up their site. Sites have been penalized by Panda for less.

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yukon

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

Another good example:
InnerBody.com | Human Body, Anatomy Charts, Anatomical Models

- the 12 body systems act as their categories or main silo landing pages
- under that is 19k pages of body parts that rank well for thousands of keywords ..most of which are top 5
- nice use of breadcrumbs and logical url structure

Look at how much content they have on each page. With several Panda iterations already run, I'd say that's proof you don't need a super long essay to rank. Just provide truly helpful content and think about the SEs last.

(They are being a bit greedy though by trying to rank for "healthcare job", "criminal justice" and "online education" related keywords. IMO, they shoulda put that on another domain or sub-domain, rather than risk fuxing up their site. Sites have been penalized by Panda for less.

That's interesting how there displaying hyperlinks for the "Anatomy Terms" on the Google Cache (text version) with HTML5.

Example from the Cache link above (exact match text):

Lateral Circumflex Femoral Vein
hxxp://www.innerbody.com/image_cardov/card27-new.html

They rank #1 for the exact match text above.

I'm not in the health niche but I imagine a lot of med. students Google related searches to that keyword at some point in their career. That & doctors patients, when the patient leaves the doctor looking for more info. online about what the doctor is talking about.

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retsek

14 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

I'm not in the health niche but I imagine a lot of med. students Google related searches to that keyword at some point in their career. That & doctors patients, when the patient leaves the doctor looking for more info. online about what the doctor is talking about.

plus kids in school. That's how I found them ...Daughter needed help with homework and I sucked in Biology.

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calculon

14 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

They rank #1 for the exact match text above.

I'm not in the health niche but I imagine a lot of med. students Google related searches to that keyword at some point in their career. That & doctors patients, when the patient leaves the doctor looking for more info. online about what the doctor is talking about.

What I learned when working in this niche is that the Click Thru Rate for adsense is quite low. Those patients are not looking to buy anything, just get quick information. So all that traffic is just eating up bandwidth. Of course, maybe innerbody has other goals from that site than adsense income. Now back to the Silo topic.

http://www.usda.gov seems, on first glance to have a surprisingly flat structure, but when you see all the sub-domains, for example http://plants.usda.gov, you realize it's just because the whole site is so massive. It is def. more Authority than Silo. Still a good instructive site to check out for structure.

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retsek

14 years ago

Originally Posted by calculon

U.S. Department of Agriculture seems, on first glance to have a surprisingly flat structure, but when you see all the sub-domains, for example Welcome to the PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS, you realize it's just because the whole site is so massive. It is def. more Authority than Silo. Still a good instructive site to check out for structure.

A-Z Index on usda is great and spreads link juice everywhere. I like using words like that ...rather than "sitemap". The organisation in alphabetical order also makes it more usable than say a chronological listing.

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yukon

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by calculon

What I learned when working in this niche is that the Click Thru Rate for adsense is quite low. Those patients are not looking to buy anything, just get quick information. So all that traffic is just eating up bandwidth. Of course, maybe innerbody has other goals from that site than adsense income. Now back to the Silo topic.

U.S. Department of Agriculture seems, on first glance to have a surprisingly flat structure, but when you see all the sub-domains, for example Welcome to the PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS, you realize it's just because the whole site is so massive. It is def. more Authority than Silo. Still a good instructive site to check out for structure.

You could still optimize the page for things like health insurance, or health related education. Do a 50/50 split test of the advertisements & see which converts the best over a month of steady traffic.

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Tiiberiuss

14 years ago

I am not sure if this one is Siloed too. Please correct me if I am wrong Social Media Science: Home

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GGpaul

14 years ago

@Yukon, how many supporting pages do you add for a main keyword? Or does that all depend on your competition?

I remember messaging you my site two weeks ago. As for me, 4 supporting pages was just not enough in regards to "silo".

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yukon

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by GGpaul

@Yukon, how many supporting pages do you add for a main keyword? Or does that all depend on your competition?

I remember messaging you my site two weeks ago. As for me, 4 supporting pages was just not enough in regards to "silo".

I get a lot of PMs so I'm not sure of the exact site your talking about, I know we've exchanged PMs, I just don't remember the URL/keyword.

Most times 4-10 supporting pages per main keyword should be enough for a medium competition keyword.

The reason I set 4 supporting pages as a minimum is for ranking 1-3 pages for the same [exact] keyword, sometimes you can squeeze 4 ranked pages for the exact same keyword, just depends on competition strength.

Some keywords are just tough to rank, If you already have 4 supporting pages, bump it up too 10 supporting pages & make sure you use the exact anchor-text as internal keyword anchor-text pointing at the main page your trying to rank for that specific keyword.

You also need at least a single page on the site that is ranked with external links. That page doesn't have to be for the same keyword, make sure both keywords are relevant. Use internal links to pass authority around your site to additional internal pages.

I had another Warrior Forum member PM me a week or two ago that didn't realize he had a triple SERP listings for one of his keywords, until I pointed it out to him. He did the same basic Silo setup with supporting pages + internal links. That same guy owned the top of the first page in Google SERPs for that specific keyword (1 keyword, 3 ranked pages).

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2 replies

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Tiiberiuss

14 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

... make sure you use the exact anchor-text as internal keyword anchor-text pointing at the main page your trying to rank for that specific keyword.

Wouldn't this put you in trouble after Penguin?

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yukon

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Tiiberiuss

Wouldn't this put you in trouble after Penguin?

No,

I was talking about internal link anchor-text.

Wikipedia does the same thing & doesn't have a problem ranking pages regardless whenever Google updates their algo.

Obviously use self control & don't have a bunch of links on a single page spamming the same keyword, one link/keyword anchor-text is enough per supporting page.

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Tiiberiuss

14 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

No,

I was talking about internal link anchor-text.

Wikipedia does the same thing & doesn't have a problem ranking pages regardless whenever Google updates their algo.

Obviously use self control & don't have a bunch of links on a single page spamming the same keyword, one link/keyword anchor-text is enough per supporting page.

Yes I was talking about internal-link anchor text too. Thanks for explanation.

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slayer0x59 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Tiiberiuss

Wouldn't this put you in trouble after Penguin?

I would also like to know the answer to this cause afaik this is true or can anyone prove otherwise?
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- retsek 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by slayer0x59
  
  I would also like to know the answer to this cause afaik this is true or can anyone prove otherwise?
  
  No it wouldn't be problem.
  
  It would be a problem if your page mentioned your keyword 12 times and ALL 12 times you have an internal link with the same anchor text pointing to the same url.
  
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GGpaul

14 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

I get a lot of PMs so I'm not sure of the exact site yor talking about, I know we've exchanged PMs, I just don't remember the URL/keyword.

Most times 4-10 supporting pages per main keyword should be enough for a medium competition keyword.

The reason I set 4 supporting pages as a minimum is for ranking 1-3 pages for the same [exact] keyword, sometimes you can squeeze 4 ranked pages for the exact same keyword, just depends on competition strength.

Some keywords are just tough to rank, If you already have 4 supporting pages, bump it up too 10 supporting pages & make sure you use the exact anchor-text as internal keyword anchor-text pointing at the main page your trying to rank for that specific keyword.

You also need at least a single page on the site that is ranked with external links. That page doesn't have to be for the same keyword, make sure both keywords are relevant. Use internal links to pass authority around your site to additional internal pages.

I had another Warrior Forum member PM me a week or two ago that didn't realize he had a triple SERP listings for one of his keywords, until I pointed it out to him. He did the same basic Silo setup with supporting pages + internal links. That same guy owned the top of the first page in Google SERPs for that specific keyword (1 keyword, 3 ranked pages).

It was regarding to the gadget store site (not exact URL). Where you mentioned that the drop menu at the top could have been an issue. Haha. Okay, I'll fix it up a bit more and probably add a couple more supporting pages.

Would it be okay to have a third tier for supporting pages?

Main KW -> Support page (has main kw) -> more supporting pages (has support page kw + main kw)?

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Danny Woolard

14 years ago

Is Amazon really an example of a silo?
All of there silos and sub-silos (categories) interlink together.

This is pretty much how I am doing my site at the moment...not a "true silo"...

Home Page> SILOS

SILOS> Point back to home, other silos and "supporting Article Pages for the current silo only."

Has a conclusion been made on what's better for smaller sites? True Silo or Amazon style silo?

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Mantasmo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by denutza

Is Amazon really an example of a silo?
All of there silos and sub-silos (categories) interlink together.

This is pretty much how I am doing my site at the moment...not a "true silo"...

Home Page> SILOS

SILOS> Point back to home, other silos and "supporting Article Pages for the current silo only."

Has a conclusion been made on what's better for smaller sites? True Silo or Amazon style silo?

That's exactly how I build my authority sites. Literally 1 to 1.

You can use "clever" code to hide some of the menus from being seen by Google, but I see absolutely no reason to completely isolate the silos in the first place. As long as the inner pages of a silo aren't linking directly to the inner pages of other silos, I'm good.

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Danny Woolard

14 years ago

I guess people will be debating this for some time...But logically, Im with your view 100%.

Google punishes you for bad bounce rates as well.

So a site that has more links from category to category would benefit (like Amazon).

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Wieli

13 years ago

I know that this is a old post but im really looking for good silo pages to get some hints from.

about.com and amazon is great tips. But they are build really complex with pages everywhere you click

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

This is a large site (Lowes) but it's a good example, similar to Amazon on how they remove unrelated links from the sidebar depending on which category your currently viewing. This would be a category landing page & the header/footer can include/exclude whatever you need for the site, it can be as simple or complex as you want.

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