Do you know that structuring a website logically is as vital for the users as it is for SEO?
Yes, it is true. If you are creating content and blog posts with no plans for your website, then you are undermining the brand’s goals. Your business might have already lost many months of potential growth and compelled your website to grow sluggishly while your competitors are easily moving ahead of you with pace.
What is Silo Structure in SEO? The Silo structure is a website architecture strategy that organizes content into specific categories with each category having its own dedicated section or silo. This structure helps search engines to understand the hierarchy and relevance of the content on your site, which can improve your SEO performance.
Silo helps in website structure efficiently to attract the top search engine’s attention like Google. Different silo structure assists in creating a website that will be SEO-friendly with high growth potential. But in most cases, creating organized silo website architecture is a difficult job. It is particularly applicable for those brands that offer numerous services and products, blog posts, include several operating locations, or serve different industries.
If silo structure is done incorrectly, search engines will never understand the site structure. Thus, they will never go through each of your web pages and struggle while indexing them. But, if you can appropriately organize all the content of your website, you can see rapid indexing of the newly updated web pages, the higher authority of the parent pages, better behaviour flow, and user experience.
Still interested to know more about silo structures?
If yes, you only have to go through the entire article to know everything related to a silo.
What is Silo Structure?
SEO silo structure is a website architecture type where the website owner can group, interlink or isolate the content about a particular subject or topic. It helps to create a distinct and clean segment of the related content on a website. There will be a primary silo page and the related interlinked content attached to it in a silo structure. The silos are organized in a standardized and thoughtful pattern.
For instance, the structure begins with a website organized in a hierarchy where parent pages are the topic’s general introduction. Under this primary topic page, supporting pages like blog posts and other web content covering the other branches of the topic are present. You can create a silo with a proper navigation path by internally linking the pages together. It will assist in passing on the topical relevance and link juice to the other landing pages, web content, or blog posts.
But remember, the content in a silo will never interlink with the content present in another silo. It is the reason why it is named a silo structure, as the contents are all grouped or isolated in different silos.
Do you want search engines and potential prospects to find your website and visit it?
Well, only a silo structure can guide them to find and visit your website understandably and clearly. Google always evaluates the silo quality in a website and ranks them accordingly.
How Silo Structures Improve Website SEO?
A good silo can benefit a website’s SEO by passing onto the link juice throughout the website. It also offers top search engines and their bots for confirming content relevance in a streamlined way. Besides these advantages, silo structures can also improve the website SEO in the following way.
1. Helps search engines find web pages
Google can find new content pages with the help of internal linking in a website. Thus, you have to ensure that all your web pages are interconnected to each other. Siloing creates a structure with a logical hierarchy and continuous internal linking. Search engines always keep looking for signals to decide if your website and the web pages are relevant for the mentioned search terms. To demonstrate the website’s SEO relevance, you can interconnect the related web pages in an organized structure.
2. Helps in improving your website’s topical relevance
Silo structure also assists a website in thoughtfully choosing the content and the web pages for improving the topical relevance. After completely developing the silo structure for a website, you can direct the topical relevance directly to the website. It will attract more attention from search engine spiders with better keyword rankings and outstanding SEO.
3. User experience
Even the smallest website flaw can compel the targeted audiences to leave the site on their first arrival. Visitors always love to look at the organized content and will spend more time. Potential customers will be impressed if they can find the services or products and the necessary information related to them. A perfect silo makes navigation hassle-free for the users and thus enhances their experience.
4. Boosts search engine rankings
Do you know primarily there are two reasons SEO silo can boost search engine rankings? Let us take a look at them one by one.
5. Contextual internal links
Silos are related content groups, and the internal linking between the web pages is contextually relevant. Thus, it creates internal links from and to the pages about relevant or similar content and also includes related anchors. These aspects help the search engines understand the page context.
6. Improved page rank flow
PageRank or PR is the formula for the Google search engine for scoring the page value depending on the web page’s quality and quantity linked to it. With the help of backlinks, PR improves the website flow, and PR flows around it through the internal links. Since in site architecture, all the pages are interlinked, it assists in PR flow between them.
For instance, if a web page in a site attracts a high amount of PR-boosting backlinks, some of the link juice will also get shared with the other web pages present in that same silo through internal linking.
7. Helps to rank long tail keywords easily
Long tail keywords for a website can have immense benefits from the silo architecture. Creating links for every silo page at the site’s bottom can be a daunting task as these web pages target some particular long-tail keywords. However, you do not have to create links directly to these web pages if you implement silo. With the silo’s help, many website pages targeting long-tail keywords will develop a better SERP ranking even if they do not have a single backlink of their own.
SEO Silos vs. Topical Clusters
In the comparison between SEO silos and topical clusters, you already know what a silo structure is.
But do you have any idea about topical clusters?
Topical clusters are a simple and lazy way of organizing website content with the same efficiency and less planning. Website owners do not have to insert keywords in the content clusters. It implements an internal linking and topic modelling strategy for improving the user experience related to content.
Content clusters help in higher SEO rank and include 3 primary components:
- The pillar page is a detailed and broad content piece that is the hub of the cluster
- Internal link acts like a common bond between the clusters
- Cluster content is all content pieces interconnected with the pillar page of the cluster
Advantages of Silos
- It is best for the SEO setup
- Short and cleaner URLs
- Includes the simplest interface
- Best for author and e-commerce websites
- Delivers the best user experience
Disadvantages of silos
- A complicated technical setup
- Strict protocols for internal linking
- Needs planning in advance
- Harder to implement with the help of SOPs and assistant
- Application for massive and existing websites is a huge difficulty
Advantages of topical clusters
- It is easier to set up
- Hassle-free for unplanned and progressive expansion
- Folder absence makes it simpler to add the keywords
- Ideal for lightweight and simple websites
- Flexible interlinking with the pages
Disadvantages of topical clusters
- Dilutes the topical relevance while being liberal with the keyword linking
- Not ideal for e-Commerce applications
- Gets messier when implemented on massive websites
- Challenge to conceptualize for the users
Which one is better to use: silo structure or topical clusters?
Confused between silo structure and topical clusters? Do you need to know which one you should use?
The below section will assist you in selecting which type of site architecture is ideal to implement according to the scenarios.
SEO Silos
SEO siloing is better to use if you can:
- Plan a minimum of 100 content pieces ahead of time and organize them in a Microsoft spreadsheet with the mentioned categories. From there onwards, if you add any new expansions or niches, they will be present already in the structured place
- Spend more time creating the web pages and subpages, siloing the sidebars and categories, tweaking stuff in WordPress, and many more for an additional SEO boost
- Comfortable in linking all the related topics, keywords, slugs, and many more
Topical clusters
Topical clusters are better to use if you:
- Want to begin with a niche but do not have a firm plan on how you will expand the website in the future
- Are you creating a micro or a narrow site with less than 9 to 16 pages that you want ranking for
- Already have a massive website that is performing perfectly, and never want to redirect due to structural changes in numerous URLs.
Examples of SEO Silo Structure and Why They Work?
Below we have listed some silo examples to provide a better understanding of silo website architecture works and why they work.
Silo site structure example of GoDaddy
Whenever a search engine crawls a website followed by the domain name, the spiders will already know the domain is the primary page, and the name is the child page. A content silo is a structure in which there are multiple child pages under a domain, and there is only one parent domain page. For instance, in the case of GoDaddy,
https://www.godaddy.com
https://www.godaddy.com/domains
https://www.godaddy.com/domains/domain-broker
https://www.godaddy.com/websites
https://www.godaddy.com/websites/website-builder
https://www.godaddy.com/websites/online-store
This URL structure creates a content structure for the top search engines, making it easier for the bots to crawl the content, understand its nature, and index it. The search engine spiders see the topical content themes or areas in an entire website.
Silo website structure example of a content hub
A content hub is another best example of a silo structure for SEO. Content hubs are interconnected content collections with a similar and relevant topic, including three components: The links, subpages, and the hub page. The Hub page is considered a high-level page on a generalized topic. Subpages are the detailed content about the primary topic’s segments. The links connect the subpages with the hub page.
SEO silo architecture example of Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land contains numerous silos (categories) related to SEO, webinars, PPC, and many more. By clicking on each of these categories, you can learn about a particular topic. It makes it hassle-free to find any topic content and also proves that the website is a master of SEO optimization. The topical contents in a silo assist in supporting the website’s authority and enhancing the page’s rank.
Discuss different types of Silo Structures in SEO
Silo site structures can be of various forms, including physical and virtual ones. The primary purpose of creating a silo structure for your website is to make the content simple and easier to understand and to give search engines clear instructions on which web pages to visit. Many eCommerce websites implement silo structures to make it easier for customers to locate the relevant products or services.
Silos help the individuals in understanding potentially overwhelming alternatives. The silos development is also beneficial for websites offering forums, membership, and online courses. The silo creation also assists the users in navigating multiple topics and silo themes with gated content.
Are you intrigued to know more about virtual silos and physical silos?
Then, the below segment will help you to find all the answers related to all your doubts.
Physical silo
A silo created with the website directory structure is known as a physical silo. You can create a more concrete connection with physical silos, envelopes in a website for addressing each of the storehouses, and the pages present inside the organizers are the supportive pages of the actual storehouse.
Users can encounter innumerable amounts of data on the internet. Every minute, business owners are building nearly 380 new websites. Each of these websites contains 1 to 10,000 pages. Since so much information is available on the internet, it becomes difficult for search engines to index every page published. A physical silo gives a roadmap to the search engine spiders to crawl the website.
Also, adding links between the pages even more emphasizes the connections. SEO physical silos assist in streamlining the process. When you are using a website’s physical URL directory structure, like filing the cabinet for organizing the related pages, a physical silo gets created. Each website theme includes page groups saved under a single folder together committed for that particular directory.
Within that category, subfolders are present for different subcategories. Each file has a distinct space within the category, without any chance of two files overlapping each other in both categories. For creating a physical silo, you can build a directory structure aligning with different themes within the website.
Virtual silo
In a virtual silo, you can use the website’s internal link structure for:
- Connecting related page groups
- Strengthening the main landing page of every silo
- Separating the unrelated pages
You can create a virtual silo hypertexting the links between theme-related pages. It is highly efficient as search engine bots can crawl the website’s contents by following these hypertext links. By connecting the pages relevant in theme and topic, you are also establishing the website’s theme relevance for the section.
For instance, instead of interlinking all the pages randomly, you can use a virtual silo for displaying the website, including keyword-relevant and distinct content themes. Supportive pages always link to the landing page of the silo. You should avoid cross-linking between the silos except for the top landing pages.
Random page linking in between the silos can weaken the theme. Thus, no subpage within the silo should be linked to a subpage of another silo. Perfect website linking indicates the relationships between the pages and reveals the topic structure of the website. Virtual silo also strengthens the main landing pages which you want to rank high in the SERPs.
Virtual silos also lead to the page rank accumulation on the top landing page of every silo. It becomes the most related website page for keywords relevant to that theme.
Do you want to achieve better SERP rankings for your website through siloing?
We recommend implementing virtual silos along with physical silos whenever possible for maximum efficiency.
How To Plan & Create a Silo Structure?
In this segment, we are going to discuss how to plan and create a silo structure using both internal linking and categories.
Download the blog post lists
First, download all the data from your website to a Microsoft Excel sheet. To download these posts you can install Export any WordPress data to XML/CSV plugin.
Now, you have to export the entire published blog post list in the CSV file format.
Creating a spreadsheet in Google Sheets
Now, create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets and import all the data from the CSV that you have exported from your website. Adding a new column in the Google sheet to the right of the blog post titles and naming it as content silos.
Recognizing the content silos
Next, find out which blog posts you can place in a single topic cluster. After finishing each of the blog posts to silo content, start sorting the table based on the column. In this way, you can group the articles in a content silo. You can now use WordPress categories for creating interlinked silos depending on the topic clusters.
Creating WordPress Categories
WordPress creates a category page automatically for every category. This category page will list the blog post in that category with a small summary of the content. It will then interlink all the individual blog posts or articles present in that category. You can also create internal linking from every page in the content silo to the category page.
Adding internal links
Internal linking is an integral part of creating an efficient silo, and you should be careful while doing it. Never do internal linking randomly and link the contents present outside a specific silo. The only exception to this rule is vertical linking, where you can link the home page or high-level category page.
FAQ
Is Silo structure compulsory for a website?
Yes, silo structure in SEO is important and compulsory for websites with large numbers of pages. It improves the visibility of organic search and thematically organizes the content. Silo structure also targets the related keywords and implements internal linking to improve the chances of ranking a website prominently in the SERPs.
Is siloing a website difficult?
Implementing a silo within a website can be a bit difficult at first, but once placed will help the search engine crawlers in indexing and ranking the necessary content. Silo demonstrates a topic-centric and keyword-rich content page and its supportive pages to the search engine robots. This subject’s relevance leads to better ranking. Thus, however difficult siloing is, it will be worth it in the end for your brand.
Is there a drawback to siloing?
Among innumerable advantages, siloing also comes with a few downsides too. While isolating the content in a silo, it can get difficult to find them. Users can only access some content segments from the top-level pages. It means the user might miss the pages that might be interesting to them across the silos. A website with a locked silo architecture and hierarchical form prevents the user from navigating between the silos.
Conclusion
An SEO silo structure is one of the most efficient ways to organize website content. Implementing a silo structure can be difficult, but it will assist the search engines in indexing, crawling, and ranking the website better. A primary page solely for a topic and supporting pages with relevant content will display to the search engines about the topic’s relevance. Thus, it will help to rank the website higher in the SERPs. Silo architecture creates high architectural value by adding authority to all the web pages.
