SEO Silo Structure: Why It Makes No Sense And The Better Approach

Everyone is aware that structuring your website is as important to the users as it is for SEO. An SEO silo structure is one of the ways to do this. Though a few may argue that SEO silo strategy is not feasible and you should not do it. Let us figure out the reasons why you should and the reasons why you should avoid doing it.

The definition of silo structure in SEO

A silo structure website is a type of website architecture where you isolate, group and interlink content about a specific topic. On your website, this results in neat, separate parts of linked material.

Each website silo architecture will have a main silo page and related content where all of them are interlinked. But this is the crucial point where the content in one silo does not link to the content in another silo. For this reason, it is referred to as SEO silo structure as the content is located in silos.

The reasons why siloing is popular

If you run a quick search in content explorer you will come across 11k published pages containing the phrases silo structure website along with the word SEO. The reason for its popularity is the perceived benefits that replicate in a form like this

It enables Google to find your pages

Internal links are one of the ways by which Google locates new pages. So, it is better practice to ensure that all the pages are interlinked in some way or the other. An SEO silo structure can help you in this regard as It establishes a logical hierarchy with regular interlinking.

It boasts ranking

There are a couple of ways by which silo structure in SEO peps up your rankings.

• Better flow of Page Rank- Google’s Page Rank methodology evaluates a page’s worth based on its quality and quantity using these two factors. of pages linked to it. Since each page in a silo is connected to every other page, siloing facilitates PR flow between them.
• More contextual interlinks- Silos are groups of related content. This means that the internal links between pages are usually contextually relevant. As part of a Seo silo strategy internal links to and for pages are created and this is with different anchors.

It provides for a better user experience

Internal links are not something merely useful for Seo, they also help users to navigate your website. For all these reasons a silo structure website can enhance your user experience. The reason is that it brings together all relevant content on a specific topic.

The problems with silo structure

Taking into consideration the potential benefits of a SEO silo strategy you may be wondering what are the problem areas. Forbidding internal links across silos is pointless and has no benefit for users’ SEO, to put it simply. Content as long as it is contextual makes sense in linking to another page of your site and you should be doing it. Though the pyramid structure helps us understand the concept of individual images within the site.

Viable practices for site architecture

With a Silo structure website out of the window let us consider a few simple best practices for planning and structuring a website with SEO in mind

Using a pyramid structure

Adopting such a structure ensures that your content is at the top. This is followed by the second most important content and then the third most important content. A few of the benefits of pyramid site structure are as follows

• Easy navigation- visitors start on a home page, and then dig deeper
• Good Page Rank flow- It makes sense to have key content nearby as site homepages typically receive the most backlinks.
• Internal links are conceptual- classes linkage to their separate subcategories and vice versa.

You will notice that the benefits align with the perceived website Silo architecture. It won’t have the drawback of forbidding internal connections between silos, which leads us conveniently to a number of other issues.

Internal linking where necessary

One of the issues with the SEO Silo structure the fact that it forbids connecting conceptual potential outside of the Silo. Opting for a pyramid structure with such stipulations may solve this. If you are able to come across potential linking better opportunities then it is better to do so. The first is the use of a link opportunities tool that suggests where you should be incorporating internal links. Secondly would be using a page explorer tool that allows you to search for any word or phrase on your website.

Creation of content hubs for blog content

Due to its chronological publication, blog content is known to suffer from a lack of conceptual structure. By generating content hubs from connected blogs, you can address this problem. In that they are interconnected links of relevant content, content blogs are like silos. The freedom to link across content hubs is the only distinction between hubs and silos.

A content hub gives you the superlative benefits of both worlds as the related content is grouped and interlinked. At the same time, you are able to interlink between pages when it makes sense.

Ensure that the important content is not too deep

Deep content is difficult for users to find but this is a common misconception that this is true for search engines too. Google will be able to identify and index your material up until the point when it is internally linked. For this reason, you need to ensure that the important content is not buried deep into your site.

SEO structure in Silo advocates that all these pages may not be important, or even the depth is not an issue. But if we consider important pages or posts, there is a temptation to incorporate internal links.

Organizing your thoughts makes sense, but adopting an SEO silo strategy may not achieve the desired purpose. All this is not going to preclude you from internal linking to your website from contextual or relevant locations on your site hindering SEO. The general advice is to organize the website in a pyramid structure, and group related blogs or informational content into hubs. Simply then you can link it to pages that make sense. This is not only beneficial for SEO but it makes it easier for visitors to navigate your website.

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