I’ve searched the web for good content – including video and presentations – about siloing, theming, and website structure in general. This is what i found, liked, and want to share with you. Enjoy!
Introduction to siloing
Fernando of attractionmarketingformula gives an easy understandable introduction to site structures. He states that this process will make a HUGE difference in search engine rankings. I think he is a bit too enthusiastic about it, but his explanation of the principles is crystal clear.
Direktlink zum Video auf Google-Video
Three ways of site structuring
This is a nice presentation by Rand Fishkin. He starts by pointing out a couple of criteria of good (SEO) information architecture:
- have as few clicks to the content as possible;
- create descriptive, valuable category pages;
- let flow of link juice get through to detail content;
- create a usable, easy to understand architecture.
After that, he looks at three very common types of architecture. Spoiler: The best is a thematic hierarchical one.
Direktlink zum Video auf Youtube
The first criterium, have as few clicks as possible, is best described in a youMOZ post by David Mihm.
Hierarchical site structure
David Ogden explains how you should setup a hierarchical site structure and why this kind of architecture is preferred by search engines.
Direktlink zum Video auf Youtube
Broad theme site structure
This one is a follow-up by David Ogden, where he explains how really specific long tail detail pages can help you rank better for overall general terms. He also says a thing or two about siloing.
Direktlink zum Video auf Youtube
Aaron Wall about site-structure
Creating a good internal site structure. Aaron Wall talks about a variety of subjects and gets quite practical by showing screencasts of real life examples. Things he talks about are: duplicate content, flat vs deep hierarchy and types of categories.
Direktlink zum Video auf Youtube
Michael Gray – Graywolf about siloing WordPress
This one is a really clear explanation of how WORDPRESS blogs actually create duplicate content problems. Primary tip: always try to keep posts in ONE category. Other categories are nice for humans, but NOT for ‘mr Googlebot’.
Direktlink zum Video auf Youtube
More advanced stuff (not video)
Some really advanced stuff regarding information architecture in general can be found at smart-it consulting and an advanced WordPress SEO masterclass is found at Andy Beard’s site. You can also check out Joost’s article about Wordpress site structuring and this massive post about SEO information architecture.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Nice one, keep ‘m coming.
although Fernando is a bit too convinced of internal site structure ;) this is a good read for al those copywriting out there as wel..
May 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Exactly, this is all about information architecture, about the way a website is structured. For copywriters, there are many parallels (do i spell that right?) with the way you organize a book with chapters, paragraphs, etc.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I find that organising a website should be done after doing extensive keywordresearch and defining the content that you want to publish. Sort of a masterplan of content so to speak. In retrospect this activity belongs more to the seo consultant than the (seo)copywriter..
The main question is, what effect has the absence of interlinking (isolated content themes) on rankings. is it actually that good for seo? This fernando guy is really stressing this argument for seo purposes. In reality a website will have a cental navigation so that is sometimes hard to achive isnt it?!
In my opinion the natural deeplinking effect is much stronger.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I agree that keyword research should definitely be done first. Structure comes next. In my opinion, the distinction between ‘general’ seo consultant and seo copywriter is not that great. Probably because I am an SEO consultant who deals with content SEO. SEO copywriting is only a part of that.
Siloing is very important for SEO, in the same way that is is important to use not only your forcus keyword, but also synonyms and other related words (Latent Semantic Indexing). It makes sure that mr Googlebot actually understands the thematic CONTEXT a webpage is placed in.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Interesting linktext you got there aids positive. Now that makes me curious. Is the site aids-research.org yours?
June 4th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I like rand’s representation,very useful.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Lol, its a good comment though, so do follow you know..
June 4th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Indeed Simme, but I just added nofollowing to all links. It seems that Dutch SEOs are more polite in following Google’s rules than Americans :p (just look at the SMX advamnced linkbuilding sessions)
June 20th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Great stuff, Ramon. I really need to touch up on site structure before I launch my next major project.
I really respect Rand and Greywolf.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I find that organising a website should be done after doing extensive keywordresearch and defining the content that you want to publish.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:10 am
After watching these videos back in June, I decided to put it to the test and I’ve created a silo’d WordPress theme. Feel free to check it out.
http://www.energyrant.com
I’ve sought to minimise duplicate content, I’ve organised the site structure to be effective and efficient, I have Category pages with good content on them and I’ve run over the site with a fine toothed SEO comb.
For some reason, It doesn’t seem to be ranking in SERPs. Any ideas why?
August 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Hi Robert, SEO is not only about technology. All this siloing stuff is only there to make sure that Google & co. can actually FIND your content. But when they do, it is the content that should take over. So make sure you have created unique and quality content. And after that, it is links that give these content pages some authority. SEO is about technology, content and links. When you have all three, then, and only then, will you rank
August 31st, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Thanks, Ramon. Sounds like I’ll have to get serious about link building and content writing. Right now, all the content is unique but I’m getting content writers on Guru.com to sort it out for me. I specified that content should be unique and I’m sure it is, but it’s not the best quality.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:17 am
So make sure you have created unique and quality content. And after that, it is links that give these content pages some authority.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
but still.. the intention on energyrant is just about right!
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
The intention seems ok, but i would not place adwords ads all over the place..
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
You’re right, Ramon – I found a loophole where I can place more AdSense ads on my site than Google allows normally. This is done through Google Ad Manager.
I’ll disable them now. Didn’t think of the implications of doing that.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hi Robert, please don’t remove them just because I said I wouldn’t do that. Adwords ads have no implications for your organic rankings.
I just said I wouldn’t do it because it’s not my taste: I don’t like it when websites have ads all over the place. I think it’s fine to have ads, especially if you can make a decent buck out of it! And hey, i’m a blogger also, so I understand… ;)
But with adwords, that usually isn’t the case. Affiliate deals and banners usually provide more cash. But you should read Jeremey Shoemaker’s or Darren Rowse’s blogs for tips :)
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
True, but it was slowing my site down anyway. Don’t search engines prefer sites that are responsive? Makes sense to send users to the faster sites, to me.
PS. Sorry to take this so far off topic. I’ll try and keep it at least semantically related to site linking structures…
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
To keep this semantically related: search engines prefer websites with simple, hierarchic structures that they understand. For instance, searchwritten.com is a website which is NOT very well optimized. (reason: i’m lazy and have got other things to do, but will get to it eventually)
September 17th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Oh wow, thank you so much for posting all of this very useful info. I really consider myself a new user even though I have been blogging for quite some time now. But thanks to this I believe I might have advanced just a little bit. Thank you!
September 28th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This is an excellent piece on site structure for SEO, including the comments on keywords and may I add that it is equally important to structure pages for VEO (Visitor excitement optimization).
Depending on the purpose of the site, it is necessary to lay out your content in short paragraphs, interlaced with relevant images, and maybe, in this new age of web 2.0, include informative or entertaining video, exactly as this page here is set out.
Adsense ads maybe acceptable but tempting the visitor to click away from your site ~ remember Google became the biggest search engine because their search page carries no ads.
Myvzine
December 29th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Siloing is one of many effective site architecture tactics. Ranking higher with less dependency on external links is the obvious advantage, but also managing the flow of link weight over time is equally important.
I concur with the methods presented (as we use many of them to capture both competitive, short-tail and long-tail rankings). There is always a hidden layer, which in this case is semantic mapping through LSI.
However with common sense, a penchant for naming conventions and some time to research, anyone can be up and running outranking their competition using strategies like these. A+ on the presentation presented here.
For a few more resources, we have a few tips on our blog as well.
http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/wordpress-seo/wordpress-seo-tip-implementing-the-power-of-theming-and-siloing/
http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/how-to-reference-material/how-to-increase-relevance-using-consistent-naming-conventions-tags-site-architecture-and-links/
Enjoy…
February 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Thnx Jeffrey, i’ll look into them and advise other readers to do the same :)
March 10th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Great post Ramon. I never knew about Latent Symatic Indexing until just now. It totally makes sense to me know. I can definitely see how it would benefit you in the search engines to help the bots get a full feel for what your site is about. And to do that by covering not only your main keywords but also thier synonymsa nd other related words makes complete sense. Thanks for turning on that light bulb for me! :)
August 19th, 2009 at 1:36 am
All this siloing information looks like good stuff. But none of these tops SEOs in these videos seem to do siloing on their own sites. Most importantly, I can’t find one site that follows the siloing rule: Which is don’t link out from detailed content pages to unrelated detailed content pages. Does anyone have a good example of a site that silos well and has good page rank?