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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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 9:50 am
Interesting about dup content with wordpress. Never thought categorization strategy could have such an impact. Thank you for opening my eyes! ;)
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.