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Content Siloing for Better SEO

Over the past few years, content siloing has become an increasingly important component of good search engine optimisation (SEO). Basically, this is a technique that organises your website around keyword relevant content and themes.

The foundation of this technique is creating a thematic organisation within your website, one that helps search engines decide on the significance of a page to a searcher’s query. The more relevant the content, the higher the page ranks.

Most online marketers however, whilst understanding the importance of keywords, do not fully realise the importance to search engine optimisation, of a website designed around thematic content and targeted keywords.

The SEO logic behind content silos

The logic behind silos is based on clarity and organisation. Search engines need to clearly recognise the theme of a page and they do this by matching keywords to content. So far this is basic SEO.

The problem is that many websites have a jumbled mix of keywords sprinkled across their pages, resulting in a mishmash of content with no clear thematic delineation.

Search engines then become confused and are unable to determine whether a page really is relevant to a searcher’s query. This is one of the main reasons why a website, that has a lot of great content, ranks poorly.

So to clarify this point – think of a book, with chapters and pages. Each chapter has a list of targeted keywords and each page focuses on a number of these keywords to the exclusion of other keywords. A search engine can then clearly identify the theme and relevance of a specific page, because the group of keywords for that page matches the content.

Structuring your website around silos is a very powerful way to increase your rankings in search engines.

SEO benefits of a silo structure

Designing your architecture around a silo structure can have significant improvements to your rankings:

• Search engine friendly –Search engines can quickly identify the relevancy of a page to a searcher’s query.
• User friendly – Like search engines, visitors like to find information quickly. Content silos help them do this and therefore increases usability.
• Builds authority –Targeting specific keywords around a thematic page structure, makes search engines believe you are an authority website.

So if your website is seen as an authority and is search engine and user friendly, your rankings will increase accordingly.

How to create a silo structure

There are two things you need to do to create content silos – establishing a directory system and internal linking.

Directory system

This involves creating a logical and organised directory system, which contains a number of themes or categories, each containing multiple pages focused on a set of targeted keywords.

For this to work you must identify your theme-specific categories and organise your content in these theme-specific categories.  Keywords within a theme should be mapped to individual pages and grouped into the same category.  This helps search engines better understand what each category is about and associate the pages together so that together your site ranks better than simply individually optimised pages.

Internal linking

Once you have the silo structure in place, you can reinforce this structure by creating a highly targeted internal linking system.

Basically, you create links, via keyword rich anchor text, between pages within each category. These links bind these pages together and reinforce the thematic nature of each category. It is important that you do not cross-link pages between different themes, as this is where search engines can become confused.

Sometimes however, for clarity, you do need to cross reference pages in different themed categories. The right way to do this, so that search engines do not become confused about your themes, is to either vertically link the page to the main themed category (with anchor text) or directly link to the page, but include the ‘Rel=nofollow’ attribute.

Creating your website on a silo structure is a powerful form of advanced on-page SEO that will set your website apart from your competition and increase your rankings.

For help with restructuring your website into content silos for better SEO, call us on 02 8211 0668 or complete our online enquiry form.

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Michael Lam

Co-founder of Cornerstone and web junkie, Michael knows just how to diagnose your online problems and remedy the issue. An online enthusiast who believes in technology as an enabler of growth, Michael worries about all the details so you don't have to.