SILO STRUCTURE (UPDATED) - Clarification!

[cplay]

So i have spent a LONG TIME reading up and learning everything i can about silo seo.

After all, i believe if you setting up your site for the first time you may as well do it properly for the first and last time.

I have also read countless studies depicting the benefits of silo seo for establishing relevancy for certain topics, correctly attributing link juice to right areas, crawler functionality and most importantly, ease of use for the user.

I have taken the below originally from another thread and from another (feel free to post original link as i can't remember either original sources) and have added my own actionable interpretations.

What i would most likely to know before i implement the below is that i HAVE NOT got any gaping discrepancies that i have overlooked?

Your knowledge and insight would be very helpful.

Here goes:


Most Important: only your silo parent pages go into the top navigation. DO NOT HAVE LINKS TO ANY OTHER PAGES IN YOUR TOP NAV. PERIOD! Your sub navigation is in the sidebar of your parent pages or within bottom of body of the parent silo itself (of course only links to relevant child of parent silo in BOTH).


1. Parents link to the children via a sidebar or list at the bottom of the page.

2. Children link to each other via the same menu or at the bottom of their respective page.

3. Children link to the parent with anchor text in the first paragraph of their respective page AND Children pages do not link anywhere else outside of the silo. PERIOD. (MOST IMPORTANT FOR KEEPING THEME RELEVENCY)

4. All pages have at least 500 words of quality content. 750 is better. (from what I’ve read most top 10 pages have over 1896 words so not too sure about this recommendation…)

5. Keyword density of 1-2% (I don’t believe as important if you are using yoast which calculate correct density automatically)

6. Include keyword stems and long tails in the parent page body and make them link to the children.

7. Use images with keywords in the Alt Attributes.

8. Use your keyword in the first sentence.

9. Use your keyword in the last sentence.

Not all links are created equal:
Contextual link = 5x Header/sidebar Link
Header/Sidebar Link = 5x Footer Link

Visually:
Footer = Soda Straw = 1x
Header/Sidebar = Garden Hose = 5x
Contextual = Fire Hose = 25x

 

[cplay]

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

All of your views are very welcome!

 

[Nargil]

Unless you have a huge multiniche site, then you don't have to Silo anything. Just interlink everything properly and you will be perfectly fine.

Also, some of your statements are off. Points 4 to 8 have nothing to do with Silo at all, that's just onsite SEO.

And number 5. about KW density is completely not true. Density matters a lot. It can easily be a difference between 2nd page and top 3.

Bottom line, it's a terrible overthinking, especially for smaller sites. Time consuming and SEO wise, it won't improve your rankings by much, if at all.

 

[cplay]

Unless you have a huge multiniche site, then you don't have to Silo anything. Just interlink everything properly and you will be perfectly fine.

Also, some of your statements are off. Points 4 to 8 have nothing to do with Silo at all, that's just onsite SEO.

And number 5. about KW density is completely not true. Density matters a lot. It can easily be a difference between 2nd page and top 3.

Bottom line, it's a terrible overthinking, especially for smaller sites. Time consuming and SEO wise, it won't improve your rankings by much, if at all.

Thanks for the reply!

I completely agree about points 4 to 8 but they were in the original guide so thought i would include them anyhow (can't hurt).

Regarding densisty, could you elaborate a bit more on your recommendations based on experience for keyword density. I hope you understand i wasn't saying it doesn't matter, but that yoast has criteria which can automatically tell you density etc.

If you were to sum up how to rank higher in one variable, what would it be?

Cheers mate!

 

[Nargil]

Thanks for the reply!

I completely agree about points 4 to 8 but they were in the original guide so thought i would include them anyhow (can't hurt).

Regarding densisty, could you elaborate a bit more on your recommendations based on experience for keyword density. I hope you understand i wasn't saying it doesn't matter, but that yoast has criteria which can automatically tell you density etc.

If you were to sum up how to rank higher in one variable, what would it be?

Cheers mate!

Yoast is bullcrap and its quite well known to overoptimize you. Read this entire thread properly, especially second page - https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/google-fred-recovery-tips.922657/

 

[cplay]

Yoast is bullcrap and its quite well known to overoptimize you. Read this entire thread properly, especially second page - https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/google-fred-recovery-tips.922657/

Glad i did read that post - thanks for the heads up.

Currently reading the phpbuilt thread which is insanely informative!

General question, what do you regard as the most important factor in ranking well?

 

[Nargil]

Glad i did read that post - thanks for the heads up.

Currently reading the phpbuilt thread which is insanely informative!

General question, what do you regard as the most important factor in ranking well?

Current moon phase.

Backlinks are and for a long time will be the most important factor.

 

[cplay]

Current moon phase.

Backlinks are and for a long time will be the most important factor.

Moon phase? I haven't heard this terminology before? what on earth is moon phase haha?

Thanks man, i thought as much considering its one of the ONLY ways google can to a degree determine whether you are a relevant authority within your niche.

Out of curiosity, do you follow white hat or grey hat principles as reading lots of your comments on other threads you seem firmly entrenched in the high quality, highly structured websites but i haven't yet determined whether you use white hat or black hat ways of obtaining links?

 

[Nargil]

Moon phase? I haven't heard this terminology before? what on earth is moon phase haha?

Thanks man, i thought as much considering its one of the ONLY ways google can to a degree determine whether you are a relevant authority within your niche.

Out of curiosity, do you follow white hat or grey hat principles as reading lots of your comments on other threads you seem firmly entrenched in the high quality, highly structured websites but i haven't yet determined whether you use white hat or black hat ways of obtaining links?

Any SEO is black hat. End of story.

And with those moon phases, that was a joke lol.

 

[cplay]

Any SEO is black hat. End of story.

And with those moon phases, that was a joke lol.

Black hat then

But yes, i understand your point, optimising for a search engine is inherently black hat. But if that is so then there are of course varying degrees of "black hat" seo ranging from small optimsations to more drastic ones (pbn).

 

[THUNDERELVI]

Glad i did read that post - thanks for the heads up.

Currently reading the phpbuilt thread which is insanely informative!

General question, what do you regard as the most important factor in ranking well?

1) On-site SEO - if you do it right, you are going to end up in top 50/70 for most keywords you are going to target. Ok, please don't start targeting payday loans or any other stupid competitive niches, you will fail.
2) Internal links - again, if you do it the right way, from top 50/70, you might end up in top 30/40. Depending on the keyword competition, sometimes even better.
3) External links, a.k.a backlinks - you will shoot up to top 3 with backlinks provided you build HQ and contextual ones, which are PBN-s, web 2.0-s and real guest posts.

Or, you might skip 1 and 2 and go straight for 3, however, it makes the process 10x harder and you will also need a lot more firepower, which translates to a much bigger budget. For 1 and 2, phpbuilt's thread is all you need, so keep reading every page of his authority guide and take notes. For 3, you have tons of guides in this forum, so pick your poison. So, the most important ranking factors are your content and links, always have been and always will be.

 

[Nargil]

Black hat then

But yes, i understand your point, optimising for a search engine is inherently black hat. But if that is so then there are of course varying degrees of "black hat" seo ranging from small optimsations to more drastic ones (pbn).

You can get hit for both the same way, so either you build backlinks or you do not. It's like explaining in the store, that you just stole an apple, not a diamond necklace.

And regarding what kind of backlinks you should build. It's either guest posts or PBNs. Web 2.0s too to some extent.

EDIT: @THUNDERELVI high five

 

[cplay]

1) On-site SEO - if you do it right, you are going to end up in top 50/70 for most keywords you are going to target. Ok, please don't start targeting payday loans or any other stupid competitive niches, you will fail.
2) Internal links - again, if you do it the right way, from top 50/70, you might end up in top 30/40. Depending on the keyword competition, sometimes even better.
3) External links, a.k.a backlinks - you will shoot up to top 3 with backlinks provided you build HQ and contextual ones, which are PBN-s, web 2.0-s and real guest posts.

Or, you might skip 1 and 2 and go straight for 3, however, it makes the process 10x harder and you will also need a lot more firepower, which translates to a much bigger budget. For 1 and 2, phpbuilt's thread is all you need, so keep reading every page of his authority guide and take notes. For 3, you have tons of guides in this forum, so pick your poison. So, the most important ranking factors are your content and links, always have been and always will be.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Very helpful!

Will take notes on phpbuilt thread.

All the best.

 

[cplay]

You can get hit for both the same way, so either you build backlinks or you do not. It's like explaining in the store, that you just stole an apple, not a diamond necklace.

And regarding what kind of backlinks you should build. It's either guest posts or PBNs. Web 2.0s too to some extent.

EDIT: @THUNDERELVI high five

Love the analogy. But we all know the severity and consequential punishments for stealing a diamond will far outweigh the apple
I get the point nonetheless.

I think thunders comment can be applied to everything seo related; "Pick your poison"

Thanks for taking the time to explain everything!

have a great day!

 

[darulez]

if you use "any kind of menue" boilerplate, your fucked up silo again.
if you use wordpress, you will 200% fuck up silo.
if you use anything more than 1 tier of navigation to categries, you fckd up again.


kind of hard for my head, why people laugh about 1998 style styles, with perfect "silo"; no juice bleed, and no CMS.
and in the end, they use wordpress, tags, categories, paginaton, and fix it with nofollow crap and yoast = toast your SILO to hell plugin.

personally, I dont care. it's your site.
if you can achieve rankings with 50% less backlinks, or double you rankings with the same.. it is also your choice.

want some good "silo"? go to wikipedia.

and this 500 word article is utter bulllshit. and dont come up with the "xyz uses 5000 words article and ranks"..

and, read articls from @phpbuilt

https://gyazo.com/adc30c034e3ef26dc475400b537514bd

here is some silo.
doubles and trippled traffic in 4 weeks, just by "trying to fix" that wordpress crap.

 

[darulez]

Yoast is bullcrap and its quite well known to overoptimize you. Read this entire thread properly, especially second page - https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/google-fred-recovery-tips.922657/

thanx.+1 for this.

yoast is the worst bullshit you can install to damage your site.

"well, it worked for my site", yes sucker, it does. but you needed to blast 10x more links to it than necessarity to dilute the on page fuckups.

 

[cplay]

if you use "any kind of menue" boilerplate, your fucked up silo again.
if you use wordpress, you will 200% fuck up silo.
if you use anything more than 1 tier of navigation to categries, you fckd up again.


kind of hard for my head, why people laugh about 1998 style styles, with perfect "silo"; no juice bleed, and no CMS.
and in the end, they use wordpress, tags, categories, paginaton, and fix it with nofollow crap and yoast = toast your SILO to hell plugin.

personally, I dont care. it's your site.
if you can achieve rankings with 50% less backlinks, or double you rankings with the same.. it is also your choice.

want some good "silo"? go to wikipedia.

and this 500 word article is utter bulllshit. and dont come up with the "xyz uses 5000 words article and ranks"..

and, read articls from @phpbuilt

https://gyazo.com/adc30c034e3ef26dc475400b537514bd

here is some silo.
doubles and trippled traffic in 4 weeks, just by "trying to fix" that wordpress crap.

You do realise i was asking for advice and not preaching what works and doesn't, right?

The structure to my intro was from posts on this forum of which people had somewhat conclusively agreed.

It's people like you who have experience that i seek advice from and appreciate your opinion (hence i added my interpretations of what i had read in bold markings).

Who you just linked to is exactly who i've been recommended to and he does appear to be somewhat of an expert on the matter.

Just quickly, why do you guys find yoast to be shit? I thought the cms crap can be sorted with noindexing all the bullshit you dont need and no index page 2 etc etc etc.

I do agree with your opinion on old 1998 sites being great for seo but of course there has to be a balance between ux and seo, surely?

 

[cplay]

thanx.+1 for this.

yoast is the worst bullshit you can install to damage your site.

"well, it worked for my site", yes sucker, it does. but you needed to blast 10x more links to it than necessarity to dilute the on page fuckups.

Can you elaborate more on exactly what yoast does to fuck up your seo?

 

[ScreamingMidget]

if you use wordpress, you will 200% fuck up silo.

I don't agree with this. There's a way to have a top menu in Wordpress with the main categories - but then have that menu change to sub-categories when viewing a category, or a post in that category. So this means the 'children' linking to each other and linking back to the 'parent' category, but not other categories.

 

[cplay]

I don't agree with this. There's a way to have a top menu in Wordpress with the main categories - but then have that menu change to sub-categories when viewing a category, or a post in that category. So this means the 'children' linking to each other and linking back to the 'parent' category, but not other categories.

I would be very interested in this feature.

What plugin are you using to do this?