Hi today and a little update to this topic;
as example Tiffany website has great category pages who ranking multiple times on google page one, on one domain.
type in google this; tiffany rings
and then the first 3-4 search results will be paid ads, below the images block, then there are coming up more pages;
https://www.tiffany.com › jewelry › shop › mens-rings
https://www.tiffany.com › jewelry › shop › sterling-silver
https://www.tiffany.com › jewelry › shop › rings › gold
https://www.tiffany.com › jewelry › shop › tiffany-t
these are different category pages better; the subtopics of the rings category page, this is a great way to claim multiple seo spots in google on one domain.
Tiffany has one broad term category = rings then some multiple subtopics (pages) like gold rings, mens-rings, ec,etc you see the links above.
Maybe you can call this a silo structure too? I be not sure how to build that in worpress,I think using the embedded tabs menu plugin to build like this.
When you not have a ecommerce site but a blog with multiple similar topics the I think best way to build this will be using embedded tabs menu plugin.
Design you category page, embedd subtopics menu, each subtopic is a page with a block of blog posts.
Adding embedded subtopics tabs into category page ha smore seo value than build a boring main nav dropdown menu.
Using good seo description for all your subtopics on the main category page like 500-1200 words. (byrdie is doing this) then index the categories and posts, do that with the sitemap too.
Or you can use the whole category page at beginning some summary. Then in the page body something like 300 words summary for each subtopic with link. (link to your subtopic blog posts)
I think with this you should get a good seo ranking / multiple seo spots ranking on one domain without need multiple domains, the choice is yours.
You can use a shortcut way like this in main navigation:
Gold rings- Mens rings-Sterling-rings- Diamond- rings each of these subtopics are pages with good seo summary text at the beginning,then at there your related bock of blog posts you can doing this with gutenberg blocks.
Then after the first summary text adding some google EAT and outgoing links - I think with this you will gain more google trust and organic traffic you will become an authority.....
Then you should rank each of these pages in google seo, but I read that google is preferred to ranking category pages over normal pages?
I can't explain, it's not logic for me, many things are not logical what google is doing today or what John Mueller say or what Mad Cutts say, the things they told us are often contrary to what google says. (so it does looks for me)
Check it in Bing search ,they now have added new seo features too in search results.