Silo link structure question

Here's a question that will expose my noobness - I have been reading up about silos and when page linking is referred to, does it mean linking via anchor text in the main body of the page or just via on page navigation menus?

My site theme has a main navigation bar beneath the header logo and one in the footer. All my level 1 pages are linked to via these 2 menus on each page, i.e. each page is accessible from any page. If I am to build further levels, should I keep the lower level pages off the top menu and link level 3 to level 2, then level 2 to level 1, i.e. only one link on each lower level page?

Confused.

I'm unfamiliar with the silo architecture, so all I can provide you is a bump and this image.

mrsimit said:

level 3 to level 2, then level 2 to level 1, i.e. only one link on each lower level page?

Click to expand...

Ideally yes IMO, but there's different ways to do it. I've researched this extensively also and all the available resources are pretty vague on this very same exact question your asking, which I have not found a definite answer to yet either. The most difficult task in doing all this properly is actually keeping a good navigation for visitors which in turn would kind of skew the structure, but none the less you would still have a somewhat silo structure that would be better than not having one to begin with that would perform better in the SE's than sites not using it.

Most importantly I believe, just make sure all level 3 pages links to each other, but NOT linking to other level 3 pages in other categories.

very usefull information

Here's a useful silo thread link http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-wordpress-silo-sites-using-free-plugins.html

The easiest way to understand it is treating each silo like a different niche site. What happens in the silo stays in the silo. If you want to use a very strict silo structure there are a couple of themes available for wordpress if you can't code it yourself.

You may also want to look into making some links on your site "nofollow" to prevent link juice from leaking to wrong pages

Waring, this turned out longer than I intended it to.

You do not have it quite right:

Every page links to the home page.

The home page, links only to the silo tops, (for links to any other pages use no-follo*-about us, privacy, contact, ect.)

The silo tops link to the home page, and pages in its own silo, but not to ANYTHING else.(not to other silo tops, nor any pages in any other silo)

The pages in any silo link only to the home page, their own silo top, and other pages, but to to anything else. (no links to other silo tops, or pages that are in a different silo.)

So:

You site sells widgets:

Your home page:
Get your widgets here!!
This page will link only to your silo tops. NO-fol everything else.

Your silo tops:
(these pages will link up to the home page, and down to pages in its own silo or category, but not to anything else)
red widgets
blue widgets
white widgets

contents of the red silo
(these pages will link up to the home page, up to the red category "silo top" page, and down to any pages in the red category, but not to anything else)

electric red widgets
solar powered red widgets
gas powered red widgets
red widget kits

contents of the blue silo
(these pages will link up to the home page, up to the blue category page, and down to any pages in the blue category, but not to anything else)

electric blue widgets
solar powered blue blue widgets
gas powered blue blue widgets
blue widget kits

contents of the white silo
(these pages will link up to the home page, up to the white category page, and down to any pages in the white category, but not to anything else)

electric white widgets
solar powered white white widgets
gas powered white white widgets
white widget kits

Now if you did that above you have a nice siloed site.

You can clearly see that any mention of blue (or whatever color) widgets is strictly in the that color's category, every single page in the blue silo links only to other pages about blue widgets (all the blue widget pages) and the blue widget category page or"silo top".

The same applies to the other silos.

The home page has only pages about widgets pointing at it, different colors to be sure, but they are all widgets.

NOW...

If you were to link from a page inside the red silo to one inside the blue silo you would break the silos. Same effect if you linked from the white silo top to a blue silo top or a page in a different silo or something.

thenwhat said:

You may also want to look into making some links on your site "nofollow" to prevent link juice from leaking to wrong pages

Click to expand...

Quite some time ago Google made a change - your "unused" no-follow link juice will now just disappear - so you'll be worse off than just letting it flow unrestricted to other pages of your site

Re.
The home page, links only to the silo tops, (for links to any other pages use no-follow*-about us, privacy, contact, etc.)

Rather than lose that link juice (following Google change) you're better off only displaying links to those pages on the home page using a custom menu and logic code

Re.
The silo tops link to the home page, and pages in its own silo, but not to ANYTHING else. (not to other silo tops, nor any pages in any other silo)

Not linking to other silo tops, and linking to other silo tops are both correct - just 2 of the 32 different, but correct ways to silo a site

If your silo site is well focused, then link the silo tops together - but if your site is something of a mish-mash, with unrelated silos, then don't link your silo tops together

Thanks for all the answers. It's nice and clear to me know. What was getting me confused, I think, is that I was trying to relate what I was reading with the normal navigational structuring that comes with most WP themes and SEO advice I was reading regarding footer navigation.

Re.
1. what is the most benefit using silo ? to make spider easy or to make link juice more powerful

Both the above!

Essentially, siloing is clustering related content

an example I often use is a "pet site"

A "normal" pet site will have the content all linked together - birds linking to cats, dogs, rodents, fish, etc.

Dogs linking to birds, fish, rodents, cats, etc.

There are 32 different ways to correctly silo a site (16 for a CMS) - but essentially the 2nd level pages (silo landing pages) are a "collective" of the 3rd level article pages in their respective silo

So, for a pet site, there will be individual silo landing pages for dogs, cats, fish, birds, rodents, etc.

e.g. a dog article can only be navigated to via the dogs silo landing page - i.e. you can't jump to a dog article from the home page, or from another silo landing page, or from a fish article page - this clusters the dog articles together - and they are directly related to the dog article page


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2. in previous page, you pointed out widget in silo purpose. as per my knowledge, silo focus in main content (article). does it have value ?


That's too cryptic for me - please elaborate


Re.
3. how silo page looks like ?


Lots of options


Re.
do i need to add some paragraph or just link to article ?


You definitely need more than just links to articles - the aim is to top rank the silo landing pages - and for this you need content

Our silo themes provide a SEO text area on the silo landing page where you can "supliment" whatever else is auto-placed on the page (if article excerpts are auto placed)


Re.
and what kind of link should be, can i use naked link without anchor ? and should be like a list below right or just embed somewhere in description ?

* link1
* link2


Not sure I understand the question, but ... if you use keywords in your page titles, then you are automatically placing keywords in your links, and the page URLs

Best to look at the demo sites available via siloplugin.com home page


Re.
4. btw i am going to create news site that need get updated everyday, can i make my post non static and just leave one in homepage ? or must be static at all ? do you have any experience or words advice to warn me something regarding updated news site ?

Silo sites are best described as "static sites with dynamic navigation" - i.e. the content on the site remains the same - but the navigation to the content changes depending on which page you are on

Silo sites can have a "normal" add-on blog on a sub-domain, or in a directory - this allows the posting of "new" related content such as youtube videos, news items, etc. but you cannot silo a news site



5. can you check what techxan said in here
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...ml#post7313698
it's completely true ?

Not completely!

Never use no-follow - Google changed things due to the abuse of no-follow

I'm happy with any related link pointing in to the home page from outside - I don't care if it's a level 3 article keyword, or whatever - they all build theme

Our themes do actually link the "silo tops" - but it's also correct not to link "silo tops" - just one of the permutations of silo sites architecture

Back to the "pets site" - Dogs, Birds, Fish, Rabbits, Rodents, etc. should be linked on a silo site - they're all related - i.e. pets

On a news site it would be wrong - e.g. weather, politics, health, etc. - likely to be sections found on a news site - but they're not related

I keep stressing "LSI" which is "related" - i.e. choose a "prime" keyword, then find the secondary LSI sub-keywords (silo keywords) - then find the tertiary sub-keywords of the silo keywords (article keywords) - that gives 3 levels of "related" keywords


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6. lets say i had silo page published, can i edit or just create new one ?

You can edit silo pages

You should edit silo pages in order to add information on any new article added to the site - I like to have a paragraph outlining each article in the silo

You only create a new silo landing page when you have 5 or more articles ready to add to it - A silo landing page is a "gateway" to the articles that support the silo landing page

I don't think you get it! - A silo site is like a pyramid - the bottom layer (articles) are the foundation and support the silo landing pages, which are higher up the pyramid. The silo landing pages support the home page, which is the top of the pyramid. Theme (topics) flows down and across the pyramid from the top


7. can i use tags on silo site?


NO!

You can't use "related posts" either

You can't use anything that will create "extra" navigation links not already seen in the silo site navigation sidebar

For some unknown reason the above post (reply to somebody asking questions about silo sites) jumped into this thread from another thread

I've re-titled it and re-posted it in the correct thread

The other thread covers siloing in great detail:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-wordpress-silo-sites-using-free-plugins.html