Thematic silo structure

domainmadness · Mar 11, 2014

Silo structure have been hot topic quite a while already and I have implemented some sort of silo structure to all my sites. One thing I was wondering is that how strict you should be when building silo structure?

Lets say you have 4 keywords that you are mainly targeting, and which are most competitive. You setup your website in a way, that homepage works mostly as directory, then you have 4 pages for those keywords you are targeting and 4 supporting categories for those keywords. Would it make sense to 'break' the structure if you publish 1 post in each category which are closely related, should those be linked together anyway. For example you publish post like these:

Cheap Keyword1 - in Category Keyword1's
Cheap Keyword2 - in Category Keyword2's
Cheap Keyword3 - in Category Keyword3's
Cheap Keyword4 - in Category Keyword4's

Linking these together would break the actual silo structure, but at least in human point of view these posts are related enough. Should we still keep the silo for the sake of google spiders, or should we just link these categories together and break the flow? Anyone experienced with 100% strict silo structures? If so, what kind of results you had?

Also, does it make sense to keep category pages indexed? I've seen mixed opinion about this and would love to hear comments on that.

kbklash · Mar 11, 2014

My feeling is it might be best to use sub-domains when you are behind 4 keywords,that are most competitive. But if you have single niche and targeting 4 keywords in them, then you'll best be served by using sub-directories than categories.Correct me ,if i am wrong.

domainmadness · Mar 12, 2014

Thanks for the answer, but it doesn't really address the issue here, which is more about cross-linking between silos.

DangerousDEN · Mar 12, 2014

Would advice against sub domains, it will decrease your efficiency.
Don't over analyze! Just do it.
From my experiences and different case studies i've read it's better to interlink only WITHIN category, but if you will have couple of cross category links, don't think it will have bad effect. Just aim to interlink within at least 90%.

WebDev · Mar 29, 2014

domainmadness said:
Silo structure have been hot topic quite a while already and I have implemented some sort of silo structure to all my sites. One thing I was wondering is that how strict you should be when building silo structure?

Lets say you have 4 keywords that you are mainly targeting, and which are most competitive. You setup your website in a way, that homepage works mostly as directory, then you have 4 pages for those keywords you are targeting and 4 supporting categories for those keywords. Would it make sense to 'break' the structure if you publish 1 post in each category which are closely related, should those be linked together anyway. For example you publish post like these:

Cheap Keyword1 - in Category Keyword1's
Cheap Keyword2 - in Category Keyword2's
Cheap Keyword3 - in Category Keyword3's
Cheap Keyword4 - in Category Keyword4's

Linking these together would break the actual silo structure, but at least in human point of view these posts are related enough. Should we still keep the silo for the sake of google spiders, or should we just link these categories together and break the flow? Anyone experienced with 100% strict silo structures? If so, what kind of results you had?

Also, does it make sense to keep category pages indexed? I've seen mixed opinion about this and would love to hear comments on that.

OK, first thing to point out is that thematic/silomatic created daisy chain silo sites

Daisy chain silo sites create a terrible user experience, and you are better off using a more "normal" navigation system

I use "dynamic navigation" - similar to amazon.com navigation

Re. deliberately "busting" your silos - don't do it!

No article in a silo should link to an article in a different silo - its a golden rule of siloing

domainmadness · Mar 29, 2014

WebDev said:
OK, first thing to point out is that thematic/silomatic created daisy chain silo sites

Daisy chain silo sites create a terrible user experience, and you are better off using a more "normal" navigation system

I use "dynamic navigation" - similar to amazon.com navigation

Re. deliberately "busting" your silos - don't do it!

No article in a silo should link to an article in a different silo - its a golden rule of siloing

I actually tested this.

I had very very tight silo structure where no article in different silo link to other silo. Site had overall good rankings. I break the silo structure by linking from every somewhat related article from the end of the post. I had categories like blue widgets, red widgets, green widgets - total of 7 different. Under every category there was more detailed articles like big blue widgets, big red widgets and so on. After I linked from every detailed article to other detailed article in different silo, my rankings didn't drop, just keep getting better.

So my conclusion from this small case study is that you don't really need that tight silo/thematic structure. Just keep your structure clear and clean so bots and visitors get clear picture of your site.

baptistthejohn · Mar 29, 2014

Just focus upon a user friendly navigation structure, interlinking your pages as appropriate to make it easier for related content to be discovered and to sort of create a useful chain for visitors to move from page to page.

kaytemp · Apr 30, 2014

WebDev said:
OK, first thing to point out is that thematic/silomatic created daisy chain silo sites

Daisy chain silo sites create a terrible user experience, and you are better off using a more "normal" navigation system

WebDev, I've googled around and researched for an hour or two and still haven't found the difference between a "daisy-chain" silo and a non-daisy-chain silo. I assume that a daisy-chain silo is making a link that your preferred method does not, but what exactly is it? Can you (or anyone) help me with this?

prab1996 · Apr 30, 2014

Silo is just the way you make your data look organised.

And most important thing is your url structure.

you not need to follow a already laid out rules, make your own rules depending upon niche/site.

interlinking is good in silo , but , not too much. (i use nofollow when linking to non related pages and it works great)
-=-

WebDev · May 26, 2014

domainmadness said:
I actually tested this.

I had very very tight silo structure where no article in different silo link to other silo. Site had overall good rankings. I break the silo structure by linking from every somewhat related article from the end of the post. I had categories like blue widgets, red widgets, green widgets - total of 7 different. Under every category there was more detailed articles like big blue widgets, big red widgets and so on. After I linked from every detailed article to other detailed article in different silo, my rankings didn't drop, just keep getting better.

So my conclusion from this small case study is that you don't really need that tight silo/thematic structure. Just keep your structure clear and clean so bots and visitors get clear picture of your site.

My conclusion is that there was/is something wrong with the siloing of the site in the first place - or breaking the silos would have caused a large-scale decline in rankings

There are instances where you can/should cross-link an article in one silo to an article in another silo - but it is the proverbial exception to the rule - i.e. when doing it has some very real perceived beneficial outcome

WebDev · May 26, 2014

kaytemp said:
WebDev, I've googled around and researched for an hour or two and still haven't found the difference between a "daisy-chain" silo and a non-daisy-chain silo. I assume that a daisy-chain silo is making a link that your preferred method does not, but what exactly is it? Can you (or anyone) help me with this?

Sorry for the delay - just found this thread again - I don't get many emails from this forum that a new reply has been added (or perhaps they are ending up in my spam folder)

A daisy chain silo site is the method advocated in an ebook called "The Master Plan" by Charles Heflin - there is a video on themezoom.com about the confusion the daisy chain method causes - I find the video amusing, as Russell Wright is almost apologizing about his friend Charles Heflin and the problems he's caused

The daisy-chain silo structure is immediately recognizable once you see it in flow-chart form, as the last article in a silo links to the next silo landing page

Apart from the bad user experience of this type of navigation system there are other disadvantages - see this post:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ing-free-plugins-post6881701.html#post6881701

I do not recommend the daisy-chain silo method - I advocate "dynamic sidebar navigation" - i.e. the navigation links change, depending where you are in the site (like amazon.com)

Dynamic link navigation is difficult to explain - so simply visit siloplugin.com - the main site and the 3 demo sites all display dynamic sidebar navigation (non-daisy-chain silo)

Thematic silo structure

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