SEO 2020 FORUM

[themezoom]

Silos Down and Dirty

By Theme Zoom programmer, Sue Bell

At the moment, there are 3 slightly different silo structures being talked about. 1) There is Charles’ “The Plan” which uses a pseudo silo structure to accomplish what he is doing. He has a very set way of implementing a silo structure in his plan, and at the moment it goes only one tier deep. (the master plan is under construction) 2) There is the way that we outlined the implementation of Silo structures in our document which we combined with a common sense approach to silo structures that is user friendly. And there is 3) The by-the-book silo structure idea which is what I learned from sticking my nose in stuff by Bruce Clay and his group.

The whole point behind a silo is to make it plain to you, your customer and the search engine what your topic at hand is.

When I implement silos, I always work hand in hand with the client. If they want a linking structure that bends the rules a little bit, I go with that. A few extra links here and there is not going to kill your ranking, and if it is the difference between a website to which a customer will return and one where he will not… well then, by all means, bend the rules!

Ok, with that out of the way.

A website is comprised of silos – usually 3-5 for your average sized site. For portals or department stores, obviously we are talking MUCH bigger. A website that is comprised of a single silo is not a silo'ed website!

Within a website, a silo is a topic unto itself. The index page links to the landing page of each silo (or theme, if you prefer). Each page within that silo will link to every other page in that silo usually via a menu.

Menus in Silos
When you first put up your site, while you are waiting for it to be ranked, You can leave off the menu between the pages in the silo. (I believe this is what Charles recommends) After you have been spidered, then it's up to you.

For good VEO I _usually_ put a menu on every page in the silo so that it links to every other in a fan style structure. There are exceptions, but that is rare. Bruce Clay's group maintains that cross linking the articles within a silo makes the theme more obvious. Certainly the more similar themed pages you link to from any page, the more you demonstrate the page's theme.

Conversely, linking to pages that are NOT relevant, or that are rather tangent to the theme you are trying to focus on will dilute your theme. That's why there is no linking between silos.



Silos can be either virtual via the linking structure, or they can be based in folders. Each folder in a silo should have a minimum 5 pages to completely establish the theme

Another approach to the linking structure is, if I remember correctly, what Charles’ puts forth in his plan; i.e. you daisy chain the links, at least in the initial stage of the website, so that it goes from the index page to each silo, as well as daisy chaining from one silo to the next silo, but not back. Since he doesn’t go any deeper than one level in the version of “THE PLAN” that is out right now, I’m not going to touch on his style any further at this point.

Technically speaking, in a standard silo, you don’t daisy chain the silos. Each silo links to all the other silos.

Inbound and outbound links

Links out of your silo always want to happen from the bottom, or the right hand side of the diagram below. This keeps your theme strong.

And inbound links always point to the LANDING page of your silo – or the page that is right under the index page. Not the VERY left on this diagram, but just to the right of that

So, IF, and I repeat here _IF_ you are going to link from one silo to the other, you would link from the bottom of one silo to the landing page of the next.

Maybe a simple diagram here:
. . . . . . . . . . .------silo 1 landing page - - - > article 1-1

. . . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | - - -> article 1-2
. . . . . . . . . ./
Index page -------- silo 2 landing page - - - - > article 2-1

. . . . . . . . . \ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |- - - -> article 2-2
. . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . . .------silo 3 landing page - - - -> article 3-1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .| - - - -> article 3-2


Here each landing page x links to article x-1 and each article x-1 links to article x-2

Now, if you want to link from article 1-2 to article 2-2 because they are somehow related, the link would actually go to the landing page “silo 2 landing page”.

This linking from silo to silo is optional, and should exist only if there is a reference to that topic.

Let me cover some general concepts.

There should only be one site map for the entire website, each silo does not need to have its own. It should contain all the relevant pages on the site.

There only needs to be one contact page.

The site map and content page can be in the root, or you can make a special folder for those sorts of common pages and put them there.

Keep the root folder clean. It should have an index page and not much else.

The Plan starts very small, and very humbly. With 5 articles on each website which will become the landing page for the silo as you start to build down. The linking structure of what he explains in the beginning remains, and as each silo grows, they will link down – he hasn’t gotten that far in his first document.

THE PLAN - BEGINNING STRUCTURE: The root directory would have an article or introduction to your website on the index page and would link to ARTICLES in the following directories


domain/silo-1/
domain/silo-2/
domain/silo-3/
domain/silo-4/
domain/silo-5/

You CAN have the page in each one of the directories called index if you choose, you can also use a name that contains the keyword phrase or synonym that you are trying to rank for.



Following the PLAN, you would put one article in each directory. Each article would link to the next, and you are DONE with the initial phase of that website.

This is where Charles’ plan ends. When he talks about spending time every week adding content to sites already built, he is talking about building the silos down.


Each of your original articles would be written with a good set of keywords and synonyms so that when you come back to it, to add content (after it’s been ranked) it will be easy to write the next article and link the landing page to the next article in the silo.

So let’s say that since Theme Zoom is so handy and gives you so much data all at once, you want to go ahead and make a plan that goes beyond what Charles outlines, so that "next week" when you come back to this website to add more content, you have a starting place.

Now each one of these silo landing page articles will eventually link to a set of articles, you used the number 5 and so we’ll go with that

You CAN link from any of these 5 pages to the landing page of another silo; you don’t have to – only if it is relevant. You also can link OFF your site to another site (this should only happen from the very bottom – if you are eventually going to put more pages into this silo, don’t link out until the end)

It’s also ok if the only place that you can go from here is back to the index page. You have reached the end of that train of thought.



In my designs, I try to work it so that each silo has a minimum of three levels. (and this is just MY approach) A level for me is a folder. It is a group of like-themed pages that each expresses a different aspect of that theme.

I descend into the next folder when there are several pages, all of which are about a more specific aspect of the theme of the silo. For example, if my website is “unix operating system” a silo is “unix shell programming” and I have several pages that deal with “meta characters”, meta_characters would become a folder subordinate to unix_shell_programming.

Remember, each folder should have a minimum of 5 pages. It takes this much quality content to establish your theme.

More folders give you more chances for keywords and synonyms. There is another school of thought that says keep the url's fairly short. However, I've never had the experience where long urls were detrimental for me.

Personally, I use folders to organize my ideas. That's _EXACTLY_ what the search engines are looking for, too. If I'm dealing with more than about a dozen pages, I start breaking them down into folders to keep MY ideas focused. That sort of organization communicates to the Search Engines as well.

That wedding site I mentioned earlier, had online its whole catering menu – something like 15 pages. The folder structure was something like www.manhatten_weddings.com/catered_wedding_reception/catering_menu (not the real url)

This format allowed me to rank highly for both the word catered and catering when combined with the location, and if the searches also included wedding, it was number 1. I point this out simply due to the incredible LACK of effort on my part for SEO optimization. The only thing I did was to design the site with a good folder structure.

So let me go back to levels for a moment, where I talked about going 3 levels deep, because I could cover that in more detail now.

Referencing that wedding site again, with its catering menu: I did NOT put a link to EVERY menu page on each page of the silo – YIKES! That could have been a navigational nightmare, unless you had some kind of fly-out menu system.

Then the situation is like this – index page, one level, points to silos.
Silo, second level - catered_wedding_reception
One link here was to “catering menu” and when you clicked on that you got the third level

On this level there was a DIFFERENT menu that contained a link to every other catering menu page, and on each page a link BACK to the catered wedding reception.

By NOT putting the whole of the catering silo links on each menu page, it has the effect of keeping the theme very focused on the menu and allowing it to be ranked very highly (#2) for terms like “Manhattan catered appetizers” as well as the more expected result of #1 for “Manhattan wedding catered appetizers”

It’s sort of the idea of a silo within a silo, and with really large websites, it can be very helpful.

I *DID* maintain my menu on the side to all the silo landing pages, similar to the way Cabela’s did, so that no matter where you were in the site so that the user could always jump to a completely different topic.

You’ll see on Cabela’s that when you go into archery, for example they have a different menu in the middle of all the levels or “sub-silos” if you will, for that silo. Clicking on one of these topics will bring you to another page (on the insert) that has a completely different menu for that sub-section.

It depends on how broad your topic is, as to how deep your theme can realistically go. My vegetarian restaurant site will not go that deep unless I get really creative <grin>.

But it WILL go quite broad. They have a great coffee bar/soda fountain, they do catering, have a cookbook and do catered business meetings upstairs. Lots of good stuff there to work with, but most only go two deep and then peters out.

Goji Juice, interestingly enough, will go DEEPER, but not as broad as the restaurant. There are only so many silos that you can make out of Goji berries and Goji Juice and Goji WHATEVER! Synonyms for goji berry I put on the same pages as goji berry, not in a separate silo, because that just makes more sense to me from a visitor's perspective.

But there _IS_ heaps of research about obscure things - health benefits, controversy, etc. that I can actually go three levels down without trying very hard.

Bottom line, there are no hard and fast rules. As much as we'd like to have a recipe to go by, each website is a different story. Cover the topic as thoroughly as possible, at least within the parameters of your ranking interest. Do it in a logical, systematic manner and you are assured a format that you can a) come back and add to easily as things develop AND b) good rankings.

So keep the scope of your website in mind when you try to apply all these ideas. A well designed site from the start will have room for expansion as time goes on, both laterally, adding on more silos and down into more detail.

[steveg]

Hi Themezoom,

That was a great description of silos and has cleared up a number of things for me including the reasoning behind using silos in the first place. It makes sense to me (I think.)

I have one question and that is how can I convert my "Plan I" sites to silos with folders? All my pages are currently in the root and to convert to a folder silo structure I shall need to move those pages into folders. I know that I have to do this carefully because the pages have already been indexed.

Charles stated in a post somewhere that the page can be copied into the folder and links changed but leave the existing page where it is so that it can still be found. The problem I see with this is that I will then have duplicate content on the site which is known to be a bad thing.

Can you suggest a simple tidy plan that will enable this conversion to be done safely please?

Steve

[rento]

Hi Russell,

Thanks for the great post

I just have 1 question.. Which SILO model that bring the fastest bang for the buck ? (based on your experience)

I have a limited resource to outsource/out-tasking if i go with portal/large sites.

Thanks for answering

[glenny]

Fantastic Post. This has made things a lot clearer.

Thanks Russell


Glenn

[alex]

Thank you Sue !!

Wow! It took a woman to explain silos in plain English. Where have you been hiding?

This was the best explanation IMHO so far. I liked it a lot and understand it better the the actual silo report: It's clear.

This is the first time I actually copy-and-pasted to MS Word a post from this forum so I don't lose it.

All that leaves is the problem of the *one* page that is needed in more than one silo.

Alex

[jeremy]

That was Great Sue!

Thank you very much.

Jeremy

P.S. I'm printing your post to read again.

[JoeCool]

Thank you Sue, for going into detail on the different silo variations and structures!

Instructions like these, along with Camtasia videos showing the actual steps in detail, would be an awesome supplement to the advanced "Master Plan" membership area once that rolls out.

This one's a keeper! Thanks again, Sue, Charles & Russell.

Best Regards,
JoeCool

P.S. We are Internet Marketers... where the rest of the world sees lemonade, we are thinking about the design and promotion of our new LemonadeStand.com website!

[Kerry]

Sue,
Thanks so much for that - extremely helpful & very clear.
Just one question - if the linking structure inside a silo is like a fan (I underatand that to mean the silo "index" page linking to ALL other silo pages - one way links - presumably 4+ pages to establish theme) how do you know what page is at the bottom of the silo? If all area at the bottom presumably it doesn't matter which?
Many thanks
Kerry

[Charles Heflin]

[themezoom]

Hi folks,

I put super specific themes down at the bottom of the silo (i.e. expert verbiage). You can mix them in at different levels depending upon the site

Bottom line is really researching a market and understanding what you are up to, what you are selling, and no tool - not even TZ- will ultimately replace a good working knowledge of your verticle market.

Today I consulted for jasper kooij of http://www.ad-lit.com who I have collaberated with in order to use a software called "DRUPAL" to make silo structures.

This will be available via Charles and me and the SEO 2020 mentoring group. This is a "free" method that will allow you to silo in a "snap".

Here is a free example of a silo site using free software http://www.jasperkooij.com

So for those of you who have been asking about "blogging" and silo-ing. Well . . . here you have it.

Jasper and I are remodeling http://www.wistravel.com using the silo structure. This project should cover the "situation 3" website. (Pre-existing).

Expert specific termes and bottom of silo:

You may also use Latent Niche keywords as "expert verbiage" at the bottom of silos or anywhere else.

We will also offer "Amazon" statistically improbably phrases as "expert verbiage" keywords that will knock out the competition.

Also be advised that:

http://www.themezoom.com/public_audios/step-by-step-architecture.mp3

- is something you are probably going to want to listen to.

- Russell