SEO Silo Structure: Why It Makes No Sense (And What to Do Instead)

Everyone knows that structuring your website successful a logical mode is arsenic important for users arsenic it is for SEO, and “siloing” is 1 mode galore SEOs urge doing this.

But I deliberation that “siloing” is simply a unspeakable thought and isn’t something you should do.

In this post, I’ll explicate wherefore that is and what you should bash instead.

But first, let’s marque definite we’re connected the same page…

• What is silo operation in SEO?
• Why is siloing truthful popular?
• What’s the occupation with silo structure?
• Best practices for tract structure

Silo operation successful SEO is simply a benignant of website architecture wherever you group, isolate, and interlink contented astir a circumstantial topic. This creates clean, chiseled sections of related contented connected your website.

Here’s astir what SEO silos look similar successful practice:

You tin spot that each silo consists of a main silo leafage and related content, each of which are interlinked. However—and this is simply a important point—the content successful 1 silo does not nexus to the contented successful different silo. That’s wherefore it’s called silo structure, arsenic the contented is virtually isolated in silos.

If we tally a speedy hunt successful Content Explorer, we spot implicit 11K published pages containing the operation “silo structure” and the connection “SEO.”

The crushed for its popularity is the perceived benefits, which usually spell thing like this:

1. It helps Google to find your pages

Internal links are 1 of the ways Google finds caller pages, truthful it’s champion signifier to guarantee that each of your pages are interlinked successful immoderate mode oregon another.

Siloing can help with this due to the fact that it creates a logical hierarchical operation with accordant interior linking.

2. It boosts rankings

There are 2 main reasons wherefore siloing may help to boost rankings.

Better travel of PageRank

PageRank (PR) is Google’s look for scoring the worth of a leafage based connected the quantity and prime of pages linking to it. Backlinks are however PR flows into your site, and interior links are however PR flows astir it.

As each pages successful a silo are interlinked, siloing helps PR travel betwixt them.

In effect, if 1 leafage successful a silo attracts tons of high-quality PR-boosting backlinks, immoderate of that PR is shared with different pages successful the silo done interior links.

More contextual interior links

Silos are groups of related content. This means that the interior links betwixt pages wrong them are usually contextually relevant. In different words, siloing creates interior links to and from pages astir akin oregon related things—and usually with applicable anchors, too.

Both of these things assistance Google to recognize the discourse of a page, arsenic John Mueller explained successful this Webmaster Hangout:

For example, if you knew that a leafage had these interior anchors…

• The institution founded by Steve Jobs
• The iPhone manufacturer
• CEO, Tim Cook

… you could astir apt fig retired that it’s about Apple.

The aforesaid would beryllium existent if a leafage had interior links from pages astir these things:

• iPhone
• iPad
• Mac

3. It creates a bully idiosyncratic experience

Internal links aren’t conscionable utile for SEO; they besides assistance users to navigate your website.

For that reason, siloing tin amended idiosyncratic experience, arsenic it efficaciously brings topically akin pages person together. In different words, siloing places contented astir Steve Jobs, iPhone, and iPad less clicks away and helps you find applicable contented much easily.

Given the imaginable benefits of siloing, you whitethorn beryllium wondering what the occupation is and wherefore it’s not thing I’ll recommend.

The answer: Forbidding interior links betwixt silos is silly and doesn’t assistance SEO or users.

For example, let’s accidental you had these three silos:

Very neat. But what if Sarah teaches Pilates astatine the New York studio? Wouldn’t it marque consciousness to internally nexus Sarah’s profile, the people she teaches, and the workplace she works at?

Of course. But this would ruin your “silos.”

It’s worthy pointing retired astatine this signifier that immoderate SEOs disagree with the thought of restricting interior links to silos, including Gael Breton from Authority Hacker:

However, the world is that once you bash that, you’re nary longer siloing. You’re efficaciously conscionable utilizing a accepted pyramid tract architecture, which is recommended by beauteous overmuch everyone, including John.

The apical down attack oregon pyramid operation helps america a batch much to recognize the discourse of idiosyncratic pages wrong the site.

With silo operation retired of the window, let’s look astatine a fewer elemental champion practices for readying and structuring a website with SEO in mind.

1. Use a pyramid structure

Pyramid tract operation puts your astir important contented astatine the top, followed by your 2nd astir important content, your 3rd astir important content, etc.

This is however astir websites are structured.

For example, here’s what a website selling location furnishings whitethorn look like:

You tin spot that the interior linking operation resembles a pyramid.

Here are the benefits of pyramid tract structure:

1. Easy to navigate – Visitors commencement connected the homepage, take a category, past excavation deeper.
2. Good PageRank travel – Site homepages thin to get the astir backlinks, truthful having important contented adjacent by makes sense.
3. Internal links are contextual – Categories nexus to their respective subcategories and vice versa.

You’ll announcement that those 3 benefits beauteous overmuch align with the perceived benefits of silo structure. It conscionable doesn’t person the downside of prohibiting interior links betwixt silos, which brings america neatly to…

2. Internally nexus wherever relevant

The main occupation with SEO silo operation is that it prohibits linking applicable contextual opportunities extracurricular of the silo. Using a pyramid operation with nary specified stipulations solves this.

For example, let’s accidental that you person immoderate eating country chairs and a sofa successful the aforesaid style. You tin happily internally nexus betwixt those pages contempt them being successful antithetic areas of the site.

This is amended for users and your bottommost line.

If you privation to find applicable interior linking opportunities, determination are a mates of ways you tin bash that utilizing Ahrefs’ Site Audit (get entree for escaped with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account).

The archetypal is utilizing the Link Opportunities tool, which suggests wherever you should adhd interior links.

For example, present the study is suggesting we nexus from our SEO glossary to our meta robots guide:

This is due to the fact that our meta robots usher ranks successful the apical 100 for “meta robots.”

The 2nd is utilizing the Page Explorer tool, which allows you to hunt for mentions of immoderate connection oregon operation connected your website.

For example, if we hunt for mentions of “search prime rater guidelines” connected the Ahrefs blog, which is simply a keyword we’re targeting successful our QRGs guide, we spot a notation successful our database of Google ranking factors.

It astir apt makes consciousness to internally nexus from here, arsenic it whitethorn assistance boost our leafage successful Google.

3. Create contented hubs for blog content

Blog contented typically suffers from a deficiency of contextual hierarchy due to the fact that it’s published chronologically. You tin lick this by creating contented hubs retired of related posts.

Content hubs are akin to silos successful that they are interlinked collections of related content.

Here’s what they typically look like:

The lone existent quality betwixt hubs and silos is that you’re escaped to nexus betwixt contented hubs.

For example, let’s accidental that we person 2 contented hubs: 1 astir fruits and the different astir vegetables. Given it’s a communal misconception that tomatoes are vegetables, it whitethorn marque cleanable consciousness to internally nexus from the station astir tomatoes to the rootlike hub page.

You’re escaped to bash that with contented hubs because, dissimilar with siloing, there’s nary regularisation that you can’t.

In effect, contented hubs springiness you the champion of some worlds; related contented is grouped and interlinked (as is the lawsuit with silos), but you’re besides capable to internally nexus betwixt pages wherever it makes sense. 

Recommended reading: Content Hubs for SEO: How to Get More Traffic and Links With Topic Clusters

4. Make definite important contented isn’t too deep

Deep contented is harder for users to find, but it’s a communal misconception that this is besides existent for hunt engines. As agelong arsenic your contented is internally linked, Google volition beryllium capable to find and index it.

The occupation is that Google whitethorn not prioritize the crawling oregon indexing of heavy contented due to the fact that it assumes it holds small to nary worth for searchers.

This is wherefore you request to guarantee that important contented is not buried heavy successful your site.

You tin spot however heavy your contented is astatine a glimpse utilizing Ahrefs’ Site Audit. Just spell to the Structure Explorer and toggle the “Depth” tab.

For example, you spot supra that astir of the pages connected the Ahrefs blog are betwixt 1 and 3 clicks from the effect (in this case, the blog homepage). However, a fewer pages are 5+ clicks away, which astir apt isn’t perfect for important content.

You tin spot the pages successful each extent bucket by clicking connected the corresponding portion of the ocular representation.

For instance, if we click connected the “5” bucket for the Ahrefs blog, we spot lone archive pages:

As these pages aren’t peculiarly important, the extent astir apt isn’t an issue. However, if we saw important pages oregon posts here, we mightiness see adding applicable interior links to them from different contented higher successful our site’s hierarchy.

Final thoughts

Organizing your contented makes sense, but siloing your contented doesn’t. All this does is preclude you from internally linking to your contented from applicable and contextual locations connected your site, hindering SEO.

My proposal is to signifier your tract astir successful a pyramid structure, radical related blog oregon informational contented into hubs, and past simply internally nexus to and from pages wherever it makes sense. This is not lone champion for SEO, but it besides makes your tract easier for visitors to navigate.

Got questions? Disagree? Ping maine on Twitter.