February 19, 2020
80 Comments
Table of Contents
“Links” are an important concept in SEO.
When another website links to yours, it’s a powerful signal that your website is a reputable source of information.
Links also serve as a portal for search engines to access new pages.
When it comes to organizing our own websites, using internal links to connect pages helps search engines to understand your website’s architecture, hierarchy and priority for visitors.
We call these internal linking strategies “silos”.
This post will explore 5 internal linking structures (aka link silos) to deploy for maximum search engine exposure.
Find out exactly how many customers you SHOULD be getting from organic search.
si·lo – sīlō/ – verb.
Definition: To isolate (one system, process, department, etc.) from others.
Search engines are lazy.
Websites with unorganized structure make it difficult to understand what the site is about. This can impact your crawl budget and overall rankings.
By “siloing” your website (aka creating content groupings and internal link structures) you can drastically improve how search engine bots interact with your site.
Generally speaking, there’s 2 ways we can silo a website:
Let’s unpack each of these in more detail.
This is best explained by Bruce Clay (SEO expert) with his jar of marbles example.
By moving content into jars separated by classification, you create clear relevancy with search engines.
With organized silos, you can have content about numerous topics and still rank for each of them.
I recently wrote about “topic clusters“, a strategy to group your brand’s content into content silos on your website. That strategy goes hand in hand with how you should organize that content on your website.
Organizational silos use both content topics and physical URL structures to create pockets of relevancy across your site.
Links are what search engine spiders use to crawl from one web page to another. Generating links to your website is a great way to add trust, authority, and ranking power with search engines (aka link building, link earning).
Linking content with your website is another powerful ranking tactic that has numerous benefits:
Though much debated, there’s no single right way to link your content. To help you out, we’ve listed out 3 strategies we deploy for our clients.
Google is getting better at picking up webspam and link schemes. To be safe from Penguin penalties, the majority of inbound links should point at content like blog posts, infographics, etc. (think about it – why the HELL would anyone ever link to your PPC services page unless you paid them to?).
The problem is, these generally aren’t the pages you’re trying to rank. That’s why we use internal links – to distribute the power of your inbound links.
To get started with this method, head to Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) and navigate to Search Traffic > Links to Your Site.
This data will let you know which pages are link deficient.
When building external links to your website, you need to be careful not to over-optimize your anchor text and trigger a penalty.
When linking internally between your pages, you can be more aggressive with your anchor text and use exact match keyword phrases.
Internal links pass link juice. Therefore we can use pages with high inbound links to distribute that ranking power to other pages.
This is a method requires a blog with taxonomies (aka categories in WordPress) and works great for ranking local pages.
Target Keyword: “Miami PPC Company”
This method creates a circular silo of blog posts around a silo page. This silo of blog posts links directly to your silo page, creating massive relevancy signals to search engines.
When in doubt – model your internal linking structure like Wikipedia. Link together anything that is related!
We built a Google Sheets tool that helps you determine which pages need internal links on your website.
Great and informative article about silos. Since I started using silos my clients websites rank higher in less time. The best is that once you understand the setup, it becomes second nature when you plan a website. Again it proves that their is a difference in value added by companies who design websites and online marketers who design websites.
Archie SaysI’ve heard a lot about Silos and Silo structuring, but no one ever really took the time to break it down in a way that I can understand. I’m getting it now. I will re-read this post to make sure it soaks in.
Rigas SaysSounds detailed. If I hire your company to do this service for me, how much would it cost?
Ryan Stewart Saysdepends on the size of your site. you can contact us directly and get a quote from my sales lead.
Saravia SaysI see there’s a deep science behind all this SEO stuff. I’ve always heard about silos but always really just ignored the importance of it. This is worth implementing, thanks.
Zhivko Stanev SaysA pleasure reading your posts, Ryan! I have a question again and please don’t edit my comment this time. For the Circle Silo we see on the graph that there are links pointing from the silo page to the blogposts. I don’t see any logic behind this. The links should be only one-way – from the blog to the silo page.
Kenny SaysFor the Circular Silo, does the Silo Page need to link back to all the blog posts linking to it?
Ryan Stewart Sayshey kenny,
the silo page doesn’t have to link back to the posts linking to it. think of it this way – the links should always flow towards the page you’re trying to rank.
Willy. S SaysThis article is very useful for those of you who have been in the world of SEO. The Ryan way of making Silo is very remarkable.
Oscar SaysYou make a good point when you say “why the hell would would hundreds of sites link to your PPC page unless you paid them” lol…and to think it’s some dummies…or to say it nicely, amateurs trying to pull this stunt!
Robby P. Baggio SaysExcellent tips to optimize SEO. Silo makes the web becomes more structured.
Roq SaysSo you would say wordpress if the best for this siloing? Any other platforms you’d recommend as well?
Meida SaysI think I’m finally getting this. I have read this post a couple time before things started to really sink in. Never knew how important silos were until now.
Rhee SaysOk now I’m seeing how to construct category, sub-pages and supporting pages together. I use WP so I understand this should make things even easier for silo.
bala SaysExcellent post on website silo! When you say to create category – is it to create a category page on wordpress or folder on server? If both are ok then which one would you use for better SEO? Thanks
Gungun SaysGreat article. I’ve been searching for easy explanation about silo, because I’m sick of spammy link building with poor result. I use wordpress, but I will try to implement power page silo since it’s easier to understand. Let’s see if this will improve my client’s website ranking that have been stuck on 2nd and 3rd page of Google for almost a year
Hung Pham SaysI really love your post, I will build a niche website which has silo model. For me, silo model is new, I will try this. Is silo model good for niche website ?
Thanks,
it’s good for everything!
Mark Raymond SaysHi Ryan
I have a number of sites ranking strongly, though not WordPress. I am seeking to improve their ranking. Will silo work with Jimdo sites?
Martin Smith SaysThanks for this post Ryan, you’ve been killing the content lately. A couple people asked about the linking on the circle silo and I wanted to add some clarification. Correct me if you think differently.
You suggest to link from the main silo page to the internal blog posts. It’s not required, but otherwise there will be no channel for Google to spider to the posts unless you link to them from other pages on the web.
It can also look strange to have posts that have no way for anyone to find them through your site structure, so having links to them from the main silo page makes sense.
Also, in agreement with what you said about the blog posts only linking to one silo, it’s best to remove your main navigation from the blog posts and potentially use something like a sidebar navigation that allows you only to go to the next post in the silo, or back to the main silo page.
Nancy SaysPlease Will you send me detail that how to make my web development website in using Silo Method. I want to use WordPress CMS to built my website.
Focus on URL Structures – Any referral Website that following Silo. I’m Waiting.
Thanks
Nancy
Digital Marketing Mauritius SaysI really appreciate this post. It reveals important factors to be considered by SEO analysts and marketing managers. Thank you for your opinion and knowledge.
You’re welcome!
Akshat SaysWell great information regarding silo structure but i want to ask that can we create silo structure using wordpress and drupal, and which will be best for the job.
Ozair Akhtar - Digital Marketer SaysReally a very informative post I went through now. I have to say that “Ryan” might the new “Rand Fishkin”. But still I’m a bit confused over the Method no.2 and Method no.3, as both are similar ones. In Method no.2 you need to create categories with each having a single posting linking back to silo page and also other posts having similar content in other categories. Where as, in the method no.3 you said the same thing but without making new category pages in Blog section.
Ozair Akhtar @Linkedin.com Network
Seo Tivist SaysI like this prepared illustrator.. make me learn how to create silo website..like i do at mine.
Jan De Smet SaysGreat post ! But have a question. What about menu links, footer links, links in sidebars linking the page to content out of the silo ?
James SaysHi,
Nice post.
1 question…
What If I wanted to rank in 3 different cities for the same 4 services.
Would you list the 4 services, then create landing pages of reach city in blog, or would you create a child page to the silo page.
Basically what if you wanted to have 4 services, but want to rank in multiple towns.
James
Jeremy SaysJames…. I to have the same question about how to go about Multi City Silo Structure.
I’ve read that each location should have its own individual silo…
However If each location is its own silo then it seems it would have to be listed in the Nav Menu and that doesn’t seem right to me, How else would it be crawled by bots.
Then I thought maybe I should cross link the Local Silo off from the Original Key Word Silo as if it were a Key Word Silo Directory of sorts.
Silo 1 Silo 2
Example 1: Garage Door Repair—–> Garage Door Repair (City) … So on and so forth so each (City) based Silo is branching off form the original key word Silo.
Or
Example 2
(Silo) Garage Door Repair|(Subpages) Garage Door Repair (City)
(Silo) Garage Door Spring Repair | (Subpages) Garage Door Spring Repair (City)
Have you had any other findings on the best Multi Location Silo Structure?
Andre SaysIn method 3, can we use categories?
In method 3, if we have 40+ posts about the silo page, we should link them all ?
Thanks man, amazing content.
Mads SaysGreat post, will try all of it getting better ranking for my site.
jason SaysHi, I am not sure if this page is still getting updated but on the off chance…on the circle silo – on point 4 – Blog posts should only link to one silo page. Linking to additional silo pages breaks the circle of relevancy
I presume this is meaning not to link to supporting pages within other silos, it is not meaning that every page within the silo, should not link back to the main page? sorry if didnt explain it well…
i havent updated this in about 18 months – thanks for pitching in tho!
jason Saysmore of a question on the point 4 of the circle silo?
Paul SaysHi Ryan!
Thank you for the post.
would you recommend to remove internal links (or make them nofollow) to make a sitemap looking more like a silo architecture? Links between silos? Links from top to down?
Typically, the link in the header main menu to homepage breaks the silo concept.
i wouldnt no follow internal links…bottom line with this, dont over think it – just use internal links to link to relevant content and you will be good
Sumit Khantwal SaysI’ve a doubt regarding reverse silo. What is that ? Please if you can explain that one.
whats your doubt?
Eric SaysIs it possible to set up a silo on an existing site, with say, 100 posts? Can you create silos retroactively?
Of course! When we take on new clients, we often have to go back into the site and setup these structures for them
heidi SaysIn WordPress if there are no categories for pages than I am guessing it is best to use a page that gives an overview of silo content and then have content under it. My question is when I have a sub-menu page under the main category/overview page, when I click on it, the url looks like: mydomain.com/secondary-page instead of mydomain.com/overview-page/secondary-page which makes me think its not in the same physical directory. How do I get secondary pages in same directory under overview-page in WordPress?
Thanks,
Heidi
You have to edit the page – this is better suited for a Google search, sorry :/
Miklas Kroager SaysThis is very good post! We will be implementing a SEO silo on our new website, which will hopefully boost our rankings significantly.
thanks!
Dee SaysHi, thank you for your post about silo structuring. What would you recommend?
If you have:
SEO as the main topic for your site and you want to rank SEO, PPC, Social Media Signals (SMS) for:
– SEO/PPC/Social Media Signals
– SEO/PPC/SMS Miami
– SEO/PPC/SMS New York
– SEO/PPC/SMS Los Angeles
– SEO/PPC/SMS International
SEO/PPC/SMS UK
SEO/PPC/SMS London
SEO/PPC/SMS London
SEO/PPC/SMS London
SEO/PPC/SMS Manchester
SEO/PPC/SMS Germany
SEO/PPC/SMS Berlin
SEO/PPC/SMS Munich
etc.
Would you do silo pages for each service and continent, country, and city like above? Or would you do it by services and rank each continent/country/city on the same service page? For example
– xyz.com/SEO: (SEO, SEO Miami, SEO International, SEO Europe, SEO UK, SEO London)
In my project, there are a lot of different cities in almost all continents with up to 200 different products and up to 100 general services/specifications appearing in one city only but with various services/specification combinations.
To keep the SEO topic, we could add as service/specifications:
– White Hat
– Black Hat
– Grey Hat
This would give following example combinations:
– White Hat SEO
o White Hat SEO Miami
o International White Hat SEO
o White Hat SEO Europe
o White Hat SEO Berlin
– Black Hat SEO
o Black Hat SEO Miami
o International Black Hat SEO
o Black Hat SEO Europe
o Black Hat SEO Berlin
– Grey Hat SEO
o Grey Hat SEO Miami
o International Grey Hat SEO
o Grey Hat SEO Europe
o Grey Hat SEO Berlin
Furthermore, would you structure it in physical silos even though the web address will get awfully long, for example:
xyz.com/ppc./international/germany/berlin/greyhat-seo
or all on 1st level:
xyz.com/berlin-greyhat-seo
xyz.com/seo
xyz.com/ppc
xyz.com/Miami-whitehat-ppc
or all on 2nd level:
xyz.com/seo/berlin-greyhat
xzy.com/ppc/Miami-greyhat
Www.Ghughuti.org SaysThis is really a great insightful guide about site structuring and silo, I am googling last couple of days and finaly find this.
Thanks for sharing this .
Paul Raphael Gomes SaysThanks buddy, you removed my confusion
you’re welcome 🙂
Jack SaysHi there Ryan
I have landed my first SEO client
They sell vape pens. I implemented a silo structure, its only about a 20 page site,but the client doesn’t like the links on the pages. Is there anyway I can use a colour that will match the background for the text colour, and should this be done.
no, def not – that’s a form of link spam / keyword stuffing. you need to sit your client down and tell them this is the way it needs to be, they’re paying you for your expertise – they need to respect it.
David Richard SaysNice Post. Thanks for share!
you are welcome
Louis Schoeman SaysAwesome Post – Your YOUTUBE videos are also now on my favorites list!
thanks louis!
Desmond SaysGreat content. Seriously, I have read so many sites on silo structures and yours is the only one I fully understand and felt compelled to leave a comment thanking you. Time to restructure my site!
Thank you desmond!
I’ve started creating my silo page and need some advice on this :
The silo page is going to be something like http://www.website.com/trading-strategies
I intend to have many category content pages that link to it like :
http://www.website.com/trading-strategies/strategy-a
http://www.website.com/trading-strategies/strategy-b
http://www.website.com/trading-strategies/strategy-c
The question I have is do I need to link to all these a,b,c category content pages from my silo page? I’m not sure if a silo page is meant to be like some sort of main directory referencing all these other strategies I have or can it be a simple page with as few outbound links as possible. I assume a silo page has to be like some sort of cornerstone page?
Thanks in advance!
the way you have it laid out works, id go with that
Nahin SaysGreat piece!
But I have a question. What if i have a target page that alone does not worth creating a category for. How can I create a silo for this particular page/keyword?
for example – How to fix a overheating grill?
It is okay to create a category for grill but the topic above does not looks to be a category topic itself.
Another question 🙂
Do, the categories need to be in menubar? or not including the category in the menubar will do?
Nancy Jones SaysPlease Will you send me detail that how to make my web development website in using Silo Method. I want to use WordPress CMS to built my website.
Focus on URL Structures – Any referral Website that following Silo. I’m Waiting.
Thanks
Nancy
Peter SaysHere’s the thing I don’t understand – what’s the difference between categories and SILO pages? I’ve read several articles on SILOS and in my mind SILOS are basically categories.
In the article, part “HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR WEBSITE’S CONTENT” assumes blog has categories, but most websites have categories globally, not just on blog. And the image in that section to me really looks just as a regular category structure.
I’m obviously missing something from the technical aspect of SILO here.
THey’re similar (or synonomous) depending on who you ask. Look, the point here is not to over complicate things. Simply lay out your site and content in a structure that relates together.
Xưởng Gốm Việt SaysWell, I’m building this model (xuonggomviet)
Peter Says@RYAN STEWART I see… Laying out my site in a way that content and structure relates together was actually the first thing I learned when I started tinkering with websites, o naturally I asumed SILOS are something much more complicated.
Beau SaysHey bro! I’ve got a few questions here….if you don’t mind and you have the time to reply!
I am still learning SEO, and was wondering if I would be able to (automatically) create a circular silo via “Prev page / Next page” links on inner pages, using WordPress’ native next/prev page implementation/function – see the “The Next and Previous Pages” section on this page: https://codex.wordpress.org/Next_and_Previous_Links
Someone on the Web mentioned “….Don’t NEED a sidebar, but a sidebar is usually one of the easiest and most automated ways to do internal links within a silo. I usually do sidebar + related post plugin + next/prev post plugin.”
So, do you think that, e.g., an SEO-EFFECTIVE circular silo can be achieved using the prev/next page links approach, e.g., in local SEO, to connect and pass link juice across all service pages of a local business’ website – all of which are “related” content, right?
ANOTHER QUESTION –
(see the “3. Link deep.” section on https://neilpatel.com/blog/commandments-of-internal-linking )
Why does Neil Patel say that internal linking to the homepage or contact page from inner/deeper pages is not a good idea for SEO? Do we generally not want to pass link juice back to the homepage or contact page from siloed pages?
And I always have a section at the bottom of each of the client’s service pages saying “Contact us for a free estimate.” (contact us being linked to contact page) If I follow Neil’s advice here, then how could I allow for a user-friendly experience (while maintaining good SEO) to direct the user to the contact page in this case – without a link to the contact page there?
Thanks so much for all your time!!
Beau SaysHey bro! I’ve got a few questions here….if you don’t mind and you have the time to reply!
I am still learning SEO, and was wondering if I would be able to (automatically) create a circular silo via “Prev page / Next page” links on inner pages, using WordPress’ native next/prev page implementation/function – see the “The Next and Previous Pages” section on this page: https://codex.wordpress.org/Next_and_Previous_Links
Someone on the Web mentioned “….Don’t NEED a sidebar, but a sidebar is usually one of the easiest and most automated ways to do internal links within a silo. I usually do sidebar + related post plugin + next/prev post plugin.”
So, do you think that, e.g., an SEO-EFFECTIVE circular silo can be achieved using the prev/next page links approach, e.g., in local SEO, to connect and pass link juice across all service pages of a local business’ website – all of which are “related” content, right?
ANOTHER QUESTION –
(see the “3. Link deep.” section on https://neilpatel.com/blog/commandments-of-internal-linking )
Why does Neil Patel say that internal linking to the homepage or contact page from inner/deeper pages is not a good idea for SEO? Do we generally not want to pass link juice back to the homepage or contact page from siloed pages?
And I always have a section at the bottom of each of the client’s service pages saying “Contact us for a free estimate.” (contact us being linked to contact page) If I follow Neil’s advice here, then how could I allow for a user-friendly experience (while maintaining good SEO) to direct the user to the contact page in this case – without a link to the contact page there?
Beau SaysHi Ryan,
I posted some questions here, did they get through?
They were pretty important to me. Hope you can find them and have some time to reply. Would be great.
Thanks!
Beau
Beau Says1) Can a circular silo architecture be easily achieved and automated by simply applying “Prev” and “Next” page links on each site inner page? For example, in local SEO, having all “Services” subpages linked to one another via Prev and Next page links, and, let’s say, with the first page being linked to the About page via its “Prev” link, which occurs before the Services main menu item and the last page being linked to the contact page, which occurs after the Services main menu item.
And is it ok for SEO to have a ‘two-way’ / bi-directional silo, such as in this case?
2) Why do you suggest not having links to the contact us page at the bottom of each page? E.g., on all service subpages, saying something like “Call or email us for a free estimate!” I think I understand how linking to the contact page from inner pages would ‘break’ the silo and dissolve the PR of that inner page by passing link juice to the contact page, but how could I direct visitors to the contact page in this case, without linking to it? Page anchoring to the main menu from the “call or email us” text? For now, I just made “Call or email us” in bold instead of linking it.
3) External/outbound links: On almost every inner specific service page on my site, I have a few relevant external links to high DA sites, such as to Wikipedia articles and Home and Garden television’s website. Is it better for (local) SEO to pass link juice to these high DA sites via a few links on each service page, or better not to link to them in order to preserve more PR for those pages?
4) Do you think it will help local SEO by applying a service called “WIKI Ranker”, i.e., getting drip-fed backlinks from “high DA Wiki sites”? What is this all about anyway, from the looks of it (if you can understand what it is offering)?
(wiki-ranker [dot] com).
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR TIME AND HELP!!
I LOOK UP TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND WATCH YOUR VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE!!
GOOO SEO! HOPEFULLY ONE DAY SOON I CAN BREAK FREE FROM MY 9-5 CHAINS AND SLAVERY TO SOMEONE ELSE’S BRAND!
Hey Beau,
Thanks for taking the time to write out these comments. Unfortunately, my time is really pressed right now with client work, answering this would take a quite a bit of my time. If interested, we can jump on a call and discuss your questions. You’ll need to pay for it, but I promise it will be well worth the money for you: https://clarity.fm/ryanstewart
Akshara Malhotra SaysLink building is actually a very important practice when it comes to On-Page SEO, most of the times this is also underestimated.
Building backlinks for your promoted post, for instance, is a very difficult task, therefore is not easy to get this pages to rank well on SERPs. That’s when internal link building really helps a lot because you can pass link juice from a blog post with many backlinks to other ones with not so many.
This is one of the things that caused me more trouble when I started my blogging journey, but we always have this type of articles to save the day.
Thanks a lot for such a great article.
Miley Cyrus SaysNice post! Thanks for sharing amazing content.
Miley Cyrus SaysLove your resources! I appreciate your details and depth writing style and all your eye cache points was so awesome.
bill SaysPlease review my website: healthcare4usa.com have you followed the silo structure? How do I arrange the silo structure?
You’re good!
joyo karneli Saysgreat article
What do you think ?
I have redirected the category to the page ,and every post gives an internal link to the page / category
I am waiting for your answer, thank you
Fernando SaysGreat article. I was looking for good information about the structure of the silo and finally found it.
my site: zapofertas.net
Thank you
Jones SaysHi
I have a single page silo structure website that is as follows
1 post that is stick on the homepage, 3 supporting silo posts, very relevant to the homepage post topic. But supporting posts are just for the sake of silo structure. However, I am trying to rank my Homepage with stick Post.
Now what happening is, Google is starting to rank supporting articles instead of the homepage. Although the links are on the homepage Google is continuously ranking the supporting articles that have also very little on-Page.
Please guide me on what to do?
Yvo SaysHi ! Thank you so much for your excellent piece of advice on silos structures!
I would like to ask you some questions. My mother page is “Wedding Photographer (e.g.) London”
Level 2: Best wedding venues London
Level 3: Wedding venue X in London
Level 4: Wedding day at venue X (photos and text about a real wedding)
I think that structure is quite ok. Correct me if I am wrong. Now, I would like to add further Level 2 topics to support my mother page. For e.g.
– Best Wedding Dress Shops in London
– Best Wedding Planners in London
Do you think these other Level 2 topics could help the silo or are they off topic? I am sure they would create lots of traffic to my site. They also have 2 of 3 keywords in common: London & Wedding. But they are missing the direct link to photography.
Thank you in advance for your expert insights!
Best regards from Switzerland
jodiebc@optusnet.com.au SaysThanks for this article. It has been the easiest to understand so far.
Some of the images are missing in the Internal Linking Strategy #1 section which I would find really helpful. Can you send or add them back onto this page, please? I am finding the images make much more sense to me.
Thanks
talaant SaysIt’s really a detailed blog about silos which made my mind blow. What a great write-up from you, Ryan. I didn’t know that so much stuff can happen just by using silos. I also have read about silos on one website that really helped me in understanding silos.
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