Simple ways to structure your site with link silos

Link Silos are a great way to visualise your website structure before you start designing but it is also a good idea to map out your current website and see what changes you should make to mould it into one of the below structures. Links are used to move from one web page to another and travel around your site. These links create authority and trust which in turn improves your ranking on Google. Grouping of pages around a topic on your website with silos means you are creating a simple structure that Google will appreciate along with your readers.

These silos encourage readers to diver deeper into your website in a logical way. As they read and learn they are then introduced to more complex information on the topic and or find products and services just when they are ready to make a purchase. You are also giving the reader choices while reading by allowing them to follow internal links within your silo without getting overwhelmed.

 

Basic link Silo

Basic link Silos are very simple and yet effective.

The money page is your ranking page or home page. It doesn’t matter if this is a blog post or a page they both work as well. This is the same with the pages or blogs that link to the money page. Don’t link downwards from the money page to the other pages or blog posts. Unfortunately, there is no magic number for the number of pages you should link to your money page. Sometimes it could take three pages and other times it could be twenty so you will just have to check this yourself and see what works for you. The competition level in your industry also plays a factor in how many pages you need to link back to your money page.

Tiered Link Silo

This is the basic link silo with another tier of supporting content. Your supporting content is linking back to your money page. It’s not that difficult but it is just important to be organised from the beginning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiered and Basic Link Silo

You can also combine the basic link silo and the tiered by not having supporting content for all your second tiered pages. This can happen due to budget or time limits. 

The supporting content pages are the most powerful when it comes to ranking. You can add backlinks to these pages say 3 to 5 per post.

 

 

 

Don’t overuse exact match keyword links to your money page. We advise one or two but no more. If you send too many Google may get confused on which page you are trying to optimise.

 

The older our content becomes means the less often google will visit these pages. This means these pages are as good as “dead” and having them as part of our silo can actually hinder our ranking. This is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. This is when you need to start trimming branches (pages) of your website. 

You can do this by:

• Updating the content on this page is a good idea
• Deleting some content that you have that has become irrelevant
• Add or take out a paragraph or bullet point.
• If it isn’t a landing page or an important page for your site we would recommend changing the title too. 
• You need to make changes to both the front and backend. 
• You can add images and alt text. 
• Make sure to update any dates on the page.

 

For local SEO it’s important that your content isn’t any more than 3 months old so it would be a good idea to schedule an hour or two every few months to make some changes.

 

Don’t go mad refreshing all at once:

• Local SEO refresh say 3 or 4 pages a week. 
• Affiliate SEO refresh 8 to 10 pages a week. 

If you go into your site and change all at once you may come out with no issues but you could also run into a lot of problems such as your site crashing or slipping in rankings. This is why we recommend the guidelines above. This is particularly important if you are working on client sites.

Potential downfalls to link silos

If you structure your silo in a way that makes information difficult for users to find this hinders the benefits of the silo. This may frustrate your readers and drive them back to Google search to find their answer. Your users can only access certain information by navigating directly from tier-one downwards.

If you think of an actual silo on a farm. You can’t access grain from silo A by opening silo B which is the same principle with a site that is locked into a hierarchal form that doesn’t let you navigate from one silo to another.

To avoid these downfalls in your silos you can:

• A clear sitemap allows users to see at a glance what is included in your site.
• Ensure menus are clear and easy to use.
• Include lower content links frequently to high-level pages.
• If your site contains a search tool ensure it is working properly.

Click here for  more information on our SEO Services and how we can help you to optimise your site..

John McGarry is an expert in this field and is always happy to help. If you have any questions about this please feel free to reach John on 00 353 87 6778855 or email jmcgarry@Webworks.ie