Before we hit the thorny topic of creating a silo site a bit of background first. Over the past several years Google in particular out of all the search engines have been telling us they are paying ever greater attention to the content of websites. Checking that they offer value, and, importantly, that they have context.
Going back as recently as 2010 it was fair to say that a sites inbound link profile represented the biggest factor in how the site would rank. Perhaps 80% of the weighting that Google’s algorithm used back then seemed to favour backlinks, particularly those with exact match anchor text for the phrase the site – or URL – was trying to rank for.
Do The Search Engines Respect Your Authority?
Even the most enthusiastic spammer probably guessed that this wouldn’t last forever, and sure enough there has been a slow and steady move towards having more weighting to on site factors, user experience and metrics such as retention and bounce rate.
Creeping under the radar was the emergence of the “Authority Site”. A website that didn’t try to rank for just one or two specific keywords, but was a repository for information on a whole subject. In other words, somewhere a user might go to find out information on a whole topic, to browse, learn and interact. How does a silo site fit into this?
So, How To Gain, or “Game “Authority
Cynical? Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. The whole idea of constructing a silo site is cynical, but not more so than creating your own links and spinning content. The search engines would like to see authority “evolve” naturally, not be created by a method. So expect there to be a backlash against the whole “self-created silo site” thing at some point in the future. Though if past experience is anything to go by those affected by this will be those who take the shortest, cheapest and least user friendly path to “gamed authority” (I’m guessing that’s 90% of those who will go down this route
Webmasters that take a little extra care over the setup, the navigation, the content and the offsite SEO may well do a lot better for a lot longer.
Hang On. Authority? Is That What This Is About?
Ooops! Yes. Did no-one tell you. Silo sites are all about establishing broad niche authority, context and having many hooks in the water. Some might say it’s all about the latter, if so they are either missing a trick, or not read up on it properly. Make no mistake about it. Self-made silo sites are about gaming authority.
A quick overview of a silo structure and a page layout that works with it. Apologies that this is an older video, the sound quality is not so good but it still makes the point.
How Does It Work
The video above gives a reasonably quick overview of the process. Too long?
Ok. You want to rank for a keyword or phrase. 99% of the time there will be associated phrases that you would also like to rank for. But hey, guess what. Not only is it good for a site to rank for these pages in terms of the “more hooks in the water” theory of onsite SEO, it also seems to inform the search engines that the site has greater context, and this greater context is one of the main things they are looking for as onsite credibility takes a small chunk out of inbound links in terms of ranking factors.
I’ve scoured the internet for a definitive layout for a silo site and guess what? There isn’t one.
An Example of A Silo Site
The basic structure remains the same through a lot of examples though. You have a home page, a squeeze page, a landing page or whatever. This is optimised for the main “Big Kahuna” word or phrase you are looking to rank for. This is where the structure of a silo site works for you.
It may be that when you set the site up you know it’s going to take ages to rank for this term, but that’s ok, as it’s only one of several pages you are going to rank for. A phrase my friend Daniel McGonagle (ex of linkvana reviews) used to describe the process.
The ranking for associated lower competition words on pages linked to the main landing page is the “rising tide” that will gradually float the main page over time”
In short, in theory at least, it’s a win-win.
Get the long tail phrases to rank early, and by linking from these pages (that are optimized for the low competition) to the next strongest tier, gradually increase the flow of authority to the main page.
In Words Please
In the video above, imagine the top level page is trying to rank for the highly competitive term “computer repairs”. The pages just below that, in yellow, are for slightly lower competition associated terms. Perhaps “DDR5 RAM upgrades” or “Replacement 80+ PSU”. Long tail phrases that represent hidden buying gems further down the keyword chain.
Oh yes, did I forget to tell you, in terms of conversion, these long tail phrases are often far better at getting a sale than the main phrase, just with substantially lower traffic levels – so you will almost definitely need both. The good thing about Silo sites is, you will get both. That’s the whole point.
Underneath each of these broad terms are other pages which support those terms, are linked to the top level and are optimized both onsite and offsite (with links) You push those and as they link to the top level pages, (which you might want to think of as broad sub categories) and they in turn begin to rank.
With judicious use of onsite optimisation and offsite SEO, once these category pages are ranking, then the “Home Page” itself will begin to float.
Get it? I hope so.
So Silo Site Building Is The New Link Building?
Whooah! Hold your horses there. No. Definitely not. Not even close. Not even a sniff.
Links, despite their bad press and recent fall out of favour are still the biggest single factor needed to rank commercial terms in competitive niches. While they might not be 80% of the game any more, it seems more than likely they are still maybe 60% of the game.
Yes, soft niches, none competitive terms it’s possible to rank using latent semantic indexing (LSI) on a silo site alone (latent semantic indexing) but that has always been the case, in fact before Google, it was the only way you could rank. As my old Grandfather used to say “There’s nothing new under the sun”. LSI and onsite ranking in soft niches has existed since before Google, and will likely always be the case. But as soon as you hit anything even remotely competitive with anything but the lowest of low commerciality prospects – you’re going to need links.
SO having a silo site does not negate the need for links and mean you can rank with LSI alone, but it will make the most of your keyword set and give you a real advantage over anyone who sets up their site without this level of care and attention
Originally adapted from a post created on my old site on demondemon.com