What Is SEO Siloing?

SEO Siloing

Search engine optimisation (SEO) siloing is a content creation strategy focused on organising and structuring a website’s content in a way that makes it easy for search engines to crawl, index, and understand your content. The goal is to improve search rankings and organic visibility for your most important keywords and topics.

How SEO Silos Work

SEO silos work by grouping related content into distinct categories or “silos” that all focus on a specific topic, keyword, or subject. For example, an eCommerce website selling various home goods might create silos around categories like “kitchenware”, “bedding and linens”, “bathroom accessories”, etc.

When search engines crawl a website, they analyse how content is connected through links and structure. Silos help search bots easily identify groups of pages on a single focused topic. This sends signals that your site has expertise and depth around those subjects.

As a result, search engines may determine that pages within an on-topic silo are highly relevant for anyone searching queries related to that topic. So a “kitchenware” page with extensive content has a better chance of ranking well for “Kitchen Tools UK” than a generic “products” page with minimal content.

Benefits Of Using SEO Silos

There are several advantages to utilising SEO siloing as part of your content strategy:

• Improved Keyword Targeting
  Silos allow you to optimise clusters of pages around strategic seed keywords and long tail variations. By focusing each silo on a core theme, you create opportunities to rank across multiple related searches. Pages on complementary topics connect to pass equity and relevancy.
• Increased Click-Through Rates (CTR)
  When someone searches for something highly specific and discovers that all top results are from your site with focused, in-depth content tailored around exactly what they want – they’re more inclined to click through and engage.
• User Experience and Bounce Rate
  Improvements Once on your site, visitors immediately recognise they’ve found what they’re looking for thanks to targeted content silos centred around their interests. This improves site navigation, and time-on-site metrics, and reduces bounce rates. People consume more content when it aligns with their intent.
• Authority Building
  As groups of pages earn top rankings for swaths of keywords within a topic cluster, your domain authority naturally increases around that subject. This compounds over time, further entrenching your site as an authority site, especially for semantic search queries.

How To Implement SEO Silos

Optimising a website using silos takes strategic planning and organisation. Here is a step-by-step overview:

1. Identify Primary Silos Analyse site structure, content themes, products/services, analytics, and competitor sites to determine the primary silos that need to be created and reinforced. Common silos revolve around core products, service categories, content types, locations, etc.
2. Choose Target Keywords For each silo, research critical keywords and keyword groups that an entire cluster of content will focus on targeting. Select authoritative seed keywords along with long tail variations.
3. Develop Content Framework Map out a content architecture roadmap establishing the pages needed within each silo along with topical interconnectivity. Pages should link across to reinforce internal relevancy signals for search bots crawling the site.
4. Create Unique Content Produce quality content that offers the depth to satisfy searcher intent for various keywords within each silo topic. Leverage seed keywords throughout pages while also incorporating natural language and synonyms.
5. Optimise for Ranking Factors
   Ensure content meets EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles. optimise titles, meta descriptions, images, structured data, speed, user experience and interlinking to help pages meet ranking factor requirements.
6. Monitor and Expand Use analytics to continuously monitor traffic to silo pages from organic searches. Look for new long-tail keyword opportunities to target. Expand silos by adding more pages and subtopics over time.

Best Practices For High-Performing Silos

There are some best practices to follow when architecting and building out silos:

• Keep silos thematically focused, but not too narrow in scope that there aren’t enough related keyword opportunities.
• Interlink pages within the same silo extensively to strengthen internal relevancy signals.
• Ensure good interconnectivity between complementary silos using links and topic clusters.
• Create pillar pages, TOC pages or hub pages within silos targeting core topics and linking out to subtopic content.
• Optimise technical SEO elements like URL structure, alt text, site architecture and internal linking for clear semantic signals.
• Producing long-form, epic content on prominent silo topics can help establish overall domain authority and thought leadership.

Potential Downsides To Avoid

While siloing has advantages, it also comes with some risks to mitigate:

Over-Siloing

Narrow silos with too few pages and thin content spread authority too widely. Search engines may struggle to understand document relevance.

Orphan Pages

When content doesn’t fit nicely into a silo or links poorly, pages may get devalued or overlooked by crawlers.

Site Navigation Complexity

Poor interlinking between silos or complicated site architecture can negatively impact user experience. Confusing directory structures that hide content can deter crawlers.

Duplicate Content Risks

Publishing very similar content across multiple silo sections causes crawling and indexing issues. Unique, original text is required.

Implementation takes consistency over months but siloing powers visibility by playing to the strengths of how search engines rank content. Expertly optimising a site using targeted clusters around topics that matter most to your audience and business goals drives qualified organic traffic. Structured effectively, silos become powerhouses showcasing your brand as an authoritative resource.