Sideways interlinking in silos
-
I've been looking at a lot of Silo illustrations and reading a lot on the optimal silo structure lately. In many of the illustrations I see the Silos are all linking down or up in the structure, but not much sidelong action. But I read about how you are supposed to have a "mini sitemap" on each page in the silo that links to every other page in the silo. Is this really a good idea? Seems to me you would only want to link up & down in the structure, or at most have links to the "next" & "previous" parts of the silo (sideways). Having all those links on a page would just dilute the link juice wouldn't it? I hardly ever see illustrations for linking sideways between pages in a silo, yet there seems to be a lot of talk about it, which is correct?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is Siloing still effective in 2018?
I've been advised about Siloing (site structure), although I'm getting conflicting advice now saying it is an outdated practice. What is the 2018 verdict?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Undergrnd0 -
Silo Architecture and Mobile First
This goes to the age-old SEO argument - how many links in the navigation. We are a well-known brick and mortar brand We have 20,000 SKUs and over 500 categories and sub-catetgories. 95%+ of our backlinks go to the home page. We don't have a blog, but it's in the works. Our site is not responsive. It serves up different versions based on device type, but is not an "M Dot". Our rankings are pretty strong in spite of a large number of technical SEO issues (different discussion). Currently, our e-commerce desktop site is "Siloed" (I'm new to the company - I didn't do it). The home page links via the top nav to categories. The category pages link to subcategories via sidebar navigation, or via images on the category pages (instead of product images). It's pretty close to textbook silos, and it's very near how I would have designed it. This silo architecture passes the most link juice to our categories which target our highest search volume (head) terms. The categories pass link juice (albeit significantly less) to our subcats which target secondary terms. In terms of search volume and commercial value, our tiers line up very neatly. On average, the targeted subcat terms get about 1/6 of the volume of our head terms. The Silo concept has been around forever, and is evangelized by Bruce Clay and other respected SEOs. Every time I've siloed an ecommerce site, the rankings improve dramatically, so who am I to argue? So, what's the problem? Read on... Our mobile navigation, on the other hand, links to every category and subcategory via flyout navigation (I didn't do this, either). In theory, this distributes an equal amount of link juice to all categories and subcategories. It robs link juice from our categories and passes it to subcategories. Right now, this isn't a problem. Rankings are based on the desktop site, and minor adjustments are made for mobile rankings. When Mobile First rolls out, our mobile nav will be the default navigation for Google, and in theory, link juice distribution across the site will change radically, and potentially harm our rankings for our head terms. I always study site architecture for a number of respected ecommerce sites. Target and Walmart, for example, link to every category and subcategory through their mobile and desktop navigation. Wayfair takes a silo approach on mobile and desktop, linking in tiers. I would argue that Walmart and Target have so much DA/TF/CF that they don't give a damn about targeted link juice distribution - it's all about UX. Wayfair's backlink profile is strong, but it's not Walmart or Target, so they need to be concerned about link juice distribution - hence the silo approach. Have the Google spokespeople said anything about this? I see this as a potential landmine across the industry. Is this something I should be concerned about? Has anyone had any experience with de-siloing a website? Am I making a big deal out of a non-issue? Please - no arguments about usability. UX is absolutely part of the equation. Usability is a ranking factor, but if our rankings and traffic take a nose dive, UX isn't going to matter. This is a theoretical discussion discussion on link juice distribution, and I know that compromises need to be made between SEO and UX.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Satans_Apprentice0 -
Site Interlinking - footer and menu - whether to nofollow/remove
Hello, We've got a bunch of interlinking going on between the following sites: nlpca(dot)com thewealthymind(dot)com shop.nlpca(dot)com dynamicspinrelease(dot)com These are all owned and operated by the same people. Some linking is in the footer and some is in the menu or header. Could you take a look and tell me which interlinks you'd recommend nofollowing and which you'd recommend deleting entirely? We can always place a home page single link to replace those sitewides we delete or nofollow. I'm thinking we should delete everything in the footers and nofollow those in the menu or headers, placing a single dofollow link on the home page when deleting/nofollowing a sitewide link.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Fourth and Third Level Subdomain Interlinking
Hi everyone. I have a hopefully interesting client question I wanted to pose. I do work for a company with three distinct locations that have unique offerings, service areas, etc. I wouldn't want to see the three locations as subfolders (example company.com/locationone/, company.com/locationtwo/) of one site. They are large and unique presences. Fortunately, they did not organize their locations in such a way, and currently have their locations organized as subdomains, as in locationone.company.com, locationtwo.company.com. I might have preferred locationone.com, locationtwo.com, etc., but that is what I am working with. Their developer has been building new content on fourth level domains, as in newcontent.locationone.company.com and newcontent2.locationone.company.com. In one case one of these fourth level domains also contains a different but parallel checkout process to the one already present on third level domain locationone.company.com. I am looking for advice on how to interlink these sites, and whether to discourage them from building out new fourth level domains (newcontent3.locationone.company.com, etc.) or even to get rid of the current fourth level domains altogether. I'm not sure if the fact that they're subdomains and not subfolders matters as much as it used to. Is this a case of subdomain phobia, or are my concerns justified? Any special advice on dealing with interlinking across fourth, third, and second level domains? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rlevers0 -
Link Building: Want to discuss interlinking content
Hi, On the 'Viper chill' blog (some may of heard of this blog) he talks about interlinking content in an attempt to build up link juice to get more from the content and pass more PR to the target website. Here is the link to the post, a few scrolls down and your see a diagram. http://www.viperchill.com/link-trio/ I have also attached the image to this post, so we can discuss in more detail by referencing to it. Now this guy knows what his talking about, lots of big players back him up, but does this method actually work better then having one link from each article pointing to the target website? If an article links to another article surely the PR flows into other links on the page as well as your own down grading the power of it? If the answer is yes, would this work for guest blogging? link-triage.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | activitysuper0 -
Website Siloing..best practice?
Hi all I am doing some research this week on the effects of siloing a Magento site. We have about 1,654 pages with approx 1,400 products. We want to silo the website in order to address the internal linking issues and to also focus the customer journey in a more organised way. I need to report all of the possible angles and effects that this will have on the site, prior to implementing it. Does anyone have info on best practice for siloing? I'd appreciate any help... Thanks Nick
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Total_Displays0 -
In order to improve SEO with silos'urls, should i move my posts from blog directory to pages'directories ?
Now, my website is like this: myurl.com/blog/category1/mypost.html myurl.com/category1/mypage.html So I use silos urls. I'd like to improve my ranking a little bit more. Is it better to change my urls like this: myurl.com/category1/blog/mypost.html or maybe myurl.com/category1/mypost.html myurl.com/category1/mypage.html Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Max840 -
Site Architecture: Cross Linking vs. Siloing
I'm curious to know what other mozzers think about silo's... Can we first all agree that a flat site architecture is the best practice? Relevant pages should be grouped together. Shorter, broader and (usually) therefore higher volume keywords should be towards the top of each category. Navigation should flow from general to specific. Agreed? As Google say's on page 10 of their SEO Starter Guide, "you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content ." OK, we all agree so far, right? Great! Enter my question: Bruce Clay (among others) seem to recommend siloing as a best practice. While Richard Baxter (and many others @ SEOmoz), seem to view silos as a problem. Me? I've practiced (relevant) internal cross linking, and have intentionally avoided siloing in almost all cases. What about you? Is there a time and place to use silos? If so, when and where? If not, how do we rectify the seemingly huge differences of opinions between expert folks such as Baxter and Clay?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DonnieCooper7