If you have been in the SEO space for a while, then you have probably heard of silos. What are they? A content silo is a group of related posts that all share the same keyword and topic. This technique helps to rank higher in search engines because it decreases competition from other websites with similar content.
In this post, we will go into more detail about how to create your own content silos and why this strategy is important to your business!
Why are Content Silos Important to SEO?
There are many reasons why content silos are important for your business, but the main reason is that it increases traffic to your website. The more relevant content you have on your site, the higher chance you will rank in search engines and get free organic traffic from Google.
Content silos teach Google how your website is structured and where the information is located. This is made simpler with the use of content silos, which provide a structure for content that corresponds to that at a library.
Another benefit of content silos is that search engines reward topic relevancy. Content silos improve the topic relevancy of both the page’s material and the website as a whole. For example, if you have a website that sells tools for carpenters, then siloing the content into different types of tools, such as hammers and nails, will help to improve the topic relevancy.
By grouping content into silos by keyword theme, search engines can better index your website for specific keywords which results in higher traffic.
These content silos are especially helpful when performing an audit on your SEO.
Steps for Creating an SEO Content Silo
It is now time to create your very own content silos. This is a simple process that can be done by anyone with a bit of SEO knowledge and creativity! Here are our top four strategies for creating silos:
1.) Create a winning content strategy
The first step to creating content silos is having a solid plan when it comes to content. It all begins with high-quality content that demonstrates your area of expertise.
So, get your online marketing crew together to figure out the top 4-5 categories and then the 4-5 subcategories within each. For example, if you are a real estate agent, your categories might be “buying”, “selling”, and then subcategories like “buying in the city”.
After doing this correctly, Google will consider us an industry authority and reward us with a top-page ranking.
Ideally, you should have about four or five different content silos to start with, but this is something that will improve over time as your site grows! Once the foundation of your silo structure has been created, it’s now time to fill them up!
2.) Research keywords to find high volume, low competition phrases
After you have a general idea of what your silo structure will look like, it’s time to do some keyword research.
Start by performing an extensive search for keywords related to the first category and subcategory that you identified earlier in this article. Look at which websites are currently ranking on page one or two and then use those as inspiration for your content.
The best way to do this is by creating a spreadsheet of all the keywords related to your industry and then organizing them according to their search volume, competition level, and relevancy. This will give you an idea of which silos are worth pursuing!
From here, it’s time for some testing within Google Analytics! Test out the different types of content that you have created and see which silos performed best.
If a specific type of post is performing better than others, then create more posts like it! This strategy will allow your website to rank higher for those keywords with high search volume as well as increase traffic from Google by showing up in their suggested searches.
3.) Build both virtual and physical silos
It is important to build both virtual and physical silos when it comes to SEO content.
Virtual silos share a similar URL. For example, if have a digital marketing website, all pages about SEO will have the category of SEO in the URL.
Physical silos are all about helping the user access the different categories by using links in the sidebar, footer, navigation bar, and other areas.
Using both types of silo makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for without having to navigate through your entire website! Use both of these silos to enhance the user experience, improve search engine rankings, and increase conversions.
4.) Interlink within the silos
Now that the silos have been created and filled with content, it is time to link all of them together! You can do this by linking your new posts from older articles.
It’s best to use keywords as anchor text for these links so they fit in nicely within Google’s eyes.
You must interlink all pages within a silo together correctly if you want them to communicate properly. It’s important not to link outside of each silo to avoid diluting the link juice. You will also confuse the crawlers if you start linking outside of the silos, thus losing all of your silo impact.
If you do this correctly, your silos will truly become a powerhouse of SEO content that Google can easily crawl!
Final Thoughts on Implementing SEO Content Silos
In conclusion, content silos are an important part of SEO because they increase the topic relevancy of your website, which will then improve how well you rank in search engines.
They make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for and easier for search engines to crawl the content.
I hope this post was helpful and you now have a better understanding of what they are!
What else would you like to know? Comment below with any questions or concerns!