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Internal linking, structure & UX

SEO silo

Also known as: silo structure, siloing

SEO silo (siloing) means grouping a website’s pages by topic into separate sections, usually through URL folders and internal links that mostly stay inside the section. This entry covers the SEO meaning, not data silos in IT.

How does a silo work?

A site gets main sections with subsections, for example /laptops/ with /laptops/gaming/ underneath. Pages in a section link to their parent and to each other. Articles describe two variants: physical silos built from folders in the URL, and virtual silos built from internal links alone. Bruce Clay says he developed the concept.

Google does not describe siloing. Its SEO Starter Guide says that on sites with more than a few thousand URLs, the way content is organized can affect crawling and indexing, and that grouping similar topics in directories helps Google learn how often those URLs change.

Site architecture and click depthTree of a website: the home page is at depth 0, categories A and B at depth 1, three subcategories at depth 2, three products at depth 3. Product 1 is reached via the home page, category A and subcategory A1, and its breadcrumb shows that path. On the right is an orphan page that no internal page links to.Depth0Depth1Depth2Depth3Home pageCategory ACategory BSubcat. A1Subcat. A2Subcat. B1Product 1Product 2Product 3no linksOrphan pageno link points hereBreadcrumb on Product 1Home page › Category A › Subcat. A1 › Product 1Click depth = number of links from the home page. Google finds pages mainly through links.
Each level sits one click further from the home page. Google finds pages mainly through links and recommends that every page you care about gets a link from at least one other page on the site. The breadcrumb shows the page’s position in the hierarchy. Sources: Google Search Central: Link best practices for Google; Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide; Google Search Central: Breadcrumb (BreadcrumbList) structured data.

Example

An electronics shop has /laptops/, /laptops/gaming/ and /laptops/business/. The subpages link to each other and to the category page.

Common mistakes

A strict separation blocks useful links between sections, for example from a guide to the matching product. Links can go wherever they help readers (assessment).

Sources

  1. SEO Starter Guide – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  2. Siloing presentation – Bruce Clay (self-reported origin)resources.bruceclay.com
  3. SEO silo structure – JumpFactor (secondary)jumpfactor.net

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