Have you ever wondered how a small website can rank on Google’s page 1 in front of high-authority websites? The answer is simple: content silos.
Today I’m going to show you how to build the perfect content silo — one that can even help you rank a new website faster and get it on Google’s page 1.
What is a Content Silo?
A content silo is an SEO strategy through which you group your website content around specific keyword-based articles.
Simply put, you create a bunch of articles around the same topic and group them.
Building silos is crucial for any website owner who wants to bring organic traffic through search engines. Here’s why…
Why Are Content Silos Important
Content silos help you achieve two things:
- They help improve your SEO
- They improve usability and user experience
Let’s look at these more in-depth.
Content Silos Improve SEO
First of all, content silos help Google, and other search engines, better understand what your website is about. Having all your articles and pages linked into a silo allows the robots to quickly see how your content is structured, where it is located, and what it is about.
By covering a specific topic as best as possible (meaning a higher number of articles), you build authority around that topic. In time, Google rewards you for this by ranking your pages and articles higher.
Content silos improve usability and user experience
As mentioned above, having your articles on the same topic interlinked helps search engines move through your website. The same goes for people. Users will spend more time on your website because you give them a hub with all the information they need.
How to Create a Content Silo
Below you will find my 6-step process for creating a content silo that ranks high and maintains its ratings.
Step 1 — Do your keyword research
The first thing you need to do is keyword research. This will help you identify the keywords and the subtopics for each content page or article.
Step 2 — Map Out Your Content Silo
After finishing your keyword research, you should have a spreadsheet with all the subtopics. Now it’s time to review the keywords and see which ones you will pick for your initial content silo. You shouldn’t create your entire silo right away. I’ll explain later why.
You can pick your initial silo in two ways:
1. Go for those core subtopics that are essential
If you take this approach, your content will provide much more value to users in its earliest stage. This is the best way to start if you’re not going to rely just on organic search engine traffic.
2. Go for the subtopics with the lowest keyword difficulty
With this approach, you will have the best chance to improve your rankings. For this to work, you’ll need to create content for those subtopics targeting long-tail keywords. And since long-tail keywords don’t bring much traffic, don’t expect your website to get too many visitors initially.
After picking up your subtopics, it’s time to map out your silo. It should look like the one in the image below.
You should start the silo with at least five subtopics (ignore the number in the image).
Now that you have your pages mapped out, it’s time to figure out how you will fill them out.
Step 3 — Page Structure
Creating the page structure is relatively simple. The keywords and the competition should show you how to structure your article.
The key point here is this: always create specific heading for your internal links. This goes for both the main page and the supporting ones.
Let’s take an example.
You’re creating a silo around SEO on-page optimization. Your main page is a ‘how to’ guide, and one of your supporting pages is about keyword research.
On your main page, you’ll have a heading, an H2 or H3, about keyword research where you will place your internal link.
The same goes for the supporting pages. On the keyword research page, you’ll have a heading about on-page optimization where you will place the internal link to the main page.
This means that on your supporting pages, you will have three headings (two going to the adjacent subtopic pages and one to the main page), and on your main page, you’ll have as many headings as the number of subtopic pages.
These headings are beside the regular ones you include to cover the subject of the article/page.
Step 4 — Write Your Content
This step is relatively simple. You have your page structure, so now it’s time to fill it.
The only thing worth mentioning here is content length. To find out how long your text should be, check out your competition. Take the first three articles that appear on Google, calculate the average content length, add 10%, and you’re done.
If you feel you need to make your content longer, go for it. Make it as long as necessary to cover the subject.
Step 5 — Publish & Link
Once your texts are ready, upload them to your website and link them together. Don’t forget to submit them to Google Search Console for indexing.
Step 6 — New Content & Updates
After you’ve published your content, it’s time to wait for it to get indexed and rank. But don’t think your job is done.
Update your silo constantly with new content. This will help maintain your rankings and even improve them.
Add a new page once or twice per month. Don’t forget to update your main page and the adjacent subtopic pages/articles when you do.
Ideally, you would want to place your new articles at the end of the silo. This way, you will only need to update one other subtopic page/article.
The Silo Within The Silo
You can also build silos within a silo. This means that your subtopic becomes the main page for its very own content silo.
Let’s go back to the previous example. You can create a silo around keyword research by creating subtopic pages where you can explain how to do keyword research on Ahrefs or what long-tail keywords are.
Then, your silo architecture would look like this.
Not All Your Content Belongs in A Silo
Not all your pages/articles will fit inside a silo. And that’s ok. Remember that, if possible, you should link them to a page within that silo.
For example, you could write an article about the 5 most common mistakes blog owners make. One of these could be poor on-page optimization. This is an excellent opportunity to create an internal link to your silo.
