If you were to compare your website to a TV show, would it be like “Hoarders”?

It’s more common than you may think for websites to have hundreds — even thousands — of pages of content without much structure. All of them may be connected but in a disorganized way. After a while, chaos sets in.

This creates a bad experience for users and a difficult environment for search engines to understand what you are about. Your “clear hierarchy” looks more like a bowl of spaghetti. And that can result in missed opportunities to rank.

Luckily, there is a way to organize your website. SEO siloing is an SEO strategy that organizes website content by grouping related webpages together into hierarchical categories. These categories support target keywords (search terms) and elevate the expertise of a website.

We always recommend siloing as a best practice because we know it works. But I understand that it may not always be feasible. There are some situations, though, when you should always SEO silo your content for the best results.

Make a site with a clear hierarchy aligned by words users would type and with pages containing a reasonable number of text links that point to the important parts of your site.

–Summary, Google Webmaster Guidelines

• What is SEO siloing?
• When you want to target “money words”
• SEO silo when you cannot break into page 1
• When you have lots of unrelated content
• SEO silo when you have way too many links on every page
• SEO silo when rankings have hit a wall and you need a final push
• FAQ: How can I implement SEO siloing to enhance my website’s relevance?

What Is SEO Siloing?

SEO siloing is a way to organize your website content based on the way people search for your site’s topics. Its goal is to make a site relevant for a search query so that it has a better chance of ranking.

Say you own a power tools website. On it, you sell cordless power tools, electric power tools, and gas-powered tools.

A proper siloing strategy would organize your website content (and navigation) into categories that support the products you sell, based on how people search. (Consequently, those are the keywords you are targeting as well.)

See the illustration below as a visual. Each type of power tool category would have a landing page. Underneath each landing page would be a subpage for each tool type within that category. Links between landing pages and their own subpages, but not with subpages in other categories, clarify the relationships for search engine spiders crawling your website.

That’s it! Of course, that’s a highly simplified overview of this SEO strategy. And you can learn more by viewing our SEO siloing guide.

Now let’s look at five scenarios when siloing is critical.

Situation 1: When You Want to Target “Money” Words

If you want to target any search queries that would lead to a sale, you need to silo your site to show lots of support for that money keyword.

Siloing supports your target keywords by providing a library of information that is well organized from the landing pages to their subpages, and vice versa.

The results:

• PageRank flows to your “money” pages (the landing pages with the main target keywords).
• Website relevancy, expertise and authority for desired search terms increases.
• Content is organized so search engines can crawl and understand it.
• People can find the info they need and have a good user experience.

All of those factors help a site to rank better in the search engine results pages for target keywords.

And, of course, this all ties into Google’s view on “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) types of content. YMYL topics are discussed in Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG) as those topics that “could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.”

Because you are targeting queries that will potentially result in a purchase of goods or services, especially for purchases that can be made online, you want to be sure your website demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

For YMYL pages, E-E-A-T is a critical factor in Google’s evaluation of your website. Luckily, siloing is a great way to demonstrate E-E-A-T.

Learn more with the Complete Guide to the Fundamentals of Google’s E-E-A-T.

Situation 2: SEO Silo When You Cannot Break Into Page 1

A clear website hierarchy has always influenced search engine rankings. A major factor is the ability of a website to offer the “whole” answer for searchers.

Not only should a webpage be a complete answer to a search query, but also it should be a part of a website that provides more easy-to-find information related to that topic.

Essentially, you want a person to be able to find the information they need or complete an action with ease. Siloing does that.

Google has always recommended an organized website. Two quotes from its SEO Starter Guide come to mind.

Quote 1: Google’s advice about how to structure a site:

Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and effectively work these into your internal link structure. Make sure all of the pages on your site are reachable through links, and that they don’t require an internal “search” functionality to be found. Link to related pages, where appropriate, to allow users to discover similar content.

Quote 2: Google says it looks at the whole website to determine if it’s relevant for a single query:

The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google’s search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.

See this case study on how siloing helped a website go from no rankings to Page 1.

Situation 3: When You Have Lots of Unrelated Content

If you own a website with hundreds or thousands of disorganized webpages, you’re not going to achieve the “relevance” you need to rank. Remember: organizing content helps your site to be a relevant authority on a topic.

Unrelated content can come in different forms. You might have a website that talks about too many things at once. Or you have not honed in on your main theme. This is confusing to Google (and visitors). If you talk about everything all at once you appear to not be about anything.

Another form of unrelated content is having a bunch of webpages that aren’t connected in any meaningful way. In other words, no categories, no internal links, and no organization whatsoever.

In both instances, Google is not going to be able to easily make the connection itself on what your site is about. A search engine can only decipher meaning when the subjects are clear and distinct.

Situation 4: SEO Silo When You Have Way Too Many Links on Every Page

Google discovers new webpages by following links. And, search engines consider links within a website to be a strong signal of subject relevance.

So if Page A links not just to Page B (another relevant topic) but also to Page C, Page D, and all the way down to Page Z, you are seriously diluting PageRank and relevance. Siloing helps to focus your links so that you link only like topics together, and do it strategically.

Link to related pages, where appropriate, to allow users to discover similar content.

–Google, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide

Siloing helps to focus your links so that you link only like topics together, and do it strategically.

Random links between silos weaken the theme. No subpage within a silo should link to a subpage in another silo. The following diagram shows appropriate and inappropriate internal linking for a siloed website.

Situation 5: SEO Silo When Rankings Have Hit a Wall and You Need a Final Push

Oftentimes, restructuring your site is the missing link to push your rankings further up on the search results page.

So much of what makes a quality website is content and user experience (I call this post-click SEO). Organized content that provides the “whole” answer to visitors creates a good experience and elevates the website’s expertise.

This, in turn, keeps your visitors on your site longer. And, when a person doesn’t bounce back to the search results to find another answer, that is a signal to Google that the content is relevant.

And with Google’s RankBrain AI at work, this type of engagement could be a factor in how your site ranks in the future. In other words, if you get a lot of people bouncing back to the search results to look for another answer, Google will likely take note.

Learn more about RankBrain with The Real Impact of RankBrain on Web Traffic.

Closing Thoughts

SEO siloing is not all there is to ranking. But without it, the on-page relevancy battle is lost. Having an organized website is not only good for Google and your visitors but also good for your rankings, traffic, and business.

Fixing your website’s silo strategy is one of our specialties. For a free quote, please contact us today.

FAQ: How can I implement SEO siloing to enhance my website’s relevance?

Staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining and enhancing your website’s online presence. One powerful technique to achieve this is SEO siloing. This method involves structuring your website’s content to create a hierarchical and organized framework that not only improves user experience but also enhances your site’s relevance in search engine results.

Understanding SEO Siloing

SEO siloing is the process of categorizing your website’s content into distinct, tightly themed sections or silos. Each silo focuses on a specific topic or keyword phrase, creating a clear and logical hierarchy. By doing so, you help search engines understand the relevance of each section, making it easier for them to index and rank your pages accurately.

Step 1: Keyword Research

Begin by conducting thorough keyword research to identify the primary and secondary keywords related to your niche. These keywords will form the basis for your silos.

Step 2: Content Audit

Evaluate your existing content and determine which pieces can be grouped into relevant silos. Revise or create new content as needed to fill any gaps.

Step 3: Create Silo Structures

Organize your content into silos, with each silo centering around a primary keyword or theme. Ensure that the content within each silo is closely related and supports the main topic.

Step 4: Internal Linking

Establish a strong internal linking structure between pages within the same silo. This helps search engines navigate your site and understand the content hierarchy.

Step 5: Optimize On-Page Elements

Optimize on-page elements, including titles, meta descriptions, and headers, to align with the keywords of each silo.

Step 6: Monitor and Adjust

Track and adjust any necessary modifications on a regular basis. Keep your content fresh by updating and expanding it as required.

Implementing SEO siloing may take some time and effort, but the benefits are well worth your efforts. Search engines will become more relevant if your website features keyword-focused pages with an organized structure; furthermore, improving user experience and driving more organic traffic will all add up to an increase in relevance for search engines.

The post 5 Times When SEO Siloing Can Make or Break Your Search Engine Rankings appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• SEO keyword selection
• Organize keywords by category
• Understand head vs. long-tail keywords
• Combining keywords to expand your relevance
• Sort your keywords
• FAQ: How do I effectively choose and optimize keywords for SEO to improve my website’s search engine rankings?

SEO Keyword Selection

SEO Keywords: not all keywords are worth the SEO effort to gain rankings, especially if they are off-target for your content or seldom queried. Your SEO keywords selection process is where you now pick those keywords that are going to give the greatest traffic and where you have a proper balance of very specific multi-word keywords and shorter phases:

• Head Terms: generally very short keyword phrases such as “boots”, where there is significant query volume but also great competition.
• Long-tail Terms: Very specific multi-word phrases such as “waterproof knee-length rubber boots”, where there is less query volume and competition.

So far, in this guide, you’ve brainstormed a long list of potential keywords. These are topics you believe your website is (or will be) about, so those people will be satisfied if they search for them and click through to your site from the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Now what? During this step, you begin to choose the best keywords from your keyword research and turn that jumbled list into an organized set.

You’ll learn how to choose keywords and sort them based on perceived importance using one of our free SEO tools. Then, keeping clearly in mind the subjects (or products or services) your website is about, you’ll identify the best main and supporting keywords to establish SEO relevance for those subjects.

Organize Keywords by Category

Look at the big picture of what your website offers. Is your content a jumble of loosely related items?

Chances are, your site structure can be improved.

First, choose the best keywords that reflect the main content categories, and then use them to organize your site.

For example, this Bruce Clay Inc. website is about “search marketing,” but within that broad topic are categories for “SEO,” “PPC,” “Content” and so on (as shown in the top navigation).

Your content categories communicate what your website is about to both human and search engine visitors.

Your site’s current categories may or may not be the best way to organize your site content. A website related to dogs, for instance, could be organized by breed, size, fur type or something else.

Based on your site’s goals and content, do keyword research to see how people search. Also, look at your top-ranked competitors’ site structures to help you decide.

In your keyword spreadsheet (built previously or while following this SEO guide), start moving rows up and down to group keywords in topical categories. You can separate categories into different tabs, if that’s easier.

Then begin to sort the keywords in descending order of perceived importance (based on relevance to your site and how often they are searched).

One of our free SEO tools will help you with this in a moment. But first, read on — there are a few essential concepts you need to know.

Understand Head vs. Long-Tail Keywords

Your keyword list likely contains both short and long phrases, and that’s good! Here’s why:

Head Keywords

• Head terms are also called “broad” or “seed” terms.
• They are shorter, general terms that have higher search volume.
• Search engines may not clearly understand the searcher’s intent, and therefore provide a wide mix of different types of results.
• These broad keywords are hard to rank for and bring in traffic that usually doesn’t convert.
• Example: A car site should consider “Mustang” and even “Ford Mustang” head terms. These keywords get searched a lot, but the traffic they produce may be untargeted.

Long-Tail Keywords

• Long-tail keywords are more specific queries, usually three or more words.
• They’re often phrased as a question, especially coming from voice search.
• Long-tail keywords have lower search volume, but generally produce more targeted results.
• Search engines (and the searcher) know the searcher’s intent.
• Example: Requests like “repair parts for Ford Mustang in L.A.” or “Ford Mustang convertible for sale in Los Angeles” could bring in well-targeted traffic to that car site.

The difference between head and long-tail keywords is easy to understand looking at a graph. The number of searches for each head term is high (shown in blue) compared to each long-tail keyword (shown in green):

Combining Keywords to Expand Your Relevance

In the old days, a webpage that unscrupulously repeated a phrase over and over could actually fool the search engines and rank for that term.

Those days of keyword stuffing are long gone, particularly due to the advent of semantic search.

Google’s complete revamp of its algorithm known as Hummingbird (launched in 2013) set the standard. Bing and other engines have tried to follow suit.

Semantic Search’s Impact on Keywords

Semantic search aims to better understand both the searcher’s intent behind the query AND the context and full meaning of web-based content. These are the two sides of the search engine equation. And the goal is to provide searchers with accurate answers.

Keywords are still a foundation for content. But even more important in a semantic search world is having context to support those keywords.

For instance, that dog website won’t be able to rank for “search engine optimization” even if it creates a 2,000-word page all about it. The site as a whole doesn’t support that subject.

Ranking is about more than choosing the right keywords. With the exception of exact matches of unusual long-tail keyword queries, it’s also about which sites offer the most thorough, well-supported treatment of a subject.

Q: So how can you build “contextual meaning” to support your keywords?

A: Choose keywords and expand content around and about them.

On the page you want to rank for a query (and on other linked pages within the site, to some extent), try to answer all questions a person might have on the subject.

Search engines understand things as entities, not just as isolated strings of characters (“things not strings”). If you want to be considered an expert, your content must talk about many aspects of that entity.

How to Create a Semantic Keyword List

Writing naturally about your keyword subject generally leads to good variation in your keyword​ usage. But covering your semantic bases helps you rank for potentially high-conversion, long-tail keywords.

These activities will help you expand your keyword list and enhance your content. [Bookmark this page!]

• Conversational wording: Attach conversational or logical phrases to your keywords, which is how people often search. For research-based queries, try adding “how to …,” “how do I …” or “what is …” in front of the keyword. An ecommerce site needs to combine phrases like “… for sale,” “best price for …” or “discount …” with its product keywords.
• Reorder words: Consider putting keyword phrases in a different order. This page, for instance, could focus on “combining keywords for SEO” or “SEO keyword combining” equally well.
• Word stemming: Include multiple forms of the same root keyword, like “write, writer, writes, written, writing” (known as stemming). This will not usually raise a keyword-stuffing red flag with search engines as long as the text reads naturally (more about writing content later).
• Search suggestions: One of the best ways to find keyword combinations is to start typing your main keywords in a Google or Bing search box. As you type, a drop-down list appears of frequently searched terms with those characters. Use that to find even more keyword variations (if they appropriately describe your content).
• Related content: In general, the more in-depth you can be on a subject, the more a semantic search engine will consider you a subject matter expert. So include related facts and bits of information about a page’s keyword topic, as appropriate.

Sort Your Keywords

Sort the keywords and phrases within each main category in descending order of their perceived importance (i.e., how likely it is that they will be searched and generate traffic). Just go for a rough organization at this point.

One way to determine the importance of a keyword is to view its search volume. As we said in the previous SEO guide lesson on competitive analysis, search volume shouldn’t be the only reason to select a keyword. But comparing the relative search activity of different keywords does help you prioritize them.

To get a clearer picture of your keyword statistics, try our free Search Engine Optimization/KSP tool.

SEO Tools – Search Engine Optimization/KSP Tool

The search statistics provided by this tool are daily approximations of search engine data. In other words, they are daily averages derived from monthly averages. Use the numbers as proportionate amounts of traffic.

Now that you’ve spent some time choosing the best keywords, combining them, and organizing your keyword categories, you probably have a better idea of where your website content may be lacking.

The next few steps in our SEO Guide lead you through creating new content that uses your keywords appropriately. Find out what to consider before writing content.

Next Lesson

Need more SEO tips?
See more on Choosing Keywords

Related blog posts and articles:

• KSP Keyword Research Tool
• Back to Basics: What are Keywords, and Why Do They Matter?
• How to Do Keyword Research: A 6-Point Checklist
• Siloing – How to Theme a Website for Clear Subject Relevance

FAQ: How do I effectively choose and optimize keywords for SEO to improve my website’s search engine rankings?

When it comes to SEO, selecting the right keywords is paramount. A solid foundation begins with comprehensive keyword research. Start by brainstorming a list of relevant terms and phrases that align with your content. Leverage keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to gain valuable insights into the search volume and competition. Focus on long-tail keywords, which tend to have lower competition and higher conversion potential.

With your keywords in hand, strategic placement is the next step. Incorporate your primary keyword into your website’s URL, title, headings, and meta descriptions. However, avoid keyword stuffing – a practice that can harm your rankings. Instead, aim for natural and meaningful integration that enhances the user experience.

Optimizing your content goes beyond keywords. High-quality, engaging content that fulfills the user’s intent is essential. Google’s algorithms have evolved to prioritize user satisfaction, so crafting informative articles, blog posts, or product descriptions can significantly impact your rankings. Bullet points and subheadings make your content easy for readers to scan, improving user experience and SEO.

User-generated content is another valuable content resource. Customer reviews, comments, and discussions can organically incorporate keywords while building a sense of community around your brand. This authentic engagement enriches your content and signals search engines that your website is a credible and valuable resource.

Regularly updating your content with fresh information and relevant keywords can further boost your rankings. Stay current as trends and user interests evolve demonstrates your commitment to providing accurate and up-to-date information. Furthermore, keep an eye on your competitors. Analyze their keyword strategies and identify gaps you can capitalize on, allowing you to fine-tune your approach.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Effectively Choose and Optimize Keywords for SEO

1. Begin with comprehensive keyword research, brainstorming relevant terms and phrases.
2. Utilize keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.
3. Prioritize long-tail keywords for lower competition and higher conversion potential.
4. Select keywords that align with your content’s focus and your target audience’s intent.
5. Integrate your primary keyword naturally into your website’s URL, title, headings, and meta descriptions.
6. Avoid keyword stuffing; aim for meaningful and user-friendly placement.
7. Craft high-quality, engaging content that fulfills the user’s intent and provides value.
8. Use formatting techniques like bullet points, subheadings, and short paragraphs for better readability.
9. Incorporate user-generated content, such as customer reviews and discussions, to organically include keywords.
10. Regularly update your content with fresh and relevant information to demonstrate current expertise.
11. Monitor and analyze competitors’ keyword strategies to identify opportunities.
12. Fine-tune your keyword selection and optimization approach based on competitive analysis.
13. Focus on user experience and satisfaction, as Google’s algorithms prioritize these factors.
14. Keep up with industry trends and adjust your keyword strategy accordingly.
15. Maintain a balance between keyword optimization and content quality.
16. Build a sense of community around your brand through authentic engagement.
17. Seek continuous improvement by analyzing your website’s performance and adjusting keywords as needed.
18. Stay patient; SEO results take time to materialize, so consistent effort is key.
19. Experiment with different approaches and learn from the performance of various keywords.
20. Adapt your keyword strategy as search engine algorithms evolve and user behavior changes.

The post Choosing Keywords for SEO Relevance appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..