Maximizing Site Architecture for SEO
Using Silos to Establish Content Hierarchy & User-Experience Improvements
Despite the rapidly changing
SEO landscape, there remain a
few “constant” optimization
practices that carry the potential
to move your site up the search
results pages and do so rapidly.
Few, however, are more influential than that
of website architecture.
Every enterprise must address the business
priorities and technical barriers or limitations
of its website in relation to creating
a successful search engine optimization campaign
(as defined by unique visitor increases
from competitive, high-converting search
terms). The best practice guidance put forward
by the search engines themselves almost
always addresses how well websites are actually
constructed and organized — making it noteworthy
to every SEO professional (and designer/developer).
A better (more strategic and refined) site architecture
has been proven time and again to create a
more meaningful, engaging experience for users as
they visit a digital property. And since users/visitors
are the digital bread and butter of our enterprises, it is
to those users we must turn to with optimized website
architectures. But where do we begin?
When webmasters and SEOs make it easy for
search engines to crawl their content, the rewards are
immense including greater depth/coverage and speed
of indexing of content and pages. In this edition of
Website Magazine’s Mastering Search column, let’s address
how to organize a website for maximum visibility
— and usability — for website visitors.
You’re likely well aware of the importance of a
proper title, URL structure, and H1 usage (if not,
make sure to check out Website Magazine’s Mastering
Search Channel online), but site architecture can often
limit the potential of SEO.
Defining SEO-Friendly Architecture
Website silo architecture is simply the process of implementing a site-wide structure whereby each topic is housed in its own relevant section. The internal linking that naturally occurs (a key best practice for on-site SEO) pushes link equity back up to the primary / topic page or the “silo landing page.”
Developing a Content Hierarchy
The most well-structured websites have their content
organized by either taxonomy or common, shared
characteristics (like a theme). This is best exemplified
in the sites of Internet retailers. Products are grouped
in a variety of ways based on the expectations of
users, which may mean by brand name, by style or by
category. It’s important not to stop there, however.
Content needs to be organized in a way that it melds
with the broader site purpose. The way to do this, of
course, is to separate the different types of products
in an ordered fashion using a theme and silo-structured
content hierarchy. This makes it easy for users
to find information they need, without thinking
about it. For example, a shoe retailer might group
products by season.
These themed websites essentially just place related
content into virtual “silos” of information where
they are closely associated with other information
within the silo. So how do you actually do that? Follow
the architecture basics of successful websites and
leverage the common, streamlined layout afforded by
the following silo-based classification and organization
system: Home > Category > Sub-Category > Topic > Content.
If the pages of your website feature this type of
navigation, you’re doing it right.
It’s actually much less complicated than you
might think. Consider that your website is built in
tiers or levels. The home or index page is a first tier
(and the starting point for all SEO), and the category
pages or “silos” contain keyword-specific landing
pages. The benefit of creating website architecture of
this type is that eventually, all the nested pages created
within that silo will pass value in the form of a
link back to the root category or silo page. For example,
if we were optimizing for the keyword “Category
1” then each nested page within that silo
should feature some variation of the keyword being
optimized on an individual page linking back to the
silo. Over time, SEOs can scale laterally with multiple
silo landing pages for competitive keywords
and markets.
Implementing silos on your website does not need
to be difficult. In fact, if you have performed the necessary
keyword research and considered the role CMS
plays in SEO-friendly architecture, you are probably
already on your way. Here are a few tips to help you further
define your silos:
• Group content by keywords, using the top-performing
keyword for the silo page.
• Link to the landing pages from the main navigation
section of your website. This may be in a
header navigation menu, part of a menu bar or (in
some cases) in the sidebar to your site.
• Be sure to cross link your information within the
same silo. This would include linking from common
navigation menus for that silo and cross linking
from within the main content section of each
page (as long as the links are contextually relevant
and would make sense to your readers).
Don’t Forget, User Experience Matters
It is not uncommon for search marketers to prioritize architecture modifications based on the potential ranking benefit over that of the user experience. The problem is that user experience has a bit of a bad reputation in SEO circles as it’s easy to get lost in the nuances of that undertaking, to the detriment of achieving high placement. In reality however, they remain one and the same. The objective really is to make it easy for users to move around your website quickly and easily. For this reason, it’s important to feature both global navigation elements as well as breadcrumb navigation, and as a rule, make sure that users can access every section of your website — from any page they are on — within two to three clicks.
A Practical Action Plan for SEO Architecture
The whole concept of optimizing the architecture of a website for the purpose of improving rank position is, in reality, quite arbitrary. When you design with the user in mind, you can trust that you’re also designing for the search engine. To develop an effective action plan for SEO architecture, we need only to turn to our analytics systems to determine the most popular pages. Very few websites receive most of their traffic to their homepage, but rather to individual pages that have been keyword-optimized and wellcited across the Web. Identifying these pages and ensuring these meet the guidelines for optimal user experience is the fastest path to optimizing the architecture of a website as these pages likely drive the majority of revenue
It’s Time for Purpose-Driven SEO
The reason that websites are wire-framed initially (at the outset or beginning) is not only for Web designers to know what to include on a page, but also to give digital workers of all specialties — from SEO professionals to usability mavens — the opportunity to think through and plan the user experience while meeting or exceeding the expectations of the enterprise. Purpose-driven SEO architecture is essentially just executing the knowledge you have about the business’s priorities and also the expectations of users. When you have a clear idea of what the goals are for each section of a website, you’re one step closer to making it happen.


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