If you are new to online business, you may think that throwing up a website in any manner and using a little keyword research will have you ranking highly on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Unfortunately, there are other factors involved, such as the structure of your website that play a huge role in how your website is indexed and understood by search engines. Because of this, if you do not have an organized website structure, you could be stepping on your own foot by confusing Google bots. If you make it easy for Google bots to understand what your website is about by having a clear well-defined structure and by using a keyword strategy, you can even take an old site from a low ranking position to a high ranking position in Google.
What is website structure?
The structure of your website is determined by how you link pages together and by your navigation scheme. For example, many websites have a homepage and from that page, you can access many categories related to the primary theme of the homepage. In the past the structure of a well-organized website may have resembled something like a pyramid, with the block representing the homepage. However, for easy user navigation and indexing, this is no longer the case.
What is Siloing?
Siloing is a method of website structure design that calls for having a main-overarching theme, which is represented by the homepage. Several pages, which represent subcategories of that theme are then created. In each of these subcategory pages are links to additional content only related to this very specific subject matter.
For example, you may have a website about tea. On your homepage, you would only want to rank for the keyword ‘tea’, perhaps. On this page, you would provide access to the next tier of information, which might be something like ‘green tea’, ‘chai tea’ and ‘white tea’. For each subsequent category (green, chai and white tea), you would then have supporting pages such as ‘organic green tea’, ‘matcha’, ‘loose leaf green tea’, etc.
The resulting structure of your website ends up looking like pillars or silos, rather than a full on pyramid. This type of structure allows you to more strategically rank for keywords because you are being more specific, while not providing any content in a haphazard fashion, which can confuse a Google bot when it is indexing your website.
Keywords and Siloing
Additionally, many SEO experts recommend developing a keyword strategy before you create a site so that you can create a highly ranking site quickly, with content in mind beforehand. However, if you already have a site, you can work backwards by developing a keyword strategy that allows you to implement siloing into your website structure.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, you will rank higher in SERPs because Google bots will be able to index and understand your site more easily. This will automatically generate more sales and the new, clean structure will result in higher conversions, meaning you achieve more sales.
If you would like to hear more about keyword siloing and what it can do for your business contact us today. We are SEO experts and can help you rank higher in Google.
