In this presentation we tackle SEO tactics for creating a search engine friendly website architecture. In particular, we cover content silos, content depth, internal links, duplicate content, as well as category and tag usage. Watch the video recording at: https://youtu.be/iToaUM9FzMk

2. What Should You Focus On?
Content Silos
Content Depth
Internal Linking
Duplicate Content
Categories and Tag Usage
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3. Why Should You Care?
Crawling and Indexing
Search Engine Signals
Usability for Humans
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4. Content Silos
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5. A content silo (or SEO silo)
is a method of grouping
related content together to
organize content and to
establish the website’s
keyword-based themes.
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6. Think back to your last visit
to a library – you know
before Kindles and iPads
existed.
How did the library staff
help you find books of
interest?
They grouped content into
sections such as fiction or
nonfiction.
Well, guess? That is a
content silo, but the old
school kind
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7. 7
CONTENT SILOS
ARE IMPORTANT
TO BOTH
SEO AND USABILITY
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8. Barnes and Noble
groups content
into subject
matter areas so
you can easily find
what you are
looking for when
you visit their
website or
physical store.
An Example of a Content Silo
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9. 9
SUBJECT
MATTER
AREAS
FOR
BOOKS
Architecture & Photography
Bibles & Christianity
Biography
Business
Cookbooks
Food & Wine
Fiction
Graphic Novels & Comics
Diet
Health & Fitness
History
Mystery & Crime
Religion
Romance
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Self-Help & Relationships
Sports
Thrillers
Westerns
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10. Break the Silo Down Further
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Art
Design
History
Technique
Business
Accoun4ng
• Audi4ng
• Bookkeeping
• Taxa4on
Human
Resources
Marke4ng &
Sales
Small Business
Fic4on
Thrillers
War & Military
Women’s Fic4on
History
African
Asian
European
Russian
Sports
Basketball
Golf
Hockey
barnesandnoble.com/b/books/accounting/auditing/

11. While most people would
assume the company does
this for ease of use for their
buyers, they also do this for
search engines.
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12. Search engines want to know
what your website is about,
how it is structured, and
where content is located.
Content silos help with this
effort by providing a set of
structure to content that
mimics that of old-school
index cards at the library.
Organization Matters
Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
Content silos help search engines because just like the human visitor, search
engines need to have a good understanding of your website’s content.

13. Content silos help provide relevance.
Keyword relevancy (or the level of importance) is based on the
page’s content as well as the relevance of the entire website.
If I want to rank for the term SEO, it would be much easier for me
if I had a section of content in my website about SEO related
topics and not just one page.
Having topical content helps support the website’s overall
authority and thus an individual page’s rank.
Relevance Matters
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14. It is easier for search engines
to find and deliver relevant
content when it is focused
and organized around topics.
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15. Yoga Studio
More Sitemap Examples
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Travel Blog

16. 16
EXAMPLES
OF
CONTENT
SILO
URL
STRUCTURES
Examples of the Yoga website:
yogabliss.com/studios/new-york/
yogabliss.com/studios/chicago/
yogabliss.com/studios/dallas/
yogabliss.com/studios/orlando/
yogabliss.com/classes/yoga-rx/
yogabliss.com/classes/pilates/
yogabliss.com/classes/vinyasa/
yogabliss.com/classes/hot-yoga/
Examples of the Vegas blog:
vegasbaby.com/hotels/mgm-grand/
vegasbaby.com/hotels/bellagio/
vegasbaby.com/hotels/wynn/
vegasbaby.com/hotels/venetian/
vegasbaby.com/hotels/luxor/
vegasbaby.com/shows/cirque-de-soleil/
vegasbaby.com/shows/david-copperfield/
vegasbaby.com/shows/elton-john/
vegasbaby.com/shows/blue-man-group/
vegasbaby.com/shows/carrot-top/
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17. Content Depth
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18. ¡ Create silos and layers that will support your SEO efforts and create
a positive experience for the human visitor. One means nothing
without the other.
¡ Create balance in your site so one section doesn’t overshadow
another section. You don’t want one section taking up 75% of your
site.
¡ Keep your layers limited, and if possible, no more than three clicks
from the home page. This is for both usability and for crawling by
search engines.
¡ Shorter URLs are preferred for crawling and real world usage, so
watch the length of your content silos and don’t over do it.
Content Depth Matters
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19. Dyno Mapper is my favorite tool for viewing content.
Visualizing Your Content
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20. Let’s dig into Dyno Mapper!
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21. Internal Linking
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22. Internal links are links that go from one page on a
domain to a different page on the same domain.
¡ They are one of the most underused SEO tools.
¡ They allow users to navigate a website and find important
information.
¡ They help establish information hierarchy for the given website.
¡ They help spread ranking power within the website or blog, thus
they add in boosting the ranking of the destination content.
¡ They help search engines discover and index content.
¡ The alt text within links help search engines better understand
content.
Internal Links are Powerful
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23. Here is Google’s statement on internal links and their
display within the reports of Google Search Console:
“The number of internal links pointing to a page is a signal
to search engines about the relative importance of that
page.
If an important page does not appear in this list, or if a less
important page has a relatively large number of internal
links, you should consider reviewing your internal link
structure.”
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24. ¡ Link your home page to your most valuable content.
¡ Have a structured process for linking to your cornerstone content
often.
¡ Use descriptive alt text when linking.
¡ Make sure your alt text clearly describes the destination URL.
¡ Remember your keywords of the destination URL and use them
within the alt text where possible.
¡ Avoid read more, click here, and other generic phrases.
¡ Interlink related content – Yoast’s premium plugin helps with this
now and is very useful for these efforts.
Internal Linking Tips
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25. Alt Text in Links are Powerful
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26. Duplicate Content
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27. ¡ eCommerce filters
¡ Session IDs
¡ Pay per click specific pages
¡ Comment pagination
¡ Printer friendly pages
¡ www vs. non-www
¡ Scraped content
¡ Distributed product descriptions in eCommerce
¡ Content syndication
How Does Duplicate Content Happen?
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28. ¡ Write unique content and don’t just copy in your manufacturer’s
description
¡ Stop reposting your content to multiple sites
¡ Rel="canonical”
¡ 301 redirect duplicate content to the real content
¡ Set PPC pages to noindex, nofollow
¡ Ditch the printer friendly pages and use a print style sheet instead
¡ Check Google Search Console for meta issues or use Dyno Mapper
to export your entire site to Excel so you can sort by title
How to Fix Duplicate Content
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29. Categories & Tags
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30. ¡ Each blog post should have one category (maybe two) and multiple
tags where applicable.
¡ Categories and tags should be used to help visitors find like
content.
¡ Categories and tags should only be used when you will have multiple
articles that fall within a phrase.
¡ Categories and tags should not compete with pages. Don’t use the
same phrases for a page and category or tag.
¡ Don’t throw in fifty tags on one post. This rarely provides value to
the user and instead simply creates clutter, thin pages, and duplicate
content.
Category & Tag Tips
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31. ¡ Category pages can rank for search so select them with care!
¡ Take time to complete meta titles and descriptions for categories
and tags. This helps them rank.
¡ Avoid using categories in your post URLs. This creates a lot of issues
should you switch the main category.
¡ If you remove categories or tags remember to use 301 redirects!
¡ Whenever you consider adding a new category or tag, stop and ask
yourself if this will be hopeful to your human visitor. If the answer is
no, don’t do it.
Category & Tag Tips
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32. Questions?
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33. @rebeccagill
RebeccaGill.com
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