How to Create SEO Friendly Website Architecture
18 likes4,344 views
The document discusses the importance of content silos for SEO and website usability, explaining how organizing related content helps both users and search engines understand a website's structure. It provides strategies for effective internal linking, avoiding duplicate content, and proper usage of categories and tags to enhance user experience. The text emphasizes creating balanced, relevant content that supports overall website authority and encourages the use of specific methods to maintain content integrity.
How to Create SEO Friendly Website Architecture
- 2. What Should You Focus On? Content Silos Content Depth Internal Linking Duplicate Content Categories and Tag Usage Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 3. Why Should You Care? Crawling and Indexing Search Engine Signals Usability for Humans Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 4. Content Silos Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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. Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing
- 7. 7 CONTENT SILOS ARE IMPORTANT TO BOTH SEO AND USABILITY Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 10. Break the Silo Down Further Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill 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. Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 14. It is easier for search engines to find and deliver relevant content when it is focused and organized around topics. Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 15. Yoga Studio More Sitemap Examples Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill 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/ Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 17. Content Depth Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 19. Dyno Mapper is my favorite tool for viewing content. Visualizing Your Content Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 20. Let’s dig into Dyno Mapper! Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 21. Internal Linking Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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.” Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 25. Alt Text in Links are Powerful Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 26. Duplicate Content Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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? Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 29. Categories & Tags Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 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 Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 32. Questions? Copyright 2017 Web Savvy Marketing @rebeccagill
- 33. @rebeccagill RebeccaGill.com The To the Top course is an eight hour online course for DIY SEO education. Course includes videos, how-to tutorials, template downloads, and quizzes. diySEOcourses.com Three day intensive SEO training workshop taking place in May of 2017. Learn my SEO process from start to finish in an interactive classroom setting. SEObootcamp.com Three days of SEO training in a virtual classroom. Taking place in April of 2017. Learn my SEO process from the comfort of your own home or office. ithemes.com/seo-summit/ seosummit