Hello,
Thank you for contacting us.
You can think of the silo structure as a tree structure. Since in a tree structure, a leaf can only be a subset of a single branch, it cannot be attached to multiple branches.
In a silo structure, you can have generic categories that go into more detailed ones each level you go down and it doesn’t relate to other branches.
Here’s an image that explains this: https://i.rankmath.com/LR0yAk
However, in any case, you shouldn’t use the same keyword on multiple pages. If you use the same focus keyword on more than one post, that means you’re trying to rank more than one post for the same keywords. The SERPs are rarely easy enough to break into with 2 posts, and it is unlikely that both your posts will reach the top 10 spots.
Another problem with optimizing 2 posts for the same keywords is content uniqueness. If you’re writing about the same topic, it would be tough to make the content pieces unique and as we know, search engines crave unique content.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Hi Prabhat
Thanks for getting back.
I thought the aim was to create 1 authority (pillar) post as the main page you are trying to rank, then create a bunch of drill-down/accompanying posts with the same keyword that push relevancy for that keyword to the authority page? Not for trying to rank all pages for the same keyword, but to increase the relevant onpage links to the authority page for a specific keyword?
The way you’re suggesting means that we can only have 1 page per keyword.
For example, I might have an authority page about Indian cooking. I can create a huge authority post about this but of course you can’t cover every single detail of that topic in a single post. So then I might create pages like North Indian cooking, South Indian cooking etc – but I would still use the keyword ‘Indian cooking’ on those pages because maybe nobody is searching for North Indian cooking.
Do you understand my confusion here?
The way you are suggesting means that we can only have as many pages as we find keywords. If there’s only 10 suitable keywords we can only have 10 pages, which is a bit limiting no? Especially with the 3-click rule.
Any clarification about that would be great, I don’t want to structure my site incorrectly. Many thanks 🙂
Hi Prabhat
I’ve done more research and maybe I can make the question a bit clearer 🙂
What I need to know is – if I create the big pillar/guide page as the authority page for the main keyword (e.g. Indian Cooking), then start to create cluster pages / sub pages for that topic – is there any point in optimizing those cluster pages if the aim is only to put links on those pages back to the pillar page that is optimized?
I just don’t see the purpose of optimizing a page for a keyword that yes might be relevant to the pillar page somehow, but maybe nobody is searching for that topic so what is the point of optimizing that cluster/sub page at all?
Hello,
Thank you for your patience as we respond do your questions on pillar content and keywords.
I’ll rephrase the explanation of pillar content. Think of a pillar post as the definitive guide or article on a topic while the subpages contain content on subtopics that refer to the authority page and are referred to by the authority page. The pillar page has the focus keyword set to the general topic you want gain authority for while the subpages have their focus keywords set to the subtopics which you want to use to contribute authority to the pillar page.
Please note that while you should avoid setting the pillar content keyword in subpages you can still use it there. In some cases you may even use the pillar content keyword almost as often as the keyword you’ve set for the page. The main issue is that you are using a focus keyword to hold yourself accountable to the content you need to writing for a specific page by tracking how often you use the keyword.
While using keywords depends on metrics it’s also an art as you have to also balance making the content relevant and readable.
Hope that clarifies things.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
