Getting your website navigation right will help your visitors find what they are looking for and help the search engines understand your overall theme.

Structuring your site navigation and internal linking using particular methods from the first days of development are going to save you future hassles.  Not only will it save you troubles in the long run but it will help your website rank better in the search engines.  You entire website will just make more sense to the search spiders and also to your real human visitors.

Silo navigation and linking is a method many websites use to help their website make sense.  There are 2 ways to use silo navigation and linking.  One is through category specific directories within your website where each relevant page resides in a parent folder.  The other is to just link relevant pages to one another in a daisy chain fashion which does not require them to be in a sub-directory.

Understanding the silo navigation method.
A silo is a tall cylinder shaped object used to store things such as grain.  It is taller than it is wide.  Okay, so I’m describing something you might find on a farm.  What the heck does that have to do with my website?  Well, when it comes to your website it is not so much an object as it is a method that will organize your site content so that it works better for the greater goal.

When you begin your website think about the big picture.  Consider the overall theme.  Once you have the theme, break everything down further into categories.

Using silo navigation and linking for your website comes in very handy when creating content for your blog also.  You can use the different categories and topics to help generate ideas for writing.

Let’s use a tutoring service as an example.  Tutors will provide one on one instruction in several different subjects.   Subjects include: English, math, general homework, science, etc.   Further down the category silo could be Math lessons, worksheets, answers, geometry, and algebra.  English categories could include grammar, spelling, vocabulary, literature, etc.

A silo navigation and linking structure will look a like this:

Silo linking will connect related content and pages to one another under a main umbrella topic through the use of hyperlinks.

A good silo navigation and linking structure for your site keeps content very organized and makes total sense to your visitor.  They can easily find what they are looking for.  The search engines are able to understand the overall theme to your website as well when all pages and posts are organized in a silo structure.

Silo linking will help your site rank for the overall theme as well as industry specific terms that will generate traffic.

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