Building a content silo that ranks comes down to covering, differentiating, and connecting your content. This helps search engines understand how your pages relate to each other and which topics each page is most relevant to.
But many businesses don’t build their content this way. Pages go up one at a time, each targeting a different keyword, with little connection between them. The result is a collection of individual pages rather than a connected content structure.
The team at SEOSandwich has helped businesses avoid this problem by organising related content into clear site structures. We put together this guide so you can do the same. You’ll learn how to build a content silo, restructure an existing site, and measure whether it’s improving your content’s search performance.
Let’s define a content silo first.
What a Content Silo Actually Is
A content silo structure groups pages around one core topic, with supporting pages connected through internal links. It’s different from a topic cluster, even though the two are often confused. A cluster can connect related content across a broader network, while a traditional silo uses more defined topical boundaries.
That means pages within a silo primarily link to related pages instead of linking freely to unrelated sections of the site.
Plan Your Silo Before You Write Anything
One of the most common mistakes we see is writing content without a plan. A business might cover the same subject from several angles without deciding how those pages should fit together. Over time, that can leave the site with a collection of loosely related content.
That’s why it’s worth mapping your silo before writing. Start with one core subject your audience genuinely cares about, then identify the specific questions and subtopics people search for within it.
Say the topic is workplace safety. The questions underneath it might include:
- What are an employer’s legal obligations for workplace safety?
- How do you conduct a workplace risk assessment?
- What should you do after a workplace injury?
- What are the workplace safety training requirements by industry?
These questions give you the starting point for the silo: the pillar covers workplace safety broadly, while each genuinely distinct area can become a supporting page. You’ve now mapped the basic structure before writing a word.
Pro Tip: Don’t lock in a subtopic just because it feels relevant; check that people are actually searching for it. Start your keyword research with a seed keyword related to the core subject to confirm there’s real demand.
Structure Your URLs and Content Hierarchy
Once you know your pillar and subtopics, the next step is giving them a clear structure on your site. The table below shows how the main elements fit together.
| Element | How It Fits |
| Pillar page | Covers the core topic broadly, sits at the top of the silo |
| Cluster page | Covers one specific subtopic in depth, links back to the pillar |
| URL pattern | /workplace-safety/ for the pillar, /workplace-safety/risk-assessment/ for supporting pages |
| Navigation | Pillar page links out to every cluster page it supports |
This kind of site structure doesn’t require a complicated rebuild. Even a flat URL structure can work, as long as your internal links consistently reinforce the relationship between related pages.
Internal Linking Rules That Make a Silo Work
Your silo isn’t complete until the pages are connected. As you build those internal links, keep these four rules in mind.
- Link to the Pillar: Use descriptive anchor text that tells readers what they’ll find when they click. “Workplace safety guide,” for example, gives more context than vague phrases like “read more” or “click here.”
- Connect the Pillar to Supporting Pages: The pillar page should link to every supporting page it covers. This gives readers a clear path from the broad overview into specific detail, and keeps them moving through the site instead of leaving.
- Link Only When It Helps: Link to another resource when it gives readers a genuine next step. Someone reading about risk assessments might want to learn about injury procedures next, so linking to that page makes sense. When the connection doesn’t add anything for the reader, leave the link out.
- Add Links Before Publishing: A new article with no internal links is harder for Google to discover and understand, regardless of content quality. Before hitting publish, link to it from the pillar and at least one relevant supporting page.
Follow these four rules consistently, and your internal links will give readers and search engines a clearer path through the silo.
Fixing an Existing Site With No Content Silo Structure
Most businesses don’t build their sites with a silo in mind. If your site has years of blog posts scattered across different subject areas, you don’t need to start over. You can usually restructure what you already have before creating anything new.
Start with an audit of your existing content. Your URL export should group pages by topic, which makes related content easier to spot. From there, look for clusters of related content, then identify which piece could serve as the pillar and which ones already work as supporting content.
You’ll usually find that the strongest pillar candidate is the resource that covers the topic most comprehensively. If it’s thin or outdated, improve it before treating it as the foundation for the rest of the silo.
Once your pillar and supporting content are grouped, check whether the internal links reflect those relationships. Older posts may link to unrelated pages instead of content within the topic they actually belong to. Updating those internal links can strengthen the silo without requiring you to publish anything new.
Finally, look for genuine gaps. If people search for a subtopic that none of your existing content covers, create a new supporting page for it. You don’t need to fill every gap at once. Build out the silo as new content becomes worthwhile.
How to Tell If Your Silo Is Working
You can check how your silo is performing through Google Search Console. Sign in, then open the Performance report and filter by the pillar’s URL. From there, you’ll see impressions, clicks, and average position over time.
But don’t expect immediate changes. Search engines need time to crawl the updated content, discover new internal links, and reassess how those resources relate to each other. So give it at least a few weeks before drawing conclusions.
Once you’ve checked the pillar, filter the same report for each supporting URL. A working silo should improve visibility across related content, with the pillar targeting the broader topic and supporting pages targeting specific queries. If several related URLs gain visibility, it will suggest the silo is strengthening the topic as a whole.
Get Your Content Strategy Right From the Ground Up
A content silo isn’t a one-time project. As you publish more supporting pages and connect them with relevant internal links, your site can build greater depth around its core topics. The aim is a structure where each page has a clear purpose. Each one supports the broader topic and gives readers a useful path to the next piece of information.
If mapping out that structure feels like a lot to take on alongside everything else on your plate, SEO Sandwich can help. We can plan the silo, organise existing content and build the internal linking structure around it. Get in touch to find out where your site could use the most work.
