SEO Silo Structure Questions in General

[Markenfi]

Hello,

I am a newbie in SEO but I have read about the SILO Structure.
I am at the KW research level. I have read somewhere that it is recommended to launch a new site with a minimum 3 silo and 5 supporting articles per silo.
Let's say I found a good Keyword as my silo, should I research 2 more keywords to create extra 2 silos?
These 2 extra keywords do they have to be somewhat related?
Or is it fine to launch it with 1 silo and 5 articles?

How many monthly searches do you recommend for a silo keyword?
What is the minimum CPC do you recommend to make it worthwhile?

 

[Ryuzaki]

These are good questions. I want to answer them in a way that might not sound like answers to you. But my point is to show you that you'll need to expand your thinking a bit broader.

I have read somewhere that it is recommended to launch a new site with a minimum 3 silo and 5 supporting articles per silo.

The best way to launch a new site is to publish something/anything of okay quality, get your sitemap submitted in Google Search Console, and get it crawled and indexed.

You want to start aging in the index and for Google to start doing it's calculations to learn what your site is about. You want this happening sooner than later. All these other stipulations and "best practices" do nothing but overwhelm you and delay getting the site live.

I'll launch a site with the homepage and one article. You want at least one quality article so you're not feeding Google a bunch of empty category pages and privacy policies. But otherwise, no, it doesn't matter about silos and all of that at the very beginning.

Let's say I found a good Keyword as my silo, should I research 2 more keywords to create extra 2 silos?

What's your goal? To build a bigger and bigger site that Google doesn't know about, or to make money? What if I told you that it's best to launch a new site with 5 silos instead of 3. Are you really going to wait that much longer?

My advice would be to write your pillar article, press publish, and get it indexed by Google. Then write your supporting articles. Then write the next pillar. Then write the next supporting articles. Rinse and repeat forever. But get each one published when it's done and indexed. Don't wait. There's zero benefit in waiting.

These 2 extra keywords do they have to be somewhat related?

They should be in the same niche probably. Like a pillar for Dog Collars, a pillar for Dog Harnesses, and one for Dog Flea Collars. I wouldn't do "iPhone 7s User's Guide" and then turn around and publish "How to Make Playdough at Home."

It really boils down to how organized you are and want to stay in your own spreadsheets or whatever. I like to create a category on my site and fill it up, interlink it all, and really drive home the fact that I'm the authority in this category and have all the relevance. Then I'll open the next category. Otherwise I get overwhelmed and I don't want a bunch of nearly empty categories on the site with 1 or 2 posts, when I can have 1 category with 50 posts.

How many monthly searches do you recommend for a silo keyword?

This is a question that makes zero sense, even though it seems to make sense. It's just like the example, "How long is a string?"

A better question would be "How many monthly searches should I filter for my silo keywords if I know I have a new domain that can't compete with stronger domains and I'm aiming at a SERP with a review intent where my earnings per sale will be around $10 and an estimated conversion rate 7%?"

It's all about the details:

• What is the intent of the keyword?
• What is my conversion goal? (a social share? an affiliate sale?)
• How "hot" is the traffic based on the intent? Are they ready to convert?
• Based on my math, will this volume make me enough money to justify the development of this page?

And so forth. You have to know why the page exists, who it exists for, the value of the traffic, the intent of the traffic based on the SERP for the keyword, etc.

What is the minimum CPC do you recommend to make it worthwhile?

Worthwhile for what? (I'm being facetious here, but you get the point. You aren't providing any details about what your goals are).

I'm assuming you're talking about monetizing with Adsense ads, since you're bringing up a general CPC metric which tends to refer go Adwords prices. And in this case the bottom line question is "can I even rank for this keyword?"

Then it becomes a balance of CPC vs. Volume. I've ranked for stuff in retirement annuities with volumes of 50 a month. Let's say that ends up with me getting 1 visitor a day and 5% click through rate on Adsense ads. That means I can expect about 1 ad click a month from that page. Thank god the CPC is $40.

I can also turn around and rank for something like "best horror movies of 2020". I might get 30,000 visits a month from it, but the traffic is from all around the globe and worth 1¢ per click at a 1% click through rate. Congratulations to me for earning $3.00 on general, all-purpose, global, trash traffic. There's better ways to monetize this type of traffic.

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My ultimate point is that there's an entire world out there or intent, monetization, hotness of traffic, types of content layouts, etc. We don't know what your goals are. Do you know what they are? If so, you have to tell us when you ask the questions. If not and you're still trying to find your footing and the lay of the land, then great. That's why I answered the questions the way I did.

Glad to have you on the forum asking good questions!