Myth: keep silos airtight — never link between topic clusters

Myth: keep silos airtight — never link between topic clusters

Strict siloing advice says cross-silo links "leak" authority and confuse topical focus. Taken literally, it produces worse sites and weaker entity graphs.

The kernel of truth: grouping related content and linking within clusters helps establish topical depth. The overreach is treating silos as sealed boxes. Search engines model your site as a graph of related entities; genuinely related concepts that live in different clusters benefit from a link when it serves the reader. Refusing an editorially natural cross-link to preserve a diagram is optimizing for the diagram.

— Link densely within clusters; allow sparse, genuinely relevant links across them
— Let real topical relationships, not a silo map, decide

Nuance: indiscriminate cross-linking does blur focus and dilute the hierarchy — so the instinct toward structure isn't wrong. The error is rigidity. "Mostly within, occasionally across when relevant" beats both extremes.

Method note: site-graph audits; Google guidance favoring links that help users.
Confidence: medium