Visually Mapping Out Content Silos

ryandiscord

ryandiscord

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What is the best way to visually map out a content silo? I'm playing around in both google sheets and trello but I can't seem to come up with a good way to tie interconnected posts together. Anybody have any recommendations?
 
If you're looking for something a bit more visual, like a mind map, XMind might be a good choice.
 
You guys are the best! Just downloaded Xmind. Looks like Mindnode is apple only, too bad, I just ditched my mac as my main workstation. Mindmeister looks pretty sweet, very intuitive, could make do with a free account for now.

Draw.io could end up being useful too. Connecting to drive is a huge plus for me. I've got some playing around to do. Thanks!
 
I uploaded my Xmind template that I use for my silo structure mindmaps. It's nothing fancy, but it makes starting a new silo design a bit quicker. Most of my sites are built with WordPress. I use Categories as the main silo page.
  • I'll hack the theme to show the description only on the first page of the category, with page 2+ not displaying the description.
  • I set my posts to not display the full post, but to show the excerpt at about 100-200 words.
  • Set the WP options to display 10 blog posts per page.
  • I set the permalink structure to /%category%/%postname%/
  • I create a menu for each category to be displayed in the sidebar.
  • Enable a conditional logic plugin that will only display the menu sidebar widget that is related to the silo.
  • I will frequently use a Anchor page at the bottom of the silo to catch other bits and pieces that should go into the silo but aren't important enough to write an article about.
Click here to get the Xmind Mindmap Silo Structure Template
 
While Mindnode rules the pack, for mindmaps, grab FreeMind.
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Java based, so runs on any PC and a lot of mindmapping apps will export to freemind readable data.

Since I don't use a mac as a desktop, this is actually my main criteria when revieweing mind mapping apps - does it export to freemind?
 
Last edited:
In this order:
  • Small sites, simple structures: Pencil & paper
  • Medium sites, simple to moderately complex structure: Mind mapping software (P&P may still work also)
  • Large sites, complex structures: Graph / network visualization tool
It's real easy to waste a lot of time trying to create a perfect visual representation, to the point of it becoming a negative ROI effort. For most use cases, the main thing you need is a quick representation to wrap your mind around what you're trying to achieve, and/or what looks correct for your goals. Where more time is warranted, it's probably going to be in dealing with more complex sites, where there are a significant number of technical considerations that could lead to things like massive site duplication, orphaned pages, substantially inefficient link value flow, etc.

For the complex stuff, here's one option that's approachable and not too terrible to deal with, though you'll probably want to learn stuff like dealing with data in JSON format. Gephi

For sites that are crazy complex, try to work towards generation of a JSON source file (at least if using Gephi) with at least a relevant sample data set (a set of pages from every section of the site), so you can just import it, quickly map nodes, etc. and let the program do the work. Then just choose a visual that you feel best represents things (for example, OpenOrd, Force Atlas, etc.) and roll with that. Just to reiterate, it is much too easy to waste a lot of time on this, well past the point of positive return on your efforts.
 
Jeteye said:
I uploaded my Xmind template that I use for my silo structure mindmaps. It's nothing fancy, but it makes starting a new silo design a bit quicker. Most of my sites are built with WordPress. I use Categories as the main silo page.
  • I'll hack the theme to show the description only on the first page of the category, with page 2+ not displaying the description.
  • I set my posts to not display the full post, but to show the excerpt at about 100-200 words.
  • Set the WP options to display 10 blog posts per page.
  • I set the permalink structure to /%category%/%postname%/
  • I create a menu for each category to be displayed in the sidebar.
  • Enable a conditional logic plugin that will only display the menu sidebar widget that is related to the silo.
  • I will frequently use a Anchor page at the bottom of the silo to catch other bits and pieces that should go into the silo but aren't important enough to write an article about.
Click here to get the Xmind Mindmap Silo Structure Template
Click to expand...
This is very cool, thank you for all of this!

turbin3 said:
In this order:
  • Small sites, simple structures: Pencil & paper
  • Medium sites, simple to moderately complex structure: Mind mapping software (P&P may still work also)
  • Large sites, complex structures: Graph / network visualization tool
It's real easy to waste a lot of time trying to create a perfect visual representation, to the point of it becoming a negative ROI effort. For most use cases, the main thing you need is a quick representation to wrap your mind around what you're trying to achieve, and/or what looks correct for your goals. Where more time is warranted, it's probably going to be in dealing with more complex sites, where there are a significant number of technical considerations that could lead to things like massive site duplication, orphaned pages, substantially inefficient link value flow, etc.

For the complex stuff, here's one option that's approachable and not too terrible to deal with, though you'll probably want to learn stuff like dealing with data in JSON format. Gephi

For sites that are crazy complex, try to work towards generation of a JSON source file (at least if using Gephi) with at least a relevant sample data set (a set of pages from every section of the site), so you can just import it, quickly map nodes, etc. and let the program do the work. Then just choose a visual that you feel best represents things (for example, OpenOrd, Force Atlas, etc.) and roll with that. Just to reiterate, it is much too easy to waste a lot of time on this, well past the point of positive return on your efforts.
Click to expand...

I'm just beyond the pen and paper point solely for the reason of wanting to easily share it. Mind Meister seems to be the right tool for me, simple and intuitive. I am fascinated by Gephi, I wish I had a reason to explore that more. I wouldn't even know where to start interpreting a graph like that.

Have you used this? Based on the amount of automation and scraping techniques you've shared on here, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a big enough site to try it. :smile:
 
ryandiscord said:
Have you used this? Based on the amount of automation and scraping techniques you've shared on here, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a big enough site to try it. :smile:
Click to expand...

Yep. Used it to try and make sense of one site with hundreds of millions of pages and complex linking structures that were a mess. When it gets to that level, it's really easy to get "stuck in the weeds" and not be able to see the forest through the trees. A good picture, graph, or other visual can sometimes make quick work of understanding the nature of these things.
 
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