Tell Silotree what each post is about
Target keywords are a short list of what a post is about, in your words. Links to the post can go on them, and they count as its name, the way its title does. Add them in the editor, take your SEO plugin’s focus keywords, or pick from the searches the post already appears for.
Steps
Add keywords in the WordPress editor
In the block editor, open the Silotree sidebar: Target keywords is its first section. In the Classic Editor it is a section of the Silotree box. Type a keyword and press Add, or several at once with commas between them. A post takes up to 10.
Keep them to what the post is about, in the words a reader would use: “loft insulation”, “sourdough starter”, “coworking in Lisbon”. They are saved with the post when you press Update or Publish, and sent to Silotree once the post is published.
Or keep your SEO plugin’s focus keywords
If you use Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO, a post you have not given keywords to uses its focus keywords, marked From Yoast (or the plugin’s name). Remove one, or add your own, and the list becomes yours: the focus keywords are not read for that post again. Your SEO plugin’s settings are not changed.
Add searches the post already appears for
Once your site is connected to Search Console, the searches a post already appears for are listed under From Search Console, with how often it was shown for each in the last 28 days. Press one to add it. Add only the ones that describe the post: a search that found the post by chance makes a poor link.
Or edit them on the post’s page in Silotree
Open the post’s page in Silotree: find it under Structure → Posts, or press ⌘K / Ctrl K and type its title. The Target keywords panel near the top works the same way. A change made here is sent to WordPress when the plugin is connected, and the status line says where it was saved. Open link suggestions are re-checked within minutes; new ones come with the next scan.
Choose whether links go only on keywords
In Site settings → Automation, turn on Only suggest links on target keywords. Posts with target keywords then get links only on words that say one of them in full. Posts without any are matched as before. Leave it off unless your keywords are complete: it makes fewer suggestions.
What you should see
Suggestions to the post can sit on its keywords, and the wording note of a card on one says On its target keyword “…”. The suggestions in the editor sidebar use them too, marked On keyword.
If it doesn’t work
- A keyword is said, but no link is suggested on it
The link must still pass every other check: the words have to say the whole keyword, not part of it; words that nearly every post on your site uses (“digital nomads” on a travel blog) never carry a link alone; and a post takes only so many new links. Keywords widen where a link can go; they never loosen those rules.
- The editor shows a note instead of the keywords
Some custom post types do not store extra fields from the block editor. Add the keywords on the post’s page in Silotree instead.
- “WordPress could not be reached”
The keywords are saved in Silotree and used for suggestions; WordPress still has the old list. Press Try again, or see when the plugin cannot be reached.
Questions
Do target keywords cost anything?
No. They work in the free plugin and on every plan, including the suggestions the editor sidebar works out on your own server.
Will a keyword make Silotree link it everywhere?
No. A keyword only widens which words a suggested link may sit on, and you still approve each link. The words must say the whole keyword, and words that nearly every post on your site uses never carry a link alone.
How many keywords should a post have?
Two or three is usually right: the main subject and the ways readers say it. A post can have up to 10.
What happens to my Yoast or Rank Math focus keywords?
Silotree reads them for posts you have not given keywords to, and never changes them. Once you edit a post’s list in Silotree or the sidebar, that list is used instead.