I guess I’m getting confused about the whole siloing/subfolder thing.

See if you can straighten me out here: If we were to create a Local Marketing subfolder, then add the targeted cities, we would have:
mydomain.com/local-marketing/boise.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing/chicago.html

These city pages would be our main landing pages.

Then, if we added our Local Marketing content pages specifically written for this silo, they would be:
mydomain.com/local-marketing/content-page-1.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing/content-page-2.html

So, we’re keeping everything within the same subfolder/silo.

As you suggested, this could be better structured as:
mydomain.com/chicago-local-marketing.html

And when we need a landing page for Boise, it would be structured:
mydomain.com/boise-local-marketing.html

OK, so here’s where I’m getting confused: Don’t we now have two different silos (chicago-local-marketing and boise-local-marketing)?

Meanwhile, our Local Marketing content pages would be in completely separate silos again:
mydomain.com/best-local-marketing.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing-advice.html

Sure, we can creatively interlink these pages, but have we now lost the benefit of siloing?

One other thing.

In the original, tightly siloed structure, the main subdirectory (mydomain.com/local-marketing) has the benefit of being nearest the root, but really contains nothing of merit, other than links to the main “city” landing pages deeper down.

While on the one hand, this structure provides a neat silo effect, it also pushes our main landing pages a level deeper.
I understand this is why you suggested structuring it instead as:
mydomain.com/chicago-local-marketing.html

So which is better? And am I even understanding siloing properly or have I completely spazzed out?

Thanks for your patience.

You are correct in the instance of the way you suggested with Illinois, Boise, Etc. Contextual links can lend themselves in this way to your landing pages from outside the silo.

So, in essence, you would rank for Chicago Local Marketing or Boise Local Marketing by using that format.

If you want, your main landing page or folder can be the name of the ideal key phrase /chicago-local-marketing/ and then create 5 themed related pages that can then link to the default page in that sub folder with the anchor text “Chicago local marketing”, etc.

The more pages you add over time increase your traction from the use of term frequency on the supporting pages. Eventually, they can be used to build a diverse array of anchor text to that will then pass those attributes back to your preferred landing page.

Here is a post I wrote recently that goes into more detail on the subject of link transference… Enjoy!

mydomain.com/illinois/chicago/local-marketing.html

You then suggest adding at least five pages of content relating to “Chicago marketing company.”
Presumably the content pages would look something like:
mydomain.com/illinois/chicago/content-page-1.html

OK, bear with me here: If you then wanted to also geo-target the “marketing company” keyword phrase for other cities in other states, would you add a further five pages of content for each city targeted? (Wouldn’t the content all start to sound pretty similar after a while, with the main difference being a change in city name?)

The reason I ask is I’m wondering if instead it would be better to silo the site as follows:

mydomain.com/local-marketing/illinois.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing/boise.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing/content-page-1.html
mydomain.com/local-marketing/content-page-2.html
etc.

Could you then use the five or so content pages to point at Illinois, Boise, etc., lending them all weight? Or do you really need the five separate pages per city to rank effectively?

No doubt I’m missing something here, but as I’m currently mapping out the architecture of a directory-style site, any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.