5 Tips on How to Implement a Silo Strategy to Boost Your SERP Ranking
When we use the word “silos”, we either think of grain silos where harvested grains are stored or the phrase “working in silos” which has the negative connection of working in a disconnected manner from other colleagues. In this digital age, we can now think of “content silos” where you can “store” content on your website that will boost your search engine results page (SERP) ranking.
How to Implement a Silo Strategy
Having a Silo Strategy for content marketing refers making a concerted effort to boost your search engine optimization (SEO) by creating content based on your target SERP. It may sound complicated but what it does is focus your efforts in order to improve your SEO.
Here are 5 tips on how to implement a Silo Strategy:
- Concentrate on your target SERP
Your first step is figure out the target SERP for your website and concentrate on that keyword. For example, perhaps your goal is to break into the top 10 for the keyword “windshield replacement”. Your content creation should be focused on this specific keyword and build around it in order to help boost your SERP ranking and establish your business as an authority and expert in this subject.Of course, there may be other keywords that apply to your business. However, a Silo Strategy depends on focusing on just one targeted keyword at a time. It is best to narrow it down to one targeted keyword and work on improving the SERP for that keyword. - Create content based on your target SERP
Once you’ve decided on your target SERP comes the hard work: creating content. Start writing articles that focus on “windshield replacement” as the target keyword – articles that inform visitors about the importance of windshield safety, the process of windshield replacement, How-Tos on how car owners can preserve the safety features of their windshields, etc.It’s important to balance content with the targeted keyword(s). Google is able to detect articles that are over-stuffed with keywords just for SEO ranking so avoid the urge to stuff your keywords in there! A good rule of thumb is to include the keyword in the first paragraph, and then about once every 70 words or so. - The best length for your articles is 600 words
While there is no consensus on the best length for your articles, we recommend a length of at least 600 words so that search engines do not penalize you for “thin content”.There are divided opinions on whether longer articles are better than short ones. So, our best advice is to produce articles that are informative and bring value to vistors rather than focusing solely on word count.Another thing you can consider is including images in your articles. Generally speaking, adding photos or graphics will liven up the look of your articles and we have found that shorter articles with images tend to rank better than longer articles without any images. - Have at least 10 articles based on your target SERP
In order to build your content silo, we recommend having at least 10 articles on your target SERP. Of course, the more articles the better! We have found that 10 articles is the minimum baseline to ensure that your silo strategy will yield results.10 articles can equate to a lot of writing so if it’s not your forte, you should get someone else to do the work for you. There are many good freelance writers out there who can get the job done at the reasonable cost. - Stand out from the crowd by adding video content
One way to go the extra mile is to add video content in your articles. Perhaps in explaining the process for windshield replacement, you can include a short video (30 seconds or so) on the work being done during the replacement process. Upload the video to YouTube, optimize the video title and tags, and then embed the video within the article.Not only will the video break up the text of the article, it also brings more value and information to the visitor which is always a plus.
How a Silo Strategy can boost your SERP ranking
Employing a Silo Strategy helps to establish your business as an authority on the subject by having many individual pages concentrated on your target SERP. The concentration of original content based on one keyword attracts search engines which fulfills search requests based on efficiency and relevancy.
A Silo Strategy doesn’t only attract search engines, it also attracts customers. Having a large number of articles on one subject on your website will build credibility and trust between you and your customer. Your content silo, with easy-to-read and informative articles, acts as its own sales pitch to potential customers without you having to include overt Call-To-Action on every page. Just by the act of opening a conversation with your website visitors via your articles can help build relationships and connections that will ultimately lead to sales.
Evaluating the effectiveness of your Silo Strategy
Once you’ve implemented your Silo Strategy, it is important to evaluate its effectiveness and make any adjustments if necessary. One way to do so is to monitor your Google Analytics, in particular your “bounce rate” (the number of times visitors come to your website and quickly leave).
If your bounce rate is low (below 50%), you can be assured that your content silo is working well! It means that a visitor to your website takes the time to dig into your content and finds it informative and valuable.
If you find your bounce rate increasing, you can consider reworking some of your content to make it more unique or of use to visitors, or you can even consider adding more content.
The best part about a Silo Strategy: you can build more than one content silo! Once you’ve built a content silo for “windshield replacement” with over 10 separate articles on the subject, you can develop another content silo on a related subject in your business such as “windshield repair”. Apply the same approach to building this new silo, and let it attract another group of consumers to your website.
