We’ve heard from website owners that they are struggling to rank their websites. One of the thing’s that tends to be missing is a strong URL and Link Flow Structure, so we thought it would be a good idea to look at a system that Raybird Designs uses every day; Silo Structuring. We’ve covered the Basic Silo Outline & Types Of Silos, so don’t forget to take a look at that.
While it sounds simple, planning out your website silo structure can take quite a bit of planning and thought, especially if you’re offering multiple services or products.
Today we’re going to look at some of the ways we separate content to match the main silo structure, while also remaining on-topic and user friendly.
So Where Do I Start?
The best place to start is to understand your products & services, and how they relate to key topics or information.
By looking at your vast (or small) range of offers, you can get an idea of how to present them and keep them relevant (yet separate) across your site. Let’s look at a grocery store.
Think of your products and services as items in the store. How do you organise the aisle (or a silo)? It generally makes sense to put similar products or items in the same aisle, but we don’t stop there. Each product (a subtopic) has its own distinct place on the shelf. This helps customers find the type of item they want, as well as the specific brand they want to use, rather than making them run around the store looking for the same item.
So why do people think it’s ok for websites to force their users to do this?
Well, it’s not, but so many business owners fall into the trap of simply throwing content at their users, thinking that more is better; “the more they know about us, the more likely they are to buy” they say to themselves. The only problem is, people aren’t reading about you because you’ve overloaded them, so they are leaving to find what they’re after, not what you want them to read.
Let’s break the content organisation down into 2 topics: single product websites and multi product websites.
Single Product Websites
Single product websites work especially well for niche items and small distributors, rather than larger retailers or service-based business sites. It’s pretty simple then, to understand what your key topic is; Your Product.
Using your product and its benefits on the home page are the main way to sell, and the best way to Silo your website is to pick 3-4 main features or key selling points of your product, and focus on these (these would all be top-level menu items).
As an example, if you’re bringing a new type of bicycle to the market, you might be selling on the custom-built disc breaks, clean design and reinforced frame. These would be your top-level silos. Branching off from each of these will be your subtopics which explain why the disc breaks are so much better, or where the design inspiration comes from, and what the process of creating the frame involves. All of these eventually delve deeper into the main topic, without crossing over into adjacent topics (there’s no real need to talk about how the frames alloy is lighter compared to others while you’re discussing the breaks).
Multi Product Websites
Businesses that sell a range of items to customers can have a more difficult time creating an effective silo structure. Working out the main themes that distinguish your products can be difficult, especially if they are similar to each other.
The best way to go about organising your silos in this case is to focus on who the overall service/product is provided to, and how it accomplishes its goal.
Let’s look at 2 law firms:
- Firm A is a specialist Family Law firm that only deals with clients who are looking to have their Wills created, Power Of Attorney appointed and children’s matters looked after.
- Firm B is a general firm, doing similar work to Firm A, but also a range of other things under the family law banner, and working with clients in the business sector and conveyancing, providing a range of services to each type of client.
To provide a strong silo structure for Firm A, our main topics would be:
- Wills
- Power Of Attorney
- Children’s Matters
While Firm B would have something closer to:
- Family Law
- Business Law
- Conveyancing
This shows how 2 similar businesses can have 2 very different focuses and top-level topics. Under each of these topics will be a range of sub topics (with Firm B offering Wills, PoA and Children’s Matters as sub-topics of their Family Law Silo) that relate to the top of the silo, while providing more in-depth information about it.
The start of the Silo Journey can be difficult, so good planning and an understanding of your product themes is going to make a big difference to the final website design and layout.
Want to make sure you get the most out of your SEO work? Let us help you restructure your website and implement a strong Silo Structure to get your business in front of as many people as possible!
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