3 mins read

No more silo thinking

When consultants are engaging in more than one activity, it is important that they absorb lessons from everything they are up to. ‘Silo thinking’ can mean that they fail to perceive that what works well in one sector of activity might be relevant to success in another. Of course, specific techniques cannot be taken from one activity sphere to another without careful thought. Indeed, in many cases particular techniques have to be adjusted. Nor should it be forgotten that what works effectively for one site might have little success when implemented on behalf of another.

At Click Consult we are experts at pay per click management. This enables us to launch campaigns which get off to very good starts. We also engage in conventional search engine optimisation. We realise that it is best practice to take lessons learned from the latter and use them to further enhance our pay per click management.

Pay per click management is inherently complex so it is best for site owners to leave all the detailed work to specialists with the necessary experience to prosper. Nonetheless, having an elementary understanding of some of the basic principles and processes can be beneficial to site owners. This is because it can help them appreciate the value of the approach. Moreover, it can assist them to make informed choices.

When it comes to learning from conventional search engine optimisation, there is more scope than some might believe. For example, keywords are of great value in both processes. If a keyword is doing the business in conventional search engine optimisation, it may be a good candidate for paid search. Conventional search engine optimisation proceeds by organic techniques, but a keyword that works well in organic content may be productive in a different environment. In some cases, it is not appropriate to use a successful keyword in a paid search context and a skilled consultant will have the capacity to identify when this is evident.

A further lesson from conventional search engine optimisation might be considered to be common sense. A keyword should not be paid for if it is not going to prove its relevance in practice. When providing organic content, the use of keywords is only a good idea if they are incorporated naturally into the text. If they stick out as irrelevant then neither users nor search engines will be content. The fact that irrelevant keywords perform badly in paid search as well should therefore come as a shock to nobody.

A final point which is applicable to both paid search and conventional search engine optimisation is that landing pages have to be of a high quality. If a landing page is deficient, then strenuous efforts at paid search will have suboptimal results. The lesson from conventional search engine optimisation is clear enough. Landing page content should be kept at a high grade. In addition, presentation matters.

Silo thinking is rarely a positive thing in any sphere of business. Arguably, it develops because people focus on something to the extent that they ignore valuable information outside their specialist activity. Teamwork and vision can stop it from undermining performance.