What is included in the semantic core. A simple example of compiling a semantic core

Many web publications and publications talk about the importance of the semantic core.

Similar texts are available on our website “What to Do.” At the same time, only the general theoretical part of the issue is often mentioned, while the practice remains unclear.

All experienced webmasters insist that it is necessary to create a basis for promotion, but only a few clearly explain how to use it in practice. To remove the veil of secrecy from this issue, we decided to highlight the practical side of using the semantic core.

Why do you need a semantic core?

This is, first of all, the basis and plan for further filling and promoting the site. The semantic basis, divided according to the structure of the web resource, are pointers on the way to the systematic and targeted development of the site.

If you have such a foundation, you don't have to think about the topic of each next article, you just need to follow the bullet points. With the core, website promotion moves much faster. And promotion gains clarity and transparency.

How to use the semantic core in practice

To begin with, it is worth understanding how the semantic basis is generally compiled. Essentially, this is a list of key phrases for your future project, supplemented by the frequency of each request.

Collecting such information is not difficult using the Yandex Wordstat service:

http://wordstat.yandex.ru/

or any other special service or program. The procedure will be as follows...

How to create a semantic core in practice

1. Collect in a single file (Exel, Notepad, Word) all queries on your key topic, taken from statistical data. This should also include phrases “out of your head”, that is, logically acceptable phrases, morphological variants (as you yourself would search for your topic) and even variants with typos!

2. The list of semantic queries is sorted by frequency. From queries with maximum frequency to queries with minimum popularity.

3. All junk queries that do not correspond to the theme or focus of your site are removed and cleared from the semantic basis. For example, if you tell people for free about washing machines, but you don’t sell them, you don’t need to use words like:

• "buy"
• "wholesale"
• "delivery"
• "order"
• "cheap"
• “video” (if there are no videos on the site)…

Meaning: do not mislead users! Otherwise, your site will receive a huge number of failures, which will affect its rankings. And this is important!

4. When the main list is cleared of unnecessary phrases and queries and includes a sufficient number of items, you can use the semantic core in practice.

IMPORTANT: a semantic list can never be considered completely ready and complete. In any topic, you will have to update and supplement the core with new phrases and queries, periodically monitoring innovations and changes.

IMPORTANT: the number of articles on the future site will depend on the number of items in the list. Consequently, this will affect the volume of required content, the working time of the author of the articles, and the duration of filling the resource.

Imposing a semantic core on the site structure

In order for the entire list received to make sense, you need to distribute requests (depending on frequency) across the site structure. It is difficult to give specific numbers here, since the scale and frequency difference can be quite significant for different projects.

If, for example, you take a query with a millionth frequency as a basis, even a phrase with 10,000 queries will seem mediocre.

On the other hand, when your main request is 10,000 frequency, the average frequency will be about 5,000 requests per month. Those. a certain relativity is taken into account:

“HF – CP – LF” or “Maximum – Middle – Minimum”

But in any case (even visually) you need to divide the entire core into 3 categories:

1. high-frequency queries (HF - short phrases with maximum frequency);
2. low-frequency requests (LF - rarely requested phrases and word combinations with low frequency);
3. mid-frequency queries (MF) - all average queries that are in the middle of your list.

The next step is to support 1 or more (maximum 3) requests for the main page. These phrases should be as high frequency. High frequencies are placed on the main page!

Next, from the general logic of the semantic core, it is worth highlighting several main key phrases from which sections (categories) of the site will be created. Here you could also use high-frequency queries with a lower frequency than the main one, or better - mid-frequency queries.

Low-frequency remaining phrases are sorted into categories (under created sections and categories) and turned into topics for future publications on the site. But it's easier to understand with an example.

EXAMPLE

A clear example of using the semantic core in practice:

1. Home page(HF) – high-frequency request – “site promotion”.

2. Section pages (SP) – “custom website promotion”, “ independent promotion", "site promotion with articles", "site promotion with links". Or simply (if adapted for the menu):

Section No. 1 - “to order”
Section No. 2 – “on your own”
Section No. 3 – “article promotion”
Section No. 4 – “link promotion”

All this is very similar to the data structure on your computer: logical drive (main) - folders (partitions) - files (articles).

3. Pages of articles and publications (AP) - “quick site promotion for free”, “cheap promotion to order”, “how to promote a site with articles”, “promotion of a project on the Internet to order”, “inexpensive site promotion with links”, etc. .

In this list you will have the largest number of various phrases and phrases, according to which you will have to create further publications on the site.

How to use a ready-made semantic core in practice

Using a query list is internal content optimization. The secret is to optimize (adjust) each page of a web resource to the corresponding core item. That is, in fact, you take a key phrase and write the most relevant article and page for it. A special service will help you assess the relevance, available at the following link:

In order to have at least some guidelines in your SEO work, it is better to first check the relevance of sites from the TOP search results for specific queries.

For example, if you are writing text on the low-frequency phrase “inexpensive website promotion with links,” then first simply enter it in the search and evaluate the TOP 5 sites in the search results using the relevance assessment service.

If the service showed that sites from the TOP 5 for the query “inexpensive website promotion with links” have a relevance of 18% to 30%, then you need to focus on the same percentages. Even better is to create a unique text with keywords and relevance of about 35-50%. By slightly beating your competitors at this stage, you will lay a good foundation for further advancement.

IMPORTANT: using the semantic core in practice implies that one phrase corresponds to one unique resource page. The maximum here is 2 requests per article.

The more fully the semantic core is revealed, the more informative your project will be. But if you are not ready for long work and thousands of new articles, there is no need to take on broad thematic niches. Even a narrow specialized area, developed 100%, will bring more traffic than an unfinished large website.

For example, you could take as the basis of the site not the high-frequency key “site promotion” (where there is enormous competition), but a phrase with a lower frequency and narrower specialization - “article site promotion” or “link promotion”, but reveal this topic to the maximum in all articles on the virtual platform! The effect will be higher.

Useful information for the future

Further use of your semantic core in practice will consist only of:

• adjust and update the list;
• write optimized texts with high relevance and uniqueness;
• publish articles on the website (1 request – 1 article);
• increase the usefulness of the material (edit ready-made texts);
• improve the quality of articles and the site as a whole, monitor competitors;
• mark in the kernel list those queries that have already been used;
• complement optimization with other internal and external factors (links, usability, design, usefulness, videos, online help tools).

Note: The above is a very simplified version of the events. In fact, based on the kernel, sublevels, deep nesting structures, and branches into forums, blogs, and chats can be created. But the principle will always be the same.

GIFT: a useful tool for collecting the core in the Mozilla FireFox browser -

The semantic core of a site is a complete set of keywords corresponding to the topic of the web resource, by which users can find it in a search engine.

More videos on our channel - learn internet marketing with SEMANTICA

For example, the fairy-tale character Baba Yaga will have the following semantic core: Baba Yaga, Baba Yaga fairy tales, Baba Yaga Russian fairy tales, woman with a stupa fairy tales, woman with a mortar and a broom, evil woman sorceress, baba hut chicken legs, etc.

Why does a website need a semantic core?

Before you start promoting, you need to find all the keys by which target visitors can search for it. Based on the semantics, a structure is drawn up, keys are distributed, meta tags, document titles, descriptions for images are written, and an anchor list is developed for working with the reference mass.

When creating semantics, you need to solve the main problem: determining what information should be published to attract a potential client.

Compiling a list of keywords solves another important problem: for each search phrase, you determine a relevant page that can fully answer the user’s question.

This problem can be solved in two ways:

• You create a site structure based on the semantic core.
• You distribute the selected terms according to the ready-made resource structure.

Types of key queries (KQ) by number of views

• LF – low frequency. Up to 100 impressions per month.
• MF – mid-frequency. From 101 to 1,000 impressions.
• HF – high frequency. More than 1000 impressions.

According to statistics, 60-80% of all phrases and words belong to LF. Working with them when promoting is cheaper and easier. Therefore, you must create the most voluminous core of phrases, which will be constantly supplemented with new low frequencies. Treble and midrange should also not be ignored, but place the main emphasis on expanding the list of low-frequency drivers.

Types of short circuits by search type

• Informational ones are needed when searching for information. “How to fry potatoes” or “how many stars are in the sky.”
• Transactional ones are used to perform an action. “Order a down scarf”, “download Vysotsky’s songs”
• Navigational ones are used to search for something related to a specific company or site. “MVideo bread maker” or “Svyaznoy smartphones”.
• Others - an extended list that makes it impossible to understand the final purpose of the search. For example, the request “Napoleon cake” - perhaps a person is looking for a recipe for making it, or perhaps he wants to buy a cake.

How to create semantics

It is necessary to highlight the main terms of your business and user needs. For example, laundry customers are interested in washing and cleaning.

Next, you should define the tails and specification (more than 2 words per query) that users add to the head terms. This will increase your reach of the target audience and reduce the frequency of terms (washing blankets, washing jackets, etc.).

Collecting the semantic core manually

Yandex Wordstat

• Select the region of the web resource.
• Enter a passphrase. The service will give you the number of queries with this keyword over the last month and a list of “related” terms that interested visitors. Keep in mind that if you enter, for example, “buy windows,” you will get results based on the exact occurrence of the keyword. If you enter this key without quotes, you will get general results, and queries like “buy windows in Voronezh” and “buy a plastic window” will also be reflected in this figure. To narrow and clarify the indicator, you can use the “!” operator, which is placed before each word: !buy!windows. You will receive a number showing the exact output for each word. You will get a list like: buy plastic windows, buy and order windows, and the words “buy” and “windows” will be displayed unchanged. To obtain an absolute indicator for the “buy windows” request, the following scheme should be used: enter “!buy!windows” in quotes. You will receive the most accurate data.
• Collect the words from the left column and analyze each of them. Create initial semantics. Pay attention to the right column, which contains keywords that users entered before or after searching for words in the left column. You will find many more useful phrases.
• Go to the “Request History” tab. On the graph you can analyze seasonality and the popularity of phrases in each month. Working with Yandex search suggestions gives good results. Each short term is entered into the search field, and the semantics are expanded based on pop-up tips.

Google short circuit scheduler

• Enter the main RF request.
• Select "Get Options."
• Select the most relevant options.
• Repeat this action with each selected phrase.

Studying competitor sites

Use this method as an additional one to determine the correct choice of a particular short circuit. The tools BuzzSumo, Searchmetrics, SEMRush, Advse will help you with this.

Programs for compiling a semantic core

Let's look at some of the most popular services.

• Key Collector. If you are composing very voluminous semantics, then you cannot do without this tool. The program selects semantics by accessing Yandex Wordstat, collects search suggestions from this search engine, filters keywords with stop words, very low frequency, duplicates, determines the seasonality of phrases, studies the statistics of counters and social networks, selects relevant pages for each request.
• SlovoEB. Free service from Key Collector. The tool selects keywords, groups and analyzes them.
• Allsubmitter. Helps you select KZ, shows competing sites.
• KeySO. Analyzes the visibility of a web resource, its competitors and helps in compiling the CN.

What to consider when choosing keywords

• Frequency indicators.
• Most of the short circuit should be LF, the rest - MF and HF.
• Pages relevant to search queries.
• Competitors in the TOP.
• Competitiveness phrase.
• Predicted number of transitions.
• Seasonality and geodependence.
• Short circuit with errors.
• Associative keys.

Correct semantic core

First of all, you need to define the concepts of “keywords”, “keys”, “key or search queries” - these are words or phrases with which potential clients of your site search for the necessary information.

Make the following lists: categories of goods or services (hereinafter referred to as TU), names of TU, ​​their brands, commercial terms (“buy”, “order”, etc.), synonyms, transliteration in Latin (or Russian, respectively), professional jargon (“keyboard” – “clave”, etc.), specifications, words with possible typos and errors (“Orenburg” instead of “Orenburg”, etc.), references to the area (city, streets, etc.).

When working with lists, focus on the terms of reference from the promotion contract, the structure of the web resource, information, price lists, competing sites, and previous SEO experience.

Start selecting semantics by mixing the phrases selected in the previous step, using the manual method or using services.

Generate a list of stop words and remove inappropriate keywords.

Group CVs into relevant pages. For each key, the most relevant page is selected or created new document. It is advisable to carry out this work manually. For large projects, paid services such as Rush Analytics are available.

Go from larger to smaller. First, distribute the RF across the pages. Then do the same with the midrange. LFs can be added to pages with HF and LF distributed over them, and you can also select individual pages for them.
After analyzing the first results of the work, we can see that:

• the promoted site is not visible for all declared keywords;
• according to the contract, documents are not issued that you thought were relevant;
• the incorrect structure of the web resource interferes;
• For some KZ, several web pages are relevant;
• There are not enough relevant pages.

When grouping KZ, work with all possible sections on the web resource, fill out each page useful information, do not create duplicate text.

Common mistakes when working with short circuits

• Only obvious semantics were selected, without word forms, synonyms, etc.;
• the optimizer distributed too many shortcuts onto one page;
• The same short codes are distributed on different pages.

At the same time, ranking deteriorates, the site may be punished for overspam, and if the web resource has an incorrect structure, then it will be very difficult to promote it.

It doesn't matter how you choose the semantics. With the right approach, you will receive the correct FL necessary for successful website promotion.

Organic search is the most effective source of attraction targeted traffic. To use it, you need to make the site interesting and visible to users of the Yandex and Google search engines. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here: it is enough to determine what the audience of your project is interested in and how they search for information. This problem is solved when constructing a semantic core.

Semantic core- a set of words and phrases that reflect the theme and structure of the site. Semantics- a branch of linguistics that studies the semantic content of language units. Therefore, the terms “semantic core” and “semantic core” are identical. Remember this remark, it will prevent you from slipping into keyword stuffing or cramming content with keywords.

By creating a semantic core, you answer the global question: what information can be found on the site. Since customer focus is considered one of the main principles of business and marketing, the creation of a semantic core can be looked at from a different perspective. You need to determine which search queries users are looking for information to be published on the site.

Constructing a semantic core solves another problem. We are talking about the distribution of search phrases across resource pages. By working with the core, you determine which page most accurately answers a specific search query or group of queries.

There are two approaches to solving this problem.

• The first assumes creating a website structure based on the results of analyzing user search queries. In this case, the semantic core determines the framework and architecture of the resource.
• The second approach involves preliminary planning of the resource structure before analyzing search queries. In this case, the semantic core is distributed over the finished frame.

Both approaches work one way or another. But it is more logical to first plan the structure of the site, and then determine the queries by which users can find this or that page. In this case, you remain proactive: you choose what you want to tell potential clients. If you tailor the resource structure to the keys, then you remain an object and react to the environment, rather than actively changing it.

Here it is necessary to clearly emphasize the difference between the “SEO” and marketing approaches to building the core. Here is the logic of a typical old-school SEO: to create a website, you need to find keywords and select phrases that will easily get you to the top of the search results. After this, you need to create the site structure and distribute the keys among the pages. Page content needs to be optimized for key phrases.

Here is the logic of a businessman or marketer: you need to decide what information to broadcast to the audience using the site. To do this, you need to know your industry and business well. First you need to plan the approximate structure of the site and a preliminary list of pages. After this, when building a semantic core, you need to find out how the audience searches for information. With the help of content, you need to answer the questions that the audience asks.

What negative consequences does using the “SEO” approach lead to in practice? Due to development according to the principle of “dancing from the stove”, the information value of the resource decreases. Businesses must set trends and choose what to tell customers. Businesses should not limit themselves to reactions to the statistics of search phrases and create pages just for the sake of optimizing the site for some key.

The planned result of constructing a semantic core is a list of key queries distributed across the pages of the site. It contains page URLs, search queries and an indication of their frequency.

How to build a website structure

The site structure is a hierarchical layout of pages. With its help, you solve several problems: plan information policy and logic for presenting information, ensure the usability of the resource, and ensure that the site meets the requirements of search engines.

To build a structure, use a tool convenient for you: table editors, Word or other software. You can also draw the structure on a piece of paper.

When planning your hierarchy, answer two questions:

1. What information do you want to communicate to users?
2. Where should this or that information block be published?

Imagine that you are planning the website structure of a small confectionery shop. The resource includes information pages, a publications section, and a showcase or product catalog. Visually the structure might look like this:

To further work with the semantic core, format the site structure in the form of a table. In it, indicate the names of the pages and indicate their subordination. Also include columns in the table for page URLs, keywords, and their frequency. The table might look like this:

You'll fill in the URL, Keys, and Frequency columns later. Now move on to searching for keywords.

What you need to know about keywords

To select a semantic core, you must understand what are keywords And what keywords does the audience use?. With this knowledge, you will be able to correctly use one of the keyword research tools.

What keywords does the audience use?

Keys are words or phrases that potential customers use to find the information they need. For example, to make a cake, the user enters search bar request “Napoleon recipe with photo”.

Keywords are classified according to several criteria. By popularity, high-, medium- and low-frequency queries are distinguished. According to various sources, search phrases are grouped as follows:

• TO low frequency Requests with a frequency of impressions of up to 100 per month are included. Some specialists include requests with a frequency of up to 1000 impressions in the group.
• TO mid-frequency Requests with a frequency of up to 1000 impressions are included. Sometimes experts increase the threshold to 5,000 impressions.
• TO high frequency queries include phrases with a frequency of 1000 impressions or more. Some authors consider keys with 5,000 or even 10,000 queries to be high-frequency.

The difference in frequency estimates is due to the different popularity of topics. If you are creating a core for an online store that sells laptops, the phrase “buy a Samsung laptop” with a display frequency of about 6 thousand per month will be mid-frequency. If you are creating the core for a sports club website, the query “aikido section” with a search frequency of about 1000 queries will be high-frequency.

What do you need to know about frequency when compiling a semantic core? According to various sources, from two-thirds to four-fifths of all user requests are low-frequency. Therefore, you need to build the broadest possible semantic core. In practice, it should be constantly expanded to include low-frequency phrases.

Does this mean that high- and mid-frequency queries can be ignored? No, you can't do without them. But consider low-frequency keywords as the main resource for attracting target visitors.

According to user needs, keys are combined into the following groups:

• Information. The audience uses them to find some information. Examples of information requests: “how to properly store baked goods”, “how to separate the yolk from the white”.
• Transactional. Users enter them when they plan to take an action. This group includes the keys “buy a bread machine”, “download a recipe book”, “order pizza for delivery”.
• Other requests. We are talking about key phrases that are difficult to determine the user’s intent. For example, when a person uses the key "cake", he may be planning to buy a culinary product or prepare it himself. In addition, the user may be interested in information about cakes: definition, characteristics, classification, etc.

Some experts classify navigation queries as a separate group. With their help, the audience searches for information on specific sites. Here are some examples: “connected laptops”, “city express track delivery”, “register on LinkedIn”. Navigation queries that are not specific to your business can be ignored when compiling the semantic core.

How to use this method of classification when building a semantic core? First, you must consider the needs of your audience when distributing keywords across pages and creating a content plan. Everything is obvious here: publications of information sections must respond to information requests. This should also contain most of the key phrases without any expressed intent. Transactional questions should be answered by pages from the “Store” or “Showcase” sections.

Secondly, remember that many transactional issues are commercial. To attract natural traffic for the request “buy samsung smartphone", you will have to compete with Euroset, Eldorado and other business heavyweights. You can avoid unequal competition using the recommendations given above. Maximize the kernel and reduce the request frequency. For example, the frequency of the request “buy a smartphone Samsung Galaxy s6” is an order of magnitude lower than the frequency of the key “Buy a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.”

What you need to know about the anatomy of search queries

Search phrases consist of several parts: body, specifier And tail. This can be seen with an example.

What about the query “cake”? It cannot be used to determine the user's intent. It is high-frequency, which determines high competition in the search results. Using this request for promotion will bring a large share of untargeted traffic, which negatively affects behavioral metrics. The high-frequency and non-specific nature of the request “cake” is determined by its anatomy: it consists only of the body.

Pay attention to the request “buy a cake”. It consists of a body "cake" and a specifier "buy". The latter determines the user's intent. It is the specifiers that indicate whether the key is transactional or informational. Look at the examples:

• Buy a cake.
• Cake recipes.
• How to serve the cake.

Sometimes specifiers can express exactly the opposite of the user's intentions. A simple example: users are planning to buy or sell a car.

Now look at the request “buy cake with delivery.” It consists of a body, a specifier and a tail. The latter does not change, but details the user's intention or information need. Look at the examples:

• Buy cake online.
• Buy a cake in Tula with delivery.
• Buy homemade cake in Orel.

In each case, the person’s intention to purchase the cake is clear. And the tail of the key phrase details this need.

Knowledge of the anatomy of search phrases allows you to derive a conditional formula for selecting keys for the semantic core. You must define core terms related to your business, product, and user needs. For example, customers of a confectionery company are interested in cakes, pastries, cookies, pastries, cupcakes and other confectionery products.

After that, you need to find the tails and qualifiers that the project's audience uses with the base terms. With tail phrases, you simultaneously increase your reach and reduce core competition.

Long tail or long tail is a term that defines a strategy for promoting a resource for low-frequency key queries. It consists of using the maximum number of keys with a low level of competition. Promotion through low frequencies ensures high efficiency of marketing campaigns. This is due to the following factors:

• Promotion using low-frequency keywords requires less effort compared to promotion using high-frequency competitive queries.
• Working with long-tail queries is guaranteed to bring results, although marketers cannot always accurately predict which keywords will generate traffic. When working with high-frequency queries decent marketers cannot guarantee results.
• Low-frequency drivers provide higher specificity of results to user needs.

For large sites, the semantic core can contain tens of thousands of queries, and it is almost impossible to select and correctly group them manually.

Services for compiling a semantic core

There are quite a lot of tools for selecting keywords. You can build the core using paid or free services and programs. Choose a specific tool depending on the tasks you face.

Key Collector

You cannot do without this tool if you are engaged in Internet marketing professionally, develop several sites, or form the core of a large site. Here is a list of the main tasks that the program solves:

• Selection of keywords. Key Collector collects requests through Yandex's Wordstat.
• Parsing search suggestions.
• Cutting off inappropriate search phrases using stop words.
• Filtering requests by frequency.
• Finding implicit duplicate queries.
• Determination of seasonal requests.
• Collecting statistics from third party services and platforms: Liveinternet.ru, Metrica, Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Direct, Vkontakte and others.
• Search for pages relevant to the query.
• Clustering of search queries.

Key Collector- a multifunctional tool that automates the operations necessary to build a semantic core. The program is paid. You can do everything Key Collector can do with alternative free tools. But for this you will have to use several services and programs.

SlovoEB

This is a free tool from the creators of Key Collector. The program collects keywords through Wordstat, determines the frequency of queries, and parses search suggestions.

To use the program, enter the login and password for your Direct account in the settings. Do not use your main account, as Yandex may block it for automatic requests.

Create a new project. On the Data tab, select the Add Phrases option. Indicate the search phrases that the project's audience is likely to use to find information about products.

In the “Collect keywords and statistics” menu section, select the desired option and run the program. For example, determine the frequency of key phrases.

The tool allows you to select keywords, as well as automatically perform some tasks related to analyzing and grouping queries.

Keyword selection service Yandex Wordstat

To see which phrases the page is shown for in Yandex results, in the Yandex.Webmaster panel you need to open the “Search Queries” tab -> "Latest requests".

We see phrases that were clicked on or the site snippet was shown in the TOP 50 of Yandex over the last 7 days.

To view data only for the page that interests us, we need to use filters.

The possibilities for searching for additional phrases in Yandex.Webmaster are not limited to this.

Go to the “Search Queries” tab -> "Recommended queries."

There may not be many phrases here, but you can find additional phrases for which the promoted page does not fall into the TOP 50.

Query history

The big disadvantage of visibility analysis in Yandex.Webmaster, of course, is that the data is only available for the last 7 days. To get around this limitation a little, you can try to supplement the list using the “Search Queries” tab -> "Request History".

Here you will need to select “Popular Searches”.

You will receive a list of the most popular phrases for the last 3 months.

To get phrases from Google Search Console, go to the “Search Traffic” tab -> "Analysis of search queries." Next, select “Impressions”, “CTR”, “Clicks”. This will allow you to see more information that can be useful when analyzing phrases.

By default, the tab displays data for 28 days, but you can expand the range to 90 days. You can also select the desired country.

As a result, we get a list of requests similar to that shown in the screenshot.

New version of Search Console

Google has already made some tools available new version panels. To view requests for a page, go to the “Status” tab - > "Efficiency".

In the new version, the filters are located differently, but the filtering logic remains the same. I think there is no point in dwelling on this issue. One of the significant differences is the ability to analyze data over a longer period, and not just 90 days. A significant advantage when compared with Yandex.Webmaster (only 7 days).

Competitive website analysis services

Competitors' websites are a great source of keyword ideas. If you are interested in a specific page, you can manually determine the search phrases for which it is optimized. To find the main keywords, it is usually enough to read the material or check the contents of the keywords meta tag in the page code. You can also use semantic text analysis services, for example, Istio or Advego.

If you need to analyze the entire site, use comprehensive competitive analysis services:

You can use other tools to collect keywords. Here are some examples: Google Trends, WordTracker, WordStream, Ubersuggest, Topvisor. But don’t rush to master all the services and programs at once. If you are creating a semantic core for your own small website, use a free tool, for example, the Yandex keyword selection service or Google planner.

How to choose keywords for the semantic core

The process of selecting key phrases is combined into several stages:

1. First, you will identify the basic keywords with which the audience searches for your product or business.
2. The second stage is devoted to expanding the semantic core.
3. In the third step, you will remove inappropriate search phrases.

Defining base keys

List common search phrases related to your business and products in a spreadsheet or write down on paper. Gather your colleagues and brainstorm. Record all proposed ideas without discussion.

Your list will look something like this:

Most of the keys you've written down are high in frequency and low in specificity. To get mid- and low-frequency search phrases with high specificity, you need to expand the core as much as possible.

Expanding the semantic core

You will solve this problem using keyword research tools such as Wordstat. If your business has a regional link, select the appropriate region in the settings.

Using the key phrase selection service, you need to analyze all the keys recorded at the previous stage.

Copy the phrases from the left column of Wordstat and paste them into the table. Pay attention to the right column of Wordstat. In it, Yandex offers phrases that people used along with the main request. Depending on the content, you can immediately select the appropriate keywords from the right column or copy the entire list. In the second case, unsuitable requests will be eliminated at the next stage.

And the result of this stage of work will be a list of search phrases for each basic key that you received through brainstorming. The lists may contain hundreds or thousands of queries.

Removing inappropriate search phrases

This is the most labor-intensive stage of working with the kernel. You need to manually remove inappropriate search phrases from the kernel.

Do not use frequency, competition or other purely “SEO” metrics as a criterion for evaluating keys. Do you know why old-school SEOs consider certain search phrases to be trash? For example, take the key “diet cake”. The Wordstat service predicts 3 impressions per month for it in the Cherepovets region.

To promote pages for specific keywords, old-school SEOs bought or rented links. By the way, some experts still use this approach. It is clear that search phrases with low frequency in most cases do not recoup the funds spent on buying links.

Now look at the phrase “diet cakes” through the eyes of an ordinary marketer. Some representatives of the confectionery company's target audience are really interested in such products. Therefore, the key can and should be included in the semantic core. If the confectionery prepares the corresponding products, the phrase will be useful in the product descriptions section. If for some reason the company does not work with diet cakes, the key can be used as a content idea for the information section.

What phrases can be safely excluded from the list? Here are examples:

• Keys mentioning competing brands.
• Keys mentioning goods or services that you do not sell and do not plan to sell.
• Keys that include the words “inexpensive”, “cheap”, “at a discount”. If you are not dumping, cut off cheap lovers so as not to spoil behavioral metrics.
• Duplicate keys. For example, of the three keys “custom cakes for a birthday”, “custom cakes for a birthday” and “custom cakes for a birthday”, it is enough to leave the first one.
• Keys that mention inappropriate regions or addresses. For example, if you serve residents of the Northern district of Cherepovets, the key “custom cakes industrial district” does not suit you.
• Phrases entered with errors or typos. Search engines understand that the user is looking for croissants, even if he enters the key “croissants” into the search bar.

After removing inappropriate phrases, you received a list of queries for the base key “custom cakes”. The same lists need to be compiled for other basic keys obtained during the brainstorming stage. After that, move on to grouping key phrases.

How to group keywords and build a relevance map

Search phrases with which users find or will find your site are combined into semantic clusters, this process is called search query clustering. These are closely related groups of queries. For example, the semantic cluster “Cake” includes all key phrases associated with this word: cake recipes, order a cake, photos of cakes, wedding cake, etc.

Semantic cluster- this is a group of queries united in meaning. It is a multi-level structure. Inside the first-order cluster “Cake” there are second-order clusters “Cake Recipes”, “Ordering Cakes”, “Photos of Cakes”. Within the second-order cluster “Cake Recipes”, it is theoretically possible to distinguish a third order of clustering: “Recipes for cakes with mastic”, “Recipes for sponge cakes”, “Recipes for shortbread cakes”. The number of levels in a cluster depends on the breadth of the topic. In practice, in most topics, it is enough to identify business-specific second-order clusters within first-order clusters.

Theoretically, a semantic cluster can have many levels.
In practice, you will have to work with clusters of the first and second levels

You identified most of the first level clusters during brainstorming when you wrote down basic key phrases. To do this, it is enough to understand your own business, as well as look at the site diagram that you drew up before starting work on the semantic core.

It is very important to correctly perform clustering at the second level. Here, search phrases are modified using qualifiers to indicate user intent. A simple example is the “cake recipes” and “custom cakes” clusters. The first search phrases are used by people who need information. The keys of the second cluster are used by clients who want to buy a cake.

You identified the search phrases for the “custom cakes” cluster using Wordstat and manual screening. They must be distributed between the pages of the “Cakes” section.

For example, in the cluster there are search queries “custom football cakes” and “custom football cakes”.

If the company’s assortment includes a corresponding product, you need to create a corresponding page in the “Mastic Cakes” section. Add it to the site structure: indicate the name, URL and search phrases with frequency.

Use Keyword Research or similar tools to see what other search terms potential customers are using to find football-themed cakes. Add relevant pages to your list of keywords.

In the list of cluster search phrases, mark the distributed keys in a way convenient for you. Distribute the remaining search phrases.

If necessary, change the site structure: create new sections and categories. For example, the page “custom cakes for PAW Patrol” should be included in the “Children’s Cakes” section. At the same time, it can be included in the “Mastic Cakes” section.

Please note two things. First, the cluster may not have suitable phrases for the page you are planning to create. This can happen for various reasons. For example, these include imperfection of tools for collecting search phrases or their incorrect use, as well as low popularity of the product.

The absence of a suitable key in the cluster is not a reason to refuse to create a page and sell a product. For example, imagine that a confectionery company sells children's cakes featuring characters from the cartoon Peppa Pig. If the list does not include the relevant keywords, clarify the needs of your audience using Wordstat or another service. In most cases, suitable requests will be found.

Secondly, even after removing unnecessary keys, search phrases may remain in the cluster that are not suitable for the created and planned pages. They can be ignored or used in another cluster. For example, if for some reason a confectionery shop fundamentally does not sell Napoleon cake, the corresponding key phrases can be used in the “Recipes” section.

Clustering search queries

Search queries can be grouped manually, using Excel programs or Google spreadsheets, or automated using special applications and services.

Clustering allows you to understand how requests can be distributed across website pages for the fastest and most effective promotion.

Automatic clustering or grouping of search queries of the semantic core is carried out based on the analysis of sites included in the TOP 10 search engine results Google systems and Yandex.

How automatic request grouping works: for each request, the results among the TOP 10 sites are viewed. If there are matches among at least 4-6 of them, then requests can be grouped to be placed on one page.

Automatic grouping is the fastest and effective method combining keywords to form a site structure that is almost ready for use.

If it is not correct, from the point of view of search engine statistics, to form a site structure and distribute queries among its pages, it will, alas, be impossible to successfully promote pages to the TOP!

Applications and services for automatic grouping of search queries

Among the services that automate the grouping of keywords, it is worth highlighting:

• Key Collector.
• Rush Analytics.
• TopVisor.

After all the keys have been distributed, you will receive a list of existing and planned site pages indicating the URL, search phrases and frequency. What to do with them next?

What to do with the semantic core

A table with a semantic core should become a road map and the main source of ideas when forming:

Look: you have a list with pre-titled pages and search phrases. They determine the needs of the audience. When drawing up a content plan, you just need to clarify the name of the page or publication. Include your main search query. This is not always the most popular key. In addition to popularity, the query in the title should best reflect the need of the page's audience.

Use the remaining search phrases as an answer to the question “what to write about.” Remember, you don't have to fit every search phrase into your content or product description at all costs. Content should cover the topic and answer user questions. Please note again: you need to focus on information needs, and not on search phrases and how they fit into the text.

Semantic core for online stores

The specificity of the preparation and clustering of semantics lies in the presence of four very important, for subsequent, groups of pages:

• Home page.
• Pages of sections and subsections of the catalog.
• Product card pages.
• Blog article pages.

We have already talked above about different types search queries: informational, transactional, commercial, navigational. For pages of sections and products of an online store, transactional ones are primarily of interest, i.e. queries using which search engine users want to see sites where they can make a purchase.

You need to start forming a core with a list of products that you already sell or plan to sell.

For online stores:

• as " body»requests will be made product names;
• as " specifiers" phrases: " buy», « price», « sale», « order», « photo», « description», «

The semantic core is a scary name that SEOs came up with to denote a rather simple thing. We just need to select the key queries for which we will promote our site.

And in this article I will show you how to correctly compose a semantic core so that your site quickly reaches the TOP, and does not stagnate for months. There are also “secrets” here.

And before we move on to compiling the SY, let's figure out what it is and what we should ultimately come to.

What is the semantic core in simple words

Oddly enough, but the semantic core is a regular Excel file, which contains a list of key queries for which you (or your copywriter) will write articles for the site.

For example, this is what my semantic core looks like:

I have marked in green those key queries for which I have already written articles. Yellow - those for which I plan to write articles in the near future. And colorless cells mean that these requests will come a little later.

For each key query, I have determined the frequency, competitiveness, and come up with a “catchy” title. You should get approximately the same file. Now my CN consists of 150 keywords. This means that I am provided with “material” for at least 5 months in advance (even if I write one article a day).

Below we will talk about what you should prepare for if you suddenly decide to order the collection of the semantic core from specialists. Here I will say briefly - they will give you the same list, but only for thousands of “keys”. However, in SY it is not quantity that is important, but quality. And we will focus on this.

Why do we need a semantic core at all?

But really, why do we need this torment? You can, after all, just write quality articles and attract an audience, right? Yes, you can write, but you won’t be able to attract people.

The main mistake of 90% of bloggers is simply writing high-quality articles. I'm not kidding, they have really interesting and useful materials. That's just search engines they don't know about it. They are not psychics, but just robots. Accordingly, they do not rank your article in the TOP.

There is another subtle point with the title. For example, you have a very high-quality article on the topic “How to properly conduct business in a face book.” There you describe everything about Facebook in great detail and professionally. Including how to promote communities there. Your article is the highest quality, useful and interesting on the Internet on this topic. No one was lying next to you. But it still won't help you.

Why high-quality articles fall out of the TOP

Imagine that your site was visited not by a robot, but by a live inspector (assessor) from Yandex. He realized that you have the coolest article. And hands put you in first place in the search results for the request “Promoting a community on Facebook.”

Do you know what will happen next? You will fly out of there very soon anyway. Because no one will click on your article, even in first place. People enter the query “Promoting a community on Facebook,” and your headline is “How to properly run a business in a face book.” Original, fresh, funny, but... not on request. People want to see exactly what they were looking for, not your creativity.

Accordingly, your article will empty its place in the TOP search results. And a living assessor, an ardent admirer of your work, can beg the authorities as much as he likes to leave you at least in the TOP 10. But it won't help. All the first places will be taken by empty articles, like the husks of sunflower seeds, that yesterday’s schoolchildren copied from each other.

But these articles will have the correct “relevant” title - “Promoting a community on Facebook from scratch” ( step by step, in 5 steps, from A to Z, free etc.) Is it offensive? Still would. Well, fight against injustice. Let's create a competent semantic core so that your articles take the well-deserved first places.

Another reason to start writing SYNOPSIS right now

There is one more thing that for some reason people don’t think much about. You need to write articles often - at least every week, but preferably 2-3 times a week - to get more traffic, faster.

Everyone knows this, but almost no one does it. And all because they have “creative stagnation”, “they just can’t force themselves”, “they’re just lazy”. But in fact, the whole problem lies in the absence of a specific semantic core.

I entered one of my basic keys, “smm,” into the search field, and Yandex immediately gave me a dozen hints about what else might be of interest to people who are interested in “smm.” All I have to do is copy these keys into a notebook. Then I will check each of them in the same way, and collect hints on them as well.

After the first stage of collecting SY, you should be able to Text Document, which will contain 10-30 broad basic keys, which we will work with further.

Step #2 — Parsing basic keys in SlovoEB

Of course, if you write an article for the request “webinar” or “smm”, then a miracle will not happen. You will never be able to reach the TOP for such a broad request. We need to break the basic key into many small queries on this topic. And we will do this using a special program.

I use KeyCollector, but it's paid. You can use a free analogue - the SlovoEB program. You can download it from the official website.

The most difficult thing about working with this program is setting it up correctly. I show you how to properly set up and use Sloboeb. But in that article I focus on selecting keys for Yandex Direct.

And here let’s look step by step at the features of using this program for creating a semantic core for SEO.

First, we create a new project and name it by the broad key that you want to parse.

I usually give the project the same name as my base key to avoid confusion later. And yes, I will warn you against one more mistake. Don't try to parse all base keys at once. Then it will be very difficult for you to filter out “empty” key queries from golden grains. Let's parse one key at a time.

After creating the project, we carry out basic operation. That is, we actually parse the key through Yandex Wordstat. To do this, click on the “Worstat” button in the program interface, enter your base key, and click “Start collection”.

For example, let's parse the base key for my blog “contextual advertising”.

After this, the process will start, and after some time the program will give us the result - up to 2000 key queries that contain “contextual advertising”.

Also, next to each request there will be a “dirty” frequency - how many times this key (+ its word forms and tails) was searched per month through Yandex. But I do not advise drawing any conclusions from these numbers.

Step #3 - Collecting the exact frequency for the keys

Dirty frequency will not show us anything. If you focus on it, then don’t be surprised when your key for 1000 requests does not bring a single click per month.

We need to identify pure frequency. And to do this, we first select all the found keys with checkmarks, and then click on the “Yandex Direct” button and start the process again. Now Slovoeb will look for the exact request frequency per month for each key.

Now we have an objective picture - how many times what query was entered by Internet users over the past month. I now propose to group all key queries by frequency to make it easier to work with them.

To do this, click on the “filter” icon in the “Frequency” column. ", and specify - filter out keys with the value "less than or equal to 10".

Now the program will show you only those requests whose frequency is less than or equal to the value “10”. You can delete these queries or copy them to another group of key queries for future use. Less than 10 is very little. Writing articles for these requests is a waste of time.

Now we need to select those key queries that will bring us more or less good traffic. And for this we need to find out one more parameter - the level of competitiveness of the request.

Step #4 — Checking the competitiveness of requests

All “keys” in this world are divided into 3 types: high-frequency (HF), mid-frequency (MF), low-frequency (LF). They can also be highly competitive (HC), moderately competitive (SC) and low competitive (LC).

As a rule, HF requests are also VC. That is, if a query is often searched on the Internet, then there are a lot of sites that want to promote it. But this is not always the case; there are happy exceptions.

The art of compiling a semantic core lies precisely in finding queries that have a high frequency and a low level of competition. It is very difficult to manually determine the level of competition.

You can focus on indicators such as the number of main pages in the TOP 10, length and quality of texts. level of trust and tits of sites in the TOP search results upon request. All of this will give you some idea of ​​how tough the competition is for rankings for this particular query.

But I recommend you use Mutagen service. It takes into account all the parameters that I mentioned above, plus a dozen more that neither you nor I have probably even heard of. After analysis, the service gives an exact value - what level of competition this request has.

Here I checked the query “setting up contextual advertising in google adwords”. Mutagen showed us that this key has a competitiveness of "more than 25" - this is the maximum value it shows. And this query has only 11 views per month. So it definitely doesn’t suit us.

We can copy all the keys that we found in Slovoeb and do a mass check in Mutagen. After that, all we have to do is look through the list and take those requests that have a lot of requests and a low level of competition.

Mutagen is a paid service. But you can do 10 checks per day for free. In addition, the cost of testing is very low. In all the time I have been working with him, I have not yet spent even 300 rubles.

By the way, about the level of competition. If you have a young site, then it is better to choose queries with a competition level of 3-5. And if you have been promoting for more than a year, then you can take 10-15.

By the way, regarding the frequency of requests. We now need to take the final step, which will allow you to attract a lot of traffic even for low-frequency queries.

Step #5 — Collecting “tails” for the selected keys

As has been proven and tested many times, your site will receive the bulk of traffic not from the main keywords, but from the so-called “tails”. This is when a person enters strange key queries into the search bar, with a frequency of 1-2 per month, but there are a lot of such queries.

To see the “tail”, just go to Yandex and enter the key query of your choice into the search bar. Here's roughly what you'll see.

Now you just need to write out these additional words into a separate document and use them in your article. Moreover, there is no need to always place them next to the main key. Otherwise, search engines will see “over-optimization” and your articles will fall in search results.

Just use them in different places of your article and then you will get additional traffic also on them. I would also recommend that you try to use as many word forms and synonyms as possible for your main key query.

For example, we have a request - “Setting up contextual advertising”. Here's how to reformulate it:

• Setup = set up, make, create, run, launch, enable, place...
• Contextual advertising = context, direct, teaser, YAN, adwords, kms. direct, adwords...

You never know exactly how people will search for information. Add all these additional words to your semantic core and use them when writing texts.

So, we collect a list of 100 - 150 key queries. If you are creating a semantic core for the first time, it may take you several weeks.

Or maybe break his eyes? Maybe there is an opportunity to delegate the compilation of FL to specialists who will do it better and faster? Yes, there are such specialists, but you don’t always need to use their services.

Is it worth ordering SY from specialists?

By and large, specialists in compiling a semantic core will only give you steps 1 - 3 from our scheme. Sometimes, for a large additional fee, they will do steps 4-5 - (collecting tails and checking the competitiveness of requests).

After that, they will give you several thousand key queries that you will need to work with further.

And the question here is whether you are going to write the articles yourself, or hire copywriters for this. If you want to focus on quality rather than quantity, then you need to write it yourself. But then it won't be enough for you to just get a list of keys. You will need to choose topics that you understand well enough to write a quality article.

And here the question arises - why then do we actually need specialists in FL? Agree, parsing the base key and collecting exact frequencies (steps #1-3) is not at all difficult. This will literally take you half an hour.

The most difficult thing is to choose HF requests that have low competition. And now, as it turns out, you need HF-NCs, on which you can write a good article. This is exactly what will take you 99% of your time working on the semantic core. And no specialist will do this for you. Well, is it worth spending money on ordering such services?

When are the services of FL specialists useful?

It’s another matter if you initially plan to attract copywriters. Then you don't have to understand the subject of the request. Your copywriters won’t understand it either. They will simply take several articles on this topic and compile “their” text from them.

Such articles will be empty, miserable, almost useless. But there will be many of them. On your own, you can write a maximum of 2-3 quality articles per week. And an army of copywriters will provide you with 2-3 shitty texts a day. At the same time, they will be optimized for requests, which means they will attract some traffic.

In this case, yes, calmly hire FL specialists. Let them also draw up a technical specification for copywriters at the same time. But you understand, this will also cost some money.

Summary

Let's go over the main ideas in the article again to reinforce the information.

• The semantic core is simply a list of key queries for which you will write articles on the site for promotion.
• It is necessary to optimize texts for precise key queries, otherwise even your highest-quality articles will never reach the TOP.
• SY is like a content plan for social networks. It helps you avoid falling into a “creative crisis” and always know exactly what you will write about tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and in a month.
• To compile a semantic core it is convenient to use free program Word fucker, you just need her.
• Here are the five steps of compiling the NL: 1 - Selection of basic keys; 2 - Parsing basic keys; 3 - Collection of exact frequency for queries; 4 — Checking the competitiveness of keys; 5 – Collection of “tails”.
• If you want to write articles yourself, then it is better to create a semantic core yourself, for yourself. Specialists in the preparation of synonyms will not be able to help you here.
• If you want to work on quantity and use copywriters to write articles, then it is quite possible to delegate and compile the semantic core. If only there was enough money for everything.

I hope this instruction was useful to you. Save it to your favorites so as not to lose it, and share it with your friends. Don't forget to download my book. There I show you the fastest way from zero to the first million on the Internet (extract from personal experience in 10 years =)

See you later!

Yours Dmitry Novoselov

If you know the pain of search engines’ “dislike” for the pages of your online store, read this article. I will talk about the path to increasing the visibility of a site, or more precisely, about its first stage - collecting keywords and compiling a semantic core. About the algorithm for its creation and the tools that are used.

Order the collection of the semantic core from SEO specialists of the Netpeak agency:

Why create a semantic core?

To increase the visibility of site pages. Make sure that Yandex and Google search robots begin to find pages of your site based on user requests. Of course, collecting keywords (compiling semantics) is the first step towards this goal. Next, a conditional “skeleton” is sketched out to distribute keywords among different landing pages. And then articles/meta tags are written and implemented.

By the way, on the Internet you can find many definitions of the semantic core.

1. “The semantic core is an ordered set of search words, their morphological forms and phrases that most accurately characterize the type of activity, product or service offered by the site.” Wikipedia.

To collect competitor semantics in Serpstat, enter one of the key queries, select a region, click “Search” and go to the “Key phrase analysis” category. Then select “SEO Analysis” and click “Phrase Selection”. Export results:

2.3. We use Key Collector/Slovoeb to create a semantic core

If you need to create a semantic core for a large online store, you cannot do without Key Collector. But if you are a beginner, then it is more convenient to use a free tool - Sloboeb (don’t let this name scare you). Download the program, and in the Yandex.Direct settings, specify the login and password for your Yandex.Mail:
Create a new project. In the “Data” tab, select the “Add phrases” function. Select your region and enter the requests you received earlier:
Advice: create a separate project for each new domain, and create a separate group for each category/landing page. For example: Now collect semantics from Yandex.Wordstat. Open the “Data collection” tab - “Batch collection of words from the left column of Yandex.Wordstat”. In the window that opens, select the checkbox “Do not add phrases if they are already in any other groups.” Enter a few of the most popular (high-frequency) phrases among users and click “Start collecting”:

By the way, for large projects in Key Collector you can collect statistics from competitor analysis services SEMrush, SpyWords, Serpstat (ex. Prodvigator) and other additional sources.