What Is Semantic Core

Semantic core — a set of words and key phrases that will be used to promote a site in search engines. In other words, these are the words by which users will find the site in the search results.

Why do you need a semantic core?

The collection of the semantic core is one of the first stages of work on the site, because, based on the selected keywords, specialists will:

• Distribute them on certain pages, and for this you may need to change the entire structure of the site, add new pages, etc.
• Create content for these keywords.
• Compose page titles and descriptions.

Therefore, you need to start work on the semantic core as early as possible. Key queries can be selected both for the entire site, and for its specific parts, depending on the goals of promotion.

What does the semantic core consist of?

The semantic core is formed from relevant site keywords. Keywords are words or phrases that Internet users enter in the search bar when they search for the information they need.

How to collect basic semantics

The formation of the semantic core begins with the selection of basic queries, which are mainly high-frequency queries. This basic list is then expanded to include mid-range and low-frequency keywords.

If you want to compile a basic list of queries yourself and manually, you just need to write down words and phrases that:

• Match the theme of your site. For each section, it is necessary to write down words and phrases with the names of the main goods, services, product characteristics, etc.
• View competitor sites and also write out the main keywords that are used there.

Also, to compile a list of basic keywords, you can use specialized services for collecting semantics, which will be discussed below.

In terms of SEO, an effective keyword is the one that your business can rank for, is relevant to your business, and has a strong volume of organic traffic. As you improve your rank position for this keyword, you will see increases in the volume of organic traffic to your website associated with the improved ranking.

Developing the semantic core for your website

The keywords that are the foundation that will enable your website to establish itself as an authority and leader in your sector. This work is accomplished within a competitive environment. And therefore developing the semantic coer for your website must take into consideration your competition.

When people are looking for your products or services on the internet, they use many different search terms. The first step is understanding what these search terms, or popular keywords are. The semantic core are those search terms, or keywords, which will enable those users to find you.

Your steps to determine the semantic core

• Use Google Analytics, Google Search Console or another tool to identify the most frequent enquiries (search terms) on you websites
• Run this same analysis on the websites of your competitors
• Make a list of these enquiries, containing the keywords and their synonyms
• Eliminate the meaningless keywords
• Group the keywords in categories
• Prioritize keywords based for each page of your website
• Organize your website pages to align with target pages in the structure of the website
• This work should take into consideration your competitors ranking for keywords.

Expanding the semantic core

The next step is to expand the semantic core. Each phrase from the base list needs to be supplemented and rephrased as much as possible in order to get as many mid-frequency and low-frequency queries as possible. And at this stage, the easiest and quickest way is not to do it manually, but to use special services.

Yandex.Wordstat

The free Yandex.Wordstat service is available to all users registered in Yandex. Using the service is not so difficult: just enter the desired keyword or phrase in the search bar.

The service will offer a list of keywords that match the query:

• “What was searched with the word“ … ”–n hits per month” – the number of users searching for Yandex with this word. The system uses data from the last 30 days to calculate.
• The left column provides statistics on the impressions of keywords that include the query, and the predicted impressions for them.
• The right column displays queries similar to the one set by the user and the impressions predicted by them.
• The “Query History” tab shows the dynamics of user interest in a specific topic over the past two years – here you can see a monthly or weekly slice of statistics on impressions for a given query.

Google Keyword Planner

A free tool from Google is located in the Google Advertising service and allows you to select keywords and evaluate the estimated effectiveness of word lists. A Google account is required to use the tool.

What you can do with Keyword Planner:

• Choose keywords relevant to the subject of the site or landing page, as well as the goods and services that are offered on the site.
• View data on the number of queries for keyword ideas for a specific date range.
• Filter the results by keyword text, average number of search queries per month, minimum and maximum bid for showing at the top of the page, percentage of impressions received in regular search results, percentage of received impressions of ads.
• View traffic statistics and forecasts.
• View data visualization by the dynamics of the number of search queries, platforms and locations.

Key collector

The paid Key Collector program is primarily geared towards collecting a semantic core.

Features of the collection of semantics that the service offers:

• Key Collector does not use ready-made databases and does not generate key phrases. The service is based on the collection of data directly from source services.
• The program uses both Russian-language and foreign source services: statistics from Yandex.Wordstat, Google AdWords, Yandex.Metrica, Google Analytics, LiveInternet, Roostat; search hints Yandex, Google, Rambler, Nigma, Yahoo, Mail, Yandex.Direct; Similar queries from search engines Yandex, Google, Mail.
• You can select a region and set the search depth to cut off unnecessary phrases.
• In addition to the words that the service found, you can add your own.
• All keywords can be evaluated by different characteristics: for example, popularity, level of competition, seasonality, geo-dependence, etc.

Semrush

Another service that can help with the compilation of the semantic core. SEMrush offers SEO specialists several tools at once.

Keyword Research Report:

• It allows you to select the appropriate keywords and see the following information for each of them: cost-per-click, number of requests, number of results, trend of requests over the past 12 months and examples of ads for the search term.
• You can also see which large sites use certain keywords.
• Data is available for both desktop and mobile issuance.
• SEMrush currently offers 26 bases for the following regions: USA (Google and Bing), United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Hong Kong.

Keyword Magic Tool:

• Offers users access to a database of 14 billion keywords.
• Keywords are sorted by groups by topic of search query.
• Keywords can be filtered by the number of search queries, keyword complexity, competition density, the original pages in the search results, data per CPC.