Publication

Reviewing and approving semantic cluster pages

The review and approval of a semantic cluster follows rules that are somewhat specific, and which you need to understand before getting started.

Here are a few key points summarising the nature of a semantic cluster, and the consequences this has on how to approach its component pages: 

• A semantic cluster is published on a website to boost pages known as landing pages (usually product category pages for e-commerce sites) in search engines, particularly Google.
• It is these pages (the ones boosted by the cluster) that go to war against the competition, competing for the best positions on highly competitive queries.
• As a result, the goal is not to rank the cluster’s own pages on the most important queries.
• This does not prevent cluster pages from ranking on secondary or related queries (the long tail, or even the mid tail). However, the traffic from these will remain low compared to that generated by the landing pages.

It is also important to bear in mind that semantic cluster pages are generally written by an independent team: professional web copywriters. These writers have followed numerous rules. Here are the main ones:

• Adhering to an editorial guidelines.
• Taking into account the context and/or the target audience.
• Using consistent vocabulary across all pages.
• Writing a certain word count (especially if the cluster was written as part of a paid service).
• Including links within the text (the cluster’s internal linking).
• Writing titles that incorporate semantic nuances (avoiding repeated keywords in the Title tag, headings, and page URL).
• Including visuals.
• Including links to external pages outside the cluster and the target site (being « generous », a positive signal for search engines).
• Using formatting elements: bullet points, bold text, etc.
• Most importantly: optimising the text with a semantic tool such as YourTextGuru, Métamots, 1.fr, etc. This means every word counts, and everything is factored in and calculated by the tool. 

You’ll have gathered that you cannot review and edit semantic cluster pages the way you would the standard editorial pages of your site: it is strongly inadvisable to break the structure, replace certain words, or change the headings. 

You need to know what you want: a « beautiful piece of writing », or an optimised element within an optimised whole, designed to send the « right pages » into battle against the competition.

Working with a professional on your semantic cluster? Learn about our semantic cluster SEO service and discover Stéphane Jambu’s approach to building and reviewing clusters at scale.