Create an SEO semantic cocoon: 10 tips

 The semantic cocoon technique is an approach that has proven itself in SEO and is starting to be known. But between theory and practice, there is a significant gap.

In fact, it is not always easy to set up and maintain over time. We therefore offer you a complete guide to better understand and analyze this working methodology.

You will also have some examples and classic mistakes to avoid.

Definition of semantic cocoon

We cannot begin our article on the semantic cocoon without giving its definition.

This is a method of organizing the pages of your website in an architecture that groups and isolates all those that deal with the same (or similar) subject. The goal is to create branches with the same lexical field.

The semantic cocoon is a concept that was developed by SEO Laurent Bourrelly, based on the architecture of a website mixing content optimization , internal networking , but also a tree structure . Everything is then developed using a very specific semantic analysis in order to meet the needs of the Internet user.

It is therefore a strategy to apply from the creation of a website by adopting a tree structure structured around four essential elements:

• First, define the targeted queries and classify them by category.
• Then, set up a silo or a tree structure depending on the targeted requests.
• Create  internal links between pages of the same level, a higher level or a lower level.
• Finally, optimize these pages using contextualization of links .

Understand the concept of semantics

In the world of natural referencing, the term “semantics” is used to designate “the meaning of words”. Search engines analyze keywords to guess people's search intentions. For example, if you search for “ingredients,” Google will understand that you want to find recipe ideas.

So, if previously, the work consisted of including as many keywords as possible in the content, currently, we must optimize the semantics. This means that you must write content on all the topics likely to interest targeted Internet users in order to meet their search intentions.

Using the analysis tools, you will find content ideas on semantics, thanks to a list of keywords ranging from the simplest to the most complex. We must not forget long-tail keywords to improve the impact of the semantic cocoon.

Semantic cocoon and siloing: what is the difference?

Siloing is a technique which consists of creating categories of pages called “silos” from groups of keywords which must be defined beforehand. The semantic cocoon is a much stricter system than the link structure. Siloing consists of working on a main keyword to group secondary keyword pages by theme. The semantic cocoon is based on the problem of the target and on a much more rigorous logic in the division of secondary articles.

The most effective semantic cocoon tree method is that established by Laurent Bourrelly. In principle, you must start by researching keywords in order to create a mindmap adapted to your sector of activity. Then, you have to create silos, before working on creating links.

Understanding the link structure of a semantic cocoon

The semantic cocoon is a strategy which consists of creating content from groups of keywords and carrying out internal networking work. These two complementary systems strengthen the SEO optimization of the site. Without the internal mesh, the result is not the same.

The internal network must be based on a scrupulous organization of the links between the pages. It is strongly recommended to proceed hierarchically in order to create several levels and sub-levels. It is essential to scrupulously respect the structure of the links which has been previously set up.

Here are some tips for successfully linking a website. You must create a link to the parent page at the beginning of each page. The article must be well structured with H2 subheadings and each paragraph must contain a link that points to one of the child pages. Finally, towards the end of the articles, you should include links that encourage people to visit sister pages.

When you only link semantically close pages, you boost the power of the cocoon. Please note, there is no point in multiplying links as soon as you have a more detailed page on a word that you have included in the content. Just select the closest keywords.

The notion of link juice

The quality of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) depends on the number of inbound links or backlinks . Internal networking is very important to improve the positioning of a site in search results.

The links created between pages transmit their popularity. Previously, you must refer to Page Rank to evaluate the weight of a web page. The higher this index was, the more it allowed another page to be well positioned in the search results when the latter contains a link pointing to it.

If the notion of Page Rank is no longer relevant, popularity and the transmission of “  link juice  ” still exist. This is why web marketing experts never neglect the importance of links. If the official Google page dedicated to Page Rank no longer exists, SEO tools like ahrefs, Majestic SEO, Moz, etc. offer a functionality that allows you to evaluate the popularity of a web page.

It is for this reason that professionals in the sector explore all means to obtain external links and apply various methods to achieve their goals. They have to spend a lot of time on it and work on the links regularly.

The interest of the semantic cocoon for SEO

In SEO, the semantic cocoon is a frequently used technique. In fact, it allows you to position yourself when the targeted query has a high volume.

This is in fact its first advantage and in the face of current competition, it is impossible to position yourself on a highly sought-after keyword without having a specific environment for the subject.

For example, if you want to position your website on the query “web editor” , it is imperative that the content of your site has an excellent semantic cocoon resulting in quality content, but also sending and receiving internal links. Obviously, the theme will revolve around content writing by systematically providing relevant information to the reader.

Although in this case you want to position yourself on a competitive query, the semantic cocoon will also allow you to obtain better positioning on the long tail. That is to say, very numerous queries, but with a low search volume. These are generic expressions around a specific lexical field.

The second advantage of using the semantic cocoon is based on the fluidity of navigation. Remember that it is essential to promote the user experience by offering content that is not only high quality, but also easily accessible.
This is why it is essential to develop a keyword strategy from the topmost page to the deepest page.

How to properly use the semantic cocoon in an SEO strategy?

Before creating your website, it is necessary to have in-depth reflection in order to set up an effective semantic cocoon.

• First step, know your target well. You must take the time to define the type of customers you want to reach through your website. This phase is necessary to know the Internet user's expectations, their objectives, their needs and in certain cases their purchasing journey. Throughout their presence on your website, they will need access to specific information.
• Second step, keyword research . It is advisable to use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find a set of keywords directly related to the topic. Then you need to categorize and prioritize them. For greater visibility, do not hesitate to use tools allowing you to have a graphical representation of the semantic cocoon . In this case, we advise you to use Visibilis to better visualize secondary and main requests in order to create a customer journey.
• Third step, defining objectives . Now that you have found the main queries, you then need to create pages around your semantic cocoon. The first pages are called the “parent pages” and are intended for conversion. Then comes the creation of “sister and daughter pages” with the aim of informing and attracting visitors.
• Fourth and final step, creating your content . Once the website tree is defined based on a keyword, you must set up specific content and link the pages together.

Concept of tree structure and website architecture

Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is important to understand the notions of tree structure and site architecture. You should not confuse the two, otherwise you will miss out on your SEO strategy and all your optimizations.

SEO architecture: This is purely technical logic. SEO architecture is the way your site is structured and how search engines will read it. It's your URLs that will allow this. Let's see a concrete example:

Welcome Mysite.fr/ Level 1 Monsite.fr/categorie/ Level 3 Mysite.fr/categorie/service

The tree structure  : On the other hand, the tree structure corresponds to the menu of your site. While the two often overlap, this is by no means an obligation. Your menu can absolutely present deep pages of your site, without highlighting the category or the entire journey.

The main stages of the semantic cocoon

Now that we have seen the foundations, we will be able to go into detail about setting up your semantic cocoon. To do this, you will have to work on three main steps.

Lexical study, launching your SEO

The first thing to do is to set up what is called a lexical study. In addition to the interest in the semantic cocoon, the entire SEO of your site will benefit from this work subsequently. Lexical study, also called semantic analysis, is the work of referencing and categorizing all the keywords (and key expressions) for your site. But when we say everything, that's it.

This is not about defining the 100 most relevant keywords according to you. You will have to understand the search terms of your targets across your entire sector, that is… thousands of different occurrences.

The presentation can have different forms. Here is an example from the “  training  ” universe with some 4864 categorized key expressions.

So, how to set up your lexical study? For this, we recommend a two-step process.

• First of all thanks to the use of SEO tools such as SEMrush, Answer The Public or even 1.fr. By doing keyword research on your business themes. You will therefore create your own listing, trying to be as concise and exhaustive as possible.
• Secondly, you will need to add your business expertise in order to define the terms that best suit your needs. You will also need to prioritize the keywords that seem the most relevant and the most business-generating based on user intentions.

SEO architecture, putting your cocoons into practice

Once you have been able to identify the entire semantic field of your sector of activity. You will have to set up your future SEO architecture. It should clearly highlight your different semantic cocoons.

There is no miracle recipe for this work. You will need to take the time to build a site structure that seems relevant to you.

You easily find here the logic of cocoon with a part which only deals with stays around yoga. Please note, for this to be read as such by search engines, the pages must have this structure, namely (example of a page):

• moniste.com/sejours-yoga/france/

If you are in the case of a site redesign, be careful not to change your URLs like that. This requires setting up a 301 redirection plan in order to maintain the popularity of your old URLs and transmit it to new pages.

Here is some practical information to take into account if you decide to carry out your natural referencing alone .

The internal mesh, work your cocoons together

If with the first steps we have seen how to create your semantic cocoons on your site, it is time to implement your SEO optimizations. Most of the work will be done by default by continuing to create content or commissioning texts . However, creating a virtuous circle will require a little rigor.

To give weight to your semantic cocoons, you will need to create your internal link (the links in your content to your other pages) between the pages of your silo. If we take the previous example, the pages in the “  yoga stays  ” category will only have to link to other pages in this same category. In no case towards other categories such as “  well-being stays  ” or “  detox stays  ”.

Examples and counter examples of semantic cocoons

In order to fully understand the concept, we offer you some very common examples and counter-examples. You will be able to see some different techniques there too. What is important to remember is that the semantic cocoon technique in SEO is an approach.

If the feedback is generally very positive, this is not the only way to work and not having cocoons does not in any way mean having failed your SEO.

Sites at the root

One of the most recurring approaches that we can analyze are completely root-mounted sites. This means that all URLs will be directly linked to the domain name and that there is no hierarchy of information. Most of the time, we find this on small sites or sites developed alone.

You will therefore find a structure like this:

• monsite.com/sejours-yoga/
• monsite.com/sejour-yoga-france/
• monsite.com/sejour-bien-etre/

We do not recommend this approach because, more and more, search engines and Google in the lead are asking to structure information in order to facilitate access and understanding for their robots.

The case of e-commerce CMS

In e-commerce, creating a semantic cocoon can quickly become complex if you use the CMS on the market and in particular WordPress with WooCommerce and Prestashop. By default, these two software programs will set up URL rules that will have to be bypassed.

The example of WooCommerce  : WordPress and its famous plugin dedicated to e-commerce WooCommerce creates URL rules by integrating all the categories in one folder and the products in the others.

It is therefore not compatible with our famous semantic cocoons. You will then find URLs like these:

• monsite.com/category-product/pantalon/
• monsite.com/category-product/t-shirt/
• monsite.com/product/t-shirt-anymous-yellow/

The CMS therefore creates a silo with your category pages and another with your product pages. However, the semantic fields are not at all the same.

The example of Prestashop  : Prestashop, for its part, creates identifiers for each page. This small detail poses a problem in terms of architecture for a simple reason, the identifier is only applied to the page you are on.

Concretely, this means that you will end up with URLs as follows:

• monsite.com/4-macategorie/
• monsite.com/macategorie/74-monproduit/

Why is this problematic? Because the category ID “4” disappears when you move to the product. But the page mysite.com/macategorie/ does not exist as such. The two URLs are therefore not linked and you will not have, here too, any semantic cocoons strictly speaking.

Once again, we emphasize that this in itself is not a major problem. Thousands of sites work with WooCommerce and Prestashop and provide more than satisfactory SEO results.

It is above all a question of incompatibility with the fact of setting up semantic cocoons. You will need to set up URL rules to overcome this. It’s mostly about anticipating your strategy.

An example of a top site

For the example of a site which offers an architecture with semantic cocoons, we suggest you take a look at Bleu Libellule .

The hairdressing and aesthetics specialist has carried out work on its entire semantic cocoons site. Each category has a specific URL and the subcategories can be found there. Small detail, the site is a Prestashop.

How to analyze your current site?

There are currently several tools that make your job easier if you want to make a semantic cocoon structure. As this technique quickly became popular because its effectiveness was quickly noted, the SEO tools that offer this service have multiplied. Here are a few that should help you.

Cocoon.se

To be able to define how your current site is positioned in terms of internal networking, the most appropriate tool remains cocoon.se . It will give you a very precise visualization of the architecture of your site with a graph that will allow you to quickly understand the style of your site. It is appreciated for its great ease of use.

Where?

This is a tool that allows you to analyze and visualize networks in order to design a visual graph representing the architecture of a website's links. This representation will help you better understand the connections made between the different pages of the site. Gephi website .

Mindmap express

As its name suggests, this free tool is effective for quickly creating a mindmap. Thanks to this keyword mapping, it is easier to sort and create the pages of your semantic cocoon.

Bombyx4wp

Developed and proposed by Laurent Bourrelly, the developer behind the semantic cocoon, Bombyx4wp is a WordPress plugin that facilitates the integration of a semantic cocoon. It is ideal for those who have neither the time nor the skills to manually integrate their semantic cocoon.

Semantic cocoon: errors that must be avoided

If the internal mesh is coherent, it will be appreciated by Google's algorithms. However, when the practice becomes widespread, the most used search engine may create another robot to detect sites that use this technique to penalize them for not respecting the rules of natural referencing.

However, for Google to take the time to look into it, this process would have to be sufficiently common and become a habit in the United States. It should also be noted that the semantic cocoon does not allow Page Rank to be manipulated because the transmission of notoriety between pages is not extensible. Regardless, if you create low-quality content, you may be penalized by Panda.

The over-optimization of internal linking could be spotted by Penguin following an update. According to experts, in the future, Penguin could also identify the systematic use of anchors identical to the exact queries of the Internet user.

Google's Search Quality Team could also consider the massive production of linked content in an overly coordinated manner as a negative signal. The offending sites could then be sanctioned if other irregularities provided for by the rules imposed by Google are discovered simultaneously.

The semantic cocoon, one SEO strategy among others

The semantic cocoon now has no secrets for you. If this SEO strategy allows you to optimize your natural referencing, it also requires a certain mastery of the technique of your site.

Don't panic if you don't find yourself in these lines, the semantic cocoon remains one possibility among many others.

Our tip

Content writing is a profession in its own right that takes time and also requires in-depth knowledge. The establishment of the semantic cocoon cannot be improvised and requires prior study.