[Journey] Surviving Semantic SEO

[noellarkin]

Wanted to upgrade my SEO knowledge, so am going through a course on the same, and it is painful, to say the least. The lack of organization in the content, atrocious communication skills, poor audio quality, etc etc. However, I'm determined to hammer it out till the bitter end, so I'm going to go through these videos, take notes, and publish my takeaways here. I'll go through a couple lectures everyday, hope to finish the entire thing in under a week.

Notes copied from Obsidian, there may be some formatting glitches.

 

[noellarkin]

Part 01 - Overview
- Organizing folders (how to make folders on GDrive etc)
- What a content brief (sprint) looks like
- On Topical Maps
- Topical Maps in SEO aren't JUST "conceptual", rather they are ALSO associational/behavioural
- Conceptual topical map is one where the topics are conceptually organized based on the niche or subject. This is similar to how an encyclopedia may organize information.
- Example: in a site for a German visa, there may be topics (and articles) about the types of visa (tourist, work, business), or topics on visas for other European countries that are near Germany (France etc)
- Associational topical map is one where the topics are BEHAVIOURALLY organized
- Example: in a site for a German visa, there will be topics for Lithuania, Bulgaria etc because of the ERASMUS program (I'm not clear on why this is the case, since almost all EU countries are in the Erasmus program - - perhaps an EU resident can explain this better).
- Example: for the same German visa site, there will be topics on LIFE IN GERMANY, like places to stay in Germany, things to do etc because these are things that people who are searching for a visa to Germany are also searching for.
- Optimizing for PARENT entities helps for the child entities
- Ranking for "European Visa" helps you rank for German visa
- How do you find search query behavioural associations? suggests "check the search query sessions". Slawski: https://www.seobythesea.com/2013/09/google-reform-queries-based-co-occurrence-query-sessions/

Part 01 - Takeaways
- Behavioural topical maps, not just conceptual
- Brainstorm the behaviour of people who visit your website: what else would they be searching before/after they search for the term that leads them to your site
- Include parent entities of what you're ranking for in the keyword soup

 

[noellarkin]

Part 02 - Overview
- Query semantics are behavioural
- This was covered in the previous lecture, he's just expanding on it
- query semantics are based on user behaviours, not wikipedia-esque topicality (it may be true that wikipedia topicality and user behaviours do overlap somewhat)
- Clustering
- a search engine can cluster three items
- documents
- queries
- users
- search engine process:
- connect a QUERY to the related topics and entities
- connect topics and entities to documents
- return those documents back to the user
- Correlated queries
- the simplest form of correlated queries is "users also search for". For example, people who are searching for a student visa to Germany are probably ALSO searching for places where students can stay in Germany.
- Query paths
- This is the ORDER in which queries are made. For example, people usually book flight tickets before booking a hotel. So the query path is "flight ticket price to Berlin" ---> "hotels in Berlin" or "hotels near Berlin airport". Once they have that sorted, they may want to know about the things they can do during their trip, when they have some free time, for example "museums in Berlin" or "things to do in Berlin".
- Sequential Queries
- Google cookies enable the search engine to determine if it's the same user making multiple queries
- Bill Slawski on sequential queries: https://www.seobythesea.com/2008/05...-from-looking-at-sequences-of-search-queries/
- What do Core Updates do
- Core updates alter the SEMANTIC DISTANCE between topics (and hence, between entities)

Part 02 - Takeaways
- expands on previous lecture
- core updates alter the vector distance between entities

 

[HustleTong]

Appreciate the effort but it's much better to read case studies with real examples
Good luck.

 

[noellarkin]

Part 03 - Overview
- Mimicking trends vs setting trends
- Most SEOs mimic what they see on the SERPs.
- Semantic SEO can be used to CREATE trends, not just mimic them
- A Topical Map
- an information tree
- contains a variety of information:
- summaries of sections
- lists
- image URLs
- image alt text
- synonym phrases that can expand and improve relevance
- publication dates that create "momentum" (ie freshness)
- Three core principles:
- vastness - various entities
- depth - comprehensive treatment of entities and contextual information
- momentum - rate of publishing
- Entity-attribute pairs:
- Core entity: Germany
- German religion
- German geography
- German crime rate
- Core and outer sections:
- Core section: German visa related information
- Outer section: Life in Germany sections
- Selective Depth:
- in the website for a German Visa, we go DEEP on visa related topics, but we stay SHALLOW and WIDE on general Germany topics.
- For example, we may have ONE page on "German Culture" or "German Music" but we shouldn't go deep on it and make tons of pages on "German pop music" etc
- Selecting a CENTRAL entity:
- For the GERMAN VISA site the CENTRAL ENTITY is GERMANY
- getting the visa is just a sub-task of the larger process of LIVING IN GERMANY, or TRAVELING TO GERMANY
- You have to select a CENTRAL entity, and do this from the perspective of the USER who is SEARCHING, not your own perspective
- If you're optimizing for the users, then getting a VISA is just a sub-task of their larger to-do list.


Takeaways
- creating trends just sounds like finding gaps in the existing graph and filling them in, so find gaps in the topic, by brainstorming user intent and possible queries
- determine the central (parent) entity for the site around which you'll base the topical map
- go deep on the core function the site is supposed to be all about, and have shallow but wide supplemental content on related topics
- the 'shallow' content will be determined by the overall user intentions (of which the site's core content is just a subset) - Eg: German visa ---> Living in/Moving to/Visiting Germany


Comments
- The central entity thing - I understand the rationale behind it being "Germany" instead of "Visa", but there's a case to be made that the central entity could be "Visa" in which case "German" would just be an attribute of Entity "Visa". In that case, the semantic network would expand outwards with terms like "German Visa", "Polish Visa" etc etc.
- This semantic network would be more targeted towards people who are comparing different countries and haven't decided yet, or are wondering which visa is easier to get. It isn't as targeted, more broad, therefore harder to do. Specificity is cheaper.
- The user-focus thing makes sense even if one doesn't consider SEO - - having multiple touchpoints along the customer journey is a great way to reduce bounce, improve conversion etc.

 

[noellarkin]

Appreciate the effort but it's much better to read case studies with real examples
Good luck.

yep true --- I've just been procrastinating on this course for a while, and heard a lot of for/against reviews, thought I might as well get it over with

 

[noellarkin]

Part 04

Notes
- Source context: basically what your website is ACTUALLY about -Eg: "we make money from visa consultancy"
- Source context has to be aligned with central entity of site - in the example: Germany - - and the overall intent of the user (learning about/moving to/living in Germany)
- Core content: all about visas in Germany (add the central entity "Germany" to all core content)
- Supporting content: learning about Germany
- Supporting content should link to core content

Comments
Note: these are my own extrapolations.

- I'm curious why we need advanced semantic models of this, when this is better explained by a simple customer journey/ funnel: create informational content that is peripherally related to your core content, based on the overall goals/higher criteria of the prospect - - the closer you come to the point of sale, the more in-depth the information, the further away from it, the broader it is, and the wider the net.

- The complex wording around "use predicates of the central entity in titles, introductions and headings" can similarly be reduced and simplified to "reword your important CTAs so they reflect the user's aspirations, not just the keyword" ie a benefits sell. So your link can have the anchor text "Visit Germany Today: Get a German Visa" instead of "Best German Visa in Germany 2023" because the latter is an idiotic CTA.

- This video also has a discussion on using "know" predicates vs "go" predicates - - the suggestion is to use "know" predicates for the "outer" ie supporting content and "go" predicates for the core content. This is also easily explained as "know" predicates are associated with informational, further back in the customer journey, and "go" predicates are calls to action.

 

[Dj Co2]

Koray's course? lol

 

[noellarkin]

Koray's course? lol

it's a real test of will lol

 

[Dj Co2]

it's a real test of will lol

Yeah, it's not easy trying to make sense of a genius's ramblings

 

[Almostbr0ke]

Yeah, it's not easy trying to make sense of a genius's ramblings

"Genious"

 

[noellarkin]

I'm 6 videos in and this already feels so ridiculously tedious. The semantic terminology seems so unnecessary, there are simpler ways to talk about this stuff.
There's some decent information here and there (nothing exceptional, standard stuff), but I wonder if the rest of the videos will be as thin on useful content as the ones so far.
I'm also far from convinced that "going wide" to the extent that he's suggesting would even work. It sounds like a waste of budget.

 

[Steptoe]

Koray's course? lol

I'm 6 videos in and this already feels so ridiculously tedious. The semantic terminology seems so unnecessary, there are simpler ways to talk about this stuff.
There's some decent information here and there (nothing exceptional, standard stuff), but I wonder if the rest of the videos will be as thin on useful content as the ones so far.
I'm also far from convinced that "going wide" to the extent that he's suggesting would even work. It sounds like a waste of budget.

The guy's language is far too forced, and I'm pretty sure he's playing off English not being his first language (I'm taking about Korey here). His whole shtick is to overcomplicate simple concepts and be overly verbose in trying to convey maybe one or two actual points of information.

I wish you all the best wading through his lexical molasses

 

[Almostbr0ke]

I'm 6 videos in and this already feels so ridiculously tedious. The semantic terminology seems so unnecessary, there are simpler ways to talk about this stuff.
There's some decent information here and there (nothing exceptional, standard stuff), but I wonder if the rest of the videos will be as thin on useful content as the ones so far.
I'm also far from convinced that "going wide" to the extent that he's suggesting would even work. It sounds like a waste of budget.

I was listening to it while driving

The guy's language is far too forced, and I'm pretty sure he's playing off English not being his first language (I'm taking about Korey here). His whole shtick is to overcomplicate simple concepts and be overly verbose in trying to convey maybe one or two actual points of information.

I wish you all the best wading through his lexical molasses

Idk, to be honest I gave up after watching 10 videos. I can't even imagine how frustrating his course must be for someone who paid $$$$ for it.

 

[johnven]

Good luck with your journey

 

[GenesisOne]

You may better read @splishsplash posts on the subject

 

[noellarkin]

Update on this journey: The course isn't worth it. Save your time and money.
Ten videos in, most of the content is drivel. I was giving Koray the benefit of doubt, because I thought the problem was his poor communication skills, but as @Steptoe said, it seems to me now that the course is quite deliberately thin on actual actionable content. Arbitrarily borrowing terms from semantics gives his material an illusory, artificial complexity.

Then I read this post:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/g...ual-silos-new-technique.1514798/post-16748958Dunno how I had missed it, I usually read everything @splishsplash publishes here.
The keywords Koray's sites rank for are laughable. This isn't SEO, its just driving untargeted traffic by spamming low comp keywords, it's about as 'SEO' as the .it network.

I got sucked into checking out this course because of all the positive testimonials from established SEO blogs and influencers. If this guy is such a blatant scammer, it makes me begin to question everyone he's associated with.

 

[4440]

Koray's content is a pain to read. Especially when he tries to sell a concept with a totally irrelevant English word he just thinks of from thin air.
He can use 12-year-old words to sell the concept just fine but he prefers to overcomplicate it with a lot of definitions created by his own.

Though he learns from the Great Slawski, how he didn't also learn how Slawski wrote the content? Reading Slawski is a joy.

 

[4440]

Update on this journey: The course isn't worth it. Save your time and money.
Ten videos in, most of the content is drivel. I was giving Koray the benefit of doubt, because I thought the problem was his poor communication skills, but as @Steptoe said, it seems to me now that the course is quite deliberately thin on actual actionable content. Arbitrarily borrowing terms from semantics gives his material an illusory, artificial complexity.

Then I read this post:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/g...ual-silos-new-technique.1514798/post-16748958Dunno how I had missed it, I usually read everything @splishsplash publishes here.
The keywords Koray's sites rank for are laughable. This isn't SEO, its just driving untargeted traffic by spamming low comp keywords, it's about as 'SEO' as the .it network.

I got sucked into checking out this course because of all the positive testimonials from established SEO blogs and influencers. If this guy is such a blatant scammer, it makes me begin to question everyone he's associated with.

Koray knows things. But his course may also scam you unintentionally.

 

[RogueAgent]

I know what you're saying mate. I have followed Koray for some time but I am yet to complete a single one of his videos on Youtube. The communication skills and lack of organization just gets me every time and I can't bear to continue watching. The same reason I haven't invested in the course lol.