Semantic cocoon or semantic siloing is a technique used in website architecture that involves structuring the website’s pages and content around specific themes, with the aim of improving the site’s relevance and rankings on search engines.
According to Google’s Webmaster Central Blog, a website’s structure can significantly affect Google’s ability to crawl and index its pages. More specifically, the clearer the site’s organization, the easier it is for Google’s crawlers to understand the content. If Google understands your content, it will have a better chance of ranking high in search results for relevant queries.
In the context of SEO, semantic cocoon benefits in several ways. One is by boosting the website’s thematic relevancy. Because all the pages within a cocoon are related thematically and linked to each other, they mutually enhance each other’s relevance. For example, if a website selling sports equipment has separate semantic cocoons for each sport, each cocoon helps Google understand what each page is about and therefore enhances its relevancy to search queries about that sport.
Another benefit is that semantic cocoons make internal linking more efficient. The interconnected nature of the cocoons makes it easier for search engines to crawl the site and index all the pages. This can lead to better visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) and higher traffic to the site. This is well illustrated in the blog of SEO Siren, where they showed that after implementing semantic siloing, not only the main pages but also the deeper pages of the website started ranking better in Google.
The third benefit is reducing the bounce rate. Because all the pages in a cocoon are closely related thematically, a visitor who lands on one of the pages is more likely to find other interesting content on other pages in the same cocoon and therefore stay on the site longer. According to Moz, a renowned SEO software company, high bounce rates can negatively affect a site’s search engine ranking, so reducing the bounce rate can potentially help with SEO.
Lastly, the semantic cocoon methodology assists in raising your site’s overall domain authority. When every webpage and blog post contributes to a common theme, search engines can interpret your website as a trusted and authoritative source on that particular subject matter. Consequently, this can positively influence your organic ranking (source: Neil Patel’s SEO blog).
In summary, the semantic cocoon is a potent tool in SEO that can significantly boost a website’s relevancy, increase visibility, reduce bounce rates, and augment overall domain authority. Sources used include Google’s Webmaster Central Blog, SEO Siren, Moz, and Neil Patel’s SEO Blog.
