Semantic SEO: from intent to a connected system.
Semantic SEO here means organising content so the reader gets a complete answer and the search engine gets clear pages, links and structured data. We use “topical authority” and “cost of retrieval” as analytical models — not as named Google metrics.
What does Google actually document?
Google publicly recommends helpful, people-first content, crawlable links, descriptive headings and structured data that matches the visible content. It does not publish a formula for “topical authority” and does not require strict silos.
That distinction runs through this whole section. Where a claim comes from Google documentation, we link the source. Where it is a working model we use to make decisions, we say so — including for “topical authority” and “cost of retrieval”, both of which are analytical frames rather than named Google metrics.
Guides and implementation
Complete SEO architecture
Macro topic → cluster → page → micro-intent, with an entity–attribute matrix.
02Query templates
The query pattern as a second route to authority, the threshold for opening a new page, and cost of retrieval.
CodeA cohesive JSON-LD graph
What schema does, what it does not do, and how the graph is validated.
ContentClear writing for people and machines
Direct answers, a logical hierarchy and the removal of ambiguity.
Two routes, one system
Authority is built along two axes that are easy to confuse. The first covers every entity in a class through the attributes they share. The second covers every variation of a single query pattern, and does not require the pages to be topically related at all.
| Route | What gets covered | Where authority attaches |
|---|---|---|
| Entity–attribute | All members of a class, across their shared attributes | To the topic |
| Query template | All variations of one query pattern | To the query format |
| Hybrid | Every entity, every attribute, in every variation of the pattern | To both |
Most sites do the first and stop. The second is covered on the query template page, together with the threshold that decides whether a query deserves its own URL.
Does a relevant cross-topic link “dilute” a silo?
No such general rule exists. A relevant contextual link helps both the reader and Google find and understand a related page.
That is why this hub links naturally to alt text and image context where the textual and visual layers genuinely meet. A silo that refuses relevant links is optimising for a diagram rather than for the reader.