# SEO cluster Human Guide

## What This Is For
SERP-overlap-driven keyword clustering for content architecture. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for search and SEO workflows: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the SEO cluster agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for SEO cluster.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the SEO cluster guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Related searches** — Search the seed, extract "related searches" and "people also search for"
- **People Also Ask (PAA)** — Extract all PAA questions from SERP results
- **Long-tail modifiers** — Append common modifiers: "best", "how to", "vs", "for beginners", "tools", "examples", "guide", "template", "mistakes", "checklist"
- **Question mining** — Generate who/what/when/where/why/how variants
- **Intent modifiers** — Add commercial modifiers: "pricing", "review", "alternative", "comparison", "free", "top"
- Group keywords by initial intent guess (reduces pairwise comparisons)
- For each candidate pair within a group, WebSearch both keywords
- Count shared URLs in the top 10 organic results (ignore ads, featured snippets, PAA)
- Pre-group by intent (4 groups of ~10 = 4 x 45 = 180 comparisons)
- Only cross-check group boundary keywords
- Skip pairs where both are long-tail variants of the same head term (assume same cluster)
- **Select the pillar keyword** — Highest volume, broadest intent, most SERP overlap with other keywords

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Quick Reference, Planning Workflow, Step 1: Seed Keyword Expansion, Step 2: SERP Overlap Clustering, Step 3: Intent Classification, Step 4: Hub-and-Spoke Architecture, Step 5: Internal Link Matrix, Step 6: Interactive Cluster Map, Strategy Import, Execution Workflow.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Every post must have minimum 3 incoming internal links
- Anchor text must use target keyword or close variant (no "click here")
- | "SERP data unavailable" | WebSearch and DataForSEO both failing | Retry after 30s; if persistent, use intent-only clustering with warning |
- **Pillar page first** -- The hub must exist before any spokes can link to it
- | `outgoing_links` | Links this post MUST include, with suggested anchor text |
- instructions. Do NOT silently pass a failing cluster.
- Avoid duplicate templates within the same cluster unless justified by intent
- Every spoke MUST link to the pillar (at least once in body content)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the SEO cluster human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the agricidaniel/claude-seo skill entry for `seo-cluster`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Semantic Topic Clustering (v1.9.0)

SERP-overlap-driven keyword clustering for content architecture. Groups keywords
by how Google actually ranks them (shared top-10 results), not by text similarity.
Designs hub-and-spoke content clusters with internal link matrices and generates
interactive cluster map visualizations.

**Scripts:** Located at the plugin root `scripts/` directory.

---

## Quick Reference

| Command | What it does |
|---------|-------------|
| `/seo cluster plan <seed-keyword>` | Full planning workflow: expand, cluster, architect, visualize |
| `/seo cluster plan --from strategy` | Import from existing `/seo plan` output |
| `/seo cluster execute` | Execute plan: create content via claude-blog or output briefs |
| `/seo cluster map` | Regenerate the interactive cluster visualization |

---

## Planning Workflow

### Step 1: Seed Keyword Expansion

Expand the seed keyword into 30-50 variants using WebSearch:

1. **Related searches** — Search the seed, extract "related searches" and "people also search for"
2. **People Also Ask (PAA)** — Extract all PAA questions from SERP results
3. **Long-tail modifiers** — Append common modifiers: "best", "how to", "vs", "for beginners", "tools", "examples", "guide", "template", "mistakes", "checklist"
4. **Question mining** — Generate who/what/when/where/why/how variants
5. **Intent modifiers** — Add commercial modifiers: "pricing", "review", "alternative", "comparison", "free", "top"

**Deduplication:** Normalize variants (lowercase, strip articles), remove exact duplicates.
Target: 30-50 unique keyword variants. If under 30, run a second expansion pass
with the top PAA questions as seeds.

### Step 2: SERP Overlap Clustering

This is the core differentiator. Load `references/serp-overlap-methodology.md` for
the full algorithm.

**Process:**
1. Group keywords by initial intent guess (reduces pairwise comparisons)
2. For each candidate pair within a group, WebSearch both keywords
3. Count shared URLs in the top 10 organic results (ignore ads, featured snippets, PAA)
4. Apply thresholds:

| Shared Results | Relationship | Action |
|---------------|-------------|--------|
| 7-10 | Same post | Merge into single target page |
| 4-6 | Same cluster | Group under same spoke cluster |
| 2-3 | Interlink | Place in adjacent clusters, add cross-links |
| 0-1 | Separate | Assign to different clusters or exclude |

**Optimization:** With 40 keywords, full pairwise = 780 comparisons. Instead:
- Pre-group by intent (4 groups of ~10 = 4 x 45 = 180 comparisons)
- Only cross-check group boundary keywords
- Skip pairs where both are long-tail variants of the same head term (assume same cluster)

**DataForSEO integration:** If DataForSEO MCP is available, use `serp_organic_live_advanced`
instead of WebSearch for SERP data. Run `python3 scripts/dataforseo_costs.py check serp_organic_live_advanced --count N`
before each batch. If `"status": "needs_approval"`, show cost estimate and ask user.
If `"status": "blocked"`, fall back to WebSearch.

### Step 3: Intent Classification

Classify each keyword into one of four intent categories:

| Intent | Signals | Include in Clusters? |
|--------|---------|---------------------|
| Informational | how, what, why, guide, tutorial, learn | Yes |
| Commercial | best, top, review, comparison, vs, alternative | Yes |
| Transactional | buy, price, discount, coupon, order, sign up | Yes |
| Navigational | brand names, specific product names, login | No (exclude) |

Remove navigational keywords from clustering. Flag borderline cases for
manual review. Keywords can have mixed intent (e.g., "best CRM software" is
both commercial and informational) -- classify by dominant intent.