Semantic Search for SEO

Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by Marc McDermott in SEO

It seems that a lot of SEO’s and webmasters these days continue to ignore the concept of semantic search. What is semantic search exactly? The good folks over at SEOmoz describe semantic search as:

…semantic search is defined by the ability of the search engine to cognitively recognise and index content based on the actual sentence structure and meaning (or, in other words, the ability of the search engine to actually READ your content).

In layman’s terms, it’s an attempt for a search engine spider to read website content much like any average human user would. Remember, the core of any search engines success is relevance for their users and providing the best information catered to every search. The only way to achieve this is to continually innovate with new technologies and processes to better understand the web while discounting ‘spammers’ who tend to keyword stuff like there’s no tomorrow.

One question I got this week was, “…then how will I ever rank for these specific phrases unless they are ‘stuffed’ into my page content?” My answer to this every time is, “…do NOT stuff keyword phrases in your content in order to achieve better rankings.” When writing SEO content, the first and foremost target audience needs to be your users. What good is being #1 on google for a term like personal injury lawyer if no one wants to read your content and immediately leaves the page?

Google has the ability to ‘learn’ about content on the basis of keyword synonyms, word placement, inbound links with anchor text, as well as common themes they’ve made across various other sites with similar content or subject matter. This can be a crucial reason why your site needs to live in a safe ‘link neighborhood’.

Of course there are many other parameters that go into semantic search, but all technical reasons aside, the one thing to focus on when writing content for SEO is your users. If you write for them, you cant go wrong. Create valuable content that is appeasing, informative, and perhaps even link worthy. Get that right, and rankings will surely follow.