What Is Semantic SEO? A Beginner’s Guide
Are you unsure about how to properly target keywords in your content?
Search engine optimization complicates content creation quite a bit. It’s hard to get by on just writing the way you want to write about whatever topics you want to write about alone.
You need to use a different approach.
Semantic search engine optimization (SEO) is an SEO strategy that involves targeting topics with high-quality content that’s written for humans instead of targeting keywords with content that’s mostly optimized for search engines.
In this post, we cover how to use this strategy to optimize your content for search engines like Google and humans alike.
What is semantic SEO?
To put it into simple terms, semantic SEO is a form of SEO that involves targeting a topic instead of a keyword.
These might seem like the same things, but they’re actually quite different.
For the longest time, blogs could rank keywords by simply using an individual keyword enough times in web content.
However, Google’s algorithm update in 2013, which was given the codename Hummingbird, changed this strategy by penalizing sites who targeted keywords with irrelevant, low-quality content with a single intent to increase search engine rankings.
Hummingbird was the first major initiative in Google’s push to match search queries to their search intent as much as possible.
Now, if you enter “best type of clay to use for mugs” into Google, you’ll get search results for content the search engine truly believes gives a straightforward answer to that query, not just web pages who use the exact keyword “best type of clay to use for mugs” enough times in their content.
Why is learning semantic SEO important?
Semantic SEO is important because it helps you write content that’s optimized for readers and Google alike.
And if you’re still new to SEO and keep wondering why I keep referring to Google and not “search engines” or “Bing,” know that Google has a 90.01% market share among all search engines in the world.
This means you’re better off optimizing your site for Google’s algorithm over other search engine algorithms, and Google’s algorithm wants to serve user intent above all else.
It cares very little about your ability to rank.
Semantic SEO helps you optimize your content for search intent, which helps future proof your content as Google makes several changes to its algorithm, including ranking user-generated content (UGC) sources like forums more and more.
Semantic SEO strategies to use to optimize your content
1. Understand the search intent behind your target keyword
You can’t match your content with your reader’s search intent if you don’t know what results your reader is expecting to find when they enter your target keyword into search engines.
Semantic keywords are keywords that closely relate to the content on the web page they’re used on. Therefore, your content needs to be as topically relevant to your reader’s search intent as possible.
We should mention that Google recognizes three different forms of search intent:
- Informational – The user is looking for information on a topic or answers to a question.
- Commercial – The user is looking for products.
- Navigational – The user is trying to find a specific web page on a website.
The best way to check for search intent is to simply enter the keyword into Google yourself and see what results pop up.
Let’s look at two very similar keywords: “clay for mugs” and “clay mugs.”
These keywords look the same, but they have very different meanings, and search engines understand that.
They understand that when users search for “clay for mugs,” they’re looking for information on the best type of clay and the best clay products to use to make mugs.
We know this because entering this search query into Google returns both informational and commercial results.
But when we enter “clay mugs” into Google, we get product results for clay mugs and not much else. This means this search query is commercial in intent.
So, if I target “clay for mugs,” I should include information on the different types of clay you can use to make mugs but also recommend a few specific clay products to use.
When I target “clay mugs,” I should only include product recommendations.
If you need help identifying a keyword’s search intent, use a keyword research tool.
2. Use related keywords in your content
You now know that Google wants to promote content that’s as topically relevant to a user’s search intent as possible. What you may still be confused about is how to write content in a way for Google to understand its relevance.
The best way to do this is by using related keywords. Related keywords are relevant keywords that must be included in order to cover a topic properly.
When search engine crawlers scan your content, they use related keywords as context to help them understand what a page is about.
You can find related keywords in a few different ways:
- On-page optimization tools like Frase, Surfer SEO and NeuronWriter. They identify related keywords and provide suggestions on how many times you should use each
- Keyword research tools
- Google Search
- Your own knowledge of the topic
You can use related keywords naturally in your content as you write or turn them into individual sections in your article.
Using this very article as an example, we included sections for “related keywords” and “structured data,” which are both topically relevant to our target keyword “semantic SEO.”
3. Turn awkward keyword phrases into conversational keywords
The good thing about Google’s more complex understanding of search intent is the way it’s able to understand that two closely related keywords are one and the same.
For example, Google understands that users who enter “collars for dogs” into the search engine are looking for the exact same products as users who enter the search term “dog collars.”
That’s why the results are nearly the same for each. So, if you rank for “collars for dogs,” you likely also rank for “dog collars.”
With this information in mind, you can target awkward keyword phrases by using grammatically correct keyword variations instead.
“Social media trends 2024” is an awkward keyword to include in your content, but it’s a reasonable keyword to target. Traditional SEO tactics would have you use “social media trends 2024” as is in your H1 tag, SEO title and meta description.
With semantic SEO, you can use a few variations instead, such as “social media trends for 2024” or “social media trends to know in 2024.”
This also optimizes your content for voice search queries where users are more likely to use conversational keywords in an effort to appease the natural language processing algorithms used by AI.
4. Answer questions that appear in the “People Also Ask” section
The “People Also Ask” section of Google is a great source for related keywords.
Therefore, if you want to ensure your content is topically relevant to your target keyword, you should answer the questions that appear in this section somewhere in your content.
You can either include the answers naturally in your content or dedicate an entire section to a question.
For example, when you search for “best type of clay to use for mugs,” people also ask questions about using air dry clay for mugs.
This means if you write an article about using clay for mugs, you should include a section on using air dry clay for this purpose.
To answer that first question that pops up, “What clay is best for making mugs,” the first sentence in your article could say something along the lines of, “The best clay for making mugs is…”
You’d then fill in the blank with the type of clay you personally feel is best for making mugs.
5. Use keyword synonyms
Before the Panda and Hummingbird updates hit Google’s algorithm in 2011 and 2013 respectively, you could get away with creating different pages that target different keyword variations.
For example, you could have created one page that targeted the keyword “collars for dogs” and another page that targeted “dog collars.”
Google now understands that these keywords are closely related, so you’re better off targeting both with the same page.
This is where keyword variations and keyword synonyms come into play.
You can avoid over optimizing your page for a single keyword by targeting multiple keywords instead.
If you’re afraid you’re using “clay mugs” too many times in an article, include variations and synonyms like “clay mug,” “ceramic mugs,” “handmade mugs” and “coffee mugs” here and there.
6. Answer the user’s search query as quickly as possible
There’s a reason why Google is promoting Reddit and other forums more and more in their results.
It’s because these sources are filled with user-generated content that answer search queries in one or a few short sentences.
They’re written by the user’s peers, not a blogger trying to outrank their competition.
Does this mean you need to start writing shorter content? Not necessarily.
It just means you need to answer the user’s search query somewhere near the beginning of the article, preferably in the introduction or underneath the first heading.
Burying the answer to a search query toward the bottom of an article is a tactic some blogs use to acquire more ad views. It’s a tactic the food blog industry uses for recipe posts.
Answering the search query as quickly as possible is an underrated semantic SEO strategy that helps you optimize your content for search intent.
7. Don’t be afraid to write longform content
You should still write longform content when needed. This is likely a tactic you’ll need to use when you target a keyword that has a higher search volume and is more competitive as a result.
Longform content helps you include more semantically related keywords in your content.
It gives Google more and more content to crawl on your page in an effort to find those related keywords and make a connection to the main topic you’re targeting.
This will help you rank for your target keyword.
8. Include structured data when relevant
If you’re reviewing a product, include schema markup, also known as structured data, on your page.
Schema markup is data you can add to web pages that appear in search results.
For product reviews, it means your review score will appear next to your search result on Google.
For recipes, it means your recipe will appear on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).
There are other forms of schema markup, such as product pricing, stock status, delivery details, return details, local SEO results and more, but these aren’t necessarily relevant in the context of semantic SEO.
9. Target topic clusters
Topic clusters are proving to be a fantastic way to strengthen your site’s authority on a topic.
Ever since the helpful content update (HCU) hit Google’s algorithm, Google has been using a site’s entire content library to better understand its expertise on a topic.
This means you’re better off focusing on a larger topic by creating content that targets several subtopics within that larger topic rather than simply targeting large topic after large topic or targeting a group of low-competitive keywords that don’t necessarily connect with one another.
These groups of articles that target closely-related subtopics are known as “topic clusters.” Targeting them helps strengthen your authority on the larger topic they target.
Use keyword research tools to find subtopics to target that relate to a main topic you’re trying to rank for.
10. Include relevant internal and external links
Another benefit of targeting topic clusters is the way it gives you plenty of relevant internal links to include in your content.
Relevant internal links give search engine crawlers more context about your page’s topic.
They also help Google recognize your authority on a topic. Having several pages that relate to a similar topic is a pretty good indicator that you’re staying in your lane, so to speak.
You should also include relevant external links from trusted sources. These also give Google context on the topics your pages target.
Use semantic SEO on your blog
Optimizing for specific keywords isn’t the only approach when it comes to SEO, especially with how search engines are behaving nowadays.
Semantic SEO bridges the gap between writing content for your readers as well as appeasing search engine algorithms.
Get started by implementing one of these 10 strategies today!
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