Expert Tips For What is Semantic Search and Why is it Important for SEO?

The evolution of search engine technology goes beyond backlinks and includes as many keywords as possible. The focus is now shifting toward understanding the intent, behavior, and context behind those keywords. When we understand what the keywords mean, provide rich information that contextualizes those keywords, and discern the user’s intent, we can better understand consumer behavior. The key to working effectively and efficiently in the knowledge economy lies in semantic search. In this blog post, we’ll dive into what semantic search is and why it’s important for the new age of SEO. 

Semantic Understanding 

Semantics is a branch of logic and linguistics referring to the study of reference, meaning, or truth. Applying this discipline to SEO translates to a better understanding of consumer intent and behavior and provides rich information that contextualizes the meaning of keywords. Semantic search looks to understand the natural language the way a human would but is facilitated by machine learning and AI technologies.  

In order to rank high on Google, your website needs to use semantic search engine optimization techniques. Semantic search is the understanding of intent, behavior, and context behind search engine optimization (SEO) keywords. In order to generate the most accurate SERP (Search Engine Results Page), Google must understand the relationship between words and the context in which they are being used. 

Why is it Important? 

The implementation of Google algorithms has directly impacted SEO and facilitated a shift to adopting new best practices and techniques. Before semantic search engines were fully realized, content created for SEO purposes had to be designed around specific keyword-to-word-count ratios. Today, the emphasis is on the relevance of content and how accurately it reflects the way people naturally use language.  

The rise of voice search plays a significant role in the evolution of semantic search. Mobile voice commands are now commonplace and optimizing for this type of search is immensely different from traditional SEO as the results must immediately get to the point and keep the content much more conversational. A firm understanding of language, context, and behavior is vital to achieving this. 

People often say things and search for things in different ways, languages, and tones. Search queries can also be vague in nature. Google semantic search can distinguish between distinct entities and interpret the searcher’s intent based on factors like the user’s search history, location, global search history, and spelling variations. All of these aspects help Google provide a better user experience by delivering quality information and surfacing the most relevant content results. 

Keyword Search vs Semantic Search 

Keyword search satisfies the basic needs of a search query, but it has its limitations. They are extremely literal in the sense that the search engine finds terms wherever they appear, even if the words are used in a larger phrase or different context.  

Today, the way people search for things is often ambiguous. Semantic search takes into consideration the user’s intent to uncover the contextual meaning behind those terms and pushes beyond the boundaries of Google’s collective base of knowledge to surface the information and concepts that haven’t been explicitly written into the query. Semantic technology decrypts concepts and meaning by associating search inputs with clarifying terms, like related synonyms that have been integrated into the system. Semantic enrichment helps users find new ideas and concepts by tagging unstructured text with information about its meaning. To differentiate concepts, semantic technology references vocabularies containing all known terms for the same thing or its synonyms connects these entities to each other in hierarchical relationships, and employs algorithms to analyze the content within which those terms appear. Latent coding automatically enriches the search query and provides better, more relevant information rather than simply including the specific words searched amongst a multitude of contexts. 

Conclusion 

Even with Google’s advanced algorithm, it still isn’t smart enough to gather meaning or understanding by itself. You must optimize your site to help Google understand your content and present it to your target audience. Semantic keywords, link building, structured data, and analysis are some of the most important tools needed for business growth in the era of digitalization. 

Agency Partner Interactive is the top SEO agency to optimize your website and help your business rank #1 on Google. Our digital marketing experts have the skills to effectively utilize tools like Google semantic search and semantic keywords to accelerate the growth of your business. Contact us today to get started!