What Is Semantic Search & How Does it Impact SEO?

Last Updated on January 23, 2023 by Subhash Jain

Improving SEO (Search Engine Results) is an unabated process for most SEO companies and website owners. The number of factors other than promotional practices affect website ranking; and, SEO company experts keep focus on different ranking factors while creating strategic SEO plans. Still, all the websites perform differently. Improving SEO outcome has become a consistent spree because of increasing competition in the global digital marketplace. Wouldn’t you like to improve the website vicinity in organic search results with the same SEO package? Yes, the time is to focus on Semantic search optimization.

What Is Semantic Search?

Semantic search is an AI/ML and NLP driven advanced process that enables search engines to understand users’ intent for particular search queries and provide intent-matched search results. Semantic search enables Google to differentiate results according to the interpretation of searcher intent based on different factors including user search history, user location, global search history, and spelling variations. Semantic search allows Google search engine to provide the best intent-oriented results even if users don’t use exactly matched keywords in search queries or misspell keywords.

The Emergence of Semantic Search

The introduction of knowledge graph in 2012 was the first step to consider the importance of entities and context over keywords. Knowledge graph sets the stage for many more algorithm changes to be introduced. Knowledge Graph built a massive database of different entities including birthdays, siblings, interests, parents, public domain, occupations, etc.   

Rolling out of Hummingbird update in 2013 started the use of natural language processing (NLP) to read, interpret, and derive search-intended meaning from human language. With the increase of voice searches, it became important to provide the best-matched results based on commonly used words in verbal communication.    

Knowledge Graph and Hummingbird kept making advances on NLP, triggering the rollout of RankBrain update in 2015 that enabled the Google search engine to understand the users’ intent of searches. The machine learning system, RankBrain also became a ranking factor though there is still no specific way to optimize websites for it except by providing the maximum relevant information. 

BERT update was introduced in 2019 with an intention to advance the use of NLP. BERT update empowered Google to consider the context of a keyword considering the words used before and after it. With this update, long-tail queries and phrases became more important for effective SEO; and, SEO professionals started to post content that is clear and concise that is easy to consume by the targeted users’ segment.     Multitask Unified Model (MUM) was introduced in 2021 with a big claim for being 1,000 times more powerful than BERT.  Besides being multilingual, MUM simplified understanding of the context of images, videos, and audio files to provide the most relevant results. MUM processes the search and the picture simultaneously.

Impact of Semantic Search on SEO: How Does Semantic Searches Affect SEO?

AI/ML and NLP driven Semantic search has added new dimensions to traditional SEO. Searcher intent has become the top priority of search engines. Content has become as important as technical SEO. Machine learning technology helps Google to understand what the users are looking for to know the latest, to buy, or to compare. Semantic search provided the additional ability to understand the relationship between keywords and words used as suffixes or prefixes. Now, Google can make more assumptions about the content type and relevancy that people expect. The six key impacts of semantic search on SEO that may help you structure a new SEO strategy are-

• More flexibility
• Less emphasis on keywords
• Increased importance of user value optimization
• Enhanced ability to answer original query
• Artificial intelligence oriented content to account for conversational queries 
• Fast and intuitive search experience taking account of search variations

How Does Semantic Search SEO Work?

The evolution of machine learning technology supports the Google search engine to assess the context and search intent. Search intent refers to the purpose of initiating search. Google provides more results relevant to broader possibilities of search intent. Therefore, you see that after the introduction of semantic search, search results vary more for the same keyword because of being influenced by a variety of aspects like location, search history, current news, events, trends, etc. It uses vector search methodology and machine learning technology to provide results perfectly matched with a user’s search intent even if there are no exact word matches. Semantic SEO results are re-ranked using the information about how the users interact with search results or which results are clicked more in a particular period of a year. For example, if we search for “football players”, we get different results in different countries.

Google uses semantic coding that explains the context of a web page and the appropriateness of query intent. Semantic search results are driven by three types of semantics-  

• Formal semantics: Assessment of grammatical meaning in natural language
• Conceptual semantics: The study of words at the core
• Lexical semantics: The study of the meaning of words

The Importance of Semantic Search Optimization for Your Website Performance

Writing search-engine-optimized content around topics not just about keywords is the prime practice of Semantic SEO. Semantic SEO adds value to your web content that makes your web valuable and trustworthy for the users; therefore, your website ranks higher. A single piece of content answering the maximum number of probable questions of users does better because it improves UX (user experience). Why do you need an SEO company with proven specialization in semantic SEO? The key benefits of hiring a semantic SEO company are:-

• More numbers of keywords rank better in organic searches
• Development of stronger topically brand authority with an impression of being a specialist
• Improved content quality improves user’s engagement and trust
• Google assesses your brand with expertise in core concerns of users
• Increased opportunities for building internal linking
• Enhanced stay period per use

7 Semantic Search optimization Tips to Help You Have Competitive Advantage

Semantic SEO has become a must-have digital marketing tool for businesses to get a competitive edge. Semantic search engine optimization companies have specially trained SEO experts with perfection in creating semantic SEO strategies based on website audits and particular marketing aspects. The seven most effective advantage-delivering semantic SEO tricks you can rely on to stay competitive in 2023 are:-

Optimize Your Website For Keyword Clusters:

Optimize your web page content for multiple keywords of the same semantic cluster having semantic relevance. Use of a semantic cluster of keywords makes your content more valuable for the users and Google. For example, an SEO company must optimize its ‘SEO services’ page for local SEO, organic SEO, SEO services, SEO packages, SEO benefits, paid SEO services, etc.

Increase Length and Depth of Content:

Explore the topic to make it comprehensive from the users’ perspective. You need to post lengthy but topic-relevant content that could answer most of the users’ queries. Although the length of content is not a ranking factor, still, longer informative content without keyword stuffing has more chances to rank better because of displaying stronger semantic signals.

Use Synonyms and Related Terms:

The use of NLP models has advanced Google’s ability to understand the context of content even if it is not highly keyword-centric (keyword stuffed). The semantic analysis enables Google search engine to understand related terms and synonyms. Though the use of synonyms and related terms is not a ranking factor, yet, it makes the content effective for improved topical depth and strong semantic signals.

Ask and Reply:

It is a time-proven SEO tactic to answer the questions that your target audience may have. Google’s “People also ask” feature shows up to 48.4% of all search queries; if you compete here, your website has a high chance to rank at top of the SERPs. The content created with questions improves users’ engagement because they find the content personalized and relevant to their concerns.

Use Structured Data:

Structured data is primarily used to convey the meaning and context of content to Google crawlers. Optimized structured data makes the function, utility, description, and objective of the content clear. For example, the product schema of a product page informs Google about important product details like type, color, size, dimensions, etc. Structured data paired with semantically relevant content unambiguously clear the context relevancy for more search queries.

Develop Topic Clusters On the Website:

Topic cluster highlights the entire information about a topic available on the website instead of being focused on a single piece of content like keyword clusters. A topic cluster is a group of content pieces created around the main topic. Topic clusters improve semantic SEO signals, numbers of keywords ranking higher, and strengthen authority for “link building”.

Include LSI Keywords:

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords help Google to understand the context of the content. LSI keywords, terms related to the main keyword in different contexts, are semantically relevant. You can use Google auto suggest feature to find relevant LSI keywords. For example, LSI keywords for ‘credit cards’ will be credit score, credit limit, interest rate, money, credit card offers, etc.

Difference Between Semantic SEO and Traditional SEO

Semantic SEO is a bridge to eliminate the gap between the posted content and users’ intent. To have a traffic and ranking advantage, you need to focus on semantic SEO also in addition to traditional SEO. The best practice is to work over a strategy that could address the needs of both – Semantic SEO and traditional SEO.

Focus Areas	Semantic SEO	Traditional SEO
Optimized for	User intent reflected by searches and traffic analysis on different platforms and devices	The Search engine ranking algorithm requirements
User Experience	Major focus on user experience	Comparatively lower focus on user experience
Content Optimization	Topic-based	Keyword-based
Bounce Rate	Improves website bounce rate	Not much focused to improve bounce rate

Wrapping Up

Semantic SEO specialists implement a variety of strategies to serve different promotional goals but all evolve around search intent, meaning, and language. Semantic SEO strategies highlight semantic signals awarded by Google algorithms in one way or another. Semantic SEO qualifies your business website to rank higher not only for a few keywords but also for many larger topics, thousands of keywords, and search queries related to listed primary keywords. 

About Author:

Subhash Jain is the Founder of Samyak Online which is a well established and reputed SEO agency to deliver pocket friendly SEO packages with Semantic Search technology.

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