In 2010, Apple released the fourth series of Apple mobile phones and Samsung was just launching its Galaxy phones. Since then, technology has made many advances and SEO has been no exception.
In those years, to reach the top rankings of Google, you only needed to get more backlinks and the more keywords you used in your content, the better your website would rank. In other words, no one thought about user experience and content creation, and everyone was looking to get more backlinks.
But now things have changed a bit, and in all industries, the role of the user and his experience has become more important. Businesses are looking to create a better experience for users to convert them into their customers and design and produce their products according to their tastes.
Search engines like Google have also evolved and give better rankings to websites that understand the user’s purpose in searching and provide the content they need.
In this article, we will tell you what semantic SEO means and how you can achieve top rankings in this situation.
What is Semantic SEO?
Semantic SEO is made up of two words: “Semantic” meaning ontology and “Seo” meaning website optimization for search engines. It is a process in which websites are optimized in a way that covers the purpose and contextual meaning of users’ searches and provides a result that matches the user’s purpose and intention.
This technique does not focus much on keywords and you do not need to fill your pages with all kinds of keywords; because the relevance and meaning of the phrases on the website pages are of great importance.
The Knowledge Graph, introduced in 2012, was Google’s first step towards paying attention to the needs of users. This graph included a large database of public data that was collected so that Google had complete information about every event available.
A year later, Google introduced an update called the Hummingbird algorithm, which can be considered the origin of Semantic SEO.
The algorithm used NLP to understand pages and ultimately select the page to show in the top rankings that matched the overall topic of the page with the keyword.
In 2015, Google launched the RankBrain algorithm, which, like a hummingbird, seeks to understand the user’s intent behind queries. The key difference between them is RankBrain’s machine learning.
The algorithm is constantly learning, analyzing results with the best performance and looking for similarities between pages that were valuable to users. That’s why it might show a page that does not contain exact keywords but answers the user’s question well in the top rankings.
The next algorithm released to complete this path was the BERT algorithm, introduced in 2019.
According to Google, this is the most significant leap forward in the past five years and one of the biggest leaps in the history of search. BERT gave SEO and content specialists the space to use more long-tail keywords and give more importance to content to have a chance of ranking higher.
How does semantic SEO improve the search experience?
A big question that may arise for anyone working in this field is whether semantic SEO creates a better experience for SERPs or not?
In this section, we will answer this crucial question by looking to the future.
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User behavior in search has changed
Semantic search has evolved largely due to the rise of voice search. Many people prefer to take help from their mobile phone voice assistants and are looking for an alternative to typing words. On the other hand, with the advent of artificial intelligence tools, the conversational model with the user and the precise response to his needs is a new behavior that has been added to users.
Now imagine how different this search model is from its traditional type. Its two big differences are also the precise and short answer in addition to focus of the conversation on them.
Finally, the existence of semantics can help you adapt to this change in behavior more easily.
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Shifting focus from keywords to topics
It is time to stop creating content around keywords. The time to stuff content with keywords and not pay attention to the topic is over. Instead, you should choose topics that can accurately answer users’ needs and go deeper.
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Searcher intent becomes a priority
By examining the queries that drive people to your website, you can come up with a group of ideal topics for your content. In fact, the most important thing you need to do is understand your users and their needs from searching for each query. For example, you need to understand that the purpose of users searching for the word “iPhone 16 Pro Max” is the same as the word “buy iPhone 16 Pro Max” and in one content you need to cover these needs together to achieve a top ranking. But in another area, the user’s intent for searching for two almost identical words may have two completely different purposes, in which case you need to write separate content for each of them.
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Technical SEO is as important as content
Even with these changes, it is still not smart enough to get the right meaning from a page on its own, and you still need to optimize your website and help Google understand your content.
Google cares about user satisfaction, and they are constantly adjusting their algorithm to better understand and satisfy searchers.
What are the benefits of semantic SEO?
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Increase in user experience and engagement
By understanding the context and intent behind user queries, search engines can provide more relevant information and potentially increase user engagement.
Based on past search history and user preferences, semantic search helps search engines tailor results to users’ unique needs and interests.
This leads to greater engagement with users, who can continue searching for hours because they are receiving content that is specifically tailored to their needs.
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Content quality improvement
Semantic search promotes higher-quality content that is comprehensive and relevant, and uses keywords appropriately. This shift impacts content creation and marketing, resulting in a higher quality of content.
Consider a health blog. Instead of targeting only health-related keywords, it can cover topics that address users’ health and wellness questions to better align with their search intent.
How to develop a semantic SEO strategy?
The main difference between semantic SEO and traditional SEO is understanding the user’s needs. If you comprehend the user’s needs and search goals well, you can easily produce content that meets their needs and rank high. But below we will tell you some tips that paying attention to them can help you.
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Focus on voice search
Implement voice search optimization, as it puts user intent first.
Voice assistants like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa that perform voice searches will have a positive impact on your website’s SEO if they can show your content or use your content data as answers.
Voice queries are often longer, more descriptive, and in full sentences or questions, and in conversational form. Therefore, your content should be more experience-oriented and comprehensive.
To align with the nature of voice search, try focusing on these types of keywords:
- Long-tail Keywords: Specific, less common phrases. For example, “best ways to care for greenhouse plants.”
- Question Keywords: Keywords that start with question words like “how,” “what,” or “why.” For example, “how to grow a vegetable garden indoors?”
- Conversation-oriented Keywords: Keywords that mimic natural speech and are often used in voice searches. For example, “a good way to grow plants indoors.”Although these categories may seem unique, they often overlap and share common characteristics. Question keywords can be conversational ones, and many long-tail keywords also involve asking questions.
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Content creation; in line with users’ goals
Search engines aim to fill the gap between users’ questions and their actual search intent, and what better way to do this than by creating targeted content. Sometimes you can even go further and anticipate and answer users’ possible next questions. For example, you might provide a brief installation guide for a product along with a buying guide, or link the two together with an internal link. Because after a purchase, the question that arises is probably how to install it?
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Technical SEO and user experience improvement
Combine technical SEO with great UX to give users and search engine crawlers a seamless experience. Here are some actions you can execute:
- Implementing schema and structured data
- Optimizing website speed and page loading
- Implementing semantic HTML
- Optimizing website architecture for better user experience
- Creating internal links and relevant backlinks
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Conclusion
Search engines are constantly optimizing to create a better user experience, and in the meantime, many new and updated concepts are being introduced to help with this goal. In this path, you need to constantly approach your target audience with new approaches and strive to achieve top rankings. Semantic is a concept that, by fully understanding it, you can easily rank high and direct a large number of audiences to your website daily.
