2.- Use more than just synonyms (linguistic or implicit disambiguation)
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 4:17 am
Interestingly, this is the first thing people usually say when I ask, “What do you think you need to do to get organic traffic from semantic search?”
Most people answer “use synonyms for the keywords we want to rank for.”
Using synonyms is fine, but it is not a panacea and, often, this alone will not help Google identify the subject matter of our content.
This is what is known as linguistic or implicit disambiguation, which consists of indicating to Google the unequivocal meaning of our content thanks to the entities surrounding the term we want to position.
If, for example, we are talking about “golf” there will be other concepts that should accompany the term on the page, for example: “green”, “palo”, “verdy”, “putter”...
In this way, we will be telling Google that when we talk about “golf”, we are referring to the sport… and not to the Volkswagen car model (for example).
Move from Keywords to Entities
If what Google identifies are themes , why do you continue focusing on keywords ?
Let's be clear: I'm not saying you should stop doing keyword research, quite the italy mobile number example opposite.
Good keyword research will help you find topics your audience is searching for.
You will identify the needs you need to cover and the doubts of your target audience that you can resolve.
I'm not telling you to forget the basics of on-page SEO based on keywords, such as including the main keyword in the title, in the first paragraph, tagging multimedia elements with this keyword, etc.
But what it's all about is focusing on one entity (one concept) and making it clear to Google that your content is about that specific entity.
Therefore, you must look for semantic keywords that complement the keywords you identify in your keyword research.
Semantic link building
When doing link building you will also have to take into account this semantic capacity of Google and pay attention to certain aspects.
Anchor text
Anchor text is part of the context and as such will help Google interpret the meaning of the content being linked to.
It is therefore important to ensure that the links that link to us do so with terms that are semantically related to our content.
I'm not saying that you should over-optimize your anchor texts, that would be the worst thing you could do.
However, it is true that if the profile of the anchors that link to you contains terms that refer to the information entity linked, this will undoubtedly help search engines identify that meaning.
Most people answer “use synonyms for the keywords we want to rank for.”
Using synonyms is fine, but it is not a panacea and, often, this alone will not help Google identify the subject matter of our content.
This is what is known as linguistic or implicit disambiguation, which consists of indicating to Google the unequivocal meaning of our content thanks to the entities surrounding the term we want to position.
If, for example, we are talking about “golf” there will be other concepts that should accompany the term on the page, for example: “green”, “palo”, “verdy”, “putter”...
In this way, we will be telling Google that when we talk about “golf”, we are referring to the sport… and not to the Volkswagen car model (for example).
Move from Keywords to Entities
If what Google identifies are themes , why do you continue focusing on keywords ?
Let's be clear: I'm not saying you should stop doing keyword research, quite the italy mobile number example opposite.
Good keyword research will help you find topics your audience is searching for.
You will identify the needs you need to cover and the doubts of your target audience that you can resolve.
I'm not telling you to forget the basics of on-page SEO based on keywords, such as including the main keyword in the title, in the first paragraph, tagging multimedia elements with this keyword, etc.
But what it's all about is focusing on one entity (one concept) and making it clear to Google that your content is about that specific entity.
Therefore, you must look for semantic keywords that complement the keywords you identify in your keyword research.
Semantic link building
When doing link building you will also have to take into account this semantic capacity of Google and pay attention to certain aspects.
Anchor text
Anchor text is part of the context and as such will help Google interpret the meaning of the content being linked to.
It is therefore important to ensure that the links that link to us do so with terms that are semantically related to our content.
I'm not saying that you should over-optimize your anchor texts, that would be the worst thing you could do.
However, it is true that if the profile of the anchors that link to you contains terms that refer to the information entity linked, this will undoubtedly help search engines identify that meaning.