Semantic SEO – A Beginner’s Guide

Semantic SEO is about writing content around topics, rather than individual keywords.

It’s a way of creating content that is topic-focused rather than keyword-focused. It’s an approach to SEO that tries to understand the search intent behind the keyword so as to address the searcher’s needs.

In a piece of content optimized for semantic SEO, the searcher will find the answers they need in one piece of content instead of having to jump around between six or seven different articles.

But to fully understand what semantic SEO is, first we need to understand semantic search.

Semantic search is an approach to understanding search queries and delivering results for those queries, used by Google and other semantic search engines.

When Google started out, in the late 1990s, it relied 100% on keywords. It matched keywords in search queries to keywords in web pages. That meant that if you typed in “why should I get 8 hours sleep”, the search results would only show pages with that exact keyword phrase.

But search engine algorithms have evolved since then. In particular, the algorithms have gotten much better at understanding the intent behind a search query.

If you type that search query in today, none of the results display that exact keyword:

That’s because Google is no longer matching keywords in queries to keywords in results. Instead, it is going behind the query to understand what the searcher actually wants.

In the first result, Google even gives you the answer: “sleep helps your body and brain function properly”. 

In the second and third results, Google interprets the query to mean “how much sleep do I actually need?”. In other words, the algorithm knows that’s what the searcher really wants to know.

In short, Google has become a semantic search engine.

This process began in 2103, with the Google Hummingbird Update. That’s when Google started analyzing entire phrases, and not just individual keywords. 

Then came Google’s RankBrain algorithm in 2015, which used natural language processing (NLP) to understand the context and intent behind search queries. 

The process continued in 2019 with Google’s BERT Update. This is a technique for processing natural language by examining how one word is related to the other words in a search query. The BERT algorithm considers the context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it.

As the name implies, semantic search is based on semantics or the study of the meaning of words and phrases and how those meanings change depending on context.

Semantic search aims to understand the intent behind a search query. Whenever possible, a semantic search engine will provide the searcher with a search result that answers the search query.

This entails a focus on topics, rather than keywords.

Through various topic modeling techniques, search engines are getting better at understanding topics. By looking at the co-occurrence of words in large sets of documents, algorithms are able to establish that certain clusters of words correspond to certain topics:

This allows search engines to match a search query with a result that covers that topic in depth. 

Instead of the searcher having to find their answer in half-a-dozen different search results, they can find a single piece of content that answers all their questions.

As we have seen, semantic search is about better understanding searcher intent and providing in-depth search results that reflect not just a keyword but the entire topic associated with that keyword.

Semantic SEO is the mirror image of semantic search: it is the practice of writing content that addresses the entire topic rather than a single keyword. Semantic SEO is about creating authoritative content that better satisfies the search intent of the user. It’s about creating an organized user experience that covers an entire topic, as opposed to creating random, unconnected, pieces of content that focus on individual keywords.

Semantic SEO does not aim to answer a single question but to answer all the questions that a searcher is likely to have on that topic.

For example, if someone types in “what is domain authority?”, it is likely that they also have the following questions:

• does domain authority help you rank higher?
• is domain authority a ranking factor?
• how do you increase domain authority?
• what is a good domain authority?
• how long does it take to build high domain authority?

Semantic SEO understands the search intent behind the keyword and creates content that comprehensively addresses the searcher’s questions around that topic. 

To put it another way, the more your content reflects the semantic relationships behind the search query, the higher your content will rank in the search results.

The main benefit of semantic SEO is that your content will rank higher in the search results because it will better reflect the topic model that the search engine has built for that keyword.

Another major benefit of semantic SEO is that you end up ranking for more keywords. When you write content around an entire topic, you tend to use more of the semantically-related keywords associated with that topic. And that means that your content piece is going to show up in many more searches than if you focus on a single keyword.

Also, writing topic-focused content will send quality signals to Google: your website will be seen as having topical authority for the topics that you write about. That means that when you write new content on a related topic, you’ll find it easier to rank in the search results.

Content that covers every aspect of a topic keeps visitors on your page for longer. That’s a user experience signal that will help your content rank higher.

Another benefit of semantic SEO comes in the form of opportunities for internal linking. If you create clusters of content on a particular topic, that creates internal linking opportunities. Internal linking can dramatically improve how your website ranks in the search results. This is because internal links show search engines that your site has authority on that topic. 

‘People Also Ask’ is another benefit of using semantic SEO. 

When you cover every aspect of a topic, your content is more likely to be chosen as a source for answering ‘People Also Ask’ features. According to Ahrefs 43% of all searches now show a ‘People Also Ask’ box. So this is a strategy that can dramatically increase your traffic.

One of the driving forces behind the development of semantic search has been the rise of voice search. 

The rapid growth in voice search was one of the reasons search engines moved away from a focus on keywords to a focus on understanding topics.

Traditional text queries tend to be two or three words typed into a search bar. But voice search is longer and much more conversational. 

For example, a text search might be “cafes near me” but the equivalent voice search is likely to be: “what are some good cafes in my local area”.

Voice search tends to use whole sentences. It uses words, such as prepositions, that are not part of the keyword. Voice search is more nuanced and context-dependent than text search. Also, voice search is much more focused on questions.

All of this meant that search engines had to become better at semantics: understanding the meaning behind words and phrases.

And that’s where Hummingbird came in. With the Hummingbird algorithm Google became much better at understanding conversational search queries.

We have seen that voice search is a big part of semantic SEO. But what are the strategies for optimizing your content for voice search?

Here are some techniques that will make your content more accessible to voice search.

Front-load your content – answer the common query associated with your topic at the top of the page before going into more specific details. People doing voice searches want answers quickly. Front-loading your answers makes it easier for search engines to use your content to answer voice searches.

Answer questions – focus on answering questions, since most voice searches are questions.

Use natural language – instead of trying to force stilted keyword combinations into your copy, use natural language. For example, if your keyword is ‘build house’, you don’t need to force that exact keyword into your content. You can use ‘build your house’ or ‘build my house’ or ‘build a house’.

Answer FAQs – voice search prioritizes questions, so one way to optimize your content for voice search is to answer frequently asked questions around the topic of your article.

One of the problems facing semantic search engines is that words change their meaning depending on context. Here are some examples:

• Is she your peer or is someone trying to peer inside your bag?
• Were you right about that or are you telling me to make a right turn?
• Did the game end in a tie or are you looking for a tie to wear with that suit?
• Do you need to train for your new job or are you looking for a train from Paris to London?
• Did the wind mess up your hair or are you trying to wind up a clock?
• Is it a minute model car or is it just going to take a minute?

One solution to this is to focus on entities rather than words. 

Whereas words can change their meaning, an entity is always one thing. As Google explained in a 2016 patent: “an entity is a thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable”.

To organize entities and place them in relationship to each other, Google uses a vast database called the Knowledge Graph. Within the knowledge graph, each entity occupies a ‘node’. Each node is connected to other nodes that define some attribute of the entity. The relationship between connected nodes is called an ‘edge’.

For example ‘Anthony Hopkins’ would be a node and it would be connected with nodes for ‘male’, ‘Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Thor’, and ‘Welsh’:

The relationships between entities are what help semantic search engines understand what is actually meant when someone uses a particular word in a search query.

When your content includes semantically-related words and contextually relevant keywords it helps the search engine understand the entities that your content is talking about.

The practice of using context in your content to help the search engines understand your topic is called entity-based SEO.

When you write a piece of content with the aim of covering the topic comprehensively, you’ll be optimizing for semantic SEO by default.

But there are also some specific strategies for implementing semantic SEO.

The most important thing you must do to optimize your content for semantic SEO is to understand the intent behind the search query.

Semantic search engines like Google want to offer a user-journey experience that completely addresses the intent behind the query. They don’t want to offer randomly generated fragments of content.

This means that you need to map out what it is that the searcher ultimately wants to do. 

For example, take someone who types ‘how to build a list’ into Google. We can see from that search query that they want to build an email list. But we can also anticipate some other information they will need:

• How to choose an email marketing service provider?
• How to create a lead magnet?
• How to create an effective opt-in form?
• Should I collect names or just email addresses?
• What is GDPR and how do I comply?

If you can provide all of that information in your content, that provides a better user experience for the searcher. Instead of hopping around from one article to another, they can get all the information they need in one place.

That piece of content is going to rank higher in the search engines because it offers a better user experience than articles that just address one aspect of the topic.

Another key strategy in semantic SEO is to create an outline for your article. 

Your content piece needs to be carefully structured around the subtopics within your main topic. Having a well-structured outline is how you ensure that you are covering the topic comprehensively.

Your outline should be divided into main sections (H2 headings) and subsections (H3 headings). Depending on how detailed the material is, you may also need sections within your subsections (H4 headings).

When researching your content, treat each main section (i.e. each H2 heading) as its own article. 

What do I mean by that?

If the topic of your article is ‘hamster care’, your main sections might be ‘hamster cages’, ‘hamster diet’, ‘hamster exercise’, ‘hamster diseases’, and ‘hamster breeding’.

Research each of those topics as if it were an article on its own. When you take that approach it ensures that your piece of content will have topical authority and will be more authoritative than other articles on the same topic.

The number of words in your content is not, in itself, an indication of how thorough your article is. But it’s hard to cover a topic comprehensively in an article of 400 words. 

In general, you need at least 2000 – 3000 words for an article that will be regarded by Google as having topical authority. 

For years people have been telling us to target long-tail keywords. And that makes sense because long-tail keywords have lower competition and are therefore easier to rank for.

But that approach won’t work with semantic SEO. When you write an article focused around a long-tail keyword, your content is only going to address a very small part of a topic.

For example, ‘handheld cordless leaf blowers’ is a longtail keyword that would have lower competition than ‘leaf blowers’. But when you write an article around that one keyword, your content will be missing all the semantically-related keywords (such as ‘backpack leaf blowers’, ‘walk behind leaf blowers’, ‘gas leaf blowers’, etc).

To put it another way, articles that focus on long-tail keywords will never have the topical authority that you need to meet the requirements of a semantic search engine.

This follows from the last point: when your content piece focuses on a middle keyword rather than a long-tail keyword, your article needs to target multiple keywords. 

Use a topic modeling tool, such as MarketMuse or Article Insights, to uncover the semantically-related keywords. These are the keywords associated with your subtopics. 

When you include these related keywords in your content, you signal to the search engines that your content has been built around the topic and not just a keyword.

‘People Also Ask’ (PPA) is a rich snippet feature that Google shows in the top half of the SERPs. It provides users with additional information they may be looking for from their initial query:

If you want to want to optimize your content for semantic SEO, ‘People Also Ask’ is an absolute bonanza. Google is telling you exactly what the subtopics are for the keyword you just typed into the search bar. 

And PPA has this amazing feature: it expands endlessly. Click on one PPA item and you’ll see a new set of questions that weren’t there before. This means you can really drill down into the topic and see all the related subtopics:

A topic cluster is a group of pages that revolves around a central topic. It uses a pillar page as the main hub with the cluster pages all linking to and from the pillar page.

An example of a topic cluster would be ‘email marketing’. The pillar post would explain in broad terms what email marketing is, why it is so important for online businesses, and how it compares to other forms of online marketing.

The pillar post would briefly mention the subtopics within email marketing, such as:

• building an email list
• segmenting an email list
• email sequences
• email automations
• email open rates
• GDPR compliance
• email subject lines
• email frequency

Your article on ‘email marketing’ would link out to separate pages that cover these individual topics in more detail.

Topic clusters are great for semantic SEO because they show search engines that your site has topical authority on that topic. In addition, the internal linking that results from a topic cluster sends an important topical relevance signal to search engines.

Any tool that shows you contextually relevant keywords can be used for semantic SEO. Here are some useful tools, both free and paid.

Google Autocomplete is a great way to quickly see keywords and topics related to your main keyword:

Google’s Related Searches is another tool for finding semantically related keywords:

Another free tool that will help you find related keywords is Google’s Keyword Planner:

Another free tool (though it also has a premium version) that will help you find topically relevant keywords is Answer The Public:

‘Answer The Public’ is a rich source of questions that people ask in relation to your main topic, so it is particularly useful for semantic SEO.

There are a number of paid tools designed to optimize your content against a topic model for the keyword you are targeting.

Clearscope

Clearscope uses artificial intelligence to find contextual keywords to include in your content. It helps you produce content that’s highly relevant to your topic or keyword. Clearscope also helps you develop an effective outline for your article.

SurferSEO

SurferSEO is primarily an On-Page SEO tool – it analyzes the content of your page against “500+ on-page” signals. SurferSEO will help you with semantic SEO by analyzing online content around a given topic and then suggesting an entire content plan for that topic. It also works at the level of an individual article, showing you what related keywords and subtopics you need to include in order to rank well.

Frase

Frase is an AI tool that helps you research, write, and optimize content for SEO. Frase’s text editor uses a topic model to score your content against your competitors. You then get a list of related topics, with a recommended number of mentions for each topic. Frase helps ensure your content covers a topic comprehensively and sends the right topical authority signals to Google.

MarketMuse

MarketMuse is another AI-powered content optimization tool. It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze content, suggest topics to cover, and develop briefs that make it easier to create topically relevant content.

Semantic SEO is a way of writing content that focuses on the topic rather than a keyword. It’s an approach to SEO that tries to understand the intent behind the keyword and anticipate what other questions the searcher might have.

It is the practice of creating content that includes the contextually relevant keywords that tell search engines your content covers the topic in breadth and depth.

In summary, semantic SEO is an approach to content optimization that emphasizes topical authority rather than keyword density.