We saw the band "America" a little while ago. At the end of the show they said, "Find us online, but don't search the word 'America.' You won't find us that way because the country has been around longer than we have."
- America the band
- America the continent
- America the magazine
- the Americas, or
- the America soccer team?
Well, it doesn't, so it actually shows results for all the options above on page one of its results. For our research for this blog, amazingly, the first listing was for the band "America," which surprised us. Which goes to show, they really didn't have to say don't search the word "America" to find us online.
You've heard of semantic search...
"Semantic search" is what SEO is today. It's how search engines determine the meaning of a website's content based on all the terminology used in the website.
What's behind the artificial intelligence of Google and other search engines? Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a concept derived from Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). That theory was developed by three psychologists in 1997. It's basically "the method for extracting and representing the contextual‐usage meaning of words" by using large statistical computations of text.
What means for today's internet...
This is the method Google's algorithm rocket scientists built on to help everyone find what they're looking for on the internet. Its come a long way and now goes by the name Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). It returns results based on your intent, which is a unique function of artificial intelligence. "Context" is everything that surrounds the keywords words in your website.
By connecting both intent and context, search engines can deliver the best results based on your question, and previous searches. And if the searches returned on Google aren't always close to what you're looking for, you'll use another search engine. So it's in Google's best interest to return the best results based on your search query and your search history.
How it works for your website
When you write for your website, it used to be critical to use specific keywords throughout your site. Not so much anymore.
While it's still important to use keywords that relate to your business or service, it's not critical to use them in a specific order (ie: Columbus Ohio home builder). They can be used in a sentence like: "We're one of the top home builders in Columbus so we can offer you..."
Semantic search puts that sentence, and the thousands of other used in your website, in context to better return results based on your, and everyone else's, content. You can have hundreds of other phrases that relate to homes and building, and Google will determine, based on that and hundreds of other algorithms, just how relevant your site is for a particular search.
A while ago, it was common to ask Google to give you results for “restaurants in Columbus.’ Now, we ask more specific questions, such as "the best place for Korean food in Columbus." So you can use multiple variations on the main phrases (ie: Korean food, Korean restaurant, best Korean restaurant, and Korean food in Columbus to name a few). This also helps prevent you from using the same keywords over and over again. That would not only be awkward for your audience, but in the last few years, Google is actually penalizing websites for over-using the same keywords over and over again.
Long tail keywords
By the way, the phrase "Korean food in Columbus" is considered a long tail keyword, while "Korean food" would be considered the main keyword phrase.
How to make semantic search work for you
Using phrases in your copy that relate to your business is good. However, knowing the best places to put those same keywords is even better. For example, you should use those keywords in:
- the Page Title
- the Meta Description
- the headline
- subheads
- the first 100 words,
to get the most out of your SEO.
