This is Part Four in a Six Part Series. Here are Parts 1 and 2 and 3.

Semantics is powerful in the organization of content for a web site. It provides for better user interaction across the site, and gives search engines like Google additional clues for their crawlers to determine what your web sites content is really about.

From a traffic perspective, good semantic organization provides automatic optimization of your site content and delivers higher rankings in search engine placements for both your core search terms and many long-tail searches that you otherwise would not rank for. Let’s start by examining some good examples of this approach that have led to Link 1 Rankings on Google for the websites in question.

This is Part Four in a Six Part Series. Here are Parts 1 and 2 and 3.

Semantics is powerful in the organization of content for a web site. It provides for better user interaction across the site, and gives search engines like Google additional clues for their crawlers to determine what your web sites content is really about.

From a traffic perspective, good semantic organization provides automatic optimization of your site content and delivers higher rankings in search engine placements for both your core search terms and many long-tail searches that you otherwise would not rank for. Let’s start by examining some good examples of this approach that have led to Link 1 Rankings on Google for the websites in question.

Example Of Semantics Powering A Link 1 Google Search Result

Search Term: “Website Optimization”

Page Title: Web Page Analyzer – free website optimization tool website speed …

OK, so right away you’re thinking “of course this is ranking page 1 Google, because the keywords ‘Website Optimization’ are part of the actual name of the web site’. But look which is # 1 and which is #2:

That’s right, the home page is # 2 even though the keywords Website Optimization are included both in the domain name and the Page title itself. Traditional SEO would say that this should be the priority link, so what’s going on here?

Check For Synonyms

Conducting a semantic analysis for the term ~ website optimization reveals something interesting. A primary synonym for this search term is the word ‘analysis’, and a further synonym of ‘analysis’ is the keyword ‘analyzer’. In the case of websiteoptimization.com, an internal page is beating out it’s own highly-optimized home page because it contains synonyms that have higher relevance to the search term.

The primary synonym ‘analysis’ appears early in the first sentence of the page body text, and the secondary synonym ‘Analyzer’ appears in the actual page title. Collectively, these synonyms are telling Google that this page is more relevant to the search query that the home page itself.

This knowledge has very intriguing implications for SEO. It shows that the use of synonyms, correctly applied to an internal page, can beat out pages that are optimized for a specific search term by using alternate words (synonyms) in the page title and early in the body copy.

Get A Better Shot At Terms That Are Very Competitive

For web site owners, this provides an opportunity to rank for search terms that are very competitive. In the case of ‘website optimization’, a quick search of the Google Keyword Tool shows us there are around 110,000 monthly searches including this term, and 60,000 monthly searches for the term alone. That’s a pretty competitive term to beat out using semantic optimization!

Internal Web Site Linking Using A Semantic Approach

One of the toughest phrases to rank for on Google is the term ‘search engine optimization’, especially since so many web sites in this space specialize in SEO and in achieving top Google rankings, after all it’s the business they are in. The Number 1 site on Google for this term (after Wikipedia and a Google internal page) is Submitawebsite.com.

If you read our previous post covering a ‘Semantic Map for Search Engine Optimization’ you can see that Submitawebsite includes multiple uses of the core acronym SEO in it’s home page copy and internal links, but it also uses many of the terms that are synonymous with search engine optimization in it’s internal linking structure. It also uses one of the primary synonyms (the term ‘search optimization’) as keywords to re-enforce the page title. Collectively, this shows Google that this website is highly relevant for the search term.

From our own research on Google and it’s use of synonyms we believe that the home page of Submitawebsite is optimized approximately 60% for the term ‘Search Engine Optimization’ from a semantic content perspective. If this is true, it shows how much room is left before we hit the ceiling in semantic optimization, even for such a competitive search term as the SEO industry.

7 Steps To An Internal Link Structure Using Semantic Analysis

Follow these steps to create a web site with strong semantic relevance:

1. Decide what your primary search phrase is. This is the business you are in/the services you are trying to sell online. Research this term using the ~ Tilde symbol on Google for semantic alternatives.

2. Research those semantic terms with the Google Keyword Tool to see how popular the terms are with monthly searchers. Choose direct battles that you can win, then go around the competition when you can’t (see items 5 and 6 below).

3. Create an internal linking structure for your site using those semantic alternatives words that directly support your website offer/s. These are the pages that will contain copy that promotes your services, and are the most important pages that you want to rank for on Google.

4. Create additional pages for the remaining terms. The goal here is not to try to rank overall for these terms (you can’t own everything out there), but create a page with content that links out either to useful resources on the subject (choose the sites that rank high Page 1 Google for the term), or choose a content syndication service such as latest news headlines on a particular subject, which contains content only from premium online news sources.

5. Include a strong semantic synonym inside the Page Title of your home page if you’re trying to rank for a primary term, but use it as a secondary term e.g. Search Engine Optimization … Search Optimization … and ensure that either it or a synonym for it are included early in the first sentence of the page copy.

6. Use synonyms as Primary Page Titles to rank as alternate terms for those terms that seem just too competitive, then use the competitive term as a secondary term in the page title, e.g. WebPage Analyzer … Website Optimization …. Although the volume of searches for the synonym term may seem small, you just may find yourself ranking high for the competitive term.

7. Don’t be afraid to link out to authority web sites on every page. Linking out to sites that Google believes are experts for specific terms is a good thing to do and rewards your visitors with additional highly useful resources.

Semantic analysis and implementation can pay true dividends in your Google rankings, supporting higher rankings for your core search terms, and new organic search engine traffic from terms that you have never used and would otherwise not rank for.

Next week we’ll take this subject a little deeper and examine how to structure on-page content for semantic relevance.

Chris Lewis is the author of this post. Chris Lewis is the Founder of Search Engine Semantics, a site which offers consulting services, information guides and online resources for the correct implementation of Semantics for SEO.
———————————————————————–
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__

Example Of Semantics Powering A Link 1 Google Search Result

Search Term: “Website Optimization”

Page Title: Web Page Analyzer – free website optimization tool website speed …

OK, so right away you’re thinking “of course this is ranking page 1 Google, because the keywords ‘Website Optimization’ are part of the actual name of the web site’. But look which is # 1 and which is #2:

That’s right, the home page is # 2 even though the keywords Website Optimization are included both in the domain name and the Page title itself. Traditional SEO would say that this should be the priority link, so what’s going on here?

Check For Synonyms

Conducting a semantic analysis for the term ~ website optimization reveals something interesting. A primary synonym for this search term is the word ‘analysis’, and a further synonym of ‘analysis’ is the keyword ‘analyzer’. In the case of websiteoptimization.com, an internal page is beating out it’s own highly-optimized home page because it contains synonyms that have higher relevance to the search term.

The primary synonym ‘analysis’ appears early in the first sentence of the page body text, and the secondary synonym ‘Analyzer’ appears in the actual page title. Collectively, these synonyms are telling Google that this page is more relevant to the search query that the home page itself.

This knowledge has very intriguing implications for SEO. It shows that the use of synonyms, correctly applied to an internal page, can beat out pages that are optimized for a specific search term by using alternate words (synonyms) in the page title and early in the body copy.

Get A Better Shot At Terms That Are Very Competitive

For web site owners, this provides an opportunity to rank for search terms that are very competitive. In the case of ‘website optimization’, a quick search of the Google Keyword Tool shows us there are around 110,000 monthly searches including this term, and 60,000 monthly searches for the term alone. That’s a pretty competitive term to beat out using semantic optimization!

Internal Web Site Linking Using A Semantic Approach

One of the toughest phrases to rank for on Google is the term ‘search engine optimization’, especially since so many web sites in this space specialize in SEO and in achieving top Google rankings, after all it’s the business they are in. The Number 1 site on Google for this term (after Wikipedia and a Google internal page) is Submitawebsite.com.

If you read our previous post covering a ‘Semantic Map for Search Engine Optimization’ you can see that Submitawebsite includes multiple uses of the core acronym SEO in it’s home page copy and internal links, but it also uses many of the terms that are synonymous with search engine optimization in it’s internal linking structure. It also uses one of the primary synonyms (the term ‘search optimization’) as keywords to re-enforce the page title. Collectively, this shows Google that this website is highly relevant for the search term.

From our own research on Google and it’s use of synonyms we believe that the home page of Submitawebsite is optimized approximately 60% for the term ‘Search Engine Optimization’ from a semantic content perspective. If this is true, it shows how much room is left before we hit the ceiling in semantic optimization, even for such a competitive search term as the SEO industry.

7 Steps To An Internal Link Structure Using Semantic Analysis

Follow these steps to create a web site with strong semantic relevance:

1. Decide what your primary search phrase is. This is the business you are in/the services you are trying to sell online. Research this term using the ~ Tilde symbol on Google for semantic alternatives.

2. Research those semantic terms with the Google Keyword Tool to see how popular the terms are with monthly searchers. Choose direct battles that you can win, then go around the competition when you can’t (see items 5 and 6 below).

3. Create an internal linking structure for your site using those semantic alternatives words that directly support your website offer/s. These are the pages that will contain copy that promotes your services, and are the most important pages that you want to rank for on Google.

4. Create additional pages for the remaining terms. The goal here is not to try to rank overall for these terms (you can’t own everything out there), but create a page with content that links out either to useful resources on the subject (choose the sites that rank high Page 1 Google for the term), or choose a content syndication service such as latest news headlines on a particular subject, which contains content only from premium online news sources.

5. Include a strong semantic synonym inside the Page Title of your home page if you’re trying to rank for a primary term, but use it as a secondary term e.g. Search Engine Optimization … Search Optimization … and ensure that either it or a synonym for it are included early in the first sentence of the page copy.

6. Use synonyms as Primary Page Titles to rank as alternate terms for those terms that seem just too competitive, then use the competitive term as a secondary term in the page title, e.g. WebPage Analyzer … Website Optimization …. Although the volume of searches for the synonym term may seem small, you just may find yourself ranking high for the competitive term.

7. Don’t be afraid to link out to authority web sites on every page. Linking out to sites that Google believes are experts for specific terms is a good thing to do and rewards your visitors with additional highly useful resources.

Semantic analysis and implementation can pay true dividends in your Google rankings, supporting higher rankings for your core search terms, and new organic search engine traffic from terms that you have never used and would otherwise not rank for.

Next week we’ll take this subject a little deeper and examine how to structure on-page content for semantic relevance.

Chris Lewis is the author of this post. Chris Lewis is the Founder of Search Engine Semantics, a site which offers consulting services, information guides and online resources for the correct implementation of Semantics for SEO.
———————————————————————–
• Don’t forget to propose your startup for our Semantic Web Impact Awards. The deadline is Sept. 15.

Semantic Tech & Business Conference Returns to San Francisco

Semantic Tech & Business Conference returns to San Francisco in June! Join us from June 3-7 for complete coverage of Big Data, Linked Data, Extreme Information Management, and Semantic Web. From breakthrough approaches to solving business problems to the big data implications of fast–evolving technologies, SemTechBiz provides you with an unparalleled interactive experience and delivers tangible business value. We're offering a special early rate when you register by February 17. Sign up now!