Editorial Staff
Search engine prefer entities, especially after the Hummingbird updates that eliminate all the keyword stuffing practice. The entities here is a group of information, data that is highlighted as what we known as “semantic keyword”.
What is Semantic Keyword?
Semantic keywords are the keywords that are closely related to the main keyword that you’re using.
In other words, semantic keywords work as a keyword variation.
To illustrate, you can write about “Planet” without ever directly mentioning it.
The readers and search engine will understand if you’re talking about “Planet” from the sufficient context of your content.
Terms and Context
If you search for “Apple” on Google, you’ll most likely get results about the brand “Apple”. Why isn’t the apple fruit be the first result?
This is because Google makes an educated guess using search intent and your search history. Also, it uses co-occurring synonyms, keywords, and phrases to determine which page is about one of these specific search variations and which ones to show.
Co-occurring terms and phrases are commonly used to describe an entity. These are the terms that are most likely to pop up in content about that entity.
For example, Google will know if the content is talking about the brand “Apple” if they contain the following terms:
- Technology company
- iPad
- iPhone
- MacBook Air
- Electronics
Meanwhile, Google knows if the content is about fruit apple if they contain the following terms:
- Cultivated
- Tree
- Grown species
- Consumption
- Nutritious
All these words are co-occurring keywords and phrases. It’s a type of content that is semantically related to the main keyword but doesn’t contain the keyword itself. This might include synonyms but often expands on that because they clarify the knowledge of the term instead of saying the same thing differently. Search engine spiders scan your content for these related terms to paint a picture of the nature of your page.
The History Behind Semantic Keywords
Back in the day, Google evaluated a content topic based on the 100% keywords. This means, let’s say your blog page has a keyword of “Diet plan” and you use it multiple times, Google will think that your page is about “Diet plan”.
The black hat SEO practitioner then use this opportunity for keyword stuffing, in which they rank a content by putting the same keywords over and over again in each paragraph.
In 2013, Google then released the hummingbird algorithm updates. Instead of looking only at the keywords, they now read and understand a page’s overall topic.
This is where the usage of semantic keywords are crucial.
How to Find Semantic Keywords?
Finding for semantic keywords are as easy as the keyword research method that you’ve learnt in the previous module.
Here are our favorite ways:
1. Use Google People Also Asked Graph Panel
People also ask section by Google is a great way to find semantic keywords. This is because the section are showing all the related queries that has been asked by people.
2. Use Quora
Quora is a public Q&A site where people can ask any questions and the other people around the world can answer any questions.
Just type “site:quora.com your keyword” on Google, and click on the page. After you get into the Quora question page, you’ll find related questions that have been asked by people related to your keyword.
Best Practice to Use Semantic Keywords
1. Prepare Approximately 4 – 6 Semantic Keywords
Now that your semantic keywords are ready. It’s time to execute it into the content.
Our ideal numbers of semantic keywords are 4 to 8 per content. 4 semantic keywords per content if you think the main keyword topic is too narrow and it is extremely difficult to find the variation. 8 semantic keywords per content if you can find it more convenient to explore the variation.
2. Use Semantic Keywords As The Support to Main Keyword
While semantic keywords are working for the variation of your main keyword, you should still prioritize using your main keyword.
The frequency of the usage should be 50% than your main keyword.
Bottom Line
Keep in mind that as much as semantic keyword research is about finding actual keywords you can use in your SEO campaign. i
t’s just as much about building a complete profile of your target customer. And the better you can understand your target customer the better your campaign results will be!
