Have you ever heard the term, “semantic search”?
David Amerland, the author of Google Semantic Search, start his book with the sentence,
“Search is changing”.
Is that sentence scary for you?
In this article, I’m going to tell you- what exactly is changing? what is semantic search? And, how does it work?
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What Is Semantic Search?
Here is a definition from Wikipedia.,
“Semantic search seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding the searcher’s intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable dataspace, whether on the Web or within a closed system, to generate more relevant results.”
The Concept of Semantic search is the use of contextual meaning of terms as they get displayed in the searchable dataspace, on the basis of whether on the Web or within a closed system in order to generate more relevant results.
In other words, it can be said that the Semantic Search is the search which generates the meaningful results based on the nature of the query and not using the exact query terms.
Constant evolution of Semantic Search
With the constant changing pattern of Google and its algorithm, the Search engine especially Google has shown its urge to provide more meaningful and helpful results to the users.
They have completely changed their focus and with the absolute change in the algorithm of the search engine, the results seem to be more focused towards understanding of the search query and not on an exact search query.
Thus, we can say that the Artificial Intelligence is a base of the Semantic Search for Search Engine.
How does Semantic Search Works
To understand the working of Semantic Search, consider an example of a case, where we search for ‘Panda’ on Google.
In this particular case we do not specify anything else but however, within our mindset, we are concerned about bear species in USA only or even we can think about Panda,
An Album Song, a Google Algorithm Update or else a Computer Antivirus Program called as ‘Panda’.
Thus, we can say that in this particular case, Google it is not clear what we are looking for.
Google, as a first option, Considers that the person is looking for information on Panda, the bear, and conclusively it makes perfect sense, as the animal existed first and is responsible to all other names that appear.
However, the range of results is just a perfect example of the need to fine tune our searching.
However, upon looking for the related searches displayed at the end of the page, it becomes clear that the options are broad.
However, upon using the Search suggestions while entering the Search Query, we can arrive at the conclusion that with a lack of context Google provides several options, thus the next step involved from users end is to choose from what kind of ‘Panda’ want to keep getting information.
Considering that we do now a new search by entering in the search ‘Panda Diet’,
it becomes quite clear that the user is looking for the Diet of Panda.
What have we seen this time that Google responds directly to search user’s query, and thus offering result based on one of the cards from its Knowledge Base, and thus extracting data from a panda record belonging to the Relevant website.
Thus, we arrived at a conclusion that this result is just a step beyond the Knowledge Graph, where Google came up with some of the information from knowledge sources like Wikipedia and returned something more important and relevant.
Use of search entities
To find and display the most relevant and helpful results, Search Engines like Google looks for help from search entities.
In fact, it is a process by which searches done by users establish a set relationship that helps identify the importance of the various documents and, therefore, influence the information displayed.
(Source: Business 2 Community)
While establishing the context of occurrence list of a query, Google takes into various considerations like:
- Search History of Users
- Location of Users
- Global search history
- Queries characteristics: spelling, variations, and many others
- Relationships between a high amount of previously stored data (named terms or entities)
- The list of Domains linked from documents on the concerned topic
- Co-occurrence of terms and distance between them.
Take Full Advantage of Semantic Search
While doing Semantic SEO, focus on several aspects as mentioned below:
Creating a Context
While creating new content, just focus on the best way to present the information suiting the needs of users.
Identify all the ‘companion’ words and try to include them in the text. By doing this, we can give clues or an idea on the subject of our content to search engines like Google.
With Social Sharing, try to improve the way they get displayed as with social networks we have a chance to mark up our content with metadata.
Variations and Synonyms
Identify another set of terms that are directly related to the topic of our content and build a richer context for search engines.
Semantic Keyword Research
As we all know that Keywords are still very important, thus keep on looking for those keywords that offer greater benefit. With semantic search, find profitable keywords that also benefit the context of our website.
Link to Sources with Same Topics
By doing it, you will strengthen relationships between documents along with providing more value to your users
Use of Semantic Search for better Promotion
With the days of creating content just on keywords or keyword phrases is over and the days for the website owners to fully understand the meaning behind those keywords and keyword phrases and create specific content around them, the semantic SEO is more than ready to be used.
At all good places, the use of Semantic SEO is playing a pivotal role in their SEO Techniques and thus giving a strong emphasis on keyword research and quality content.
For better semantic SEO, Content needs to be created in order to focus on answering specific questions relevant to a keyword. Considering an example, if someone types in the keyword “exercise”, their intention must be:
- Easy exercises
- Best shoes to wear while exercising
- Foods to eat while doing exercise
- Places to find exercise videos
Semantic search has in fact, quickly replaced the search algorithms, focusing on creating a more human approach and understanding at major search engines like Google.
The semantic search and SEO creates a more defined meaning, allowing computers and humans to interact with each other in a more connected environment and thus bring in more Traffic and better User Experience.