Semantic SEO: Your Step by Step Guide to Higher Rankings

We all know it, and by now, we’ve all seen it or even experienced it – Google is evolving.

With each passing year, the search engine seems to increase its grasp of human language. In fact, we’ve seen that Google has doubled down on semantics in particular, with algorithm updates, like:

• Hummingbird
• Rank Brain
• Bert
• MUM

This has a big impact on how we do SEO because a semantic search engine requires a semantic SEO strategy.

In this post, we’ll cover what semantic SEO is, the importance of semantic keywords, and how to create a winning semantic SEO strategy.

What is semantic SEO?

Semantic SEO, or entity SEO, focuses on aligning site content with how search engines understand information. This is achieved by creating a network of content that covers entire topics (and not just keywords) and structuring that content into a topic/subtopic hierarchy that aligns with how search engines understand entities and their relationships.

Now you might be wondering why this works.

Google, as a semantic search engine, uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to understand two things:

• The user search queries
• The content in its index

Google’s ability to understand a user’s search intent is just one piece of the puzzle. To accurately answer that search intent with relevant search results, the search engine must analyze and ‘understand’ entities – such as people, places, and things – and the relationships between them. By grasping these interconnections, Google will comprehend the content in its index and will more accurately map search queries to the appropriate content, delivering a superior user experience.

Bringing this back to your SEO strategy: By focusing on entire topics and structuring that information in a way that Google processes information, you are establishing your content as a viable source of information which helps the search engine find the most relevant content so that it can serve its users.

It’s a win-win – you get more traffic, and the search engine has happy users.

Semantic SEO Benefits

There are six benefits to semantic SEO:

1. Improved search engine rankings

As an SEO, your goal is to cover entire topics and structure your content in a way that’s easy for search engines and users to navigate.

This helps the search engine:

• Understand what your site is about
• Find targeted answers to user questions

When you get this right, your content is likely to rank higher, and you’ll get more traffic.

2. Gain online authority as a topic expert

By covering an entire topic thoroughly, both users and search engines will perceive you as an expert in your niche. If you focus on making that content accessible through a logical structure and well-placed internal links, your users are more likely to visit your site often. And if users are happy with your content, Google will be too.

What’s more, Google will view your site as a topical authority awarding your site with more visibility on search.

3. Better user experience

By structuring your content for semantic search, it’s likely you’ll create a positive user experience, saving your users time and effort… and enticing them to visit your website more often. With higher rankings, your content will be found faster to help answer their questions, queries, or curiosities, and with your easy-to-navigate range of content across a topic, you’ll cement yourselves as an authority for knowledge in this field.

The more helpful you are to your users, the more likely they will look to your business in the future.

4. Increased CTR and engagement

Semantic strategies will help your site rank for long-tail keywords. While long-tail keywords have lower search volumes, they offer you two big advantages:

• Low search volumes often mean low competition – this can result in some quick wins that add up over time.
• Long-tail keywords often include more words and modifiers, which tend to have a clear and obvious search intent. The better you understand the search intent, the easier it is to create content specifically tailored to your users.

5. Increased conversion rates

When your content is optimized for semantic search, you can attract more qualified leads and increase the chances of converting those leads into customers. By providing relevant and informative content that meets users’ needs, you can build trust and establish yourself as an authority in your industry, leading to more conversions.

6. Future-proof your site

Using semanitcs is becoming more important with every passing year. It’s evident that each algorithm adds a layer of semantic understanding to the search engine, and we can’t ignore semantic SEO tactics.

How does Semantic SEO work?

Understanding the semantic SEO strategy requires a paradigm shift. Until now, SEO was always about optimizing content to rank for keywords. The advice was to target one keyword per asset. Semantic SEO is a topical SEO strategy that requires that you stop focusing on single keywords and start looking to create a content network.

When you do that effectively, you can achieve topical authority.

There is a Google patent that tells us that Google profiles your site according to the topics it covers. Topics are referred to as Knowledge Domains.

Each Knowledge Domain includes a list of queries as well as a list of sites that cover that topic.

If you cover a topic consistently, Google might classify your site as part of the Knowledge Domain assigned to that topic. When a user types a query into the search bar, Google identifies which Knowledge Domain the query comes from. If your site is included in the same Knowledge Domain as the query, Google might match your site with that query and rank your content in the search results. Now, just profiling your site according to topics is the first step.

You also need to establish your site as the biggest authority for your chosen topics. You do that by creating a network of authoritative content that covers the entire topic more thoroughly than your competitors. If you cover more than one topic, you should separate your different topics into silos.

But, just publishing a large amount of topical content is not enough. You also need to structure your content in a way that search engines understand information. To understand this, let’s get into Google’s Knowledge Graph.

Google’s Knowledge Graph includes a network of entities structured in a similar way to how the human brain structures information. Having information structured this way allows Google’s NLP algorithms to analyze language and even answer questions. For semantic search engines to understand your content, you should structure it the same way.

This means using a topic/subtopic hierarchy. Once you’ve figured this hierarchy out, build it into your site architecture. But more on that later.

To figure out what content to create, first research your chosen topic.

Semantic SEO strategy: How to achieve topical authority

We now understand the big picture. Let’s now figure out:

• What content to create
• How much content do you need
• What specific questions your content should answer
• How to apply your analysis to your site

Start by researching how Google understands your topic as a whole.

1. Understand topic/subtopic hierarchy using Google search

Google’s Knowledge Graph includes both entity information and how those entities relate to each other in a logical hierarchy.

Although Google doesn’t tell you how it structures entities in its Knowledge Graph or what is related to what, you can find some obvious clues.

There are many places to look:

• Knowledge Panels
• Image Search
• Auto-Suggest
• Google Trends
• SEO tools

The best source of information is Knowledge Panels. The information presented in them comes directly from Google’s Knowledge Graph. To find a Knowledge Panel about your entity, do a generic search about your main topic. In the screenshot below, we searched for the entity Gandhi. As you can see, Google includes filters next to the name. Each one is a subtopic you can create content around.

If you can’t find subtopics and don’t know how to structure your content, take a look at the top sites that cover your topic.

2. Find topics and subtopics through competitor research

Your next step is to research how to structure your information by looking at the top-performing sites for your topic. You can easily find these sites by Googling your topic and looking at the top performers.

For example, if you are in the pet niche, simply Google the topic and see what comes up. Click on any of the top results and look at how they structure their information.

Here are some things to consider:

• URL structure
• Menus
• Breadcrumbs

We found that thesprucepets.com is one of the top performers in the pet niche. By looking at the top-level menu of their website, we noticed that they have siloed their information by pet type, including:

• Dogs
• Cats
• Birds
• Small pets
• Aquariums
• Reptiles
• Horses
• Best pet products

Each one of these pet types or items should be viewed as a topic. To see how your competitor arranges their subtopics, take a look at the subheadings on their menu or take a look at their breadcrumbs.

Category breadcrumbs often  have a clear structure, for example:

Topic: Cats

Subtopic: Cat health & wellness

Sub-subtopic: Cat diseases & disorders

3. Find questions related to your topic and subtopics

Once you’ve figured out your site structure, you must then figure out what content to include in each topic and subtopic section.

Google has a large database of user questions that are bucketed into topics (or Knowledge Domains), and your goal at this point is to figure out which user questions to answer in each section that will align with Google’s database on that topic.

If you want to cover your topic entirely, you should aim to answer as many of these questions as you can. Each user query represents a keyword that’s related to your topic as a whole. Your goal here is to create a keyword cluster for each of your topics.

One way to do this is to Google your topic and take a look at the People Also Ask box (PAA box).

Click the PAA box results. The more you click, the more questions Google will add to the SERP feature. If you keep clicking, eventually, you’ll notice that Google brings you results that are not relevant to your query. For instance, below, we searched for the keyword ‘how to do local SEO.’

The queries at the bottom of the feature are not directly related to local SEO, as they cover general SEO. Applying a bit of common sense (your best SEO tool), we know that local SEO is a subtopic of SEO but implies a different search intent. This means all the questions related to general SEO should exist in a different silo to your local SEO content. Using this method, you can compile a complete list of queries for any topic or subtopic.

4. Find topical keywords with keyword research tools

Another way to find topical keyword clusters is to use keyword research tools like the Similarweb Keyword Generator.

If you were looking for questions on dog training, you could look at the Questions filter. To do this effectively, start by searching for a broad keyword and filter your results down. What we mean by ‘broad’ is a search for a head term like ‘dog training’.

Don’t go for a more targeted term like ‘how to train your dog‘ as you are looking for all the questions in the topic as a whole. If you get too many results, you can always use filters to manage the information.

Below, we entered ‘dog training’ into the Similarweb Keyword Generator using the Questions Queries filter.

As you can see, we have a long list of question keywords, along with:

• Average monthly search volume
• Keyword difficulty
• Yearly Trend
• Zero-click searches (%)
• Search intent

5. Find subtopics through keyword gap analysis

Since your goal is to become the biggest authority in your niche, you can’t ignore competitive research. Competitor research will help you find gaps in your content where your competitors have greater topical coverage than you.

The Similarweb Keyword Gap tool will give you a clear picture of what keywords your site is missing and will also help you prioritize your efforts.

For instance, below we are analyzing kidshealth.org and three of its competitors.

The blue circle represents kidshealth.org. As you can see, it has a high level of topical coverage and overlaps all three of its biggest competitors. Although this is a good sign, the site could still grow in its topical coverage as there are keywords that the site is not yet ranking on.

This is easily solved. Start by clicking the Opportunities tab. This will show keywords that the site’s competitors are ranking on that kidshealth.org is not.

Now we have a large list of topically related keywords that kidshealth.org can target to grow their authority and earn more traffic.

You can then build out your topical clusters with the Similarweb Keyword Phrases tool.

6. Related entities

Understanding the entities that relate to your main entity will help you figure out what to include in each piece of content. Looking at related entities might also help you find more ideas for content you should cover on your site.

There are two ways to find them:

• Using Google’s SERP features
• Using keyword research

Google’s SERP features will give you endless clues into related entities. For instance, the links in Knowledge Panes About sections represent entities that relate to the subject of the Knowledge Panel. These related entities provide a snapshot of Google’s Knowledge Graph, and provide you with inspiration into what you can include in your content network.

Going back to the previous example of Gandhi, the SERP feature suggests that it might be beneficial to create a dedicated subtopic exploring Gandhi’s family in more detail.

To find related entities via keyword research, you can use tools like the Similarweb Related Keywords report.

This report finds queries that have a similar search intent. To demonstrate this, we entered the keyword ‘dog training’ into the tool.

As you can see above, the report doesn’t just bring a list of keywords that include the words dog training. Instead, it presents a list of terms that are related to the meaning of the target search term, including:

• Puppy training at home
• Training puppy
• Most successful puppy obedience training methods

Since the entity ‘puppy’ is related to the entity ‘dog’ in the Knowledge Graph, it makes sense to mention puppies somewhere in your content.

7. Create a topical map

Now you have a body of research, it’s time to tie it all together in a topical map and start planning out your content.

A topical map is a content map that not only includes a list of content you plan to create but also how it should be structured. If you are a visual person, try using mind maps. If not, you can pretty much do the same thing using spreadsheets.

To generate a topical map, start by outlining your main topics and their respective subtopics. Next, map out the actual content you plan to create for each topic and subtopic. Analyze all the related entities and queries associated with each subtopic to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Each related entity and related query represents a piece of content that should exist under each subheading. Here is a topical map that we created on the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

By analyzing the Jean Sibelius Knowledge Panel, we identified the subtopics “Personal Life” and ‘Compositions.’ The Knowledge Panel further categorized ‘Compositions’ into ‘Symphonies’ and ‘Tone Poems.’ This analysis enabled us to create a clear content structure for the entity Jean Sibelius.

To understand the process of creating the topical map, including the list of questions and related entities, head to our blog post on how to create a topical map.

8. Create your site architecture

Okay, you have your topics, subtopics, and content all mapped out – your next step is to figure out where all that will sit on your website.

When it comes to site architecture, the flow of information on your site should make sense to both:

• Search engines
• Your users

Google reads your site architecture to understand more about your site and the topics you cover. This means you should present your content hierarchy to Google through your:

• Menu headers
• URL structure
• Breadcrumbs
• Internal links

As Google employs various methods to determine the information flow on your site, it’s not necessary to include all of the above options. For example, creating separate folders in your URLs might not be suitable for your website, especially if it has been around for a while, as altering the URL structure would necessitate content migration – which is risky. However, if you have a vast ecommerce site, separating your numerous products through URL folders might be advantageous.

The key here is to have each content silo exist in its own space on your site so that your users can easily find what they are looking for. Now, for a great example of how to do this effectively, take a look at thesprucepets.com.

They have a well-structured site architecture that is helpful to the user, including:

• Topically siloed content in their top-level menus
• Dropdown second-level menus revealing subtopics
• Breadcrumbs

All of this makes finding the right content a breeze for the user – and if people understand the flow of content on your site, Google can too. What’s more, by keeping your topics separate from one another and creating a logical hierarchy for them, you communicate your topical expertise to Google.

9. Using Google Search Console for Entity SEO

Google Search Console is particularly useful if your site has been around for a while and is generating impressions. You can leverage this by filtering your Queries report into different topics, following a similar approach to the content keyword research strategy mentioned earlier.

Analyze your Search Console data to identify content patterns on your site. This will help you uncover evident content silos to incorporate into your site architecture. Additionally, you can utilize Search Console for semantic analysis by finding related entities to enhance your topical coverage.

10. Track your content

Although we all know that tracking your content is important, how you track your content is just as important. We recommend structuring your rank-tracking campaigns using keyword tags. This will allow you to segment your site into topics and subtopics. The advantage of this is if you work on one subtopic, you’ll be able to see your impact on that subtopic.

You can easily set this up with the Similarweb Rank Tracker.

Below you can see a campaign we set up for taplio.com. We’ve created separate segments to measure content that relates to its top-performing free tools.

Going Semantic

Semantic SEO is so much more than just ranking large amounts of content in Google searches. It’s about influencing site-wide metrics that identify how your site shows up to search engines. Metrics about:

• What your site content is about
• How authoritative your site is

The better your topical coverage, the more you influence these site-wide metrics.

When researching your topic, it’s important to use up-to-date comprehensive data.

The Similarweb keyword research and analysis tools are based on real user data giving you:

• Comprehensive keyword data
• Nuanced keyword research based on how real users search Google

See how real-time, real-user data can make your SEO strategy soar – try Similarweb for free today.

FAQS

How does Google semantic search work?
Google’s semantic search uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to understand the context and intent behind a user’s search query. It goes beyond the traditional keyword-based approach and aims to provide more relevant and personalized results for each user.

When a user enters a search query, Google’s algorithm analyzes the words and phrases used to understand the user’s intent behind the query.

Next, Google’s algorithm searches its index of web pages to find content that matches the user’s search intent. It takes into account a variety of factors, including the quality and relevance of the content, the website’s authority and trustworthiness, and the user’s search history.

What are the advantages of semantic search? 

1. More accurate results: Semantic search algorithms have the ability to understand the context and intent of a search query, resulting in more accurate and relevant search results.
2. Improved user experience: With semantic search, users can find what they are looking for more easily and quickly, resulting in a better overall search experience.
3. Personalization: Semantic search algorithms can take into account a user’s search history, location, and other factors to provide personalized search results.
4. A better understanding of natural language: Semantic search algorithms can interpret natural language queries and understand synonyms, related concepts, and other nuances of language, making it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
5. Enhanced SERP features: Semantic search can enable features like auto-suggestions, and instant answers, making the search process more efficient and user-friendly.