From Google’s Panda, Search Plus Your World and Venice updates, in the last year alone the SEO landscape has changed. And while that means your SEO strategy will change, too, there is one thing that remains the same…keywords.
Keywords remain important to your content and link strategies.
But there is one change coming down the Google pipeline that will change keywords…semantic search technology and the human element.
What is semantic search?
Basically, semantic search is technology that tries to determine what users mean when they type in a certain keyword.
They explore the semantics of those words…or the meaning behind them.
For example, if someone typed in “laptop” do they mean:
- That they want to buy a laptop?
- Have one repaired?
- Upgraded?
- Are they even talking about a computer, but something entirely different?
In the real world most people don’t search with one keyword…additional keywords give additional clues.
Even then search engines aren’t always right. Google guesses because all it has to go on are the keywords you enter into their engine.
Semantic search will look at how those words relate to each other and look for clues on how you entered them…location being crucial.
Say you used Google search on your smart phone to find “laptop repair.” Semantic search will recognize your location via your GPS on your phone and deliver you “laptop repair” results based on location.
In other words, results related to “laptop repair + [your city].”
How does this impact SEO?
In your SEO campaigns semantic search means you will have to identify the right keywords based upon user intent in the real world…and then create content around those terms.
This is where the semantic keyword research comes in.
In the world of keyword research you simply sought out the keywords with the highest search volume. The meaning between your list of keywords and the content you created was equal. There was a one to one relationship.
“SEO strategy tools” meant “SEO strategy tools.”
In the semantic keyword world, you build a database of keywords that are full of meaning...”SEO strategy tools” could be used in four different contexts.
Your job is to figure out how.
What are the advantages of semantic keyword research?
Having a database of semantic keywords to create high-converting blog posts is one advantage…but there are other benefits, like improved CTR and PPC optimization as Wordstream explained:
- Higher click-through rate – Whether it’s in your emails, landing pages, text ads or blog posts, highly-targeted semantic keywords will improve your CTR. When all these elements of the conversion funnel are aligned semantically…your results will go through the roof.
- Lower minimum bids – Higher relevance and targeted action with your content due to semantic keyword enhancements will lead to lower minimum bids on your PPC campaigns.
- Higher quality score – When you achieve high relevance around your semantic keywords…the search engines will reward your content with a high quality score that leads to better rankings.
Tools you can use to find semantic keywords
Employing a semantic keyword plan is crucial. But how do you come up with those keywords? Here are five approaches to use…including recommended tools.
Using Google advanced search
Google’s advanced search results provide a quick way to generate some semantic keywords. Just type in a query like “laptop discount codes” and click “Show search tools”:
Then click “related searches”…
…and then you’ll see all of the semantic terms for “laptop discount codes”:
As you can see from the results above, when searchers think of “laptop discount codes” they are thinking in specific terms of a brand for the most part.
In other words, the term “laptop” was changed into a brand…giving you semantic options.
And don’t forget to use Google Instant for further ideas on keywords:
By the way, all those keywords are completely different than what you got in the “related search.”
Now let’s look at a reverse case of semantic keyword use. In this case we’ll look up the term “laptop repair”:
“Laptop repair” is synonymous to screen repair, brand laptop repair and even different ways of looking at repair like “troubleshooting.”
And this is where it gets interesting. Look at the Google Instant version of “laptop repair” and you see this:
You get all the options related to location.
Keep in mind that your job isn’t simply to scoop up all of these up. You have to decide what people are thinking when they search with these terms. In some cases it will be obvious…in others it won’t be so obvious.
That’s what semantic keyword research is all about.
You can refine your results with Google Insights for Search where you can narrow keywords down via categories, for instance.
Semantic keyword research with bookmarking tags
If you want to find out how some searchers think about keywords, examine how tags are used at social bookmarking sites like Delicious.
Here’s a search on their database for my blog QuickSprout:
As you can see, there are a total of 578 posts that have been bookmarked in Delicious.
To examine the tags that people use to bookmark that content…in a sense, seeing how people are viewing the content and giving you an inside track to their mind…look at how people created “Stacks,” “Links” and “Related Tags.”
You can perform the same process on new social bookmarking sites like Diigo, Pinterest and Licorize.
Again, it’s important to think through how to use these keywords and not just scoop them up.
Building a semantic keyword cloud through social monitoring tools
Using social media monitoring tools to track the mentions of your brand is pretty common and an effective way to stay on top of the competition and conversation.
Using these same tools for semantic keyword research is just as effective to build a cloud of keywords around a particular sentiment.
For example, in Social Mention search a keyword you type in. Here I used “Virgin Atlantic.”
Then you can get a quick look at the top keywords being used around the brand.
Other social mention tools you can use to help you build a cloud of semantic keywords are TweetDeck, Raven Tool’s Social Monitor and Technorati.
Optimizing semantic keywords around trends
A great strategy to keep in front of the public and at the top of search engines is to optimize your semantic keywords around a trending topic.
This means you have to keep your eyes on high-volume topics. Here are the tools to do that:
- Google Trends – This is the obvious place you should check first.
- Ice Rocket – Search the latest buzz on blogs through this search engine dedicated to blogs. While you will see what’s hot on the blogosphere…one thing you won’t see is any older posts.
- Trendrr TV – And if you want to keep on top of what’s hot on TV, then Trendrr is the place you need to look.
- TweetVolume – While it’s offline for the moment, sign up to be the first to use this powerful tool to see popular keywords and trends on Twitter.
Gathering semantic keywords through social search
When it comes to researching on the social web, the first place I always look for keyword ideas is TwitterSearch.
The way to use it is to look up a keyword like “SEO strategies.” Then look at what people are tweeting about that keyword phrase:
What you want to find is how people are using that term. So look at the words surrounding the keyword…and then decide how to use it to build your own semantic keywords.
OpenBook – This site will let you see what people are sharing on Facebook. And just like Twitter Search, look at the context on how the keyword is used to determine query intent:
Conclusion
There are dozens of tools out there you can use to build a semantic keyword cloud. Hopefully you understand the approach that I’m recommending so that you can then apply these principles to other tools.
Keep in mind that as much as semantic keyword research is about finding actual keywords you can use in your SEO campaigns…it’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!
What other tools do you use to create semantic keyword groups?
About the author: Neil Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics, an analytics provider that helps companies make better business decisions.
Niel you probably don't know but Semantic search technology has been around for ages and yes it won't change/revolutionize either your keyword research or SEO. I am afraid there is no such thing as semantic keyword research. Google uses semantic technology to determine relationship between words and phrases to better understand what a web page is all about and how it is related to other set of web pages. For example 'statue of liberty' and 'new york' are semantically connected keywords but this doesn't mean i should start optimizing for 'statue of liberty car insurance'. Whatever you have mentioned in the name of 'semantic keyword research' is just the plain old regular keyword research most of us already do.
Search data is the highest indicator of intent followed by demographic and behavioural data and not the data mined through some social networking site like delicious. In keyword research the most important thing to determine is users' intent. For example a person searching for 'Honda CRV-V' many not be interested in buying the car but will most likely bookmark the car as 'Honda CRV-V', 'Honda Car' or some other similar easier to remember variation. But when he is in the buying mode, his search term will include several modifiers like geo location, color of the car, condition of the car (new/used) etc. So if you missed all these critical details and assumed 'honda crv-V' is the keyword (as majority of people have bookmarked it like that) then you are are doing proper keyword research.
Great article Neil and some good points but would agree with Himanshu's points above
You make some valid points... especially in your New York and statue of liberity example.
Thanks for sharing!
Agree with you more. I thought the semantic keywords are no different than long tail. You always want to be more relevant and specific as needed.
Great post Neil! I always look forward to your posts here and this one made some good points, as did this comment. I would agree that most of what you mentioned as semantic keywrod research is stuff most of us probably already do in our normal research activities.
Plenty of great tools! But we can never have enough of them, right? So a few from me:
Thanks for sharing Ann! You always know what the latest and greatest out there is.
3 years later - a few more tools that help with this:
The field of semantic analytics is broad. Looking forward to many more great tools in the future as well!
Great post Neil, and very timely.
We've been spending a lot of time in the office over the last few weeks talking about "over optimization". Clearly keyword expansion for semantic search is a piece of the puzzle.
And, thinking about like terms is a great way to avoid getting hit for too much of the same anchor text.
Yea, avoiding the same anchor is huge. As people have seen from some of the later algo update, too rich means reduced rankings.
To my knowledge Google also makes decision on the basis of CTR and conversion. Though I have not heard or read much that they can make decision on the basis of site conversion but having GA installed in majority of websites and many websites using Google Adwords as their PPC channel, it is not difficult for them to use that data.
In other words it can be said Google can increase the ranking of a website with better conversion on a specific keyword. For inctance, site listed on Google SERP at #3 for "laptops" has hishest conversion rate (not CTR) on this keyword, there are possibilities that might lift it to #1 in few weeks on the basis of highest conversion rate. It means that intentionally or unintentionally that site has interprated the samentic well.
I think we can cope with such samentics through on page, for intance providing all possible solutions to users regarding laptops.
Nice post Neil, some sweet ideas.
I was recently at the BrightonSEO conference where a few of the speakers talked about the semantic web and intuitive search. It's pretty clear that employing a semantic keyword plan is becoming crucial in an increasingly "intelligent" web.
Great to see my ugly mug get in on the twitter pic too.
This is one of the most useful articles out there on semantic keyword research. It's amazing to realize how great of an evergreen content generator you are, Neil. :)
A smart keyword research must the real choice
Keyword research is not to be ignored. Its the foundation of your SEO strategie.
Semantics is about relationships between words and not about related searches on Google or whatever tool/search engine. Thou a good, comprehensive article, this is on keyword research tools rather than semantics, so I find the title and headings a bit misleading. An article about semantic keyword research would probably talk about means of identifying words used to create and develop a concept around a web page, to help users and search engines understand that your "Indian arm" page, for example, is about a river and not the arm of an Indian. Such words would include river, stream, fish, water and so on. Cheers!
"Computational Semantics" which is used by Google and what Neil is referring to is different from the "Linguistic Semantics" you are referring to. "Computational Semantics" is about interpretation of an expression and words. That is what Neil means when he says :"They explore the semantics of those words…or the meaning behind them.". The title of the article I think refers to the process of identifying "related" words with similar meanings, so is apt.
The traditional algorithm of Google is shift toward human intelligence, so we as an internet marketer try to understand and think out of box while making strategies.
I would also like to share what I observe that how Google change its algorithm to human intelligence.
e.g when we search for the word "meow " the system understand that is relevant to "Cats".
Wow if the meme space has anythig to do with it there aren't many phrases that can't be linked to "Cats".
Wow if the meme space has anythig to do with it there aren't many phrases that can't be linked to "Cats".
Edited by Aran Smithson on April 17th, 2012 at 4:07 am
LOL. I can has cheezburger would be ranked for all cat terms...
Very well presented article, Neil Patel.
The traditional theories about keyword research has changed a lot and one has to be quite specific about their business goals and the target location, and choose keywords accordingly.
They have changed a lot and as SEOs we need to adapt.
Yeah, that's quite true, SEO is a full time changing game. A master of 2012 may not be a master of 2013 if he does not update him/herself regularly!
Hey Neil,
Brilliant post, especially in light of Google's "not provided" policy in their keyword research tool.
Thank you for great info!
https://www.imspot.org/forum.php
I believe it is better to say very useful post to for semantic link building !!!.. As per google's latest search quality changed Classifier for Anchor text it is switched off now.. And if we combine this with Over Optimization Penalty.. I predict Link Aqcuisition process will change dramatically at all level..& Semantic link buiding will become compulsory ..
I will follow same example on keywords "laptop repairs" or " buy hp laptop" even if these are main keywords.. acquisition of links should not target only on these "k/w" instead of semantic variation on anchor text will be more meaningful ..
if you can get link back from your customer with anchor text " Just bought laptop from ABC" or if you manage to get Tips on your Foursquare Venue like " My Laptop Just got repaired from these guys!! working smoothly now"
My Presumption is "sentiments" will also play a big part with "semantics" in search .. I hope I have not misslead :)
Thank you so much Neil for this other great article!
I follow always you on Quick Sprout and KISSmetrics; your posts are often curated by me on my topic here:
https://www.scoop.it/t/marketing-strategy-business :-)
Great Post!Thanks For sharing with us tips for social media
Thanks Neil for sharing such an AWESOME! (and new to me!) post. The tools you mentioned are appreciated. Good luck :)
Thanks Neil. Fantastic post, some really valuable tips.
Great article and suggested tools. This highlights the search engines use of LDA and the importance to expound on all the nuances and caveates of your niche.
Nice article Neil. Looking forward to more.
Thank you so much for all the helpful links. I've been out of the industry for awhile and this article was extremely helpful.
Great one Neil. I think Google will continue to rely more and more on query intent. Even a brief read through their Quality Guidelines will make this obvious.
It is really helpful guidance. I was missing out about these tems from last 6 months but this post revamp me again. Thanks. I also like to include Alexa tool for semantic keyword research. It is helpful in finding keyword trends, search trends.
Google has evolved a lot and the web is heading towards making comuters as Intelligent as Human. Means, researchers and scientists are puting a lot of efforts in the niche of "Artificial Intelligence". It seems Google too is moving in the same directon and want their engines to understand and interpret the meaning of keywords in the same way as Human do.
Nice Post. Using Related Search.... Brilliant!
Good one Neil!! am working on it...
Wow. Great. I find it , thanks for share !!!
Man, you have no idea how many hours I spend doing keyword research, now this? Anyway, thanks, Neil for reminding us to always check other kw research resources. :)
No problem. You can always learn more, just like I learn new things each day.
I like the introduction of this article as it speaks with honesty. Nothing is constant in SEO except for the so called keywords. Despite of the tools that are existing now its still the keywords which plays the greater role. Even though semantics are there to help us in our research, using the correct and specific keywords is more important. Good article with good points.
CIS 120 Sonia Matute
the post is quietly useful as i am a newbie in blogging;thanks a lot
Thanks Neil, these are definitely some out of the box technices for finding keywords.
helpful discussion but i want to know that isn't it will disturb our targeted keyword on the perticular search engine? i think this will be, not at healthy level but will make the negative effect with the postive effect.
i mean this is helpful but will some negative effect too.
Thanks for the ideas. This will be great to refer to when I'm next working on some super competitive terms.
Great Post Neil. Semantic keywords well explained, And thanks for those wonderful ways to find out the semantic words.
Great article, I'm already using all these tools for my project related to hotels in Italia.
I'll take a cue from this article even to create our first lesson for my SEO customers.
Very intesresting article as sementic search is important for bloggers of every niche because it have a direct corelation to how people look in to stuff…
Business and Corporate blogs should create posts that contain content that people are looking for or what people are talking on social and search platforms…
I really like the idea to grab list of sementic keywords from the social globe as this is where people are investing more of their time… OpenBook, Social Mention and Topsy (great tool) are indeed powerful tools!
Great indepth post. Very useful for finding new subjects to write content about.
Brilliant post - so semantic search means keyword research is about to get more in depth?! can't be a bad thing really. To be honest I've been using this approach for a while now as I've always focussed on an easier keyword then moved onto a harder related keyword once I've got a decent rank on the first one. I don't think it will massively change my process - although I do think it will kill off the already dying area of glory terms (we just have to convince the clients next!)
Great post! Using "related searches" is a great idea. It can really help make sure you get the most for your money.
great post! I used the tools you suggested as I read through the article and they worked well. Thanks!
Great discussion and article..I have noticed an improvement in our client's SERPs by including related terms we had over-looked within the meta description.
For example: targeting 'used cars' we included the phrase 'second hand' and this improved their position dramatically.
Great post!
I just wanna add that for an e-commerce site , it's great to see even google suggestions in the "shopping" section. Those suggestions are different from the ones in the "all" section, and they could give you some tips related to product-specific searches or brand-related searches.
thanks for sharing.
Interesting. This is something i think we were guessing seen the changes on Google.
Google has been making a ton of updates on how they look at keywords over the years. As long as you stay up to date, you should be fine.
I think you summed up just how important this type of research is in the first few lines... 'Keywords remain important'.
Luckily it's a job for me that once done, doesn't have to be revisited for a while as the keywords don't really seem to change that much in my clients industries! Thanks for the tips!
Great post, i enjoyed reading these information and how to do a keyword research considering Semantic Keywords ..
Hi Neil, great article about semantic keywords and related keywords. your research tips are very useful, as well as the tools you mentioned.
I just wanted to mention a new keyword tool we are creating, that is different from all the others as it provides semantic related keywords for any topic or niche market you need to find keywords for, and you can use those keywords within your content to get it more relevant for search engines.
It's called Keys4Up, it is very easy to use and you can find keywords for any niche or topic export all related keywords for any niche or topic. I thought it may have been an useful source for you and all Moz readers, useful to find related keywords with really ease. If you try it out and you'd like to share your thoughts about the tool, that would be great. All your feedbacks will be really appreciated! Thanks!
Great post, Neil, i really found not only the article very informative, but the examples and tools to be very easy to follow.
Great in-depth (as always) post, Neil.
I'll be bookmarking this page once my site redesign is complete to really invest in semantic keyword research. Thanks again
Great post Neil, love to read such detailed information about ranking factors..
Thanks Khalid! If I had a bit more time I could have even made it a bit more detailed. Next time I guest post on SEOmoz, I will try to write a really in-depth piece.
Semantics is about relationships between words and not about related searches on Google or whatever tool/search engine. Thou a good, comprehensive article, this is on keyword research tools rather than semantics, so I find the title and headings a bit misleading. An article about semantic keyword research would probably talk about means of identifying words used to create and develop a concept around a web page, to help users and search engines understand that your "Indian arm" page, for example, is about a river and not the arm of an Indian. Such words would include river, stream, fish, water and so on. Cheers!
This is a very good post and I can't wait to use all these tools, and tips and get going!
hi Neilpateli have create a website then start seo some 2 3 days ago when i search what is lotus notes my site disply google.com but now it not show google top 50 pages please help what can i do agian my site show google 1st page my site name is https://www.whatislotusnotes.com/
One of the best tools I use for clients targeting 1000's of keywords would be
https://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/
It's great being able to feed in synonyms into Excel and map a range of semantic keyword strings to the head terms that they are targeting.
Whilst you can't export it into raw data, it will give you some inspiration for words to search in a meaningful way.
I wil check it out. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing such a nice informative post. I appreciate your hard work. I think it will be helpful to all SEO guys. So I am sending it to several friends also sharing in all social media sites.
Yeah using social media metrics in keyword research is something I have been doing for a few years along with related searches,
I did a post on their a while ago using social mention data.
https://www.seomoz.org/ugc/advanced-seo-keyword-research-tips-and-ideas-14216
Neil,
Enjoyed this great post with many resources listed - Thanks!
I always use google adword tools which willl help you for getting a strongest keyword research. If we use such stretagy, undoughtly, We get the desired result.
Hi,I just want to let you all know the "RELATED SEARCHES" do not show up for Google.caI switched on my VPN for a US location, then headed to Google.com and it showed. Interesting. Any one have this problem in Google.com.au?
Great post, Neil. Yet another very useful tool I've picked up from you.
Thanks for the examples and clear discussion of this set of techniques. I appreciate knowing more about how to use the Google tools and apply what's there. Good post!
Hi Neil,
Very informative post, i like the way you describe it, still I have some doubts in my mind..
According to you, due to this procedure we can increase CTR and all things but can we get the potential client, sales or business. I am not disagree you there is no 100%. Google insight search is giving me the maximum right data but google Related searches is not giving me the best result. Suppose I am a real estate agent in Noida and my profile selling the flats in Noida. So, flats in noida will be the good keyword for my business, because this keyword has lots of searches with great CTR. But in reality it doesn’t help me much because the best keyword for my business is flats in noida for sale but it has low CTR. So, what would be the good keyword for my business...
When I am searching flats in noida look at the results
Related searches for flats in noida:
Due you think, these are the best keywords for my business?
Please clarify me the right things for searching great potential keywords
Thanks
Mukesh Kumar
This is really amazing information, its really helpful to increase traffice, i think everyone must know about Improve Your Rankings with Semantic Keyword Research, here you get really good information.
Great post..
Really nice post! Loads of ace tools here and you've helped my understanding with exactly what semantic keywords are and the difference between long tail and semantic. Thanks!
Useful and very informative post that was. Thanks for sharing this.