The importance of the semantic field in SEO

Working well on your semantic field in SEO has become essential. Whether for Google or for users, providing quality content is of major interest and has undeniable consequences on the ranking of a site. SmartKeyword reviews the importance of the semantic field and the rules to follow for its optimization.

Contents:

• What is semantic SEO?
• Why optimise the semantic field of your articles?
• How to optimize a content’s semantic field?

 

What is semantic SEO?

The semantic field refers to the set of meanings that a word can take in various contexts. It is based on the optimization of words phrases and expressions contained in an article to provide more relevant results. Initially, Google was not very demanding regarding the use of the lexical field, but in recent years, semantics has become essential for SEO.

Why optimise the semantic field of your articles?

To be at the top of the SERPs, content must be impregnated with a semantic fieldsemantic field having a strong signal. The terms used must be co-occurring in order to provide rich and diverse content to search engines. Co-occurrence helps optimize the semantics of a site while taking into account the main idea sought by users. In addition to the fact that this SEO method helps Google to better understand the subject matter, it also makes it possible to measure the relevance of the content in relation to results that are in the same line of thought.

The changes brought by Hummingbird

In the past, Google only understood keywords and their synonyms. At that time, the search engine barely took into account the general context of a text as well as the intentions of Internet users. Results appeared after each search in the order determined by its algorithms. Before the launch of Hummingbird, the robot would crawl each word separately and index those found in its database. The Hummingbird algorithm was launched following a better analysis of queries’ meaning and of the relationship that words have with each other. The changes brought on by the Hummingbird algorithm came in 2013 when the search engine decided to offer more human results to Internet users. The new SEO practice advocates a key concept, that of "entities". With this change, Google considers not only keywords, but also a set of entities that can be objects, products, people, etc. Among the advances that have been made since the launch of Hummingbird, we also note the possibility to do voice searches and to do concise and more detailed searches.

The various benefits on your SEO

The optimization of the SEO semantic field and the update of the Google algorithm present several advantages for your SEO.

Richer content

One of the major advantages of using a semantic field on your SEO is the richness of the content. Relevant quality content allows you to gain a privileged place in the minds of Internet users.

More positioned queries

Semantic search allows for better analysis of long tail queries and an optimal consideration of word combinations. By having this finer understanding made possible by the Hummingbird and Bert updates, Google now interprets the queries as a whole, providing increasingly precise answers to Internet users. Thus, the richer and more relevant your vocabulary is in a given theme, the higher your content will be in the top positions of Google's search results.

More traffic

Let's underline that one of the objectives of the lexical field is to gain a better position on the SERPs, and thus to generate more traffic by draining more visitors towards a site.

How to optimize a content’s semantic field?

To reach the top of search engines, it is not enough to randomly list keywords in an article.There are several rules to follow for an effective SEO strategy.

Keyword research

The first step to optimizing your content is keyword research . First, you must find the main keyword and then draw from the list of secondary keywords to enrich your page. The secondary keywords must be related to the main keyword and therefore specify the theme. To complete the lexical field, you can use synonyms or related keywords.

To do this, there are several simple methods at your disposal:

• in a Word document: right click on the desired word then 'synonyms'.
• type the word in the search bar followed by 'synonym' (and yes I warned you it's simple)

• Google suggest for related words:

• Get inspired by related searches: after doing a search on Google, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the 'related searches' section. These expressions are the most popular and similar search terms to the main query.

Semantic field analysis

To optimize the semantic field of a content, it is important to work on it. To do this, it is necessary to define the place of each word or expression in the tree structure of the site. Some software can help you analyse the semantics of your page . These tools allow you to determine whether the vocabulary used in your articles is rich enough and to check whether your page has obtained a good optimisation score in comparison with your competitors.

Natural content

To optimize the semantic field of a content, it is important to work on it. To do this, you must define the place of each word or expression in the site's tree structure. Some software can help you analyze the semantics of your page. These tools allow you to determine if the vocabulary used in your articles is rich enough and to check if your page has obtained a good optimization score compared to your competitors. To optimize the semantic field, your content must be fluid, clear and pleasant to read. It is therefore important to avoid over-optimization and excessive use of keywords. Stay focused on the use of the most relevant terms and let your pen describe your ideas naturally.

Conclusion

The semantic field is a major productivity lever on the Internet. This revaluation of the semantic field analysis remains undeniably one of the major changes brought by Google these last years. To stay in the race and stay in line with Google's evolutions, professionals must continue to enrich their semantic field.  

   Article written by Louis Chevant