Semantic SEO Explained: Optimize Your Content for Topics, Not Just Keywords

Semantic SEO is an advanced approach that goes beyond traditional keyword targeting. By concentrating on topics, understanding user intent, and incorporating natural language, you can create in-depth, valuable content that resonates with both search engines and readers.

What is Semantic SEO?

Semantic SEO is the strategy of creating content for topics instead of just keywords. It focuses on understanding search intent and providing comprehensive, high-quality information that meets user needs.

This approach takes into account context and relationships between words to improve search engine rankings and deliver more valuable content to readers.

Why is Semantic SEO important?

In the past, Google evaluated the topic of a page based 100% on relevant keywords.

• For example, if you wrote a page that used the keyword “paleo diet” repeatedly, that would be telling Google, “This keyword appears everywhere on the page. This page must be about the paleo eating plan!”

Then, in 2013, Google launched its Hummingbird algorithm.

This search engine algorithm significantly changed how Google Search works.

Instead of focusing solely on keywords, they now read and understand the general topic of a page.

• (Very similar to what a human would do.)
• For example, if you type “Health Benefits of Paleo Diet” into the search bar before Hummingbird, Google will show you pages that contain that exact phrase on the webpage:

But Hummingbird is smarter than that.

• Yes, Google still looks for keywords. But they don’t rely on it.
• So instead of just scanning pages for keywords, they look for pages that best cover the main topic “Paleo Diet and Health.”

And present these search engine results to users

Best Practices

Below is a concise table highlighting the main best practices and a brief explanation of each:

Publish “Topically Relevant” Content

Some time ago I conducted the largest Google ranking factor correlation study ever conducted (over 11 million search results analyzed).

And one of our most surprising findings was the power of “topically relevant” content.

SO:

• What is “topically relevant” content? And how can you optimize it?
• Topically relevant content is a fancy way of describing content that covers the topic in depth.

How to Write Topic Summaries

If you want to make sure your content is topically relevant, I highly recommend using “topic summaries.”

Topic summaries are summaries that list all the subtopics you’ll cover in your article.

And they make it easier to write the kind of detailed content that Google loves so much.

Create Topic Outlines. 

To ensure your content remains highly relevant, I strongly recommend developing “Topic Outlines.” 

These outlines detail every subtopic you plan to cover in your post, making it easier to craft the in-depth content that Google loves. 

For example, think of an outline as your blueprint for organizing and expanding on your ideas.

I published this article about backlinks.

But before I wrote a single word, I created a topic summary. This topic summary lists all the subtopics that fall under the broader topic of “backlinks.”

I knew that if I covered these subtopics in content, Google would consider them topically relevant.

• Answer “People Also Ask Questions” Questions
• This is a cool trick I learned recently.

You may have noticed that Google now offers these “People Also Ask” boxes in search results.

The boxes that say “People Also Ask” are actually Google’s answers: “These are burning questions people have about this topic.”

And when you answer these questions in your content, you’ll not only rank better for your target keyword, but you can also be featured in “People Also Ask” boxes.

Or you can just cover the answer to this topic in your article.

• For example, if you search for “backlinks,” one of the questions is, “What is an example of a backlink?” » :

So I included an example in my content.

It’s simple.

Target keyword variations with the same page

When I first started researching search engine optimization, people would create a different page for each variation of a keyword.

• For example, create a page optimized around the “best cookie recipes.” And another optimized for “best cookie recipe.”

The idea was to create a SUPER optimized page around this specific keyword. And repeat the process for every different variation of that term.

It worked well…for a while.

But thanks to updates like Panda and Hummingbird, this approach no longer makes sense.

That’s because Google now shows almost identical results for variations of the same keywords.

• For example, when you search for “oatmeal cookie recipe” and “oatmeal cookie recipe,” the results are pretty much exactly the same:

This is why you want to target multiple similar keywords with the same page.

I’ll explain with an example.

1. One of top performing pieces of content is: “YouTube SEO: How to Rank YouTube Videos”
2. At that point, I would have created an article optimized around “YouTube SEO.” And another one about “YouTube SEO 2024.”
3. But thanks to semantic SEO, I know that Google understands that these topics are similar.
4. So I optimized this single article around BOTH keywords.
5. Since Google not only looks at keywords but also uses semantic SEO to understand what my page is about, it decided to rank my page in one of the top spots for both keywords.

Avoid Long-Tail Keywords

You’ve already learned that it’s not a good idea to optimize different pages based on keyword variations.

Well, it turns out that the same rule applies to most long-tail keywords as well.

Let me explain:

Long-tail keywords are popular because they’re not very competitive.

The problem is this:

Thanks to semantic SEO, Google now groups similar long-tail keywords together within the same topic.

• As an example, take two long-tail keywords like “link building suggestions” and “link building techniques.”

Google now understands that these two long-tail terms fall under the topic of “link building.”

This is why the results for both are very similar.

Instead of long-tail keywords, I recommend creating entire content around semi-competitive medium-tail keywords.

And if your content is amazing enough, Google will automatically rank you for many long-tail keywords.

• For example, my aim at keyword for this page on my website is “keyword research.”

It’s not a highly competitive keyword like “SEO.” But it’s also not a long-tail keyword like: “best keyword research strategies.” It’s right in the middle.

And because my content is so deep (and has a lot of links pointing to it), it ranks for 330 different keywords:

(According to Semrush.)

Don’t Ignore Keywords Completely

Certainly there’s been a bunch of talk lately about “optimizing for topics, not keywords.”

And it’s 1000% FALSE.

As you just saw, Google can now understand the topic of a page. Which means you don’t need to hand them different keyword variations or long-tail keywords on a plate.

• But that doesn’t mean keywords are dead. Not at all.
• In fact, Google always recommends that you use keywords on your page:
• Keep on target keywords (and optimize your content across those terms). 
• The only big difference is that you can now target multiple keywords on a single page.

And because Google is smart, it will rank that single page for the different keywords on your page… and lots of similar terms.

Posting Long-Form Content

If you really want to optimize your semantic SEO, you need to get into the habit of writing long-form content.

And by “long” I mean content that’s 1,000, 2,000, or even 5,000 words long.

Just to be clear:

I’m not saying you should post content with a bunch of superfluous stuff and filler.

Rather, I’m pointing out a simple fact:

It’s nearly impossible to cover an entire topic in a traditional 400-word blog post.

Being dependent on the topic, you might need a few thousand words to cover it. And that’s completely normal.

• For example, if this list of 7 Truths About SEO is 3,517 words long.

Is this content very long? Certainly. But it makes users happy because they get everything they really want on a single page.

And Google loves this content for the same reason: it’s a single, high-quality page that answers a user’s query.

Bottom line?

Don’t be afraid to post very long and detailed content. In fact, it can be a huge competitive advantage when it comes to SEO.

Include semantically related sentences

Also known as LSI keywords.

These phrases help Google better understand the overall topic of your page.

• (As a bonus, when you use related words and phrases in your content, you’ll also rank better in long-tail searches.)

Optimize for conversational keywords

You may have heard that voice search is booming.

• (Which is true. According to Google, 41% of all American adults perform at least one voice search per day.)

And because voice search queries are more conversational, they directly feed into what semantic search is trying to do: understand topics, not just individual keywords.

In other words:

You don’t need to type like a robot to rank on Google.

As an example, let’s mention your target keyword is: “SEO web link building tools.”

Back then, you had to find a way to insert that pesky keyword into your content.

This is no longer the case.

Nowadays, you can use a natural language variation of that term (like “SEO web link building tools”) and still rank for a certain keyword.

The takeaway is this:

Use natural language in your content. This contributes to the semantic referencing of your content. And it additionally optimizes your information for an increasing segment of searches: voice search.

Use structured data

Structured data (schema) adds a layer of context to your content.

Schema isn’t a silver bullet for SEO (in fact, our correlation study found no correlation between schema usage and rankings).

But structured data helps Google understand your content. That’s why it’s worth using in many cases.

And as an added benefit, structured data can give you access to rich snippets, which can increase your site’s organic CTR.

Conclusion:

In summary, Semantic SEO elevates your content strategy by emphasizing comprehensive topic coverage and contextual relevance. Implementing techniques such as topic outlines, conversational language, and structured data not only improves your search rankings but also provides a richer, more engaging experience for your audience.