In conversation, few things are as irritating as someone arguing about semantics. Some people will talk about anything without staying on topic or making a point. Luckily for all of us, SEO, addressing the semantics can be beneficial if you are striving to rank higher in the eyes of Google’s algorithm. In this case, the semantics in question refers to a marketing tool called Semantic SEO. One of Google’s more recent inventions, Semantic SEO, refines your web content to enhance the meaning and thematic depth of what you post online.
Today, satisfying the algorithms of our favorite search engine is at the forefront of every marketer’s mind. Semantic SEO is another tool that will help your law firm increase the likelihood of marketing success. If your semantic SEO strategies pay off, your law firm could be awarded one featured snippet one of the most desirable and
exclusive marketing tools. So what does it take to ensure that GOOGLE9000 opens the Pod Bay doors to your law firm almost every time? First, let’s talk about the evolution of Google’s all-important AI and how it checks your law firm’s website to determine rate and rank.
Semantics… Tick… SEO Boom!
Imagine you’re in a supermarket and come across one of those robots from Lost in Space looking for spills, debris and other hazards to clear. They endlessly comb every inch of the grocery aisles to make sure it’s the best environment for their shoppers. Google’s old algorithm used to work similarly, except we swap the supermarket for the internet and the ‘bots crawl all content online, including your law firm’s website.
Over the years, Google has developed new ways for the algorithm to score and rank content, making the AI’s decisions more humane and less like sleep-deprived Nostradamus. If they could improve the way they deliver search results, users would get to their destinations faster, and Google would become a trusted hub to reliably accomplish this. When your bread and butter is solid search results and making a lot of money, it’s hard not to see how one affects the other.
As Google’s AI evolved, tools like Hummingbird focused on the context of search queries. After Hummingbird, they created Rank Brain so the algorithm could anticipate search intent. Google even provided marketers with Knowledge Graphs for reference. Unfortunately, none of these tools were sufficient. Even the most informed guessing game is still a gamble.
Semantic SEO differs in how it interprets content. Instead of relying on search queries or mind reading, the algorithm uses semantic SEO to check context, facial expressions, and tone of writing. The more human, accurate, and thorough the content is, the greater the chance that Google’s algorithm will rank and rank it positively and push the content up in the search results. The pinnacle of this journey could be a Featured Snippet, and Semantic SEO could be your Sherpa.
Not a stone unturned
When a user searches for a question, they want the full answer. Leave the secrets to Benoit Blanc. If a user misses the mark on their first search, they continue down that rabbit hole until they find what they’re looking for, or worse, give up. When creating content, think about how you can answer this question clearly. The algorithm looks for the single piece of content that meticulously answers a question. The algorithm is happy when the content of your law firm presents trends that are closer and closer in this direction.
As your content climbs the rankings, learn how to refine your law firm’s blogs, webinars, articles, videos, and social media to give the algorithm what it wants. Practice makes it almost perfect. If you ticked all the boxes, a featured snippet could be the reward. As we discussed in a previous article, Featured snippets are the top search results a user sees, like a newspaper headline. Any other search result requires the user to scroll to read. Such presence is why semantic SEO is on the rise, and your law firm’s content should ride with it.
Bring away:
Semantic SEO is another tool Google uses to help its algorithm rank and rank web pages as if they were the user. The more human the AI’s decisions, the better. Historically, AI has relied on less intelligent methods to provide a user with information-rich content and articles, such as the context of their requests and, believe it or not, technologies akin to digital mind reading. Google’s main source of income is the reliability of its search results, and the development of its algorithm leads to semantic SEO. The purpose of Semantic SEO is for the algorithm to evaluate and rank content based on the quality of the information provided, the visual aesthetics, and the facial expressions in the images. Websites and companies that use semantic SEO strategies as a guide focus their efforts on ensuring that each piece of content correctly answers a specific question. The algorithm will be happy if you consider every conceivable follow-up question and respond to it in terms of content. Satisfy the AI enough and Google might gift you a featured snippet, the Mount Everest of marketing tools.
We work side-by-side with clients to understand the intricacies of semantic SEO, catapult their content to the top of search results, and get the attention of Google’s algorithm.
