Semantic Search SEO Strategy Case Study

When building out a new web page, you need to be thinking about how your users receive the message and how Google reads it. The fact is that you want to engage your readers by making it simple and interesting to read, but at the same time, keywords still do matter… No matter what the “SEO is Dead” protestors say.

Keyword optimization has changed

In the past, Keyword Optimization was a calculated approach to finding the right densities to get your content to rank higher. As Google continued to come out with algorithm updates, this changed drastically bringing many more factors into play. So now, in 2015, it’s important to understand how Google reads your content. Simply put, your target keywords hold much less value than the related keywords (semantic keywords). Based on some simple testing with a free tool I like to use called LSIKeywords.com, I’ll show you how I came to this conclusion. The first step is doing some basic keyword research to find your main high traffic keywords. In this case, I’m working with a dental client who wants to be found for porcelain veneers Houston. So, to get an idea of the search volume, I will either use SEMRush (Paid) or Google Keyword Planner (Free). For this demonstration, I’m going to use SEMRush because it also gives me an idea of who my competitors are. When I login to SEMrush, I will simply type in porcelain veneers Houston and SEARCH. Now it’s time to analyze the results in the Phrase Match Report. As you can see, the search volume isn’t super impressive and SEMrush only yields two results in the Phrase Match Report. We will now direct our attention to the Related Keywords Report. You will need to view the full report to see all of them, but for this example I will show the top 10. SEMrush provides keyword search volumes for the entire U.S. While this particular campaign is going to be local, these metrics still provide a list of the most prominent related keywords. By integrating these keywords with the website content, the primary keyword rankings can be improved. Pro Tip: Keep in mind, that keyword phrases can be spread out in a variety of ways. Use Google’s universal search results to your advantage by implementing these keywords in image alt tags and file names for image search, video titles and descriptions (self-hosted using a video xml sitemap) for video results, and of course- titles, meta descriptions, headings, anchor text, and website copy for organic search.

Using LSIkeywords.com for semantic search strategies

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)  is an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text.

    LSIKeywords.com is effective because it shows you the keyword densities of top ranking competitors for your primary keyword. I have personally had success ranking webpages by simply mimicking keyword patterns collected from top ranking competitors. This doesn’t always get you instant success due to other factors like backlink profiles and website architecture, but it certainly can give your rankings a boost. Give this strategy a shot and let me know how it works. Read the top three ranking competitor’s copy all of the way through to get a better idea of where they are placing their keywords. Then, once you’ve implemented them, wait a week and see if you notice any improvements.