Google and Semantic what???

The way the major search engines such as Google are indexing pages is ever changing and one difference SEO'ers are going to have to get use to is that semantic indexing is likely now taking place.

Thing is plenty of people use the word but its likely that not many know what it actually means.

I'll start with a "define" command in Google's search bar:

Definitions of semantic on the Web:

• type The widest type of the operands of an expression.
  developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/PPCNumerics/PPCNumerics-191.html

So the widest types of an expression.... I am presuming then that Google is looking for keywords associated with another keyword

Ok taking "country hotel" as a keyword phrase example, how to search for those wider expressions?

We could brainstorm with other members of a team (if we're lucky enough not to work on our own) or we could use tools if we work as an individual like me such as

goRank's Semantic "Ontology Related Keyword Research Tool"

And here's the results:

country (5 related words found)

country

golf

countries

country's

golf's

hotel (9 related words found)

hotel

hotels

inn

accommodation

in

lodging

holiday

hoteles

hotel's

I was impressed with this tool!

"Country" as a keyword and it pulls "golf" out of the hat. Seeing as thats one keyword I have targeted previously for a client in the country hotel industry leaves me pleasantly surprised.

Ok lets look at "hotel"

"inn" - for my client not really but for someone else maybe. I'd like to have seen "bed" and "breakfast" in the results but can't please all of the people....

"accommodation" - here is one I should take and use in the clients content, I should re-adjust keywords to reflect this particular phrase.

"lodging" - not sure about this keyword. I would not use it in a page's content BEFORE having carried out further keyword research to ensure it would be suitable for UK visitors. Has an American ring to it and right now my client is wishing to target the UK Holiday market.

"holiday" - an obvious but perhaps easily overlooked choice - this keyword will be used in the content of my clients pages before the day is out.

So semantic indexing can be defined as Google using other words associated with a certain keyword and looking for these other keywords within a pages content.

Its going to need further research and if anyone knows more feel free to post comments below to help readers of this blog.

I shall for one be starting with Matt Cutts' (of Google) blog - you might think about doing the same too.

Cheers

ukdaz