Was: keywordsIs now: concepts,
questions and themesAttacat
Joel Lumsden
Device and user personalisationTopics and co-relevance/semanticsWh-questions and answer boxes
Schema and entity markup
Note: I studied linguistics so I love saying things like ‘lexical semantics’
Google is smarter than it wasHummingbird algorithmMachine learning (RankBrain)So much data!
How relevant are ranking positions?
“I checked and we rank well”
Really?Things are changing...
More ads
Social updatesor maps
News
Answer box(often at top)
LocationDifferent locations = different results
Edinburgh = No.1London = No.5
Device, browser...
Desktop Android mobileiOS 6 mobile
Windows Galaxy S6iPhone 6
Edge ChromeSafari
No.1 No.3No.2
Tip: Spot checkingChrome incognito windowRight-click > Developer tools
Select device e.g. mobile
①
①①
Tip: Spot checkingSelect location (lat-long)Network and user agent
See attacat.co.uk/brain/chrome-inspect-element
②
②
②
③
③
Keyword rankingsRank tracking should take all this into account
Look at indicative trends at least
Keyword rankings
Track mobile vs. desktop
Track location A vs. location B
Page rankings
Track performance of pages receiving search traffic
• From different terms / themes• Head terms / converters / long-tail...• From different devices etc.
Analysis cycleRemember why you’re rank tracking
Question > Data > Change > Observe
Topics and semantics
Google understands themesIt’s about lexical semantic relevance
With machine learning, Google can continually analyse what’s ‘best’
You’re more likely to rank if you’re more relevant to the search query
Variants and co-occurrencehttps://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-seo-concepts
Build topically related keyword listsMost searches have never been searched for before
Themes!Group thematically-linked termsCommercial vs informational
Build topically related keyword listsSearcher needs and the questions they need answering
• Question them! Get personas and groups.
Develop content themesMoz keyword explorer and Moz Pro related topics
Obviously Google Keyword planner
nTopic to analyse content’s topical relevancy
More toolsGoogle Suggest / autocomplete: use Keywordtool.io
Sistrix amazon keyword tool is great for commercial queries
Tools like Buzzsumo or Impactana for social and content
Wh-questionsTry to get answer boxes
AnswerThePublic.com
Entities and schemaSo…as part of this ‘things’ are more important‘Things’ have relationships, related terms, co-occurrence etc.
Schema markupHelp Google understand the entities you’re talking about why you’re relevant
Use Schema.org (you can also try schema-creator)
Schema markupCan do it ‘inline’, with JSON-LD (talk to your dev), OR
Try the Google Search Console data highlighter
Understand entitiesAlchemy API: try the free public modelCheck your site and competitors
Also TextRazor.com
Some excellent readingMoz Whiteboard Fridays (keywords)Anything by Mike KingAnything by Cyrus ShepardAnything by Gianluca Fiorelli
Thanks and enjoy Edinburgh!@attacat_joel www.attacat.co.uk
@attacats