FYI: Search Engine Optimization

If you have a business website, you are probably familiar with search engine optimization (SEO), the set of steps you follow to help search engines find your site.

Once upon a time, SEO involved, at its most basic level, tailoring website content to words and phrases that people would be most likely to use when looking for businesses like yours. But the more popular the term, the harder it was to rank highly for it.

If, for example, you offered dog care services, “dog sitting” and “dog walking” would be some of the keywords you would use. These are pretty broad terms so the competition for ranking on those words would be high. That is why SEO evolved into using so-called long-tail keywords; that is, terms that are much more specific and could attract a narrrower but more engaged audience. In the case of dog care, the addition of a city or region could distinguish you from dog walkers in other cities or regions. Including those keyword phrases in your content, in the right number, was considered the way to get high rankings on search engines.

But search has changed again and keyword density matters less. Semantic search is the now the “key”, if you will.

SEO is a massive topic that is beyond the scope of this blog post, but I will provide a brief overview of some of the latest trends in SEO insofar as they affect content. I will also provide links to further information.

TL;DR: High-quality content with detail and depth that answers questions commonly asked by your target audience still rules the day, even in the age of AI search. As one writer states about the impact of AI on organic search: keep doing SEO. Things in the SEO arena might be shifting, but the fundamentals still apply.

We’ll start with a look at semantic keywords and content, then have a very brief look at AI search.

Semantic Keywords

Semantic keywords are related to your main topic but not an exact match and not necessarily a synonym. They are important because, in the words of SEO expert Nikki Pilkington, “search engines have evolved from basic keyword matching to actually understanding context and meaning.”

She goes onto say that because Google understands context, it “wants to see that you actually know what you are talking about.” Hence the use of related terms, aka semantic keywords. Related terms also tend to be more natural and easier to incorporate into a post so you don’t create clunky turns of phrase or sound like you are keyword stuffing. (Ms. Pilkington gives many examples and I highly recommend her post on semantic keywords.)

Picking up on that notion of natural language, Branislav Nikolic notes on the SEO Impact site that a semantic keyword is more of a question, like: “Why do my tomatoes have yellow leaves?” (A question I recently posed to Google.)

Nikolic then puts it into terms we all understand: “You don’t spout keywords at the voice assistant asking you what you want; you ask it a question.” It is the same with search engines now. As he says, keyword density is not really useful in the age of semantic search. What matters is creating good content:

“You don’t need to care about specific keyword phrases or keyword density. To Google, ‘how to grow perfect turnips,’ ‘how to plant turnip seeds,’ and ‘turnip growing guide’ all have more or less the same meaning. Instead, just write good content about your topic. If you’re writing about how to grow turnips in your garden, chances are you’re going to cover all the keyword bases just writing the piece.”

This is not to say you shouldn’t do keyword research or have specific search terms in mind when you create content, just that you shouldn’t force them into your content. After all, to answer questions you need to know what people are asking and how. That involves some degree of research into search queries and keywords. (Something that AI might facilitate because Google, itself, is apparently not great at tracking these more conversational queries.)

TIP: I use the Yoast plugin in WordPress to help determine where I might be able to do more vis a vis optimization. It offers an immediate assessment of a web page or blog post and indicates with a red, yellow and green colour system whether the content is well optimized in its eyes. Just remember that plugins like Yoast are not gospel — use them for advice on what can be improved, but don’t tie yourself into knots trying to get that green light. Remember semantic keywords: you are trying to demonstrate your knowledge on a topic. Having related terms may mean you “fail” on keyphrase density even though you have written a perfectly good post that will attract search engines because it shows a breadth of knowledge. It’s often best to go with your gut here and stick with your well-written post even if it doesn’t get a green light.

Answer Questions

Because people are writing their search queries in the form of questions, it makes sense that you should build your content that way.

Instead of worrying about whether you have an exact phrase in your content, focus on answering questions that your target audience might be asking. For example, a veterinary practice might create blog posts like “How to Remove a Tick from Your Dog” or “How to Help Your Cat Lose Weight”.

As Nikolic noted in the passage cited above, keywords will still appear in your content because you are talking about the subject they pertain to. But they are not the focus and do not need to be kludged in.

Be Natural

As has been implied above, natural language is an important aspect of content creation. Because SEO now means aiming for depth and answering questions, your tone should be conversational and natural, not forced and bot-like.

Content Structure and Quality

Structure is another factor in SEO. Content has to be not only relevant to the topic at hand, but well-written and structured for ease of reading. A good structure helps both people and search engines navigate your content. Important considerations for structure include:

placing the most relevant content at the beginning of the post to get meaning across quickly
breaking text down with subheadings or images to improve legibility
ensuring there are links whenever possible to aid navigation and connect visitors to related information

Content quality refers not only to things like grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, but also the depth at which you explain your subject. You don’t have to write a lengthy post for every topic, but you do want to provide thorough answers without stretching your content too thin or relying on filler to pad a post. You should have a good number of posts of at least 500 words in length. If you have a very detailed topic to discuss, you can use a cornerstone structure: start with a long foundational post to cover the basics on a topic, then link to other, shorter posts to fill in any other details. (The term content clusters is also used to describe this structure.)

According to Pilkington (and others), AI search results pull from the sites they determine to have the most comprehensive content. If you want to appear in AI search results, well-written, in-depth content matters.

And remember to use your related terms in other areas of your post: alt text on photos, meta description, SEO and page titles, and the excerpt (if you provide one.)

NOTE: I am talking here about the structure that readers see on your site, not the structured data that can help SEO. That is a whole other topic that you can read about in this Google page about structured data markup. This is another area where the aforementioned Yoast plugin can help, as it automatically adds structured data tags.

SEO and AI

Another factor in SEO is the use of artifcial intelligence (AI) in keyword research, mentioned briefly above.

Semantic search is made possible through AI and enables search engines to return more refined and precises results based on what they “think” the user is asking for. According to Forbes, this “involves not just the surrounding text, but also the situational usage, cultural aspects and the intended meaning of language.”

So while SEO is still very much relevant in the age of AI, the mechanisms behind it are changing. Many SEO experts note that AI tools can help streamline keyword research and, again according to Forbes, can inform you about not only the search volume for keywords but also “the underlying intent they represent, such as informational or transactional queries.”

Pilkington goes further to note that AI chatbots are “surprisingly good” at helping business owners learn what questions people are asking about their industry. She suggests using AI to see what questions are being asked, but having a human actually create the content.

Her point is echoed in a Forbes article from 2024 which says: “AI tools excel in uncovering relevant, high-potential long-tail and user-intent keywords, including those used by competitors. This research informs your content optimization, ensuring that your content satisfies both search engine algorithms and users.”

This knowledge then enables you to improve your (human-written) content to align more closely with the needs of your target audience.