Back in February, we explored balancing keyword targeting with concept targeting. This time around we're looking at using your knowledge of related topics and semantic connections in your on-page SEO processes. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about applying those ideas in ways that will boost your ranking potential and inform your keyword research.
Video Transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about using related topics and semantically connected keywords, not just for keyword research — although that is a potential use and application — but also for some of the on-page SEO processes that we run.
Now when I say "related topics and semantically connected keywords," I'm not actually talking about the things that you would find through a traditional keyword research process. The idea here is not to say, "What other things are people searching for that I could target?"
This is really trying to define two different, unique kinds of use cases or extractions for keywords.
Now when I say "related topics and semantically connected keywords," I'm not actually talking about the things that you would find through a traditional keyword research process. The idea here is not to say, "What other things are people searching for that I could target?"
This is really trying to define two different, unique kinds of use cases or extractions for keywords.
Those are: What are keywords (well, words and phrases overall), unique words and phrases that are used on more pages and paragraphs and phrases that contain the query you're going after across the Web, and what are terms and phrases that are used by more pages that rank for that particular query?
This may sound a little technical, but it's not too hard. Once I show you these examples, I think you'll grasp it real quick.
Let's say for example that I'm trying to target the word "food processor." I've chosen that as a good keyword for me. It's something that I want to rank for. I know that if I can rank for it, I'm going to do well. My keyword research is done.
At this point, I'm doing on-page SEO. I'm trying to make my page more relevant and my site more relevant. I'm trying to rank better for this, and it could be the case that using certain words and phrases on the page where I'm targeting "food processor" is very important.
Google might look at a page that's ranking for "food processor" and say, "Gosh, it's weird that this page doesn't have this keyword, this keyword, this keyword on it. We would expect that a page that's targeting 'food processor' should have these things."
So I want to find two things. I want to find, in the top 10 or top 20 results that Google already has for "food processor," what are words and phrases that are on those pages more frequently? And across the entire Web, the corpus of the whole Internet that Google crawls or at least the important parts of the Internet that Google crawls and indexes, what are words and phrases that are used more on those pages when the phrase "food processor" is present?
That's what this chart is showing me. Essentially, these are things that are used more across the whole Web. These are things that are used more on pages that already rank for this term.
I've done this with two examples — food processor and rainforest. Rainforest keywords in orange, food processor keywords in purple.
For example, you might see that the word "recipe" is used across the Web on lots of pages that contain "food processor," which makes sense. Lots of recipes that call for a food processor have the word "recipe" on the page. But those aren't necessarily the ones that rank very well. So it's over here. It's high up on the "Yes, used across the Web" but low down on "Used by pages that rank well."
Is it important to use it on the page that I'm trying to target? Well, maybe. It depends on how comprehensive I'm trying to be. Maybe I should think about targeting that on a different page, these kinds of things.
Something like — let's go over to our example for rainforest — a word like "temperate rainforest," which are less popular and commonly used both on the Web and in the results that rank than the more commonly thought of "tropical rainforests." So Washington State, for example, near Seattle has some temperate rainforests, where you get lots of rain, but you don't think of them as traditional rainforests. They don't have like thousands of creatures in them. They're not all hot and wet like they are in Brazil or Costa Rica or those kinds of places. So "temperate," less commonly used across the Web and less common in the ones that rank well.
But something like "Amazon," very common in things that rank well and in the middle of pages that use it and don't. Many pages that use rainforests don't describe specifically the Amazon rainforest, but many do.
For example, you might see that the word "recipe" is used across the Web on lots of pages that contain "food processor," which makes sense. Lots of recipes that call for a food processor have the word "recipe" on the page. But those aren't necessarily the ones that rank very well. So it's over here. It's high up on the "Yes, used across the Web" but low down on "Used by pages that rank well."
Is it important to use it on the page that I'm trying to target? Well, maybe. It depends on how comprehensive I'm trying to be. Maybe I should think about targeting that on a different page, these kinds of things.
Something like — let's go over to our example for rainforest — a word like "temperate rainforest," which are less popular and commonly used both on the Web and in the results that rank than the more commonly thought of "tropical rainforests." So Washington State, for example, near Seattle has some temperate rainforests, where you get lots of rain, but you don't think of them as traditional rainforests. They don't have like thousands of creatures in them. They're not all hot and wet like they are in Brazil or Costa Rica or those kinds of places. So "temperate," less commonly used across the Web and less common in the ones that rank well.
But something like "Amazon," very common in things that rank well and in the middle of pages that use it and don't. Many pages that use rainforests don't describe specifically the Amazon rainforest, but many do.
Using Related Topics and Semantically Connected Keywords in Your SEO - Whiteboard Friday
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