Semantic Mapping, Because a Keyword Isn`t Good Enough - Semantic Mapping is Optimization for Humans
(Page 3 of 4 )
The problem is that the initial idea of a search is often bigger in scale or less defined than what can fit into a search box.
Let’s take a look from the perspective of a searcher. Say I want to make a nice dinner and want to find a new recipe. I loosely know what I feel like and what’s in my fridge to work with, but I just don’t care at this point to try narrowing down the search. So, in the search box, I type “dinner recipe.” When going to search for something, people often start with broad terms.
The idea is larger than what I have typed. Even though I am searching for a dinner recipe, it doesn’t mean I want to see anything that is returned on it. The keywords I chose are simply my best attempt to express what I want to find.
A few of the high ranking results have “turkey” and “meatloaf” in the titles. As I scan down the page, I know I don’t have any turkey in the fridge, and meatloaf makes me cringe. I see a result with pasta in the title, which sounds good. But the description has nothing that catches my eye. Upon further inspection, I see that is because it is declaring the date and name of pasta cooking award. I move to the next page. I almost click on a link to a Mexican layered dinner, but the description looks like an email header.
“Dinner recipe” is a rather broad term to optimize for. Once I have decided that pasta sounded good, I may refine my search above: “pasta dinner recipe.” Now we have gotten more specific, as searches often do. Though this search is more specific, it faces the same issues as the last. For instance, there will be plenty of results that I don’t really want and plenty that don’t attract a click. One site was definitely optimized (arguably over optimized) and returned this description:
“Easy Gourmet Recipes Entertaining Dessert Recipes Seafood Recipes holiday recipes pasta recipes dinner recipes party holiday party party recipe party…”
That’s a keyword dump, if I ever saw one. Keyword dumps and other obvious over optimization often make web surfers ignore SERPs. This site is pushed to the top, and is seen as less relevant as something that reached the first page legitimately.
Even if the page has the perfect dinner recipe, I would never find it if the search results looked like garbage. The result listing has to trigger a match with the semantics of my search. If the title doesn’t appeal quickly, it’s passed. If the description is poor, it’s ignored.
Next: Starting With a Rough Guide >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Developer Shed
/ 14 
