I've been doing tests and studies in Semantic Web since 2015 when I first read the fundamental book Google Semantic Search . If you want, you can still find the summary I made on Medium.

You can read my articles on Medium , LinkedIn , or here on the blog .

But what I want to show you is the most recent test I did, this time using two tools that I really like and have a lot of knowledge about .

I generally recommend WordPress and a plugin called Wordlift to anyone creating a content .

Regarding Wordlift, 've already written about it when I said that " The right tools for semantic SEO are strategies and tactics. " But to summarize for you, this plugin analyzes your content and identifies entities them into four basic categories: Who, What, When, and Where. Then it automates the markup of the article you wrote, adding information with internal links to a semantic that is updated with each new piece of content.

Creating new entities that will enrich your website and strengthen its relevance in your market is quite simple .

And it was using this strategy – WordPress content with semantic markup via Wordlift – that I achieved the result I'm now showing you!

But first…

I want to share a presentation I gave on September 11, 2021, on the IA Biblio BR , on the topic of "Semantics in Practice." My presentation demonstrated the practical application of semantics in SEO using WordLift .

Case Study: Bezerra de Menezes.

I attend a Spiritist center here in my city, Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul. I volunteer in the communications area and I started helping with the website, which is built on WordPress. Since I have so much experience , I decided to help in this area.

It was when I met the Wordlift that the idea came to me: could I optimize the house's website using the plugin?

I installed the plugin and started creating the entities that would make up the semantic domain of the site. I did a little planning and decided to use the name "Bezerra de Menezes" for this optimization .

I mapped all the existing content that could contain entities related to Bezerra de Menezes and the Bezerra de Menezes Spiritist Center .

Finding entities, optimizing vocabulary

Most of the work actually involves optimizing the vocabularies created by the plugin, Wordlift .

The content created for the website is not written by me; other people write for it. I simply take the written content and, using the plugin, identify people, places, events, and books that are of interest to people looking for a Spiritist center, and the plugin does the rest of the work.

Through Machine Learning and NLP, the system handles the entire process, making my life easier in terms of optimization.

After that, I go into all the entries that make up the site's vocabulary and optimize them one by one.

I've noticed that the richer the entry becomes, the better its ranking becomes. And the example I'm going to give you is exactly that of Bezerra de Menezes:

This search result, performed in Microsoft's Edge browser using Bing, shows the result for the term "Bezerra de Menezes".

The first result here is from Wikipedia, for the page that talks about the doctor and spiritualist, Dr. Bezerra de Menezes.

And the snippet also uses content from Wikipedia. The second (pointing to the website), the fourth (with a map to the location), the fifth (with opening hours), and the sixth (with Facebook) are all from the semantically .

Let's now look at a search done using Google.

This search result, obtained using Microsoft's Edge browser and Google Brazil, shows the result for the term "Bezerra de Menezes".

Notice that the first result, as expected, is also from Wikipedia for the page that talks about Dr. Bezerra. The second, third, and fourth results are from the Bezerra de Menezes Spiritist Beneficent Society , pointing to the website I optimized.

The Google Knowledge Graph shown here also displays results for the Spiritist center. Google is more advanced in its use of semantically data and therefore shows more data . I performed this search to isolate the influence of my browsing history and location on the results.

This result indicates the possibilities of using semantics in all website projects, especially those using WordPress, due to the ease of use of these plugins , which broaden the reach of SEO .

The result I showed you was achieved in a short time using a keyword that doesn't have much competition and has few websites optimized for it.

But I know the point is proven: Semantic markup of your content is a competitive advantage for your website, without a doubt.

June 2019 Update

This is another case of using structured entity markup position 0 in the search ( as seen below the divine laws as the content source .

The goal is to have performance on mobile.

Semantic Optimization: Results

In this second part of the Semantic SEO series, I'll show some results I've already achieved using semantic optimization in 3 different types of projects.

The Power of Semantic SEO

As you can see, with the correct use of knowledge , planning, and strategy, it's possible to achieve a very interesting result. The investment in a WordLift subscription pays for itself with the increase in new visitors impacted by the search .

Of course, it's possible to do some of the work that WordLift does with plugins , but vocabulary building is manual and several features are not available.

But what's fundamental to this test of mine is the practical validation of semantic SEO .

This work is still in its early stages, and new and better results should emerge as I continue to optimize it.

Frequently Asked Questions