Semantic SEO is a strategy that aims to build meaning through the alignment of concepts in online documents, also known as posts, articles, and websites . Unlike SEO , semantic SEO does not use keyword research

In this way, SEO professionals who use Semantic SEO help search engines improve their understanding of the content , causing algorithms to rate online documents as high quality and increasing their presence on search engine results pages

I chose to provide a very clear definition of what we call Semantic SEO for a very clear reason: the one Google uses is incomplete, and sometimes wrong. It's that simple. This strategy doesn't use keywords , so if you read that using keywords in a new way is what this type of SEO is all about, you're reading about anything but the SEO we do.

To be clear: Semantic SEO work increases the relevance of published content by providing metadata that generates meaning and semantically connects data , transforming it into relevant information. This process helps resolve ambiguities when answering a question asked with a specific search intent. Therefore, the use of keywords is incompatible with a semantic strategy.

So the question remains:

What is Semantic SEO not?

Sometimes I see a lot of confusion about the terms used to define this strategy. Terms like Entity SEO, Topic Cluster, or variations thereof are used synonymously, but in reality, they are different things.

My intention in this short article is not to define what Entity SEO is; I leave that task to those who use the term. However, I think it's interesting to explain that Semantic SEO makes use of entities , but it is not limited to them, nor is it entity-oriented.

Why is Semantic SEO semantic?

To explain this, we'll need to talk about Semantics, and so I'll quote myself – yes, I know, it's awful, I'm sorry. But I've already written about it in my book and I don't need to do it again:

Semantics, according to linguistics, is the component of the meaning of words and the interpretation of sentences and statements.

According to Cançado (2008), semantics should be studied as a system that interacts with other systems in the process of communication and expression of human thought.

Explaining the meaning of messages is the main task of semantics. Analyzing the context of a sentence, taking into account all the words that compose it and especially their syntactic relationship, helps us to solve problems of ambiguity that are so common in human language.

I use this example:

In a sentence like "Alex kicked the bucket," it's necessary to understand what the subject (Alex) actually did.

He may have literally kicked the wooden pole holding up a rustic camping tent, or it's an expression indicating that our character took a radical and impulsive action, popularly known as "kicking the bucket."

There is an intrinsic relationship between the work of optimizing content, websites, and digital and the construction of meaning inherent in Semantic SEO: SEO professionals often need to immerse themselves in the world of the clients and companies they work for in order to master the subjects they will deal with in their daily work.

One of the best ways to do this deep dive is to perform a knowledge domain analysis, which can be defined as the set of core information and the objects created by that knowledge, related to a specific area of ​​human knowledge.

Last year, I started a project within the field of Medicine with a friend. We had to learn all the concepts, terms, words, names, task descriptions and procedures, functions, actions, and strategies that make up the domain of knowledge we call Medicine. We needed to do this to master this set of concepts in order to structure the project, define the strategy, create content, and optimize the pages.

I'll leave you with a live stream – Semantics applied to SEO – where I discussed this topic in more depth, including practical examples.

Do entities replace keywords?

This is where I see a lot of people getting confused. We have two different things:

• The keyword research strategy based on search volume;
• The use of words as representatives of concepts and entities.

Using keyword research and claiming to do semantic SEO is a lie. There's no way to reconcile the two strategies, simply because this strategy deals with the implicit meaning of words, not their representation . But what do I mean by that?

When doing semantic SEO, what matters is helping the algorithms understand what we want to say, not what we are saying. It's more about connotation than denotation. For those who don't remember their Portuguese lessons:

Connotation relates to context, the figurative, subjective, and even creative meaning of a word, and its use generally creates new associations and ideas. Denotation, on the other hand, is the literal, objective, and real meaning of a word, the same as what is found in the dictionary.

I often say that a word is a representative of an idea, a concept, or an entity; it is not the thing itself. I can call Pelé the King of Football or the Athlete of the Century. I'm using completely different words, but you, I, and Knowledge Graph know what we're talking about. The entity is the same: Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

But with that I'm not saying that entities don't play a fundamental role in Semantic SEO, they do, but they are part of a strategy that involves much more.

Instead of writing a lot of text to explain this, I'll leave another video where I explain a little more about why we use entities in SEO: to resolve ambiguity!

But then:

What is the strategy called Semantic SEO?

As I said before, SEO is the main category, and Semantic SEO is one of the strategies within that umbrella called search engine optimization. Entity SEO and Topic Clustering are two others.

What sets Semantic SEO apart from all other strategies is the way we structure a project: from the inside out.

Historically in SEO, we looked outward: competitors, audience interest, access data, search volume guided us in choosing where to direct our projects. Where the competitors or the audience were going, we all followed.

This doesn't happen in Semantic SEO.

Instead of looking outside the organization , which owns the content we are optimizing, we look inside it, seeking to understand all aspects of the knowledge domain it is part of. It is from this perspective that the content structure vocabularies , entities, graphs and everything else are born.

If I could sum it up in one sentence, it would be this:

The difference between Semantic SEO and other strategies is the internal focus on the organization.

The use of Semantics in the optimization of digital projects.

I recorded two videos where I detail the use of semantics in SEO and how I apply this strategy in my work and projects.

Part 1:

and part 2:

If you're interested in taking it a step further, you can start by looking at how we use ontologies in Semantic SEO projects.