An SEO study with the patterns of the first results in Semantic SEO projects.
In all my years working on projects using what we call Semantic SEO, which for me is simply SEO with a modern, updated vision aligned with search engines, I’ve noticed a pattern of behavior specific to Google’s algorithm when we combine two elements in projects: the Semantic Workflow and WordLift.
The work of creating a taxonomy to guide content creation and optimization, combined with the ability to work with entities defined in this taxonomy using WordLift’s intelligence, generates the following scenario:
- After some time into the project, we see a strong growth in impressions: how long it takes for them to grow varies widely, depends on many factors, and was not the focus of this “investigation”;
- After a certain period of seeing impressions grow, they stop and remain at the same level for a long time.
- Slowly, two things happen: clicks start to grow and with them, CTR (Click-Through Rate) slowly improves.
Eventually, they reach a plateau and stay there for a while.
Some projects that continue to be executed for longer (2 to 3 years) show a new flow: impressions grow, then clicks and CTR, and again a new plateau.
I’ve noticed that some projects require 12 months of preliminary work for this to start happening. Certain criteria need to be followed, but this is still too early for me to make any definitive statements.
What I think happens in the algorithm:
- Google’s algorithms that crawl and “translate” natural language (what is written in the content) into numerical language can reduce ambiguity when they encounter a website that has a well-structured knowledge graph with well-defined entities.
- So, with an increased understanding of our content, the ranking algorithm starts to place our content in positions that people see in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), i.e., with increased certainty, the algorithm starts to show more content to those who search: hence the increase in impressions.
- After a while, more people who are looking for exactly the information we have in the content start to see the site. They slowly start clicking, at which point I believe Google ‘holds’ the impressions and ‘tests’ if this content is truly good, using people’s clicks as a metric.
- Passing this test, the CTR increases.
And then the cycle repeats.
Unfortunately, this is a “study” where I cannot show the data, as it is all sensitive and belongs to their respective companies.
