These days, people turn to Google for just about anything that they want to know. Whether it’s to purchase something, learn everything that they need to know about something, get a quick answer, or merely pass the time, Google is the mainstream of information for the vast majority of people who are living with an Internet connection. To put this into context, Google makes up a staggering 92.19% of the share of the search engine market.
The continual quest of SEO professionals is to get their content matched up with the search queries it answers. Search queries are increasingly becoming longer, more specific as well as conversational. In many instances, a portion of this shift can likely be credited to the rise of voice search. Much of what we are witnessing is a growing importance on optimising for questions as well as semantically related keywords.
What Is A Semantic Search?
The term ‘semantic search’ refers to the ability of search engines to consider the intent as well as contextual meaning of search phrases when delivering content to users on the Internet. At a point in time, search engines could only analyse the exact phrasing of a search term when comparing the results with a search query. Now, search algorithms are more complex and incorporate semantic search principles when they are ranking content.
The two main factors which steer semantic search are:
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The Search Intent Of The User
Search intent is the reason why anyone performs a query on a search engine. It is associated with what the user is trying to achieve. As an example, search intent could be to learn, find or – alternatively – buy something. By taking into account the intent of users, search engines are able to provide more results which are, for example, an answer to a question, a product page or a brand’s website.
