Understanding the role of semantic mapping in digital optimization

Semantic mapping is a powerful tool to help optimize your websites and help viewers. For digital marketers, it’s a process that drives better results and more conversions.

With a firm understanding of what semantic mapping is and how it works, digital marketers can build better websites that result in more sales and return business.

What is semantic mapping?

Semantic mapping is a way to develop website content centered around topics instead of a few keywords. Using this approach, your web builds will be more meaningful to those looking for and consuming content.

To be successful at semantic mapping, you need to develop a clear understanding of customer intent to build sites that are most relevant to their needs.

Semantic mapping has its roots in teaching. It’s a tool used to help students better understand connections between words or phrases. Students use semantic mapping to build webs of words that associate related words to core ideas or words. Doing so helps them better understand interrelated concepts.

Semantic maps, natural language processing and search

To understand semantic mapping better, let’s take a step back. When you type a phrase into a search engine, the computers use natural language processing (NLP). This approach helps computers understand better the specific intent humans are trying for in the words they use.

Advances in artificial intelligence have helped search engines like Google better understand what humans want. NLP improves with each version of technology.

In search engines, semantic mapping helps for better translation of intent and, therefore, better search results. For example, if you type in “Indian for dinner,” you could be wanting several things. The search engine doesn’t know if you want to make an Indian food recipe, shop for take out or find a restaurant to dine in.

Search engines like Google use NLP to contextualize the search. If you include ingredients, it will assume you’re probably looking to cook. If you use “near me” it will more likely show you restaurants that are open near your location.

Improving SEO with smarter web design

Web designers can adapt their builds to respond to NLP by using semantic mapping technique. Here are a few of the core approaches to incorporating semantic mapping into your website.

Add semantic codes

Using strategically based tags within your HTML helps Google and other search engines understand how your content is structured. Schema markup is one way to add these tags to help search engines know your intent. There are three types of schema – people, places and things.

Another example is the use of header tags – H1 to H6 – that structure your content in multiple layered headings and subheadings. Other tags include emphasis, strong emphasis, citations, block quotes, definitions and thematic breaks.

Internal links and anchor text

More than anything, you want your website to be relevant to visitors. Potential customers are looking for answers and you want them to find those answers easily and quickly.

Internal links are a powerful way to help visitors find what they need. Using internal links on anchor text can keep visitors on your site longer with better SEO results as an added bonus.

Keyword research

While keyword research is a standard part of SEO strategy, marketers can and should be doing more. Capture all the ways your potential customers might be looking for your site. Use related questions, verbs, adjectives and relevant phrases and subtopics. Latent semantic index (LSI) keywords are relevant keywords related to the main topic.

Benefits of semantic mapping

Semantic mapping has several benefits to your website development, including:

• Happier visitors. Every search is about a quest – for that Indian food restaurant, an answer to a question or product search. By using semantic mapping, you’re more likely to find the customers who are looking for what you offer
• Optimal user experiences. Once on your page, you want to guide customers to what you are offering. Better semantic mapping helps give customers more satisfying visitor experiences that result in more sales
• Better intelligence. With semantic mapping, you will have more insights about your customers – how they navigate your pages, for example. You can use these insights to build better customer personas to attract similar customers
• Benefits multiple search types. Semantic mapping approaches work for both paid and earned search results. Semantically developed content connects text, video, audio and images on your site. That approach makes it richer for visitors and search engines alike
• Googlebot friendly. With semantic mapping, Googlebot will better understand your website’s content. As Googlebot and other web scrollers find your content, these tools will help it rank and return results that you seek

To optimize your website using semantic mapping, ask what content you need to tag. What pages are most likely to benefit your customers? Where have you had success with semantic mapping and how can you replicate it across other pages?

With the right approach to semantic mapping, your brands will perform better with SEO and yield more visitors and more sales.