Semantic Communication Plan

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone have a "Semantics Communication Plan? I am giving a conference next month and I was planning on introducing the concept of a "semantic​ communications plan". I manage lots of digital marketing campaigns and I notice that a communication plan is created but not the sematics related to the content that will be produced. And even worse, the semantics used in different areas such as SEO (content marketing), Adwords, Social Media is arbitrary based on the person caring out the task. Consistent semantics in digital campaigns seems like it would benefit SEO if it is based on demand (google's using those keywords)...what are your thoughts on this?

Thanks

Carla

[Carla_Dawson]

Thanks for getting back to me!

Carla

[EGOL]

Yes, a semantic plan makes more sense if google is not automatically determining synonyms.

[Carla_Dawson]

Thanks for getting back to me. Google is not picking up synonyms so well down here in Argentina yet. I am sure they will get around to it. It seems like a semantic plan might be a good idea then. Let me know your thoughts! THanks

Carla

[EGOL]

From what I have seen google does a pretty good job of recognizing "synonyms" and making content appear in the SERPs even if the synonym does not appear on the page.

For example... photo, photograph, picture, pic....  I have a site that ranks for lots of "image" keywords and I get traffic for photo, picture and pic - even though those words do not appear on my pages.  Google is smart enough to do that.  Seeing this I added the word "photo" to my pages and didn't see much of a traffic lift.   Google was giving me that traffic automatically.

I think that this type of "knowledge" would vary wildly for various words.  Your swimming pools example might not work as well as pic, photo, etc. because it is less commonly used.

The more common the word the better job done by google.  The less common the more you need to optimize.  Experience in an industry would be really important for this.

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for getting back to me and sorry for not being so clear. I will give you a specific example...In Argentine Spanish you can use the term "piletas" or "piscinas" meaning "swimming pools" in English. They are synonyms. Some synonyms are used more than others but both are used in Argentina. We are managing a digital marketing campaign for a swimming pool company here in Argentina. So when we develop quality content for this client, we try to use some terms more than others to help our SEO efforts. They now hired us to do CM (community management) work for them and I am thinking that all the terms we use should be consistent across all digital media types (Facebook, Blog, Pinterest).

There are other terms/concepts they want to rank for and they have many synonyms. The company supplies us with some of the content but I notice that they are not consistent in the terms they use throughout their content. This is when I started to think about a "semantics plan" for content development. So if we are trying to rank for several keywords, we should be consistent in using those keywords instead of their synonyms across all digital media locations.

I know this seems like common sense but yet I see so many digital marketing campaigns being inconsistent with the terminology they use in their content and especially if you have different resources managing different mediums…(ex…SEO specialist vs Community Manager). It seems like these two groups never talk and never define what specific terminology should be used.

I agree that the core value of the content is key but for small campaigns it is hard to develop super high quality content because the client wants results ASAP. We usually mix it up a bit. In other words, one month we might do simple but useful content development, and then another month we do hard core value content. Clients are so impatient...selling the high quality content development philosophy is not easy.

Hope that clears things up

Thanks Carla

[AWCthreads]

I like the question, your answer and I don't get this stuff.

If the definition of semantics is: "the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics , which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics , which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics , which studies the cognitive structure of meaning."

Then, it sounds like I need to use exact plus different partial matches to ad perspective or relevancy to the main keyword.

Then again, I fall into the group of people who don't "get" this stuff.

[EGOL]

what are your thoughts on this?

At the risk of sounding really dumb to everybody who reads this....     I am going to say that I have heard people talking about this "semantics" stuff for a few years and I just don't "get it".   I can't see how I should be doing anything any differently.

I have no idea about how google is using semantic information - even if I did, I could be completely wrong or be absolutely inept in pulling it off.  To me it is like going out to fight Goliath with a club and spending that morning trying to decide if I should take a red club or a blue one.

I feel the same way about blogs.  Lots of people view them as some "magic weapon" and publish stuff there in the hope that it will transform their business.

I think that the core value of your message (and how it is pitched) is much much much more important than the platform that it is published on or how you think that Google is going to determine the relationship between words.  So, that is how I decide to spend my time.

So, if anybody understand this stuff and can explain it to me...  I am ready for my "transformational moment".    If you think I am full of beans, just give me a thumbs down.

Maybe my real answer here is... "A lot of people don't "get" this stuff.  So if you know how this stuff works and you have a great way of presenting it and making it stick in people's minds then you need to start selling it."