Sentences RDF Format
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Why do we need to write sentences in RDF format (subject, object predicate) is there a reason for that ?
Thank you,
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No, I've found pages moving weeks after the first cache after major surgery!
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Does it mean that once the page is cached the ranking is "final". So if a page is cached every 5 weeks it will take 5 weeks if it cached every week it will take a week ?
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It depends on how frequently your site is crawled. If you check the cache in search results and click the green down arrow you will see the last time Google updated its cache of your page. I have seen pages move sooner than this but if you take that time as a yardstick you will be about right.
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Hey Nigel.
In one of your messages you say it can take up to 6 weeks to see some results. I checked my pages and sometimes I see no changes for 5 weeks and then on week 6 I see a climb.
Sometimes after I made changes, within a week I see my pages climibing up the ranking. Sometimes when I make a change it moves down the ranking for a week and then moves back up...
Is 6 weeks based on on your experience ? I am just wondering starting if it wouldn't better to wait 6 weeks as I have seen rankings not move for 5 weeks and then move suddently instead of make changes after 3 weeks of no movement...
The thing is that based on my experience in 90 % of the cases if I don't make changes I see no ranking variations.
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No problem, just wanted to make sure you received those to.
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Yes - I am just doing something else.
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Nigel,
Just to confirm you got my private message ?
Thank you,
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'What I have written'
Good luck!
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Time for action, you are right. I will send you what I wrote once done so you can give me your thoughts on it.
Thank you,
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I think you are now at risk of overthinking everything.
Use the MOZ list I gave you and write a page.Then let me see it. - I feel I've written it already lol!
Use the core Keyphrase as Piedmont Bike Tours and write some interesting content on the subject.
Don't have a fixed number of semantics, write freely, when you think you are about to repeat yourself use a synonym or semantically connected phrase.
If you carry on as you are you'll never write anything, and will become bogged down in Rankbrain, Proxemics and Semiotics!
It's time for action - (Don't look up those words as you will end up in a rabbit hole screaming to be let out!)
Regards
Nigel
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Hi Nigel,
How many semantically connected keywords do you recommend in a 1000 word post ?
I have read about rankbrain but not sure how it makes my keyword research different ?
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Hi seoanalytics
As you have already pointed out each page has a 'theme'
We have established that the theme is the most important Key Phrase on the page. ie Piedmont Bike Tours.
You do not _have _to search for every semantically connected word or phrase and use them all because Google understands what the theme is. You merely need to support the theme with some semantically related content that can contain some supporting baby anchor words and phrases spun within the writing ina contextually relevant way
You need to write from scratch with this in mind.
If you just plop some words and phrases in it will not read correctly.
Rankbrain, which is Google's new(ish) way of ranking pages using AI, understands what a theme is - you are merely helping it understand.
You risk keyword stuffing with the approach you suggest.
Regards
Nigel
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Hey Nigel,
Just bothering you one more time. I am wondering if we take our current text and just change some of the words we currently have with some semantically related keyword from the keyword tool if it is going to have an impact or if you recommend writing from scratch ?
My question is out of a 1000 words how many semantically related keywords do I need to add to see an impact. Is there a percentage recommended ? I have the feeling that 10 words peppered here and there won't be enough ? am I right ?
Thank you again for all you help,
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Hello Nigel,
To summarize and before I start writing my content
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Take my focus keyword (the one I want to rank for) and type it in google
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Look at related searches and if I can include some of the related searches terms in my content included them.
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If not go in google keyword tool type my focus keyword and look for keyword suggestions which are similar to related search and see which one I can include in my content.
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Then as I include those keywords, describe them so that the computer can understand what I am talking about.
For example : Barolo a nice area to bicycle in (bad content from what I understand because the computer won't understand anything about Barolo. However, Barolo, a wine area in the Province of Cuneo much better, isn't it ?
Then wait and see...
However, it is kind of pure luck because we don't know what the computer knows and what is the most related for the machine.
Thank you,
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Only because you mentioned it further up - I was looking for synonyms for the word 'region' - you don't need it really. Although I suppose you could include a map with the trails picked out in red?
Regards
Nigel
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Just curious why you send alsace region as an attachement, is it to find the semantically related keywords to alsace region which is a semantically related keyword to alsace bike tour ?
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I think it's better to use your brain for this and Google - you just don't need to be so rigorous about it. Google isn't necessarily looking for synonyms and semantics - it's only if those terms are being searched and form part of the family of words and phrases surrounding the main term.
If there are none, there are none.
However I have attached a MOZ download of Alsace Region and Alacse Bike Tours - this gives you an idea of what MOZ is showing for related searches but frankly they are the same as if you had done this yourself in the search box. e.g. alsace cycling holidays, guided cycling tours france, cycling alsace self guided.
The point is you don't need all of them in order like some list. You need to write properly constructed sentences where you can 'pepper' the text with some of them.
Regards
Nigel
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By the way what are the related keywords for alsace bike tours (to describe an alsace bike tours) ? it is harder to find than for Colmar for example ? or is words like routes, trails etc...
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So after using alsace region a semantically related keyword can I use other semantically related keyword that the keyword tools gives me such as Riquewhir, Colmar and Strasbourg and describe those with the right secondary related keyword so that google understands the meaning of those words ?
By the way is there a way to find the secondary related keyword to describe Strasbourg (by typing in the keyword tool Strasbourg) ?
Finally, do Strasbourg and Colmar and colmar need to come as the subject of the my sentence... or can I write something like Later on, travel to Strasbourg a town famous for it's cathedral ?
Thank you and have a great evening,
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Exactly!
Yes the Topic will be 'Alsace Bike Tours'
You will start the piece with:
The Alsace region is in the northeast of France bordering Germany...
Then go on to describe it in a little detail - is it mountainous, very flat, hills, mud tarmac/concrete ...etc...)
Then describe the tours themselves in greater detail.
I think routes, tours and trails fall very close to each other - all three are semantically related if not close synonyms!
Regards
Nigel
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Hi Nigel,
Thank you for your reply. I know I ask a lot of question and know I am in the right direction as I already saw some results but not all my pages so I am trying to figure out what I did wrong on the pages that didn't climb
To summarize when into the keyword explorer I enter my keyword let's take "alsace bike tours" as an example and the keyword explorer is giving me "alsace region" with a good relevancy, what do I need to do it ?
Write a sentence with alsace region in it (Ibecause from what I understand it is a a word that is semantically related to my keyword but not a synonym), correct ? and then I need to explain alsace region with "secondary related " keywords, saying for example: The Alsace region is in the north east of France and it borders Germany.
Then, I need to do this process for all the words that keyword explorer gives me for my main keyword ?
Concerning routes and trails that you mention are those synonyms what you consider synonyms of tours ?
Thank you,
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Hi seoanalytics
Lexical semantics and synonyms are similar in that, whilst a synonym is one word which can be substituted for another - Bike / Bicycle - Lexical semantics deals with the meaning of the word or phrase.
A bike or a bicycle is a machine for conveying a person from one destination to another. The meaning of the word is that it is a self-propelled mode of transport. A synonym of a bike is simply 'a bicycle' - no need for any explanation.
LSI or latent semantic indexing is an old acronym that really shouldn't be used in relation to modern semantics. It was originally used in the 80's as a way of indexing complex information. A form of data retrieval - most high-level SEOs completely poo poo its use these days so it's best to ignore LSIs and focus on the concept of semantics in its true sense.
I think the danger here is that you risk getting bogged down in the subject and over optimising your page. The essence of great writing can be lost in a desire to fill the page with every conceivable permutation of synonym and lexically connected words and phrases. In doing so you risk either over stuffing or getting it wrong. Worse still, spending just too much damn time on it!
The topic is the place to start as that is the highest level. So the topic, for example, is Bike Tours In Piedmont.
Synonyms can simply include the words Bicycle as opposed to Bike and for example Routes and Trails.
Semantics are the wider meaning - so 'Biking through Italy'
In my reply on Dec 22 I said that you must focus on 'what people might type in' and what you are seeing in the Google suggestion tool and the related searches at the bottom are firstly the most common words and phrases typed in and secondly what Google believes are closely related searches.
Like I have said all along - don't get too bogged down in this - the knowledge you have learned here is likely to be 100 times better than any other site competing with you - trust me! No one I have ever helped has gone into this subject as deeply as you! So you will be miles ahead!
Related topics are separate pages - don't mix them up. It's very much in the writing of the sentences so when I use the word 'pepper' this means intertwining or 'sprinkling' it into your content.
Finally, if someone bangs on about LSIs then ignore them as they do not know what they are talking about. Too little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Regards
Nigel
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Hey Nigel,
I hope you had a good holiday. I am back in the office and got a few more questions as some things got me confused during vacation.
I am confused with the difference between synonyms, lsi, semanticaly related keyword and topic...
From what I understand a synoym of Piedmont bike tours is Piedmont cycling holiday and in order not to repeat Piedmont bike tours I need to use synonyms in my content ? correct ?
Then keyword explorer is giving me other words like cycling routes, northern italy bike tours, wineries, vineyards, bike trails, when I type in my keyword Piedmont bike tours, what are those words ? are those also synonyms that I need to include or are they semantically related keyword to the phrase Piedmont bike tours ?
How to include them ? do they need to be subjects in my sentences or can it just be words that I peper in my content ?
Finally, what about related topics what do I do with those ?
Sorry for all the confusion and thank you,
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Thank you and have a wonderful christmas.
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Hi seoanalytics
Most people don't bother with the plural problem but I always use plurals when I think the customer will type that in preference to the singular. Seach results always differ (just type in 'bike') so it is important.
For me, Piedmont Bike Tours wins every time because that is what people will type in - regardless of the fact you only have one.
How many times? - once! - you will have an H1 which will say it and close semantics, so 'trail biking' etc so don't overdo it - even if you are writing 1000 words I would still only say that max, twice. Then let the baby anchors do their work.
Best of luck. If your site is updated then you will see an improvement right quickly - in my experience, you will see a bump then a drop back so don't be alarmed when this happend.
Cheers - have a great holiday! I'm off to the pub
Nigel
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Mine is cached about every week so I guess it should be pretty quick to see the 1 st results and then I should see a graduale climb over the course of a few more weeks, shouldn't I ?
Concerning the related keywords I noticed that it sometimes gives me words that have plurals such as "Cycling tours in Piedmont" and I want to use this expression an h2 on my Italy page can I write "Cycling tour in Piedmont" removing the S as I only have one tour or can it hurt to remove the plural ?
In my introduction about Piedmont bike tours I have about 150 words. How many times should I include the exact expression " Piedmont bike tours" and then how many times the related keywords ? (approximately)
Thank you and then you are on vacation
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It depends on a lot of factors - the most relevant one is the frequency of site crawl. Some pages can take 6 weeks - search for the page in Google and hit the down arrow to check the last time it was cached.
Fetch Google in search console as this can speed things up.
If it's a brand new site it can take a while!
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I will stick to Piedmont in that case as much as I can and adjust as ncessary. How long should I wait "approximatly " to see some results ?
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You're selling Bike Tours in Piedmont and whilst it is no problem mentioning related topics the more you write about related items and less about the core topic the more you dilute your page.
The more people you listen to with conflicting/nuanced views, the more stressful and ultimately impossible it is to finish the job in hand.
Write the page - watch the ranking - adjust as necessary!
You aren't going to be criticised as you have taken great advice and you are going to write a top ranking page.
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So you wouldn't worry about adding related topics, you would just stick to lsi keywords for Piedmont bike tours ?
My question is why do companies like marketmuse.com propose to use related topics ?
Thank you,
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Frankly I would stick to Piedmont Bike Tours. It's no problem mentioning Barolo and Barbaresco in the text but once you start adding headings you are diluting the thrust of the page.
LSI keywords are a bit if misnomer but loosely they are semantically connected words and phrases - similar are produced by MOZ with monthly search volumes. There is a free tool that just spits them out. I think you have more than enough sources for these as you are in the industry - just don't think you need to stuff them all in. Remain focused.
You need to think about words like 'best' 'easiest' 'scenic' and other terms people may type in.
Regards
Nigel
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The night got me thinking
In my introducation about Piedmont should I only have Piedmont bike tour and LSI keywords related to piedmont bike tour or can I also include related topics like Barolo and Barbaresco or is it better to included those related topics into my highlights for example and not mix it in the introduction.
Thank you,
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Thank you for the clarification. I think I am all good and can't wait to see the results.
Have a wonderful christmas,
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Yes but not too wide related topics. If it's too far away then make a separate page!
You need one image named with the focus keyword - 'Piedmont Bike Tours' so instead of saving it as eg DSC168541 - straight from the camera, name the image 'piedmont bike tours' so its URL will be site.com/piedmont-bike-tours.jpg. Make sure it is no bigger than say, 75k to keep page speed up.
Then make the alt tag of the image 'Piedmont Bike Tours'
Other images must be named in this way.
the alt is like this
Keep the alts short & descriptive.
eg 'Barolo Wine'
etc
Regards
Nigel
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Cool that confirms my understanding, related keywords are one thing but to be more comprehensive adding related topics is also a good thing. Correct ?
For the images, what do you mean by named as the subject with alt tags ? Do you mean that the images should have alt tags with related keywords in it ?
Have a great evening,
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H1's are not for sentences, they are punchy headers incorporating the main keyword, designed to catch the eye.
H2 - yes exactly
Barolo Wines - Exactly right.
Get some images, named as the subject with alt tags in there as well.
Regards
Nigel
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For the H1 if I can make a sentence out of it with the keyword I guess that is even better ? isn't it ?
For the H2 is it ok if one of the h2 I use is in the list of related keywords that the moz keyword tool gives for example "Piedmont hotels"
That is why I was asking if it was helping because my guess is that if one of the H2 is a related keyword that can only be beneficial.
I guess it can also be used to break the content into multipe topics. For example I could talk about "Barolo wines" on a page about bike tours in Piedmont as well "Barbaresco wines"and then have those as H2 ?
Thank you,
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OK
Yes, keep it fluid, there is no need to group them together. Make it read naturally.
The best way to format the Meta title tag is like this
'Main Keyword - Related Keyword (or higher category) - Company Name' so
'Piedmont Bike Tours - Cycling in Italy - Company Name' (keep under 60 characters)
Meta description: Make this your call to action - it does not help SEO per se so don't fill it with keywords.
'Book a thrilling bike tour of Piedmont in the sunny hills of Northern Italy - unbeatable prices from company name - call us on 12345678 or book online here!'
Keep it under 140 characters or Google will add an ellipsis at the end ' ...'
The H1 does not help SEO on its own, only part of the keyword density on the page. It should sit at the top of the page and contain the keyword:
Piedmont Bike Tours
The H2 does not help SEO per se but is useful for breaking up the content on the page. It is usually only used to divide content - so if you do use it make sure that you follow it with a few paragraphs. Some people advocate a minimum of 300 but it, not the number, rather the way it's written. Don't overdo the keyword, think semantically.
eg:
Cycle Tours In Barolo
Keep it natural - I can't advocate that enough.
Regards
Nigel
PS when I say 'per se' I mean 'directly' - of course, a well-written description with strong headings will cause people to visit the pages and take action - the interaction through lower bounce rate and less pogo-sticking is good for SEO, obviously.
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Thank you for the explanation. Do the words need to be in the same sentence or can they be spread out across the page ?
I guess across the page to make it fluid ?
Ok 3 more after that i got to finish y site before christmas and only got 24 hours so you almost on vacation
Can having a related keyword in a title tag increase ranking ?
What about if I fulfill the user intend in the title tag with a related keyword is it even better ?
Is using h2 tags to put your related keywords a good practice that can help the ranking ?
Thank you,
-
Semantic similarity is the most important thing and that comes from you, the writer and the tools you use to provide contextually similar words. Clearly, 'bike' and 'bicycle' are almost semantically identical and can both be used on the page as variants. The closer the keywords are together the more targetted the focus of the page but just be careful not to stuff it - remember to concentrate on writing fluidly.
You can always check a page for its relevance to a particular keyword/phrase in MOZ.
Regards
Nigel
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Hey Nigel,
I just have one more question
Does the relevance score of the related keyword matter ? is 5 better than 1 ? or doesn't it matter ?
Thank you,.
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I think you are right. Industry descriptions can be very dry so I think it's important, and a much better read to make them sound natural but also vibrant and exciting. If I am going to book a cycle tour then I want to read how great it's going to be!
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Thank you very much that answers my question and will make my writing a little more natural as in some industry the keyword tool doesn't always have very natural phrases.
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Hi seoanalytics,
Haha, perfectly OK
That's completely OK, in fact, 'stop' words like 'the' 'of' 'it' and 'and' are generally ignored anyway. It also reads much more naturally so not only will you keep Google happy, the reader will prefer it!
Kind Regards
NIgel
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Just to confirm and my last question before christmas If the keyword too is giving me
"Touring Alsace region" if I write "Touring the alsace region" is it an issue to add the the ? to make it more natural even though it isn't the exact expression the keyword tool is giving me ?
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Ok, I won't over do it. But do I need to include my keyword on the page "Alsace bike tours" at least once or isn't necessary as long as I have a few related keyword phrases that are "similar".
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Hi seoanalytics
The closer the keyword you use to that typed in the better the result. However, with the strength you are putting into the age I honestly don't think it matters. Just don't overdo the 'bike tours' part!
Regards
Nigel
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Hi Nigel,
Thank you for clarification.
Just got on last question as I am playing around with the keywords and now understanding how it works.
For example if as a related keywords for "Alsace bike tours" the keyword tool tells me "bike tours alsace" if I write a sentence with "Bike tours of Alsace" does it work or does it need to be the exact expression that the keyword tool is giving me.
Thank you,
-
Hi seoanalytics
In my experience, it does not matter. As long as the words are not repeated on the page distance isn't an issue.
Kind Regards
Nigel
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