What is Semantic search?
Answered across 4 episodes of The Best SEO Podcast
Edited and curated by Matthew Bertram, host of The Best SEO Podcast (produced by EWR Digital).
A search approach where engines interpret the meaning and context of content rather than matching exact keywords, influencing how descriptive meta content should be.
How experts on the show define it
A search approach where engines interpret the meaning and context of content rather than matching exact keywords, influencing how descriptive meta content should be.
A search approach, associated with Google's Hummingbird update, that considers synonyms and related terms rather than exact keyword matches alone.
From 5 Targets to Set at the Beginning of an SEO Campaign by Timothy Carter #345
An approach introduced by the Hummingbird update in 2013 that focuses on the intent behind a search query rather than exact keyword matching, so Google returns results based on what the searcher means.
From 8 Big SEO Changes over the last Decade by Jason DeMers #346
Conversational or intent-based search that goes beyond exact keywords. The hosts describe it as how a voice query like 'where is the best restaurant' gets broken down into keyword phrases by the search engine.
Episodes that cover this
Related answers
See the full SEO & AI search glossary.
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