SERP – More Than Just Keywords

Having the correct keywords in the content of your website or blog is important for top positioning on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). While using a proper set of keywords or phrases is essential for top positioning, it is not the only element for gaining high Search Engine Results Page positioning. There is another keyword related element search engines look for before reporting results to any given search term or query. This additional element is just as important as having proper keywords for boosting your page to the top of search engine placement but often overlooked when writing content for a site or Blog.

Preponderance of Relevant Content

In the court of law sometimes a single fact is not enough to convict someone of a crime. However when there is a fact and it is backed up by other bits of related evidence then a preponderance of evidence is established.  When this happens the single fact becomes much more relevant and valuable for gaining a conviction. You can think of your keywords in this same fashion. That is: a single keyword or phrase is not likely to push your page to the top of the search engine rankings but when combined with related words, your keyword or phrase becomes much more powerful and has a better chance of gaining a better SERP positioning.

To explain this, you should understand that search engines use more than just the search terms when providing results for search queries. Google and other search engines have a record of words that are semantically related to search words, terms or phrases. They also have a record of the words used on your page. Search engines will first identify all pages in their database that match the search terms. They will then compare the word usage record of the keyword related pages to the semantically related words. Pages that use multiple words and synonyms related to the keyword or phrase in the content are establishing a Preponderance of Relevant Content. When all other things are equal, web pages that do this the best are placed highest in the search results. There are a few other factors but this explains how a web page with a low Page Rank can beat a web page with a higher Page Rank in the search results.  

Tip

Google provides a free tool at http://labs.google.com/sets. This tool will generate a set of words semantically related to your keywords or phrases. To generate a list of semantically related words simply type in your keyword and 1 or 2 additional words that relate to that keyword. The set of words in the generated list can be used in your content to provide a Preponderance of Relevant Content for your site or blog.

When creating content for your blog or website use synonyms and semantically related words to boost the power of your keywords or phrases. Over a period of time, Google will learn that your content just doesn’t contain exact keywords but also is an authority site providing quality, relevant information to your visitors. This after all is what search engines want to do and it may be the advantage you need to overtake your competitors in the SERP wars.