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Stemming, semantic web and SEO copywriting  

:: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 ::

Last night I compiled a series of questions into a Cre8asiteForums post that have been rolling around my head concerning how the new search engine technologies are changing how search engine optimization is done; if in fact, there will be any changes at all. This is what I asked in Stemming, semantic web and SEO copywriting

Is there a difference between stemming and the term "semantic web"?

How does this search technology/filter effect the practice of writing optimized copy for web pages?

Can I assume it has no effect on keywords in URLS?

What about keywords in anchored hyperlinked text?

If you have a bunch of variations of a term on one page, does that count towards keyword relevancy almost by accident? (You didn't purposely put in a variation of a term, but it appears there anyway.)

Do incoming links from sites with a version of a word found by stemming count towards PageRank?

John Scott jumped in with an interesting finding. (Note: In Google you can now choose whether or not to search using stemming or not using a "+" sign in front of words. See Google stemming for more.)

Asks JS:

"...if word variations were taken into account, these two searches should yeild identical results, no?

http://www.google.com/search?q=internet+marketing
http://www.google.com/search?&q=%7Einternet+%7Emarketing

But they do not yeild the same results."

Meanwhile, Ammon Johns (aka "Black Knight") provided the answer to the stemming/semantics question. Research on the "Semantic Web" has been out for awhile. Ammon presented a link to a paper about semantic technology and "the need for smarter search engines" back in December 18, 2002 (yes, over a year ago) in Cre8asiteForums. The paper is called Patterns in Unstructured Data Discovery, Aggregation, and Visualization (For those with time to read!)

Ammon wrote:

"Stemming is about finding the root of a word, and all words derived from the same root.
House > Houses > Housed > Housing

Stemming cannot make semantic leaps, so House cannot equate to flat, apartment, semi-detatched property, etc.

Semantics is the thing that makes the leaps. It may lose the specific meaning sometimes in the translation. It can even cross languages:
House > Casa > Mansion > Home > Hut

There's a world of difference.

Semantics are the more tricky, because of the translation effect. For any accuracy, semantics has to be somehow placed within context, and that can be difficult within a two or three word query. It may however explain Google's sometimes strange behaviour regarding stop-words over the last year."

The thread is just starting out and you're welcome to join in, or read it (even as an unregistered guest) to learn more.

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NEW! RSS Feed

I'm still tweaking it, but for those interested in RSS feeds, this blog is now setup to make your day. You can grab the URL by clicking on the orange "XML" button on the right side of the page.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay. I'm still learning about it myself. In fact, I decided to share the experience in Blogs, RSS Feeds and Aggregators. You can watch me launch the feed, ask questions from Bill and Stock from Cre8asiteForums who are helping me, and learn more about what it's all about.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Is anyone else wondering Is it time to get out of the SEO business?

"A trustworthy SEO firm is already about as hard to find as an ethical timeshare promoter and it wont be too long before clients catch on that there is no magic formula, no thousands of search engines to submit to, no secrets of the search engines."

Hummmm.


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And finally for today (I think), Robert Clough has added an article to my column on his website.

"Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me" is a humorous comparison of brick and mortar stores and the online shopping experience via ecommerce, with some hints about keeping those website visitors on your site after they've located your site in search engines. See today's Search Engine Guide's Search Engine News (or click on my name under Search Engine Guide Contributing Columnists).

"We assume that the top 20 sites in search engine results are the best of the best based on our search keywords. That, I'm afraid, is the saddest shock of all. Top rank doesn't equal the best online experience once you click into that website. That part of usability wasn't tested for you by the search engine or directory. That's not their job."

Thanks Robert!

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 1/13/2004 09:06:37 AM

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