So what can you do to ensure that your pages continue to be served by Google in this new era? The rest of this report is going to be dedicated to answering that question. Here are some of the best ways to ensure your site works with this new smarter Google.

Note: With all the following said, it is still important to continue using traditional keywords and search phrases. This will still form the lynch pin of your SEO strategy, it’s just that you will now also be using some slightly more subtle techniques as well.

Questions

The first tip is to consider using more questions in your content. This is a smart strategy because of course, people who speak to Google naturally often do-so in the form of questions. You don’t just say “buy hats online” as we have already established! Unfortunately, questions are harder to naturally include in your content. But if you are creative, then there are plenty of ways to make this work. One of the best and most obvious is just to include questions in your headings.

So you might use a heading that says “Where Can I Buy Great Hats?” and then dedicate the next section of the text to answering that question. Likewise, you can use rhetorical questions within your text. But how do I use rhetorical questions in my text? You ask.

The answer is in that previous sentence… just in case you didn’t notice! Throughout any piece of content, try to think of the questions that people might ask in order to get to your content – and then find ways to lace those phrases into your writing.

LSI

What you might also benefit from paying attention to though, is something called latent semantic indexing, or LSI.

Latent semantic indexing is a term that has recently become popular in SEO circles as the “answer” to Google’s new strategies. This basically means that you aren’t just using direct keywords and phrases, but that you are instead using them in conjunction with related terms and synonyms. By doing this, you better communicate to Google what your content is all about.

Remember the example earlier with the decision trees? Imagine if someone searched for “best trees for winter” and your post on decision trees came up. That wouldn’t be great for Google or for you (that is hardly targeted traffic!).

But if you were to include terms related to your topic – such as flow chart, choices, etc. then Google would know that you’re talking about a form to help people make decisions, rather than decisions about trees!

Likewise if you write an article about Apple the electronics manufacturer, how does Google know that you’re not talking about apples as in the fruits? The answer again comes down to related terms and context. If you also happen to have mentioned computers, Mackintosh, iOS etc., then this can help Google to know that you’re talking about the tech giant and not food.

How to Use LSI in Your Content

So how do you go about using LSI in your own content?

The surprising answer is that you shouldn’t need to think about it at all. That’s because good writing should include synonyms and related terms naturally. Google has designed its algorithm to work with the content that is already out there, and it shouldn’t require you to do anything different. That’s the whole point of Google getting smarter – it should become better at identifying natural content that already exists. If you need to change the way you write to match Google, then it defeats the whole object!

That said, there are one or two things you can do. The first is to make sure that you are using as much relevant language as possible. If you are someone who tends to have a narrow vocabulary, then trying to include more contextual terms and related phrases may help.

Another tip is to consider using contextualizing terms in your keywords. For example if you write about “difficult exercises” then this could refer to physical exercise or it could refer to mental exercises. By adding “for toning” on the end however, you make it clear that you’re talking about physical exercise. You’re still also targeting that simpler “difficult exercises” term, but by using “difficult exercises for toning” you are inviting more searches to lead to your page.

Long Tail Keywords

A similar concept is the long tail keyword. Long tail keywords are search terms that people use occasionally to find your content, but that no sane SEO would ever attempt to target.

For instance, someone might search for “what is the average size of a tomato” and find your page. But there likely isn’t anywhere near enough search volume for you to want to specifically target that phrase. So what some marketers will focus on, is creating as much content as possible while lacing it with lots of random phrases and terms that people might just so happen to search for.

The more content you add, the more people will find their way to your site through random long-tail searches. The best part is that this makes your business extremely resilient, as you can’t see your traffic completely fall off a cliff just because someone supplanted you for a single search term.

But long tail keywords also suit themselves perfectly to a more natural- language oriented Google. Why? Because when you ask Google a question, you won’t use the same set phrase as everyone else. Instead, you’ll likely ask a question using natural language. Every time someone asks a question, they’ll probably use a slight variation on the phrase. Again, the best way to satisfy the spoken-word Google is to write broadly on your subject, using as much related language as possible.

Schema Markup Language

The only issue with this approach of using large amounts of related content, is that it can become a little confusing for Google. With so much content to sift through, how does it know what’s relevant to the question at hand?

Remember, Google ideally wants to be able to read the answer aloud back to the user without even having to load the website. When you ask what goes into a bolognaise, Google wants to be able to reel ingredients off of a list.

Google therefore needs your help when it comes to identify key parts of your content, and that’s where schema markup comes in.

This is essentially a form of structured data. It means that you’re taking your content and then adding in HTML tags that help to identify what specific pieces of text actually are.

Markups can be used to help identify ingredients in a recipe, the date and location of an event, the star rating of a product, or the author of an article. All this allows Google to better pinpoint answers to questions, and to help users with their queries.

Using these markups is a simple matter of finding the HTML online and then just pasting it onto your page. Alternatively, there are plenty of tools and plugins that will automate the process for you.

The problem with markups of course is that they allow Google to use your information without the user even needing to load your page. That means no ad clicks, no affiliate sales, and no brand awareness. This is something Google has been increasingly guilty of lately, and it’s something that may become a big issue in the future.

For now though, it’s still worth your while using markups. For one, these are also what Google uses to make its “rich snippets.” These are more dynamic and engaging search results which have the effect of jumping out of the page to get considerably higher CTRs.

At the same time, if you don’t use markups, then you know that your competition will. For now, it’s better to get into Google’s good books, and hopefully reap the rewards with your position in the SERPs.

Write Great Content

Finally, the last tip is to write great content. Remember: the other reason that Google is getting smarter is so that it can get better at providing users with content that is useful and relevant. Google wants people to keep using its search tool, and as such, it needs to ensure the results are as accurate as possible.

Every time Google gets smarter, it’s going to become better at identifying spammy content vs high quality content. If your site is focussed purely on creating the best content possible, then your goals will be aligned with Google. From then on, every change will help to give your site more visibility in the SERPs.

Don’t try to “beat” Google, just focus on creating the best content you can!