AI-Powered Semantic SEO with Koray Gubur
Anton Shulke
Head of Influencer Marketing at Duda |ex-Semrush | recently moved from Kyiv, Ukraine to Spain, and then to Bratislava, Slovakia
This article was inspired by a webinar with Koray Tu?berk GüBüR , Robert Niechcia? and Olesia Korobka during Duda webinar
In an industry as dynamic and fast-paced as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), staying ahead means keeping an ear to the ground for the latest strategies and insights. Among the many voices guiding this evolving landscape, Koray Gubur and Robert Neichai emerge as pivotal figures, each bringing a unique and deeply informed perspective to the table.
Koray Gubur's journey in SEO began around 2015, and it's marked by a significant evolution from the early days of black hat tactics to a more refined, data-driven approach. His experiences through various algorithm changes, particularly those like the notable medical update, have shaped a deep understanding of the ever-shifting SEO environment.
The core of his strategy revolves around a critical balance of quality and cost in SEO practices. Koray posits that search engines not only favor but also prioritize sites that strike this balance effectively. In his view, achieving success in SEO isn't just about sticking to quality benchmarks; it’s equally about optimizing the visibility and ranking costs of your content.
One revolutionary concept he introduces is "topical authority," rooted in the idea that search engines, similar to any business, aim for cost-efficiency and maximum revenue. According to this concept, sites offering comprehensive, in-depth content can better fulfill user queries, thus potentially being more cost-effective for search engines to prioritize, even if they seem like competitors.
Shifting the focus to Robert Neichai, who hails from Poland and serves as the CTO of a trailblazing data science SEO agency, we see a different yet equally impactful approach. His strategies are fundamentally data-driven, relying heavily on big data and AI to create comprehensive SEO tactics that transcend traditional keyword targeting.
Robert emphasizes the transformative power of AI in SEO. By tapping into vast data resources and utilizing AI algorithms, his methodologies allow for synthesizing a variety of information, leading to nuanced and sophisticated SEO strategies. This approach acknowledges that as search engines become smarter and more reliant on AI for processing content, understanding and leveraging AI within SEO practices can be a game-changer.
Both experts agree on the increasing relevance of AI and semantic search in transforming SEO practices. Search engines are rapidly evolving to better understand context and user intent, making it crucial for SEO strategies to adapt accordingly.
Embracing new technologies and understanding the underlying business models of search engines are now imperative. SEO isn't just about creating keyword-focused content; it’s about crafting material that meets the user's search intent and provides comprehensive, satisfying answers.
Semantic search, focusing on the intent and contextual meaning behind queries, is becoming increasingly significant. Content that addresses these aspects, rather than just incorporating keywords, is likely to perform better in search engine rankings.
Discourse Integration and Responsiveness
Building upon our earlier discussion, it's essential to grasp that beyond the distribution of connected concepts, entities, and attributes, the notion of responsiveness in SEO focuses on the composition and structure of sentences and how these sentences integrate into an overall discourse. This integration, known as discourse integration, enhances the optimization of the content's accuracy and overall relevance, thus impacting SEO effectiveness.
The Seven Steps in Modern SEO and Fine-Tuning LLMs
As we progress in the SEO domain, we find that the process often involves seven key steps:
In this context, fine-tuning an LLM becomes crucial. Using the same model as your competitors may lead to high content similarity, which search engines might avoid. Thus, uniquely tuning your LLM is vital for distinctiveness.
Micro Semantics and Semantic Content Networks
Micro semantics play a pivotal role in programmatic SEO. Even a 0.1% differentiation in your content compared to competitors can significantly impact rankings when applied across millions of web pages. By creating semantic content networks and topical maps, you can classify and interlink various queries and content pieces, further refining your SEO strategy.
Human Touch in Content and the Role of AI
The role of human involvement in content creation has been reevaluated by search engines. Google, for instance, perceives human-influenced content as higher quality. This shift underscores the importance of blending AI-generated content with human creativity and insight, thereby achieving a balance that resonates more effectively with both search engines and readers.
Multichain Reasoning and Contextual Domains
Multichain reasoning involves understanding and using the interconnectedness of various concepts and contexts. For example, understanding that the "Buckingham Palace" relates to the "United Kingdom" and hence to the "Pound" demonstrates the kind of contextual reasoning search engines are increasingly capable of. SEO strategies must now consider not just individual keywords but their broader contextual domains and interrelations.
Topical Authority and Contextual Domains
Topical authority is about being recognized as an authority within specific contextual domains. By understanding how to connect and process various domains and micro-contexts, your website can become more relevant and authoritative on particular topics. Using tools like embedding projections, you can visualize and improve these connections, thus enhancing your content's relevance and authority.
Fine-Tuning for Semantic Precision
The fine-tuning process in language models can involve making manual adjustments to make certain concepts in a domain more distinct or closely related. This level of fine-tuning requires a deep understanding of the language model's workings and the semantic relationships within your content.
Building on this, the Ember approach to content creation using AI tools essentially emphasizes the importance of data-driven insights to guide content generation. This method underscores that while AI can be a powerful tool in creating content, it fundamentally requires relevant, structured, and updated information to generate valuable outputs. In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, where search engines are constantly updating their algorithms and user behavior is continually shifting, the ability to dynamically adapt content based on fresh, relevant data becomes crucial.
Therefore, the role of AI in this context is not to replace human creativity or intuition but to augment and enhance these capabilities. By feeding the AI with curated, high-quality data, and continuously fine-tuning the inputs based on feedback and results, content creators and marketers can leverage these tools to produce more targeted, relevant, and impactful content.
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This approach also underlines the importance of understanding and manipulating the underlying mechanisms of AI and search algorithms. Rather than viewing AI as a magic box that automatically churns out high-ranking content, it's seen as a sophisticated tool that requires skillful handling. Knowledge about how AI interprets and processes information, understanding its limitations, and the ability to tweak its output based on specific goals and contexts are all essential skills in this new era of AI-assisted content creation.
Furthermore, the Ember approach acknowledges the reality of AI content inflation – as more people use similar models like GPT-4, the uniqueness and distinctiveness of AI-generated content might diminish. Therefore, the differentiator becomes the quality and uniqueness of the data fed into the AI and the strategic deployment of its outputs. By focusing on specialized, niche data sets and structuring them effectively for AI processing, content creators can maintain a competitive edge.
The Rise of SEO Engineering
In the ever-competitive landscape of digital marketing, the conventional approach to SEO is quickly becoming obsolete. The key takeaway from the talk is the transformation of SEO professionals into SEO Engineers. This change isn't just about adopting new technologies; it's about a fundamental shift in mindset - from following trends to engineering innovative solutions.
Leveraging AI in SEO
The integration of AI, particularly large language models, into SEO strategies offers unprecedented opportunities. AI can analyze vast amounts of data, predict trends, and even emulate competitors' strategies. However, the real game-changer lies in the ability to fine-tune these models. By customizing AI algorithms, SEO Engineers can tailor their approaches to suit specific niches, target unique audiences, and bridge gaps in language and context that AI alone might miss.
Beyond the Algorithms: The Human Element
While AI can process and generate vast amounts of content, understanding the intricacies of human language and the ever-changing dynamics of user intent still requires a human touch. This synergy between AI's analytical power and human expertise is where the future of SEO is headed. It's about creating content and strategies that are not only algorithm-friendly but also resonate on a human level.
Engineering the Future of Search
The discussion highlighted the shift towards a more engineering-focused approach in SEO. This isn't just about using tools to generate topical maps or content but about understanding and manipulating the underlying mechanisms of search algorithms and user behavior. SEO Engineering is about building robust systems that can adapt and evolve with the changing digital landscape.
The Role of Resources and Learning
For those looking to dive into SEO Engineering, the journey begins with education. Exploring resources like OpenAI's documentation, NLP libraries like Spacy, Cohere, or Hugging Face, and no-code platforms like RICO.IO can provide foundational knowledge. The learning curve involves understanding how to manipulate and direct AI models for specific SEO goals, creating a versatile and dynamic approach to digital marketing.
Breaking Away from Traditional Datasets
Most SEO professionals often utilize the same datasets and tools, leading to a saturation in strategies and techniques. However, the conversation pivoted towards the use of content map planning based on keyword relation graphs, indicating a shift towards more dynamic and sophisticated SEO methodologies. These content maps go beyond traditional keyword targeting, focusing on the relationships and contextual relevance between different topics and terms.
The Imperfection of Tools and the Need for Human Touch
Despite advancements in SEO tools and AI, the panelists emphasized the necessity for human involvement. Tools can provide a structure or a starting point, but human insight is needed to refine AI outputs, tailor content more accurately to audience needs, and extend beyond basic automated output. This approach ensures content is not only SEO-friendly but also genuinely valuable and engaging for readers.
Utilizing Knowledge Bases and Third-Party Databases
There was a discussion about leveraging external knowledge bases for initial topic or topical map creation. While some experts prefer scraping data directly from Google, others consider the integration of diverse knowledge bases. These can potentially offer unique insights and help in creating more nuanced content strategies.
Topical Maps vs. Conceptual Maps
An interesting distinction was drawn between topical maps and conceptual maps. Topical maps are concerned with page relevance and content relationships, crucial for SEO. On the other hand, conceptual maps deal more with understanding and organizing knowledge hierarchically or thematically. Combining these approaches can result in a comprehensive content strategy that not only ranks well but also provides depth and value to the readers.
The Role of Style and Tone
The role of style and tone in content was also a point of discussion. Experts agreed that while these might not directly influence Google's algorithms, they play a vital role in differentiating content from the mass of AI-generated materials. A unique style or tone tailored to specific audience segments or platforms (like an e-commerce site vs. a financial news portal) can make content more relatable, engaging, and ultimately successful.
Link Building and Semantic SEO
The conversation then moved to link building and its place in modern SEO. The perspective shared indicated that while link building remains vital, its impact can be magnified manifold when combined with solid semantic SEO and content strategies. This combination not only reduces the cost per link but also ensures long-term sustainability and effectiveness.
The collective insights from our discussion lead to a comprehensive and forward-looking conclusion on the state of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In today's fast-paced digital world, SEO transcends the traditional confines of keywords and backlinks, morphing into a more intricate interplay of various advanced strategies. It's increasingly about creating an ecosystem that seamlessly aligns with the sophisticated mechanisms of search engines and the dynamic ways in which users engage with online content.
This transformation calls for a new breed of professionals: SEO Engineers. These individuals are expected not only to harbor technical expertise but also to infuse creativity into their strategies. The integration of semantic SEO, which emphasizes context, relevance, and the subtleties of language, becomes paramount. Furthermore, understanding content mapping and injecting a distinctive human element into content creation and optimization stands at the forefront of outperforming in the digital landscape.
In this evolving field, an in-depth understanding of language models, contextual domains, and semantic nuances is critical. Strategies like discourse integration, micro-semantics, and establishing topical authority are not just beneficial but necessary for securing higher rankings in search engine results. Here, the art of SEO intersects with the science of AI, necessitating a balance between human creativity and the precision of technology.
As SEO continues to evolve, the future clearly belongs to those who can skillfully blend these multifaceted elements—technical know-how, creative strategy, and an insightful application of AI—while maintaining a keen sensitivity to the human aspects of search and interaction. Therefore, being an SEO Engineer is no longer just a competitive edge—it's essential for navigating and excelling in the intricate, dynamic, and constantly evolving realm of search engine optimization.
SEO entrepreneur
11 个月Super-cool!