New SEO for 2024 – Topic Modeling by SEO Inc

New SEO For 2024 – We are long past the days when all you had to do was stuff some keywords in the meta description, and you could easily rank for whatever you wanted to, regardless of whether it matched your website’s content. 2013, with the Hummingbird Update, Google began using latent semantic indexing or LSI to determine how keywords and content work together to mean the same thing. It’s how Google and other search engines are smart enough to understand the context behind your content and learn how what you’re talking about relates to the keywords and phrases used.

As much as we wish we did, we don’t know precisely what Google does when they decide how and when to rank any website for a keyword. Sure, we have some pretty good ideas thanks to research, trial, and error, but our agency doesn’t know exactly how it’s done. The truth is, no one does because Google keeps it under lock and key, and if you have ever come in contact with an agency that guarantees number one ranking, it’s time to run.

You’ll never reach your full ranking potential if you’re not using LSI as part of your SEO Consulting Services. Why are we talking about a search engine update that happened nearly five years ago? Many businesses don’t understand how to craft content that uses LSI to their advantage. We will go a bit further than LSI and look into topic modeling for SEO.

Topic Modeling 101

SEO Blog WritingTopic modeling itself is a complex system that ranks content based not just on the keywords but also on the context. Let’s take a look at an example:

Mark Wahlberg is one of many musicians who turned to acting. While most people know him for his recent appearance in Daddy’s Home 2, he was once only known for his music. When you search Google for Mark Wahlberg without specifying anything related to music or acting, you’ll get results that look like this:

Without qualifiers, Google delivers various effects – including his IMDB for movies, his Facebook, and articles that mention him. But when we add “music” to the end of that search, the results page changes dramatically. And when we change “music” to “movies,” we see it change dramatically again.

How to Create Topic Models

It would be best to go beyond the necessary keyword research tool to build your topic clusters for topic modeling. You’re looking for more than related keywords. Using a tool like Article Insights is an excellent place to start because it takes the primary keyword you’re targeting and spits out groups of words you should aim to include across 20 topics related to your content. For instance, if your main article is about types of acne, Article Insights would return something that looks like this:

You can paste the content of your article in the window next to that list of topics, and it will highlight the words you’ve included. You don’t need to add every word from each subject, but you should aim to hit at least a few from all 20. The good news is that writing naturally about types of acne means you’re going to have words like “hormones,” “cleansers,” “bacteria,” “pores,” and “pimples” in the content anyway, so it’s not much of a task to make sure you’re hitting on those words and phrases.

But no tool will replace taking a hands-on approach with your content.

Open a spreadsheet and create an inventory of your site’s pages. List each page URL on its row. Include the focus topic, the user intent, and notes about the piece’s quality. Then, note whether or not it needs improvement. Even quality content can be improved with a deeper dive into the topic.

Identify gaps in your coverage. Look through your list of focus topics to see which ones you’ve covered well and which areas need more. Create a content plan centered around beefing up the issues that need better coverage and focus on crafting valuable content.

Now, organize the pages that need improvement by priority. When you update those pages to make improvements, look for related subjects, and add more value to the content. To begin with, it’s best to choose the pages with the least coverage or the topics most important to your business.

Optimizing with Topic Modeling in Mind

Suppose you’re reading this article in shock because you’re suddenly overwhelmed with an extensive library of content to go back and edit; fear not. You’ve already done your content audit to determine which pages need attention most.

Optimizing with topic modeling always starts with the on-page SEO factors like headline and page title. It would be best if you had something that describes what your page is about and grabs attention.

From there, move to the first paragraph – readers are impatient and want to get straight to the point. Search engines will give the most weight to the information presented in the first paragraph. The target keyword – or focus topic – should always be present in that first paragraph, and you should work to get to the point within a few sentences.

Now, take a look at headings and subheadings. Are there keywords there? They break up the content and make it easier for your audience to read, but they also help the search engines understand and rank your content.

Spent time looking at all the links on your page – both internal and external – and the anchor text. These signal what you’re writing about to the search engines and the associated content you value.

Please review the content to make sure it is answering users’ questions. Search engines will rank content that directly responds to queries more favorably, increasing your chances of landing in the Google Answer Box.

Topic modeling for SEO may sound more complicated than the old-school methods we’ve used for years, but really, it’s just a more sophisticated approach focused on keywords and user intent. If you’re writing about baking cupcakes, certain words and phrases will naturally be included in that content – and if you add content about frying eggs on the same page – then it’s no longer topically modeled or relevant to the audience. But you wouldn’t usually combine baking cupcakes and frying eggs on the same page anyway, would you? If you focus on creating informative, valuable content that serves your target audience, your users and Google will be happy. Google wants to serve its customers by serving them content that helps them get what they need – and if your content does that, you’re golden.

Need help with topic modeling and creating a new content strategy? Let the SEO experts here at SEO Inc. handle it for you! You can contact us or schedule a consultation with our CEO, Garry Grant.

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