A helpful introduction to Link Attributes in the online marketing industry

 

 This simple introduction to Link Attributes within the HTML content of your online marketing will help you better understand the true value of link attributes and how to use them wisely to improve the many different Search Engine Optimisation Value indicators that are used to generate better online search results.

first, you need to understand what link attributes are, then you can work out which link attributes you need to add to individual links, and how this will improve the quality and value of your online content to both the search engine algorithms and your intended target market audience.

Link Attributes are rather difficult to understand for most online marketing folks at first, but then suddenly a light bulb goes on and they get it.  Link Attributes are value-adding and quality improving instruments, that are placed within the HTML code between the <a> and  </a/> tags of every link, So you do need to have a very basic or elementary understanding of HTML code. You do not need to be an expert coder to add link attributes to your in-page HTML code, and can get your web design team to place them for you. 

Most link attributes are not mandatory or even necessary, but they do add tremendous quality and great value to your in-page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)  efforts. This quality is what Google Talks about all the time, and it is these small things that make the difference between being at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) or lower down where the poor quality pages go.

Link attributes are not well defined, and the list of possible link attributes is rather disturbingly large. So you do need to understand the aims, objectives,  purpose and intent of the individual link when deciding which link attributes are needed,  which link attributes should be avoided, and how you will formulate them to suit your needs. Always remember that there is no one size fits all within the SEO industry.

There are many folks who will tell you that you do not need to add link attributes, and they are correct. link attributes are not mandatory, but they do help your page find better traction within the online search industry, and help search engines to better understand the aims, objectives, purpose and intent of each individual link. This is used in expanding the knowledge graph, your in-page trust issues and many other semantic connectedness issues. think of the #THINGSNOTSTRINGS issues. There are many different places where each link is processed and evaluated for the SEOVI associated with the link.

some of the easier to add link attributes are things in the list below. this list is not exhaustive and there are very many others that you could add. your web development team will help you out here, but you do need to speak to them about this coz this is not mandatory stuff. 

 ALT TEXT for images,

 the link  title attribute,

 the link description attribute

FOLLOW / NO FOLLOW 

INDEX / NO INDEX

REL = ????

Linking just for the sake of having links is a very stupid idea, and every link that you add to your content must have the following four traits.

1) purpose

2) objectives

3) aims

4) intentions

these are easy to determine and are not rocket science issues. Take the FOLLOW / NO FOLLOW link attribute. here you must choose to either have the link followed and add link juice to both ends of the link or NOT to follow and keep the link juice out of the equation.  so looking at the purpose and intentions of the link decide to  follow or not  follow.

If the link expands the conversation in meaningful or helpful ways and adds value to the interpretation of the in-page content then follow the link. If the link is an advertorial link or off topic then NO follow. it is that simple. this is all about the semantic connectedness issues, and related trust factors.

for some internal links like the link to an online form or sales page, why would you want it indexed?  having unnecessary pages indexed is a waste of crawl budget, and thus forms, payment pages and similar unnecessary pages should all get the NO INDEX link attribute installed

So link attributes add context to the link. for instance the TITLE ATTRIBUTE which pops up on screen when the mouse hovers over the link, explaining to the end user what will happen when the link is clicked add context to the link.  the title is often worded like " click here to open form" or "click here to read more about this" 

This added context to the link is thus shown to the end user helping him / her to decide whether to click or not. this will depend on the stage of the conversion funnel where the end user is at the time that this on-screen pop catches their attention.

 links used during reesearch 

https://www.contentkingapp.com/academy/link-rel/#:~:text=rel%3D%22amphtml%22-,What%20is%20the%20link%20relation%20attribute%3F,between%20pages%20to%20search%20engines.

https://moz.com/blog/link-tilte-attribute-and-its-seo-benefit

https://ahrefs.com/seo/glossary/sponsored-link-attribute

https://seopressor.com/blog/types-of-links-that-matter-for-seo/

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-guide/types-of-links-how-to-build-them/#close

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALiCzsYKT7gEssMsDsWGxl12GQwTks_bRQ:1669665479903&q=Link+title+attribute+example&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjzysrO1NH7AhWCi_0HHSYQBCsQ1QJ6BAgwEAE&biw=1707&bih=821&dpr=0.8

the power of links when using the Strings Not Things rules

 Google changed the rules within the SEO industry when they introduced the HummingBird algorithm

Google HummingBird algorithm was the start of the Things, not strings era, where context, purpose and intent augmented keywords in the Search Engine optimisation industry. 

The values of link attributes suddenly carried an awful lot more Search engine optimisation value indicators (SEOVI) than they ever did before.

The Google HummingBird algorithm is to this day not clearly understood by most folks within the Search Engine Optimisation industry. So this blog post will help readers to have a deeper understanding of what the Google Hummingbird algorithm is and what the purpose and intentions of the Google Hummingbird algorithm are.

When I did a Google search for the Google Hummingbird algorithm, this page came to the second spot  of the list.or SERRP  (search date 17 November 2022)  https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-hummingbird

now MOZ is a rather influential site, but these folks (in my mind) do not really understand the Google Hummingbird algorithm. This algo did not replace anything but added many new Search Engine optimisation value indicators which I refer to as SEOVI  The article mentioned above claims that HUMMINGBIRD replaced  many existing algorithms, but this is not true in the least... Hummingbird was a new addition that ran parallel to, and adjacent to all existing algorithms. #HummingBird was a new tool that supplemented all existing tools, the Google hummingbird virus did not replace anything. folks that tell you Google hummingbird algorithm replaced stuff need to be avoided, or challenged to please explain, coz they are either selling you Snake Oil or bullshitting you big time. both are not acceptable.

the top of SERP item  ( https://www.goup.co.uk/guides/google-hummingbird/#:~:text=Hummingbird%20is%20a%20search%20algorithm,old%2C%20like%20Panda%20and%20Penguin.)  also claims that hummingbird replaced some stuff in the online search algorithms of Google. 

the third item in the SERP was Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hummingbird this also talks of an algorithm change, but it was not a change of anything. it was an introduction of a brand new tool within the search environment at Google.

So the Google  Hummingbird algorithm was not an update of any existing algorithm, but rather the introduction of a brand new algorithm which complimented all existing algos and added new variables into the online search industry.

the Google Hummingbird algorithm introduced many new issues and was the first step that Google took to move away from strings (words only) and move towards search intent, where content context, purpose and intentions were suddenly a very big part of the search process. this was the start of the move from strings to things.  hence the hashtag #ThingsNotStrings became an important entry point for folks looking for search engine optimisation tactics. 

The Google Hummingbird algorithm is a very powerful search tool that changed so many issues in so many different ways, and was the tool that started using the Google knowledge graph as the foundation for establishing the semantic mapping tools that defines and identifies all things within both the online and offline environments. This algorithm is forever being  updated and directly connected to many more algorithms that have been introduced to expand the things not strings contextual linkages. 

now to understand how these issues are all linked together, one needs to interpret and understand the many different issues associated with inpage links, which many folks call  #BackLinks

There are basically two types of links, which are again divided into two groups. the first type of link is #InternalLinks and the second is #ExternalLinks.  the first group is #OutBound and the Second is #InBound. every link has two ends. the first is the origin which would also be called the InPage link. The second side of the link is the off-page end of the link. the Off-Page end may be an internal destination, meaning that it is the same domain or external meaning that it is in a different domain. 

All so called Back Links are from an external domain. Now most folks, when doing search engine optimisation only lalk of Back Links. very few folks ever talk about internal inbound links, and thus there is a very big problem with interpreting and understanding the value of links. Internal links carry much more Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators, coz you recieve link juice at both the destination point and the link origin. 

now coming back to the Knowledge graph... the knowledge graph uses links to link one set of issues (your inPage content) to the other set of issues the Off page content, which may be external or internal. the knowledge base of one page is thus connected to the knowledge base of another page through the inapge out bound link.

So tthe knowledge graph can not connect the things in your content to any other things unless there is a link from your page to that other content. The knowledge graph is a very-big-data issue which is explained here https://www.semrush.com/blog/knowledge-graph/?kw=&cmp=Africa_SRCH_DSA_Blog_EN&label=dsa_pagefeed&Network=g&Device=c&utm_content=622528814134&kwid=dsa-1753200739853&cmpid=18364843126&agpid=141057028723&BU=Core&extid=60114153428&adpos=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1NebBhDDARIsAANiDD1RkMnaH7qByvyq-kC5-BSZfPAWhJSUQ0f9AdUSSN0PpBVT_d3RyBIaAgMsEALw_wcB

this link connecting your page to another page, may be an internal link or an external link. this link may be an inbound link or an outbound link. it does not matter.. internal or external, inbound or outbound.   here a link is a link and it does not matter where the other end is, just so long as it connects your content to other content. But do not get confused here. every link is used many times over, in some instances, the origin and destination have great significance, and in some use cases, there is no significance.

So let us now consider In Page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) issues associated with in page OUTBOUND LINKS.

IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation is where the issues start to make sense and need to be properly evaluated for many different individual SEOVI.  Each link is used many times over to generate a very large number of different SEOVI where the items on this shortened list are considered. this list is in reality very big and contains an exceptionally large number of vastly different, but interconnected issues. do not get confused if items you consider as important are not listed. here. I promise you that whatever you consider, is in reality an issue. Think of the #ThingsNotThings  issues, and you will begin to  understand the complex network of different SEOVI that a search engine may or may not consider important to understand the purpose and intent of your online content, once again this list is not exhaustive, and includes an extremely big set of issues not in this list. this is just to give you an idea and a point to start interpreting and understanding the vast complexity of the Google Hummingbird algorithm.

• what is the purpose of the link?
• does the link have any #LinkAttributes
• no follow
• no index
• link title
• link description
• alt text if an image or video
• what words are near the link in your copywriting
• are there similar words in the destination inpage content of this link
• does the link arrive at a bookmark
• how far are these words from the destination point (bookmark)
• is there any Anchor text
• are any of these words (anchor text)  in the page title
• of your page
• of the destination page
• are any of these words in the page description
• of your page
• of the destination page
• are any of these words in the keyword meta data
• of your page
• of the destination page
• is there semantic connectedness between the origin and destination 
• is there any similarity between the page intent issues of the origin and the destination
• does the purpose of the two pages correlate.
• is there a connection between the purpose of each end of the link
• is the conversation expanded in a meaningful manner
• is there a return link in-page  (BackLink)

There are so many other issues that search engines consider that your head will spin if you are not careful. Do not get confused or be bothered too much about this, because micro-management here will cause you to fail. just think clearly about the purpose and intent of the link. Do not add links for the sake of adding links.

not every page needs links.  think of a form that the end user may be required to fill out.. A primary landing page should have very few links, as each link that is not associated with the intended call to action here is a distraction, which will break your conversion funnel. Take time to 

understand conversion funnels and be aware of the purpose and intent of each page.

So the thing that you want your end user to accomplish when on-page is important. 

On-Page is the user activity space, or what appears on screen for the end user to interact with.

in-page is all  the HTML  content. used by search engines to evaluate the purpose, intent and functionality of your page.

 the IN-Page situation has two parts. (1) is the <HEAD> (2) is the body 

 the <HEAD> is only for search engines and other applications to use

 the <BODY> is for end-user interactions and is the code that ensures that the onscreen issues display correctly for your end user, and any user tasks easily accomplishable. 

 All inpage links are part of the user interaction activity. each link should be considered as a call to action statement. here you want the end user to do something. when the end user does something he /she uses a link to accomplish a task that you set for him/her.  

inPage links connect things to other things and are used by a number of different databases to establish the purpose and intent of your online content. To understand intent and purpose, you need to understand the meaning of the content. to understand the meaning you have to understand what things are being discussed, and how these things interact with each other. this can not be done without evaluating each word separately, and then collectively where NLP (Natural Language Proceesing) is a key element.

This means that THINGS have more importance than STRINGS. Both are important. 

Strings are used to define things.  The definition of things allows other concepts  to be developed. Machine learning and AI  (Artificial intelligence) are vital in this aspect.  Large databases that are interconnected are used to define things and allow deeper context to be developed.. this can only be accomplished when there are links between strings,.  So once again the links that you place within your content are vital in developing concepts that relate strings to things.  

things can not be discussed and evaluated without strings. but which is more important things or strings?  we lthis can be debated but that will take so much time and effort that it is not worth the confusion. things are defined nd explained using strings, without things there would be no need for strings.  At the end of the day the Google hummingbird algorithm is the direct link between things and strings. the purpose of the Google hummingbord algorithm is thus (in my mind) to connect thiongs together and show the interrelationships between things through the use and interpreation of strings. 

Links within online content allowed the search engine to develop models and systems that use strings to define things, then show the inter-relationships between different things. now when one uses a search engine to disciver information about things, the different strings within your vontent are used to establish the intent, purpose, aims and obkjectives of your content, then match those to the query intentions, purpose aims and objectives.

it thus follows that purpose, intentions, aims and objectives need to be used when creating online content for the human end users . strings are thus vital to develop content that you want your end-users to consume within the online environment. Keywords are your lever to open the search engine interrogation channels of your content when a search engine do what it is that they do.  

these days (November 2022) search engines match the purpose and intent of a search query to the purpose and intent of online information (read your pages). strings are uased in the search query and your online content. these strings refer to things, so the Google Hummingbird algorithm is an essential part of the search engine search process. This means that keywords are vtal and can not be avoided. how you use ypour keywords, and introduce them to the search engine in your content is up to you, but you do need to think clearly and understand that these strings discuss things, and things are part of the answer.  The Google Hummingbird algoriythm is the link between strings and things.

the #ThingsNotStrings hashtag is thus very misleading, as the search engine can not physically use things, coz they cannot be placed inside a wire or an electrical circuit. Things can not be changed into electrical information without the use of strings. strings can be easily converted into electrical impulses which are then muddled up and used by computing systems.  very confusing ??!! 

At the end of the day, the Google Hummingbird algorithm connects strings to things, then expands that to interpret a vast number  of attitudes, thought processes and related conceptualisation  to match a search query to the relevant online content, then offers the end user, a list of items called the SERP or Sear4ch Engine Results pages. 

So from the above confusion and mayhem it can be interpreted that the links within your online content are used many times over in a great number of different and seemingly unrelated places to match an online search to online content.  So links within your online content are the key to unlocking the information you provide within your online content, so that a search engine may find the relevance of your online content and match that to the purpose, intent and relevance of a search query.

this is all achieved because the Google Hummingbird algorithm does what it was intended to do.. that is interpret strings and use the things discovered in your content to create an understanding of the purpose and intent of your online content. The links that you have placed within your content allow this to happen, so when inserting links in your content, have some respect for the purpose, intent, aims and objectives which you want to assign to the content that contains your link in question.

Search outside the box:

 those of you who follow me coz I blog about SEO stuff are really gonna enjoy this.

In this online document resource, Google employee ( Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan )  discusses search issues that we as technical SEO folks and all associated IT(#SEamanticEngineering)  fellas have zero control over or even indirect input. The tools that Google has made available for end users to use as part of the end-user experience when using search tools are quite scary.  this includes stuff like voice search tools, image search tools and near-me type search requests that will soon be available to all end users.

So #GEOTAGGING and #HashTagMarketing will now have new meaning and functionality within the online search environment. this will make experiences at theme parks, shopping malls, events and other area-bound activity could be managed for near-me search issues.  GEO TAGS in the <HEAD> section alongside keywords, page titles and page descriptions will be very helpful.

Using the appropriate #LinkAttributes such as NO-FOLLOW  link title, and link description are also very helpful in many ways, coz these are rather heavy-weight "QUALITY SIGNALS" that search engines really appreciate, as this gives them a deeper insight into the purpose and intent of your specific online asset. 

So this is a true FUFISM-based marketing issue, where SEO needs to be understood to be all about online search visibility and the different types of online SERPs that are offered to the end user. one also needs to consider the actual search tool when evaluating the SEO factors that need to be considered. This is where #SemanticTrust and related sentiment and intent signals are truly helpful. These include things like 

• GEO tags,
• contributor tags
• publisher tags
• author tags
• industry tags
• any other unique tags

So Remember SEO is all about teamwork and ensuring that everybody knows the intended target market audiences. Both of them... The first is normal people, as in the <BODY> section of the HTML code and the second is the search bots and their algorithmic handlers at search engines, which is the <HEAD> section   SO PAY ATTENTION to the <HEAD> section of your online assets, as there are many opportunities here to inform search engines about the purpose and intent of your web site, blog or another online asset. 

Thanx for reading here

#Frankie2Socks 

so this message from Prabhakar Raghavan is vital to understand within the online marketing industry, coz the SEO Implications are rather large and plenty full. 

Search Engine Optimisation needs to be interpreted

Search Engine Optimisation has evolved into #SemanticEngineering

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation has changed radically since the introduction of the Google Hummingbird algorithm in 2013.

take your time and read this Google insight 

It is now  October  2022 and things are getting ever more complex as search engines use better and bigger search algorithms. the big change that followed the Google HummingBird algorithm was that search started to move away from so-called strings or word-only activities to suddenly include an ever-expanding cohort of things or entities. this move from STRINGS to THINGS was at first very slow, but around 2018 things started to suddenly move into the things spaces, as entity graphs and entity maps started to take control over search engine's ability to understand purpose and intent.

t has come to the point now that search engines actually attempt to understand the purpose, intent and context of your online assets, then using reverse engineering,  match the search intent to the intent of online content.  This is why it is so vitally important to understand the context and intent of the <HEAD> section of your HTML code. The three main issues are 

1. page title
2. page description
3. keywords list

These three Search engine Optimisation variables need to be understood very clearly. what is the purpose of these three SEO variables. why should they be included in your HTML CODE ?

Well the answer is simple. if you stop and evaluate how search engines work.   These three issues are in the <HEAD> section. The head section is written specifically for search engines to get an understanding of the intent and purpose of your content.  The body section is written for the human end user. so your header and your body sections need to work together as a team. how these two sections interact determines how a search engine will value your online asset and its close associates. 

the values of these three META TAGS is really not understood within the SEO community, with many web development tools not having  access to these meta tags. many blog sites do not hve easy access to adjust the META TAGS in the <HEAD> section of your HTML code.

things have changed ... Google and other search engines now use alternate tactics to determine the intent and cotext of your online asset base, and list each item found separately. 

so time to wke up and take a look into the new tactics used bysearch engines. 

 

take your time and read this Google insight 

The power of SEO is not well understood.

#FUFISM is a marketing philosophy where the social media environment is used as a tool box  to ensure better search results within the online search environment. FUFISM is an acronym for Functional User-Friendly Integrated Social Media. 

 So before you can understand the power of something you first need to know what it is.  SEO or Sea4ch Engine Optimization is not a new issue and has been around since the beginning of the internet.  Folks have always been looking for tools to find specific information within the online environment.

now let's not get all soft in the head here. there are many companies in the online search space, and Google is the biggest at this time (October 2022). The volume of new online information is really scary, so what tools do search companies have to discover newly published information, then sort it out and make it available within the search environment?

The simple answer links are more commonly called by the confusing name of #BACKLINKS. Links are the only tools that search engines have to discover your online content. Once discovered, search engines do many fancy investigations into the purpose, intent and validity of your online content that you would like your online audience to discover when searching within the interwebs. 

So Search engine optimization is a really difficult thing to explain in simple terms.  I like to explain Search Engine Optimization as   All the work done by your entire marketing team, along with all their contacts, friends, enemies and others that have some influence on how search engines understand your content, along with the clues that you leave behind in the hidden code of your online content so that search engines can match search queries to existing online content in meaningful ways that satisfy the search intent of the query in question.

notice the word INTENT here.  the search intent is the real issue. understanding search intent is a very difficult thing.   many searches are just one r two words... So understanding search intent is the first step. then matching that search intent (Query Intent) to the intentions and purpose of your online content is the next step.

This means that SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about informing the search engine of the purpose, intent and context of your online content.   this sounds rather simple, but is truly a complicated affair where many devious and hidden things give you opportunities to better inform search engines of the purpose, intent and context of your online content.

In the old days, pre (HummingBird) things were simple, and search engines only worried about words. The introduction of the Google HummingBird Algorithm in early 2013 changed many things within the online search environment, as things suddenly became more important than strings.  This was a really monumentus change, but many folks still do not grasp these issues.  suddenly context became an issue that was mever heard of within the online search industry. The many hidden issues around Natural Language Processing and contextual references'was were suddenly thrust into the forefront of content creation references's and confused the issue horribly.

Today, nearly ten years later many folks within the online search industry still worry about things like word counts, keyword density and other silly number games. they have not grasped the fact that context and intent are issues that search engines use.  After all, they nowadays match the intent of a search query to the intent of existing online content, and offer a list of the pages that the search engine believes will best match your online query.

this is a rather scary thought, coz it basically means that your keywords list is meaningless as a search engine optimisation signal.   well if you fell for that you are in trouble.......

keywords are much more important today than they were way back when words alone mattered. \ Keywords lists and page descriptions along with page titles offer search engines a glimpse of the intentions, purpose and context of your online information. how you expand this in the body section of your content is the real issue. body section

Good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps your marketing team to supply search engines with relevant information about your online content so that they can use this to better match search queries to existing content.

So Search Engine Optimization I a very complex affair with many devious and hidden things that influence how search engines interpret and manage the information contained within your online content.  The head section of your online HTML code is a confusing space, but take your time and think!!! There are many so-called SNAKE OIL SALES FOLKS who will confuse you and sell you their latest versions of SEO TOOLS.  Be careful and take your time when doing SEO work. there are many pittfalls and lots of folks selling bad information, that can cause your site some harm, which may take some considerable effort o repair.

SEO is not a bolt obolt-on later affair. SEO needs to be a very important part of your online marketing efforts from the beginning. Your content creation team needs t be informed of many things that impact on search results. 

Target market research is essential. how you manage this is tricky and needs to be well-thought throug. Number chasing is dangerous. Quality needs to be given more thoughts than quantity. Thousands of page views with no conversions is a waste of time and effort, when just a few visitors could generate many sales if the correct audience is targeted from the start.  SEO is all about ensuring that the correct target market audience click through and opensofferings your online offereings.

SEO has the power to ensure that the right folks click through from the SERP's. (Search Engine Results pages)   It just takes common sense and understanding of what information is in your content, what you want your audience to do when they discover  your online content, and how you have put the resources in place for your audience to follow your desired call to action statements.

SEO shoud form the core ele3ment of all your online marketing efforts. SEP should dictate many issues, but unfortunately SearchEngine Optimmisation is seen as a blot on thingi tht can come layter.  This is an extremly bad attitude, which needs some attemntion.  

Search Engine Optimisation is a vastly complex affair tht needs deep understanding of what you are trying to achieve.

SEO allows you to target the correct audience and get positive results.  But it does require imput at the highest levels, along with commitment to ensure co-operation between marketing divisions.  SEO IS YOUGH.. so be prepared and THINK CLEARLY>

Practical training : wow Bizz , Khula Village.

 Frankie2Socks Consulting Services is based in Khula Village, in the Mtubatuba local municipality of Umkhanyakude district municipality. We are near St. Lucia, the tourism hub of the Elephant coast. 

#Framkie2Socks will be giving one on one practical lessons focusing on #FUFISM based marketing, and all the small online  fragments that make up a holistic online marketing strategy and implementation policy.

SEO or Search engine Optimization is a rather complex issue that takes up a very big portion of your marketing research. Fortunately this is shared information which is usually paid for by other departments out side of the online marketing environment. So these lessons and associated online information sharing tactics will not focus so much on SEO, but rather focus on the practical implantation of online marketing tactics.

We as the teaching team, will supply individualised personal lessons on topics and applications of your choices.  You will however need to arrive in person. So arrive with out a fixed appointment, and we may not be able to help you. We will not be doing zoom or other online teaching. Our lessons are personal, in person and are created after discussion with you, discussing your business needs, and possible solutions to assist you to fulfill your business needs.

Contact Frankie2Socks at  frankie2socks@info4u.co.za for more details.

What is SEMANTIC ENGINEERING ?

 #SemanticEngineering is just good old fashioned Search Engine Optimization dressed in a new suit

Within the Search Engine Optimization Industry there have been so many changes during the last few years that one's head will spin irrationally. It has thus become very difficult to explain what exactly it is that those of us who practise the deceptively difficult art of Search Engine Optimization actually do, especially when one of us  steps into your marketing campaigns as a consultant, coz you want the top search engine spot.

So there is plenty of history around describing how we, as search engine optimization tactitians got to where we are now in 2021. There was even a public perception management campaign pushing the story that SEO IS DEAD ( #SEOISDEAD ) Do a little research around that topic for yourself, but think of Semantic Engineering and the new machine learning tactics used by search engines to build data bases around digital entities and each digital entities connectedness to specific topics and information themes, storing this information in many formats.

Knowledge graphs and entity connectedness maps are just some of the new semantic engineering tools used by search engines in evaluating the semantics of your online assets, or the Semantics of a search query.

The SEO INDUSTRY is still trying to figure most of these new Semantic  search tactics used by search engines, and one does need to be awear of the black hat search engine optimization tactics that activate punishment algorithms which may have your digital assets removed from all search engines.

Most of the history within the semantic engineering landscape is good and can be relied on as data to plan your way forward, but some is just pure poison that will destroy your online reputation and have your online assets removed from most search indexes within days.

 

Within the world of SEMANTIC ENGINEERING or good old fashioned Search Engine Optimization, Following best practices from the past may not be the best thing to do, coz some folks tried to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, (read #BlackHat SEO ), so the big giant  ( read GOOGLE ) cooked the goose, whafting the delicious smell through the interwebs and chased all those who asked for a piece out of town ( read introduction of algorithmic penalty for cheaters) 

Now as with any engineering, like civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,  chemical engineering, new processes, tactics and procedures are always an issue, so reading, networking, researching and experimentation with new equipment and  techniques is always needed to stay on top of your game.

More than 90 % of an SEO TACTITIAN or SEMANTIC ENGINEER's  time is spent doing research and experimentation,  testing search results. About five percent of our time is spent in meetings, 2 % discussing tactics with co-workers and the rest arranging your work flow issues needed to get the attention of search engines.

Now doing your  physical SEO WORK is not something that a semantic engineer would do personally, but giving your marketing team a written guideline and set of instructions on what physically needs to be done is the job of a SEMANTIC ENGINEER. In other words, a semantic engineer establishes a set of processes and procedures that your marketing team needs to implement as a team of committed individuals, all working on different aspects of ensuring that your intended target market audience - 

A) find your online content within the SERP's or Search Engine Results Pages

B) select your link from those offered by the search engine in their SERP

C) consume your content then click on your desired call to action statement within your online assets.

Things like writing code to perform data base actions using an end users information to calculate answers such as foreign exchange calcs, or shipping costs is not done by a semantic engineer, but rather by specialists in these fields such as a data base technician or python coding specialist.

Semantic engineers connect the dots between you online assets and search engines indexed pages through a vast array of avenues, so that search engines may make a semantic match between your online assets and an end users search query.

This is no easy task, and it is becoming increasingly difficult, as the search engines are using ever better algorithms to understand both the search query and your online assets purpose and intentions.

Remember that purpose and Intentions form the core of all communications, so how will you convey this to search engines so that they may use this in a meaningful way?  You thus need a semantic engineer to engineer the semantics of your online content to suit both user intent  ( read your actual online audience ) and general search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo or Google.

So semantic engineers are just well qualified Search Engine Optimization Tactitians, who use many different avenues both online and offline to do proper search engine optimization.

Remember that your intended online audience needs some help in forming their search query, so that your intended target audience types your desired #KEYWORDS or semanticaly similar phrases into the search box or their search query.

This tricky piece of physcological manipulation of your intended online audience thinking patterns and thought processes, is just good old fashioned marketing. Here semantic engineers arrange things like radio talk shows, road side bill boards, flyers, marketing brouchers, magazine and newspaper advertising that connects your desired target market audience with your social media and other online assets. The reason here is to put the semantics of your online assets in to the thinking patterns and thought procedures of your intended target market audience and hopefully when your off line audience goes online to search, they will use your semantics.

THE RESULT  !!! a semantic match between the search query and your online assets. 

Successful semantic engineering is a daunting task. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a multi disciplined task and requires huge amounts of team work between many different departments, many of them not even directly involved with website creation, use or maintenance.

A good definition of SEO is quoted here 

start quote ***

Search Engine optimisation is all the work done by your marketing team and their various partners to ensure that your intended target market audience

1) find your online content in the Search Engine Results Pages

2) choose your online content from the provided Search engine Results Page

3) consume your online content and  perform a Call To Action within the page discovered in the SERP's.

End quote ***

So a brief one sentence answer to the Question "what is semantic engineering " would be -

*******

Semantic Engineering is the implementation of Search Engine Optimization tactics in both the online and offline envionments.

******* 

Thanx for reading, please leave a meaningful comment. 

What is FUFISM and how do I use it ?

 What is FUFISM, and how do I use it? 

FUFISM is an acronym for Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media,  which is also a marketing philosophy where SEO or Search Engine Optimization and Social media marketing  work as a married team of two, to manage and manipulate the #SEMANTICFOOTPRINTS and SEMANTIC TRUST of your #DigitalAssets

Now digital assets are all your online content holders such as but not restricted to :

• Web pages

• Blog posts 

• Social media profiles

• Individual Social media  posts 

So your website and your blog as well as your Social Media posts are seen by search engines as a collection  of related digital  entities, which each  have their own Semantic footprints. Each of these digital entities ( web page, blog post or social media post ) that are owned, managed or maintained by you, is one of your  digital assets.

Every digital  asset that you own has a semantic footprint, and this semantic footprint is initially restricted to the #IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation ( read the entire HTML CODE )  for your web page, blog post or social media post.  The outbound links within this #HTMLCODE expand the conversation  and the depth of understanding of specific semantic concepts  within the context of your original content.  These out bound links may be internal or external.

This expansion  of the conversation, through outbound links  has many  ripple effects within the SEO ENVIRONMENT  and the one we are most concerned about is the tread depth of the semantic  footprints for our online content, especially those areas that cover the primary  keywords  and topics for which we want to rank within the SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages.

Depth of Semantic footprints is directly related to Semantic trust and associated contextual linkages, so an understanding of all link attributes is  needed.

The value of links has changed drastically over the years, and today links are the primary  tool used to extend and enhance the SEMANTIC FOOTPRINTS and associated trust factors of your online content, making it very difficult to define the value of any individual link to, or from,  your online content.

#InboundLinks add value to your semantic footprints as these inbound links expand the conversation of other online  content, and deepen any search engines understanding of the intent, purpose, aims and objectives of both ends of the connecting link. 

Inbound links often called  back links, have different value Indicators  to outbound links, and having both inbound and outbound links for your online content is essential.  A large portion of your inbound links should be coming from your social media marketing efforts,  and you should take great care to ensure that the semantic intent of your  social media marketing matches the semantic intent of the linked to digital asset.

Matching the semantic intent of your social media campaigns to the semantic intent of your online digital assets is not so easy, and you will need to be careful how you do this.  

The trick is to avoid being a semantic spammer,  while pushing  hard on the semantic  linkages between your social media marketing efforts and your  website, blog and other digital assets.  The connectedness of your blog, your website, your social media posts and your other digital assets is the real issue that you need to worry about.

Links have more value within the SEO SPACE  today than they have ever had, as links are the tools used to extend the semantic linkages and semantic trust between your digital assets 

This connectedness of your  digital assets is what  gives your semantic footprints shape, colour and tread depth, allowing your collective semantic impact to add value to each new addition that you place within your  digital  asset base.  The bigger your digital asset base the more difficult it becomes to define and seperate any individual digital asset within  this collection of digital assets that you are trying to manage, from an SEO perspective.

This is where SEO  and social media need to work as a married couple, and team up as managers on equal footing , ensuring that all the other role players, such as but not restricted to this list work in a co-operative manner.

• Graphic design artists

• Video content creators 

• Copywriters 

• Web design teams

• HTML CODERS 

• META DATA for images and other  inserted files

• Link anchor text and image alt text 

• Keywords, titles, descriptions  and related issues

• File naming and folder issues

• SITE NAVIGATION and link structure management

• Schema Mark up 

• Information flow and conversion funnel managers

• VISUAL LAYOUT FOLKS

• Blog content creators 

• Marketing and sales folks 

• Public relations management team 

• Link building and brand building folks

These above items should all be understood to be subservient to these two partners ( SEO and Social media)  and work collectively as a single well managed family, where semantic footprint  management, along with SEMANTIC TRUST  are the prime concern, and connectedness along with contextual linkages are the major drivers of information flow patterns and tread depth of your semantic footprints.

So what are  Semantic footprints and how does one manage them?

Eish!  Ok an awful lot of questions and and some new concepts that take a bit of serious thinking about how search engines  use semantics  and specifically  the Semantic Footprints along with semantic trust of your digital assets to match search queries to your online marketing content or Digital  assets 

• This is a very  important online marketing concept, where  search  engines in general are beginning to improve on Semantic matching  as a technique  to supply better search results, where the #SemanticIntent of a search query  is matched  to the Semantic intent of individual digital entities

One manages  your semantic footprints along with SEMANTIC TRUST through careful SEO PRACTICES where link building is the primary  tool used to generate tread depth for your semantic footprints, and the social media space is used as your primary link building avenue.

Expanding the conversation through outbound links to include authoritative confirmation of issues discussed in the original content is essential, as is high lighting the expertise of contributors and building trust between digital  entities and your target market audience.

The new concept of E-A-T or Expertise, Authority and Trust all form part of the #SemanticMakeUp of your digital assets, and thus also  contribute to the depth of tread for your semantic footprints. 

But remember that your digital assets are understood by search engines such as BING ( www.bing.com  )  DuckDuckGo ( www.duckduckgo.com ) Yandex ( www.yandex.com ) Baidu( www.baidu.com ) and Google ( www.google.com ) to be digital entities 

One needs to also consider the fact that all search engines view offline entities, including people, as digital entities. 

This means that search engines view individual persons as digital  entities with personal online semantic footprints,  which  may be  likened to your fingerprints as a method of identifying you within the interwebs.

So you as an individual person, as well as each of your  web pages, blog posts and social media posts are seen as individual  stand alone  digital  entities. That being said,  one now has to consider how does one go about telling search engines that these digital entities belong together as a group, which consists of a few sub groups within the main collective group of your entire digital assets base.

 This is important because  the semantic footprints of these digital assets are indirectly  connected to your physical business or organisation, as well as the individual people working on your online content in any way, through their personal semantic footprints  which search engines create  from the online traces and links that  are left behind when you access the interwebs. 

Separating your  blog posts from your web pages and social media posts is a big issue as far as the SEO or Search Engine Optimisation industry is concerned. Here the manner in which you cross market  ( link building )  between your website, your blog and your social media efforts is of grave concern where content duplication is the primary  problem child

Reworking old content, instead of just plain and simply remarketing old content that is #EverGreen and always relevant  to your end user target market audience, is a serious problem as far as content duplication is concerned.  Excessive content duplication may be viewed by search engines as #SemanticSpam. 

Simply editing old blog posts, web pages and other editable digital assets you  may own or manage can also have significant positive impacts on your SERPs

Often just  editing  an old blog post  will have positive  impacts on your Search Engine Results Pages. Here we are talking of  changing or adding things like but not restricted to

• new pricing structures

• changes to phone numbers addresses and other relevant contact details

•  a new social  media profile

• changes to inpage information due to out side influences like changes in foreign  exchange rates which influence prices . 

Editing old web pages to include new HTML influences and tactics such as  the schema Mark up code, amongst many others, is an important SEO task. Sending your desired target market audience to your blog posts and web pages as part  of any marketing or conversion funnel inflow pattern is the job of your social media marketing team.  When these two team up and work together it is known within the SEO industry as #OPSEO  or  Off Page Search Engine Optimisation 

OPSEO or Off Page Search Engine Optimisation is basically all the online marketing that  you undertake within the Social media environment as well as within your other digital assets, such as web pages and blog posts which are relevant and related, that are specific to your online content in question. 

Off Page SEO is a powerful online marketing  tactic that has many hidden and well disguised impacts on your SERPs.  The main impact is the tread depth of your semantic footprints and the ripple effects within the E-A-T environment. The most important part of OPSEO is the link building that comes along for the ride.  This is because of the expansion of the conversation to include the E-A-T factors.

E-A-T factors are Expertise, Authority  and Trust

Now coming back to FUFISM,  the use of social media is the primary  driver of your Semantic footprint generation.  Each link that you place within your  social media posts adds to the semantic  weight, and Semantic footprint  tread depth of both your social media profile along with all its digital assets ( read social media posts ) and your linked to digital  asset, such as blog post or web page. 

Each link to your social media profile within your blog and website adds to the tread depth of the semantic footprints which  your  social media profile leaves within the #InterWebs . That being said you do need to avoid spamming the system, as all search engines have tools to  punish those sites that use spam tactics. Overdoing anything causes problems, so evaluate how you approach link building within the social media environment.

#LinkBuilding is a very serious affair that needs great skill  and deep understanding of the impacts of links on your Semantic footprints.

 Both sides of the link need to be considered, as things like authoritative influence and entity connectedness form part of search engines consideration strategies, when matching search queries to online content, which is presented to the end user as a #SERP or Search Engine Results Page 

FUFISM  or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media is thus a marketing philosophy where user intent is the key driver of new blog posts, web pages  and social media posts. 

These new digital assets all add value to the collective SEMANTIC FOOTPRINTS of your digital  asset base, and are created with user intent and  purpose in mind. If search engines can interpret the intent of your online content, then they can match  this intent with the intent of the end user who is looking for solutions  to his or her problems.

Matching  the purpose of an online search query with the purpose of online content is not a new search  engine tactic, but machine learning has just recently added new dimensions  to this, through expanding the semantic evaluation techniques used by search engines, for both queries  and online content. 

The impacts of machine  learning within the samantic evaluation processes which search engines undertake must not be under estimated 

Purpose is a very big part of semantics, as is intent, aims and objectives. Links, both to and from your online content allow search engines to better understand the semantics and connectedness of your online content.

More connectedness equals deeper Semantic footprints for your digital entities 

FUFISM is all about understanding the methodologies of search engines, then creating online marketing content that satisfy the needs of both your desired target market audience and search engines,  so that  search engines may connect your  desired target market audience to your blog posts, web pages or other digital assets. After all online marketing is all about  getting your intended target market audience to flow through your  #ConversionFunnels and complete the desired  CTA or Call To Action within your web pages or blog posts and become a loyal paying customer.

So how do you get a prospect to enter any of your Conversion funnels?  

The short and sweet answer is  : use social media marketing. 

Once again the connectedness of your  different social media profiles, your blog and your web site is an issue for search engines, and the connectedness of your  digital assets,  adds value to the semantic footprints generated by your  collective cross marketing between your

• Web pages 

• Blog posts

• Social media posts

The online world is connected to the offline world whenever a human being uses the internet in any fashion...

Now the FUFISM MARKETING philosophy  says that  you  need to  add an offline element to your online marketing. This is done in the newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and related print media advertising. The idea is that  you  need to introduce  your  desired online target market audience to your  product and its related concepts, and ensure that your branding sticks in their minds, so that when they do an online search, they use your desired keywords and related semantics in their search queries.

Off line  Search Engine Optimisation or #OLSEO is a strange concept for most folks, as one can not directly see how SEO or  Search Engine Optimisation is connected to a radio advert.  I mean how are the off line world and the online world connected to each other ?   The idea is to get your desired keywords and topics in your intended target market audience thinking patterns and thought processes, so that they will use these words when doing an online search.  

Once again The online world is connected to the off line world when ever a human being (read end user ) uses the internet in any fashion… 

This means that when an end user is using your online resources ( read web pages or blog post ) the off line world  and the online world meet through human interactions. 

The initial collision or meeting  between the off line world and the on line  world happens  when an end user uses a search engine. 

So FUFISM is quite  a complex marketing philosophy where  the online world and the off line world colide and produce viewers  (end users ) to your online marketing content.

The trick is to predict the impact of this collision, and what tactics search engines will use to match search queries to your online content and produce favourable SERP’S or Search Engine Results Pages for your online marketing content. 

FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media  is all about using the social media  as a link building tool,  to expand  the semantic connectedness of your web pages, blog posts  and other digital assets in a well managed, easily undetstood and user  friendly manner, which  both search engines and your intended target market audience appreciate.