Embeddings Explained: Unlocking the Future of SEO
I’ve been diving deep into embeddings lately, and I thought it was high time I shared what I’ve learnt. Embeddings are becoming a big deal in the world of SEO, and for good reason. But what on earth are they? If you’re scratching your head, you’re not alone. Let’s break it down together.
So, What Exactly Are Embeddings?
At their core, embeddings are a way of representing data – words, sentences, images, even user behaviour – as vectors in a multidimensional space. Now, that might sound like a load of technical jargon, but stick with me.
Imagine a regular 2D graph from school, with an X and Y axis. Each point on that graph represents a pair of values, like (3,5) or (1,-2). Simple enough, right? But real-world data, especially language, is way more complex than just two numbers. Words aren’t just defined by a couple of characteristics; they’ve got context, meaning, usage frequency, and so on.
So instead of just two axes, we use hundreds, even thousands, to represent all these different features of data. This creates a multidimensional space. Each word or phrase becomes a point in this space, represented by a vector – basically, a list of numbers that show where that word sits in this vast space.
The brilliant part is that the closer two points are in this space, the more similar they are in meaning. For example, “king” and “queen” would be quite close because they share many semantic features – both are royal titles, both can be chess pieces, and so on. On the other hand, “king” and “car” would be miles apart because they’re entirely different concepts.
Why Should We Care?
You might be thinking, “Alright, that’s all interesting, but what’s the point?” Well, embeddings allow machines – like Google’s search algorithms – to understand the relationships between words and concepts far beyond simple keyword matching.
Back in the day, SEO was all about exact keyword matches. If someone searched for “best pizza in London”, you’d make sure to repeat that exact phrase all over your page. Remember keyword stuffing? Those were the times! But search engines have wised up, thanks in part to embeddings.
Now, search engines understand that phrases like “top pizza places in London” or “where to find great pizza in the city” are essentially talking about the same thing. The embeddings capture the underlying meaning of words and phrases, placing them close to each other in that multidimensional space we talked about.
Putting Embeddings to Work in SEO
So, how does this all help us in practical terms?
Moving Beyond Exact Keywords
When creating content, we can shift our focus from exact keyword repetition to producing semantically rich content. This means covering related concepts, answering various questions, and using varied language. It’s about embracing the whole topic, not just a single phrase.
For instance, if you’re writing about hiking boots, you don’t need to cram “hiking boots” into every other sentence. You can talk about “hiking shoes”, “footwear for hiking”, or “best outdoor boots for trails”. Embeddings recognise that these phrases are related and place them close together in semantic space. This makes your content more valuable and relevant to a wider range of queries.
Enhancing Internal Linking and Site Structure
Embeddings can also help analyse how closely related your pages are to each other beyond just keywords. This can guide you in making more meaningful internal links.
By understanding the semantic relationships between your content pieces, you can structure your site in a way that makes more sense to both users and search engines. It’s like creating a web of interconnected ideas that naturally lead from one to the next.
Personalisation and Predicting User Intent
Imagine being able to predict what a user is likely to search for next based on the content they’ve already engaged with. Embeddings allow us to group similar user behaviours and then create content that anticipates their needs.
This is a bit of a new frontier in SEO. Instead of just reacting to current search trends, we can proactively create content that users might be looking for in the near future. It’s like having a crystal ball, but grounded in data and semantics.
Our Journey with Embeddings at Keywords People Use
We’ve been spending quite a bit of time delving into embeddings here at Keywords People Use. With our new Google Search Console integration, we’re now able to understand sites and their content on a much deeper level.
We’re exploring how embeddings can help grade and score content, offering insights on how to improve it. Since an embedding represents how well a piece of content aligns with certain concepts, we can compare it to other content in the same semantic area.
This can help us identify content gaps, suggest areas we’re missing, and determine whether our content matches well with the queries we’re targeting. There’s a heap of potential here, and we’re just scratching the surface.
Wrapping It Up
Embeddings might sound complex at first glance, but once you get your head around the basic concept, it’s quite an elegant solution. By representing data in this multidimensional space, we can capture the nuances of meaning and context in a way that machines can understand.
For us in the SEO world, this opens up new possibilities. We can move beyond old-school keyword strategies and embrace a more holistic approach to content creation. It’s about building rich, valuable content that truly meets the needs of our audience.
I hope this has shed some light on embeddings and why they’re becoming so important. It’s an exciting time in SEO, and I, for one, am keen to see where this takes us.