Google Wants to Think Like Us and It's Starting to With Semantic Search
If you missed our report in June on Google's Knowledge Graph, it's time to give it a read because we're definitely seeing the evidence of its use in the search results with Semantic Search. Semantic search is Google's attempt at getting its algorithm to think like the searcher. This means that you need to wrap your head around your own brand and keywords in a whole new way.
For instance, let's say you run a search for Rainbow Brite (If you're unfamiliar with the 80s cartoon, ask any female in their 30s for more information). Google recognizes that Rainbow Brite is a varied and fascinating lady by assigning it multiple 'types'. Each 'type' is associated with specific attributes.
In this instance, Rainbow would be considered a 'CreativeWork' (TV series, children's cartoon), 'Product' (DVDs, t-shirts, and dolls) and even a 'Person' (fictional character).
Someone running a google search for Rainbow Brite may be looking for information on ANY of Rainbow's types. If you had a site following the history of Rainbow Brite and offering products for sale, you could find semantic markups to add to your site to address all types of questions someone may be asking such as:
| How long did the show run? | dateCreated, dateModified, numberOfEpisodes |
| Who was the voice of Rainbow? | actor |
| Where can I buy memorabilia for my kids? | offers |
The bad news for site owners is that Google wants to keep searchers on their search results for as long as they can. So, they provide answers to many of the questions they've anticipated regarding Rainbow and her friends directly within the search listings. Along the right column of the results within the
