Semantic search has sparked a lot of buzz in the SEO space. We’ve heard about entity SEO, conversational content, optimizing for topics (as opposed to keywords), and even completely ditching old-school SEO tactics, like link building and keyword targeting, in favor of creating the most relevant and useful piece of content there is, and letting Google do the rest.

What’s semantic search?  Semantic search aims to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent, contextual meaning of terms, and relationships between words to provide more relevant search results.

There is no doubt that the search landscape is changing, but it’s important to realize that these changes are very gradual. Keywords are still important, but they have a lot of company: things like relevance, comprehensiveness, and usability matter just as much. In 2017, optimizing your pages for engines exclusively won’t cut it; but focusing on the user alone isn’t something search engines are able to pick up on either. Instead of running to the extremes, cater for both humans and engines: create high-quality content and provide the best user experience you can; but don’t forget to do your keyword research and competitor analysis to incorporate topically relevant terms into your content.  On-page SEO in 2017-RankBrain & Semantic Search>