The Owl and The Hummingbird - Ontology and SEO

Originally presented at Brighton SEO in 2014 by Dawn Anderson

The document discusses how SEO has always been about building relationships and connections between concepts through ontology and taxonomy. It emphasizes writing content that is organized for both humans and search engines by developing internal links between related pages, using relevant keywords throughout, and avoiding irrelevant or generic content. Properly structuring information through formal ontologies and semantic relationships is key to success in both SEO and the semantic web.

Transcript

1. THE OWL AND Ontology & SEO The Hummingbird Dawn Anderson
2. How Can SEO Be Dead? • For Obsessive Compulsive Link Building Disorder – it may be BUT.. • It was NEVER just about the links • It was ALWAYS about ‘ontology’ • It’s ALWAYS been about library science, lexicons, relationships • We still need to ‘search engine optimize’ sites for this – thinking like a machine (SEO)
3. Sergey’s Studies http://infolab.stanford.edu/~sergey/
4. Sergey’s Studies PICTURE SOURCE: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (Brin / Page – Stanford EDU (http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html) Lexicon – 14 million words in 1998 – if straightforward winner?? Added last in photo- finish If further info is needed (no clear winner??) Red and green parts NOT Sergey’s work
5. “In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a hierarchy of concepts within a domain, using a shared vocabulary to denote the types, properties and interrelationships of those concepts. Ontologies are the structural frameworks for organizing information and are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering,biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. The creation of domain ontologies is also fundamental to the definition and use of an enterprise architecture framework. ” Ontology Definition (Information Science):
6. Meanwhile….. In Semantic Web • People have been busy • The W3C Working Group • Why is it taking so long - decades? (it’s complicated – using RDF, OWL, XML, SKOS) • The AAA Principle • Always about relationships between things (entities) • Machines / humans both understanding the web • Formal Ontologies are key to this • Web of Data was always vision • The ‘Network Effect’ has not yet happened
7. What Is OWL? • Web Ontology Language • Why Not W.O.L. – Why OWL? • “A Semantic Web language designed to represent rich and complex knowledge about things, groups of things, and relations between things.” (source: W3C.org) • The W3C chartered the OWL Working Group as part of the Semantic Web Activity in September 2007
8. Meanwhile….. In SEO • Google Penguin & Panda cause chaos • Hummingbird slips quietly in • Link removal becomes the new link building • ‘Toxic’ links are removed or disavowed • What to do next??? • A lot of titles get changed on Linkedin • Some even leave SEO • SEO budgets get pulled / reduced ???
9. What About The Hummingbird? • A complete rewrite • Beginning to connect relationships between things (Semantics) – step towards semantic web (lexical onomies – e.g. synonyms) • Is it a coincidence Penguin and Hummingbird arrived within a short period of each other? • It didn’t just appear – a lot of work has been going on teaching machines via lexical-semantic ontology learning / natural language processing – Did Google’s Lexicon get better? Did links matter less because the Lexicon word catalogue got ‘grammar’?? (natural language)
10. Meanwhile….. In Content Marketing • Copywriters go crazy with Wordpress WSYWIG editors ….. Everywhere • Fabulous content gets released…. …… Everywhere • With great PR headlines / titles …. …….. Everywhere • Written for humans …. Not machines (with little or NO SEO) • We begin to drown in a sea of content • And everybody’s traffic ends up in their blog ;) • Demand for CRO goes through the roof ;)
11. Meanwhile….. Everywhere We end up with ‘fuzzy ontologies’ ????????????????????????? “A fuzzy ontology is one of vagueness, …. A domain or knowledge representation which is unclear and imprecise in nature as to what it relates to This exists and ontologists / information scientists work on ways to measure ‘fuzziness’ with measurements of logic e.g. 0.6 chance it might mean this DON’T BE FUZZY
12. Don’t Be Fuzzy – There Is Another Way You can write for humans and machines too Remember Google’s origins in data mining to organise books (library science) MAKE LIKE A LIBRARY
13. Is Your Library Organised? Does It Look Like This?
14. Is Your Library Organised? Or Does It Look Like This?
15. Vocabularies Very loose and informal
16. Taxonomies Animal Mammal Canine Feline Human Reptile “All About Categories and Subcategories – broad to narrow” Much more powerful – clear order for crawlers (and people too)
17. Relationship Ontologies (Knowledge Domain) Shakespeare Anne Hathaway King Lear Macbeth UK England Scotland Stratford Married Is In Lived In Set In Wrote Part Of Part Of “All About Relationships” structure AND cross relationships
18. Avoid Fuzz - When Writing For Web • Write for people AND machines • Googlebot can’t read infographics – put words with them • Don’t dilute your domain ‘theme’ or internal anchor cloud - Don’t link too many ‘irrelevant’ posts to ‘irrelevant’ posts • Talk about what you do – Obvious (you’d be surprised) • ‘Related content’ CAN be your commercial pages • Check content keywords in GWT (surprised?) • Avoid generics – use a category name in blog post structures (NOT CATEGORY) • When engaging - Build a subject domain ‘Lexicon’ and weave it in - Use lexical ‘onomies - synonyms / hyponyms, meronyms, verbs, holonyms, antonyms, associated keywords (Look in GWT content keywords, thesauri, SERPs) - Remember Hummingbird treats synonyms the same so avoid stuffing
19. Avoid Fuzz - When Writing For Web • Always get primary terms in somewhere • Use relevant lexicon words in H1’s, H2’s, H3’s, image alt tags, image file names • Get primary keywords and sectional keywords in URLs and titles • Avoid PR headline type titles in your meta title and H1 (riddled with stop words) • Less is More – It’s all in the hints, clues, site structure (not stuffing or spinning) Connect ‘relationships’ where possible - Use contextual internal linking as long as it’s RELEVANT • Don’t use nonsense / generic / irrelevant post tags (you’d be surprised) • Build taxonomical cluster menus where possible (very powerful) • Build sectional themes in categories (keep it very narrow)
20. When Developing For Web • Infinite loops (even in small Wordpress sites) (each churn leaks relevance) • Thin ‘panda vulnerable’ irrelevant content • Incorrectly implemented canonicalization (pages NOT the same) • 301 redirects to irrelevant pages • Dilution through poor use of URL ‘parameters and faceted navigations • Bulk ‘relevance’ together in sections – connect horizontally and vertically - Use ‘flattish’ silos for strong site sections combined with cross module internal contextual linking • Build primary keyword presence through boilerplates • Keep things moving – ‘action’ in commercial pages (something that changes that is HIGHLY relevant to the sectional theme) • Products?? What products? Avoid Generics • All roads eventually lead to commercial targets – most internally linked to • Use breadcrumbs & mega menus but avoid ‘jumble sales’ – look at conditional / highly related sectional menus (e.g. Widget Logic in Wordpress) • Name and categorise XML sitemaps, add categories as sites in GWT
21. Bring It On….. It’s easy to drop the ‘relevance’ ball at the first base through SEO neglect in pursuit of links / content marketing Exhaust all possibilities via lexical relevance and internal links first then move up A page beats a page, not a site beats a site A more ‘relevant’ page will still beat you – even without external links Because…. Where is the ontology??
22. Dumb Machines • Disambiguation - A tomato is a fruit • So a tomato goes in a fruit salad?? Duh • Machines are still a bit stupid
23. Less Dumb Machines
24. Irony - Still Quite Dumb Though
25. Happy Ending    
26. Not So Happy Ending 
27. Don’t Neglect SEO Take it for what it was always meant to be – relationships, domain ontology, library science - Winning on relevance first then getting the final votes in a photo finish - Googlebot is still your primary persona (unless you don’t want organic traffic ;)) - Everything affects everything in your site’s ‘world’ representation (every word, every internal link, every developer file upload)
28. REMEMBER THIS “You can have the best dress in the world…. But if you’re in a dark room with the lights turned off, no-one will see it…” SEO still counts “If you build it RIGHT… they will come”
29. Me @dawieando
30. Talk In Triples (RDF) SUBJECT PREDICATE OBJECT Shakespeare Wrote Hamlet England Is Part Of UK Brad Pitt Is Married To Angelina Jolie
31. Use Semantic Relationships (Lexical Onomies) In words and taxonomies (linked and unlinked) FUNCTIONALITY RELATIONSHIP CONCEPT EXAMPLES Describing relationships Synonomy Similarities “buy” and “purchase”, “big” and “large” Describing relationships Antonomy Differences (opposites) “wet” and “dry” Describing relationships Hyponomy Specialization “Red is a colour” Describing relationships Meronymy Part / Whole “Finger is a meronym of hand” Describing relationships Holonymy Whole / Part “Hand is a holonym of finger”
32. Avoid Fuzz - When Writing For Web • Write for people AND machines • Googlebot can’t read infographics – put words with them • Don’t dilute your domain ‘theme’ or internal anchor cloud - Don’t link too many ‘irrelevant’ posts to ‘irrelevant’ posts • Talk about what you do – Obvious (you’d be surprised) • ‘Related content’ CAN be your commercial pages • Check content keywords in GWT (surprised?) • Avoid generics – use a category name in blog post structures (NOT CATEGORY) • When engaging - Build a subject domain ‘Lexicon’ and weave it in - Use lexical ‘onomies - synonyms / hyponyms, meronyms, verbs, holonyms, antonyms, associated keywords (Look in GWT content keywords, thesauri, SERPs) - Remember Hummingbird treats synonyms the same so avoid stuffing • Always get primary terms in somewhere • Use relevant lexicon words in H1’s, H2’s, H3’s, image alt tags, image file names • Get primary keywords and sectional keywords in URLs and titles • Avoid PR headline type titles in your meta title and H1 (riddled with stop words) • Less is More – It’s all in the hints, clues, site structure (not stuffing or spinning) Connect ‘relationships’ where possible - Use contextual internal linking as long as it’s RELEVANT • Don’t use nonsense / generic / irrelevant post tags (you’d be surprised) • Build taxonomical cluster menus where possible (very powerful) • Build sectional themes in categories (keep it very narrow)
33. Avoid Fuzz – When Developing For Web • Infinite loops (even in small Wordpress sites) (each churn leaks relevance) • Thin ‘panda vulnerable’ irrelevant content • Incorrectly implemented canonicalization (pages NOT the same) • 301 redirects to irrelevant pages • Dilution through poor use of URL ‘parameters and faceted navigations • Bulk ‘relevance’ together in sections – connect horizontally and vertically - Use ‘flattish’ silos for strong site sections combined with cross module internal contextual linking • Build primary keyword presence through boilerplates • Keep things moving – ‘action’ in commercial pages (something that changes that is HIGHLY relevant to the sectional theme) • Products?? What products? Avoid Generics • All roads eventually lead to commercial targets – most internally linked to • Use breadcrumbs & mega menus but avoid ‘jumble sales’ – look at conditional / highly related sectional menus (e.g. Widget Logic in Wordpress) • Name and categorise XML sitemaps, add categories as sites in GWT
34. Further Reading 1. Semantic Web For The Working Ontologist – Dean Allemang / Jim Hendler 2. Studies On The Semantic Web – Perspectives On Ontology Learning – Jenns Lehmann / Johnanna Volker 3. OWL: Representing Information Using The Web Ontology Language – Lee W Lacy 4. Semantic Web Programming – Hebeler, Fisher, Blace, Perez-Lopez 5. Programming The Semantic Web – Segaran, Evans & Taylor
35. Further Reading 1. http://wortschatz.uni- leipzig.de/~cbiemann/pub/2005/OntoML05proceedings. pdf 2. http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html 3. http://searchengineland.com/killer-seo-string-entity- optimization-171094 4. http://www.seobythesea.com/category/fact-extraction/ 5. http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/421/1/1999-65.pdf 6. Fuzzy Ontologies - http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540- 77581-2_10#page-1