A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of two posts about technologies used to rank pages and search experiments, Google oh-so-casually announced it would now search for synonyms. Google has had this ability for years, but it required the searcher to insert the tilde (~) symbol before the search query in order to produce them.
For example, when searching for the term [laugh] preceded by the tilde, you would get results for [laugh], but you’d also see results for [funny] and [hahaha]. What’s more, because Google also searches for stems of root words, your query would return [laughing] and [laughter]. When searching for the word [laugh] without a tilde, the results bring up [laugh] and [laughing].
What’s the difference between stemming and synonyms? Stemming is adding different endings to a common root word. Using the same example as before, the root word would be [laugh] and the stems would be:
· laughter
· laughing
· laughs
Synonyms, on the other hand, are totally different words that have a meaning similar to the word [laugh]. Synonyms for [laugh] would be:
· chuckle
· giggle
· snicker
· joke
· tease
From what I’ve seen since the announcement, not much has changed. As listed above, even with the tilde, not too many synonyms appeared in the search results for [laugh]. Without the tilde, even fewer.
In a post by Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, a comment from Google about this change was noted.
“Yes, the highlighting of synonyms has changed. Also the degree to which we understand synonyms changes and improves, and this can affect the impact on highlighting the terms. The main point is that the algorithm does change. We mostly highlight stems, not synonyms, but the distinction is lost on most people.”
Notice that Google said they mostly highlight stems, not synonyms. This seems to explain why we don’t see any significant changes in the search results at this time. Will it change? Will Google eventually incorporate more into their algorithm that allows for a full spectrum of synonyms to be recognized? Nobody can answer that but Google.
Even in light of this new attribute, my copywriting advice for SEO clients remains the same. I’ve always included synonyms in copy because they help to better define the pages. As I noted in this post about synonyms, inclusion can completely change the focus of a page.
Is there cause for alarm? Nah. Should you make any changes to what you’re doing copy-wise? Yes. If you haven’t been including synonyms, you might want to begin that practice just because it makes good sense to do so. Other than that, pay attention to the search results you see. As Google stated in their quote above, “The main point is that the algorithm does change.” Keep your eyes open for future tweaks that may have more impact.
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Pretty sweet… Great stuff 😀