Presented at SES Chicago, December 2009. How using labeled links (vocabulary,) strong identifiers and standard markup formats such as HTML5 Microdata can improve SEO.

1. Using Semantics to
Enhance Content
Jamie Taylor, Ph.D.

2. What do y’all mean
Semantics?

3. amazement astonishment
stupor daze
jolt
impact SHOCK
???? impact
blow fight
bump combat
offend appall
revolt nauseate

8. PageRank
tm

9. percussion
1977 Alec Baldwin
Rick Rubin
Colombia
female Penélope Cruz
Beautiful Liar

10. percussion
1977 instrument Alec Baldwin
birthday performed-with
Rick Rubin
producer
born-in
Colombia
gender friends-with
performed
female Penélope Cruz
Beautiful Liar

11. percussion
1977 instrument Alec Baldwin
birthday performed-with
Rick Rubin
born-in
Shakira producer
Colombia
gender friends-with
performed
female Penélope Cruz
Beautiful Liar

12. 10,704,421 Topics

16. Labeled Links
(vocabulary)
Strong Identifiers
Standard Format

17. percussion
1977 instrument Alec Baldwin
birthday performed-with
Rick Rubin
born-in
Shakira producer
Colombia
gender friends-with
performed
female Penélope Cruz
Beautiful Liar

18. @tags
#tags
short URLs
The Twitter Vocabulary

20. ! Labeled Links
(vocabulary)
Strong Identifiers
Standard Format

22. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/She+Wolf…
http://www.daylife.com/topic/Shakira
http://twitter.com/shakira
http://www.facebook.com/shakira
http://www.myspace.com/shakira
http://www.last.fm/music/Shakira
http://www.netflix.com/RoleDisplay/Shakira/20046629
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/shakira

23. ! Labeled Links
(vocabulary)
! Strong Identifiers
Standard Format

24. Microformats
•(Relatively) easy to use
•Small, fixed vocabulary
•No standard parsing pattern
•No strong identifiers
•Limits utility

25. RDFa
•Unambiguous identifiers
•Extensible vocabulary
•Standard parsing patterns
•Produces RDF

26. RDF
Triple
Subject Predicate Object
Shakira Knows Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Starred In Vanilla Sky
Shakira Born “1977”

29. RDFa
•Unambiguous identifiers
•Extensible vocabulary
•Standard parsing patterns
•Produces RDF
•Harder (than you would like) to use
•Rules about formatting based on RDF

30. …and the winner is…

31. HTML5 Microdata
•Easy to use
•Strong identifiers
•Extensible vocabulary
•Easy to parse
•In last call for comments stage!
•Usable! Now!

32. HTML5 Microdata
Tools and Widgets

33. Ontologies
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000005b7ab1a>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/business.employment_tenure>.
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000005b7ab1a>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/business.employment_tenure.company>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/en.determine_software>.
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000007e53e16>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/education.education.institution>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/en.mounds_view_high_school>.<http://rdf.freebas
e.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000007e53e16>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/education.education>.

34. Ontologies
! Labeled Links
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000005b7ab1a>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
(vocabulary)
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/business.employment_tenure>.
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000005b7ab1a>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/business.employment_tenure.company>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/en.determine_software>.
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000007e53e16>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/education.education.institution>
! Strong Identifiers
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/en.mounds_view_high_school>.<http://rdf.freebas
e.com/ns/guid.9202a8c04000641f8000000007e53e16>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
<http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/education.education>.
! Standard Format
Microformats RDFa Microdata