What Are Semantic Keywords and Why Do They Matter in Funeral Home Marketing?

Once upon a time, online marketers stuffed webpages full of one or two keywords and won attentions from SERPs. They didn’t even have to do it in a way that made sense. Times have changed, and keyword best practices are more complicated—and a lot less spammy.

One current keyword best practice funeral home marketers should know about is including semantic keywords.

What Are Semantic Keywords?
Semantic keywords are phrases that are related contextually to the main topic of your page or to your primary keyword.

For example, for a primary keyword of “cremation preplanning,” semantic keywords might include cremation, final arrangements, urns, loved ones, payment plans, and memorial. These are all words that might naturally come up when talking or writing about cremation preplanning.

What’s the Purpose of Semantic Keywords?
Context is the main reason to ensure your content includes these keywords. When you include phrases that are contextually related to your primary keyword, it provides support for the conclusion that your page is about a certain topic. That helps Google identify it as such and makes it more likely your page might rank higher in SERPs.

How to Include Semantic Keywords in Funeral Home Marketing Content
Here’s the good news: If you’re writing high-quality, comprehensive content about your topic, you’re already going to have a good number of semantic keywords. It’s highly likely, for example, that a comprehensive page on cremation preplanning is going to cover or at least touch on urn selection and payment plan options.

Just to be sure, however, it’s a good idea to do some keyword research. Many keyword planning tools, such as those offered by SEMrush, provide recommendations for semantic keywords.

But don’t take those recommendations to the bank! They’re generated by AI, and they aren’t infallible. You know your audience and content better than a machine, so if a semantic keyword doesn’t make sense, don’t shove it in just to cross it off the list.

Keywords are important, but quality is still the king of content marketing. And when you start shoving in words for no good reason, you diminish quality.