Fractal Semantics, Linearization & SEO

What Are Fractals?

Fractals are repeating patterns discovered within random sequences. They are well-known in mathematics and physics. Examples include the Mandelbrot Set, the Julia Set and Quantum Physics. Fractals also play a prominent role in contemporary mathematical and physical theories such as Chaos Theory and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.

Predictable patterns arising out of seeming randomness have also been discovered in studying DNA strands, in oracles such as the I Ching and Tarot, and in natural phenomena such as snowflakes, diamonds and crystals.

What Is Semantics?

Semantics is the branch of linguistics dealing with the structure and nature of meaning in language. Semantics involves noun-verb combinations, word-order, the meaning of punctuation and theories of interpretation. On a more sophisticated level, semantics deals with the elemental structures of the brain that function to construct meaning from vocal utterances.

What Is Fractal Semantics?

Therefore, fractal semantics - as I currently understand the term - pertains to repeating, predictable patterns found within the way we derive meaning from ordinary language. Although meaning-assignment may seem arbitrary (e.g., we could have just as easily placed verbs before nouns in simple sentences) there appears to be a predictable set of rules - a definable logic - to the way meaning is derived or assigned. Search engines ("SEs" for short) must "understand" these basic semantic rules in order to deliver query results that are relevant to the searcher's meaning-intentions.

Fractal Semantics & Search Engines

So what does fractal semantics have to do with search engine optimization? Well, I don't have a full understanding yet, but it appears that SE algorithm programmers are currently trying to program search engines to "understand" language in ways that are closer to the way ordinary humans actually understand language.

For example, take the phrase "Kentucky Fried Chicken." To the ordinary person, that phrase refers to the popular fast food chain. However, search engines don't "think" the way ordinary humans do. A search engine has difficulty determining whether the phrase means "Kentucky Fried Chicken" (the fast-food chain) or "fried chicken (in) Kentucky." As a result, an end-user searching for "fried chicken in Kentucky" may receive search results for "Kentucky Fried Chicken."

Fractal Semantics & Information Retrieval Science

This example highlights the divide between human and machine language. As SEs begin to "think" more like humans, they are getting better at looking at important factors such as word-order, popularity, prepositional placement and how this affects meaning, and co-occurrence of words.

In short, SE programmers are working toward making SEs assign meaning to words and phrases much in the same way that ordinary humans do. Other examples include colloquialisms, slang and accounting for differences in meaning that different languages assign to the same words. If search engines can process language similarly to the way we do, then in theory the science of information retrieval will change dramatically. Such important research will also change or augment the current methods and standards which SEO specialists utilize.

Linearization: A Semantic Web Technique

Linearization is a term I learned from Dr. E Garcia in his excellent article titled, The Keyword Density of Non-Sense. In that article, Dr. Garcia explains the process of linearization. I commend the article for your reading. While I can't go into too much detail here, the basic idea of linearization is this: to arrange your keywords, links an relevant text in a way that makes it easy for search engine spiders (1) to determine exactly what your site is about and (2) to read and understand the page's content. In short, this process involves analyzing and revising the noun-verb relationships, grammar & syntax of the content once it is reduced down to its bare elements.

So, I did an experiment. I linearized my homepage in accordance with Dr. Garcia's recommendations. As an SEO professional, I never take anyone's word for their claims; I always try them out myself before endorsing or rejecting them.


Results

The results of linearization were quite impressive - even startling:

• I noticed, in only a week, that my homepage increased one page rank point. That by itself would be enough to validate linearization techniques.
• There were page rank increases on deep pages.
• A couple of the newer pages that had been greyed-out (i.e., Google did not trust them enough yet to assign any page rank) were now grey no longer; they now report PR Finally, we saw dramatic increases in overall search engine rankings for key terms.