Content is the voice of the brand, that has the power to both make it and break it. It can give the brand a triumphant edge over its competitors. However, in this age of technology and big data, when data is generated every day, serving the targeted audience with the relevant data is a real challenge. And for the publishing firms, it becomes even harder as with such humongous field-specific data available on the web, the researchers also have to work their fingers to the bone in finding the most relevant content they need. 

This is where semantic technology comes into the picture. 

By structuring the data as per your requirement, Semantic technology makes data processing and usage much easier, useful, and apt for the users.  So, if you are someone who is struggling to produce smarter content without having to spend tons of hours searching for it through an enormous pool of data, you are in the right place. In this article, we will acquaint you with the power of Semantic technology, as well as its contributions in creating smarter content for publishers.

What is Semantic Technology?

Semantic technology is a combination of tools and methods brought together to help the machine comprehend the data, its meaning as well as its usage in various contexts. Semantics, referred to as the science of words, provides a fathomable structure to the data, empowering the machines to deliver meaningful insights from the unstructured data. 

The popular technologies- RDF (Resource Description Framework), referred to as a family of W3C specifications, and OWL (Web Ontology Language), known as a family of languages to represent ontologies, can be used to draw the meaning of the information. 

Semantic Technologies not only help the researchers and publishing firms in extracting and creating meaningful data faster but also simplifies the life of the users as well, helping them through consuming that data faster, easier as well as in a more productive way. 

How The Publishers Can Use The Semantic Technology To Create Smarter Content?

The use of semantic technology is not new in the publishing industry. Many of the leading publishers, like Springer Nature, are already using it to create and distribute smarter content that can be used by different users including researchers, contributors, academics, as well as various other readers.

Semantic Technology works on the idea of Data Linking. Linked data empowers the publishers to repackage, repurpose and reuse the content available across different disciplines, subjects as well as concepts to engage the highly demanding users who want customized content faster.

To employ semantic technology in your publishing firm, you need to do a series of processes such as Semantic Tagging and Indexing, Semantic Markup, Data Classification.

• Semantic Tagging and Indexing

  Semantic Tagging refers to the process of adding meaningful information, called semantic metadata, to the digital model and creating an index for the same so that the machines can interpret it and link to it. So, once you have created the tags of the content, match it with the elements at the various granular levels, such as topic level, or sentence and paragraph level, or figures and tables within the content, making it more appropriate as well as reachable for the users. 
  

  For example, you can tag the content at the article level. Discover the concepts of interest that conform to the core idea of your content and create tags for it. Users can use these words or text for smart searches. For instance, in the following figure, the term Backstreet Boys and BSB fall into the tag backstreet boys. So, when the user will search for either of the terms, he will get access to the places where it has been used.
  

  

  Source: ResearchGate 
  

  Semantic Tagging and indexing can be done in 3 ways- 

  • Manual Tagging

    Manual tagging, as the name suggests, is the process of adding the metadata to the content manually. Manual Tagging is more appropriate for the publishers who have to deal with less volume of data. Been done by humans, manual tagging tends to be a time taking process. Sometimes it requires you to hire a specialized person for the same.

  • Automated Tagging

    Automated Tagging is the process of tagging the content automatically through dedicated software. The software analyses the content, finds patterns in it, making it suitable for the users to access it easily. Being highly scalable, automate tagging works great for the large volume of data. However, because of being completely machine-dependent, automated tagging might sometimes lack accuracy.

  • Hybrid Tagging

    Hybrid Tagging is the combined form of both manual and automated tagging. In this approach after the automated tagging, the content is reviewed manually, based on which necessary modifications are done.

• Semantic Markup

  Once you have figured out the tags, you can embed them within the XML file of the document, called Semantic Markup. The data like images and videos that cannot be accessed easily can be placed in the header part of the metadata.
  

  By adding the metadata to the markup of the document, you can break the containers of the information like articles, guidelines, and modules, into different units of knowledge, which can be used as topical maps for the machines. The topical maps allow you to access, retrieve, or modify the content from the container itself, without going deeper into the content. l

• Data Classification

  Once you are done with the tagging and indexing, classify the data based on its complexities i.e. from a controlled list of common terms to the complex ontologies. The data classification helps you to normalize the data, maintain consistent tagging and grouping, and integrate and interoperate the data among multiple apps. 
  

  

  Source: Classification of Data

How Semantic Technology Can Benefit the Publishers?

Semantic Technology has numerous benefits for publishers. Some of the most notable ones are as follows- 

• Semantic Technology offers better search functionality for both, the text as well as images.
• Creates the taxonomy hierarchy that empowers the users to broaden and narrow their searching and exploration.
• Offers dynamic related-content linking that enables the publishers to place additional enticing related content in the users’ path that encourages them to read more.
• Tagging works as a hook to connect your content to external sources, providing you better visibility and reach.
• Empowers the publishers to connect the users to the content through tagging as well as sentiment analysis, and hence serves them more customized content.
• Allows the publishers to create more targeted ads, for which they can charge higher than the non-targeted ones. 
• Semantic technology also empowers you to recycle and reuse data efficiently and at utter ease.

Factors to Consider While Creating your Semantic Strategy

A compelling semantic strategy can bring a huge difference to the productivity of your publishing business, hence, you ought to be very cautious while making it. So, if you have made your mind to incorporate semantic technology in your business, here are some crucial factors that you should count on while creating your semantic strategy-

• Get acquainted with your user’s reviews and opinions about your content.
• Evaluate the benefits and return on investment that might come through the application of semantic technology.
• What are the contents that you can/should tag?
• Will the classification be useful enough to serve the user’s needs?
• Will you be able to keep your knowledge base up to date?

Want to Harness the Power of Smarter Content in Your Publishing Business?

If yes, leverage the semantic technology in your publishing process and let the technology handle the hassle for you. Semantic technology is a powerful concept that helps you to focus more on your creativity as well as the value that you deliver to your readers than wasting time finding useful content from a huge data pool. 

However, if you want it to work in your favor, you need to implement it effectively. Having dealt with hundreds of such projects, our experts can help you with the same and create the website/app that can enhance your publishing experience as never before.